The Fire does not hurt a person; it cleanses them.

Pain may be caused by separating and burning husks if they stick tightly to a person if you don't let false or obsolete layers go. For a fairly pure person, fire is the force flowing through, in every action, movement, or rest.

Red or orange power rises from below, and enters the soles, emanating from the hands, warming from the chest with sunlight and protecting from the back.

We will learn later how the Light, the spirit of the Fire, is filtered and ascended during creation and how Light becomes Love.

Vibration

Vibration is one of the most significant signatures of the Fire. It feels like a buzzing, intoxicating wave of soft pressure expanding in the body starting from the feet. On a physiological level, it is connected with blood and blood vessels and probably some hormones. One who managed to summon a strong Fire into the palm may even observe little red or white dots under the palm skin - it seems blood capillaries are expanding to allow increased flow.

When you raise the Fire to your belly and higher to the solar plexus as part of the exercise below, you may feel a sweet tension, which is also a vibration but at a slightly higher rate; it appears as a resonance in response to the vibration of the Fire. This tension is a sign of your will activation.

It may be not so sweet for someone, who usually feels their will is activated only in dangerous and stressful situations. But don't blame your will for causing fear and stress; it doesn't.

It's quite the opposite. Your will is activated automatically to save your life.

The same is true for the Fire - it's energy used by your will. It's not Fire that is dangerous; it's Fire that covers your back when you are in danger.

But now, you're in a safe place; no predator will jump on you from the nearest bush, so you can relax and let Fire flow upward to you with appreciation.

Handling Fire

In the basics chapter we discussed how it is possible to move the focus of your attention outside the body and feel the space around.

So here is how we get to the Fire and bring it back to us:

• Stand up to have a more intense experience or sit down comfortably to not get tired quickly and keep focus for a longer period.
• Make sure your soles are pressed tightly to the floor. Close your eyes, and feel them.
• Activate your right hand energy center, hold your palm upward as if you are ready to hold some ball.
• Feel your active energy center and start moving your focus point from the energy center deeper inside your hand towards your wrist, following your energy channel, your veins.
• From the energy channels cleaning exercise you should be familiar with this feeling of the channel inside the hand - track it down to your armpit with your focused attention.
• Continue traveling along your right half of the body from the armpit down to the leg and then foot.
• You are standing on a transparent floor. It's a vast ocean of Fire beneath.
• You are protected by this floor, which is made of the strongest crystal, so you will not sink into this fire or be hurt.
• But at your own will, you can ask Fire to raise to you.
• Glue your soles to the floor, stay strong, and feel your feet - there's a hot vibration there.
• Use your right hand as a powerful raising gesture which is aimed at the Fire right below your feet.
• It's not just commanding Fire to raise - you are also surrendering your feet and legs to Fire to let it in.
• Feel the warmth and vibration rising from beneath to your feet and slowly to your knees and above up to the genitals.
• Breathe in slowly with your belly, so the Fire will arrive at the bottom of it.
• Do you feel a sweet tension in your belly and tailbone?
• Breathe out slowly and you may use your voice by whispering out a sigh of relief or producing a low vibrating hum that resonates with your lower body.
• When breathing out follow the wave of the Fire climbing up your belly and along the same energy channel as you just used. Keep breathing this way and help the Fire follow along the right half of your body, up to the armpit, along the hand to the wrist, and finally out of your hand.
• You now hold a dense warm or even hot lump of Fire in your hand.

Use breathing to renew this flow from below to keep the Fire longer. With a bit of practice you will find your hand is somehow directly connected to the Fire below, so you no longer need to pay separate attention to your energy channels in the hand, body, and legs - they are activated and used automatically when you just ask the Fire to come to your hand.

Feel the Fire with your slightly moving fingers, get familiar with it. You may notice it can be different.

You may focus on its viscosity and feel it like lava seeping down between your fingers.

Or you can explore the flame aspect and make a little fire tornado spinning above your palm, just a meter or two above, not more. Or more?

In the beginning, when you are not used to Fire, avoid raising it to your head, otherwise you may have a bit of unpleasant pressure there or even a headache.

If you feel there's too much Fire in your system and you don't like it - you can balance it with Water. We will learn how to access the Water of Niflheim in the next chapter, but for now, you can use any source of physical water, like sitting next to the river or fountain, or just taking a cool shower.

Emotions as a channel

Depending on your background and life experience, it could be you are less familiar with the "energy" approach as externalized body-like sensations. It's more common to associate elemental forces with certain emotions.

So to help you connect with Fire closer let's establish a stream of Fire in your body. Hold it in your hand and listen to yourself - which of your qualities are resonating in response to the Fire presence?

When you stand strong, with both of your feet connected to the world of Fire and holding a handful of its power, the warmth of honor grows from your belly to your solar plexus from the front side and along the backbone from the back side.

Imagine our proto-human ancestor, who managed to proudly stay bipedal instead of on all four paws - it's quite an achievement, isn't it?

Imagine a warrior who stands strong, facing dangers threatening his people behind him - this fire sword is what you hold in your hand now.

Imagine fire wings unfolding from behind your back or is it a cobra's hood?

This sword of fire is always there when you need it; it's an infinite stream of fire rising from the underworld to the sky, and you can hold it and keep yourself vertical by holding this stream to face any challenge life may throw into you.

You may feel the warmth that has reached your chest, a warmth of gratitude.

Notice how the frequency of Fire vibration increases when it rises higher. But its essence remains the same.

Using emotions for channeling the force has its limits and even price. Have you met people who get angry easily? Or maybe people who are addicted to anger and seem to seek conflict and always try to be righteously insulted to justify their emotional outbursts?

It's common for civilized people to have Fire blocked deeply because it's evil, dangerous, socially unacceptable, and inconvenient for parents, teachers, employers, and authorities.

So people with a blocked Fire have a deficit of it and being angered or insulted can be a justified way for them to still get a dose of Fire, to bypass the restriction due to exceptional, threatening circumstances. But stress and hatred or anger are not really good for the health. So it's useful to learn how to access your Fire directly when you need it and let emotions be what they are - authentic reflections and reactions, not tools for manipulating yourself and others.

Black Fire

The theme of control and social context now brings us to the topic of Black Fire.

For those in the audience who still struggle to access and channel the Fire, it might be the same case I had when I first started approaching it.

Fire brings social and hierarchical risks, that's why it's often the subject of overregulation during socialization.

Your fire aspect may be repressed deep into the unconscious. Still, it's accessible but it's probably associated with some strong, not necessarily pleasant matters. Seek to face, allow, and accept associated blocking feelings and emotions such as shame, self-doubt, fear of being rejected, etc. If you are always struggling with background shame or shyness - challenge these quiet nasty wispers to face you directly. If you feel shame - accept it, make it burn bright, agree with anything you may blame yourself for, and ask a deeper "So What?". Don't hold your shame back - bring it to the front and let it burn out. Anything that is maybe rightfully wrong and bad about you - accept it, make the right conclusions and decisions, and let it go, let it burn away.

At some point, your fire will find its way out of the chains and start burning "normally".

Expressing Fire

Fire is everywhere in our lives, and it's so good.

For practicing Runic Alchemy we need to develop a skill to raise or tune into this stream of Fire easily and hold it for an extended period without paying too much attention to sustaining this stream actively.

Take your time to get yourself familiar with it. Communicate with it, and ask the Fire to go with you wherever you go. Go for a walk and hold the fire in your hand by the way, leaving a beautiful fire trail behind your hand. Raise it during the day. Whatever you are currently doing - it's easy to spend a few seconds tuning into the ocean of Fire, feel the vibration in your feet, legs, tailbone, and belly, and activate the center of your right palm to hold a stream for a while.

It makes so much more sense of life, of any ordinary things or events, which you now can meet with a subtle smile on your face, a smile that one has sitting against a fireplace at night and warming their hands.