Spirits of Fire

triskell

Leggi in italiano

Triskell (triscele) symbolize for the Celts the fire, the energy of transformation, what changes the matter (earth, water, air), so they did not consider it a constituent element of the world, like the Greek philosophers.
Source of warmth and life, the Fire was revered in antiquity as a deity, similarly to the sun of which it was seen as the “bond” on earth. Big bonfires were lit in the magical days to help the sun (sympathetic magic), for purification rituals (the destruction of evil, the regeneration from scratch) and to affirm the connection that kept the community together.

The poem "When my days will be finished" by the Indian poet Tagore is very inspired, as always the poetic word is a wonderful synthesis of extremely complex concepts.

O fire, my brother, I sing victory to you.
You are the bright red image of fearful freedom.
You swing your arms in the sky, 
you sweep your impetuous fingers 
across the harp-string, 
your dance music is beautiful.

When my days are ended and the gates are opened 
you will burn to ashes this cordage of hands and feet.
My body will be one with you, 
my heart will be caught in the whirls of your frenzy, 
and the burning heat that was my life 
will flash up and mingle itself in your flame.

(NOTE: for Tagore the fire is the divine flame)
eve_cr

THE INSPIRATION FLAME

“”The magical virtues of fire have an imaginative and poetic foundation. Observing the bonfires, the Druids saw that the flames were cut and mixed with the Air, causing it to move and sway in strange ways.
They assumed that the flame lit the thought, prompting it to change and manifest themselves, and for this reason they began to use fire in spells for change, intuition, creativity, imagination, and anything that transcends the rigidity of material and predictable things. “. 
(translated from Magia Celtica)

To look at a flame in a fixed way (both that of a candle and a bonfire) helps to concentrate, to listen to the fire and its wisdom (guardian of knowledge and alchemical transmutation), it was no coincidence that pacts and oaths were stipulated by the fire. But fire is also danger, terrible and treacherous.

salamandra

THE SALAMANDERS: SPIRITS OF FIRE

Already Pliny the elder wrote that the salamander could pass unharmed through the flames, but in the alchemical studies the salamander becomes a strong esoteric symbol. Paracelsus placed the salamanders as fire spirits-guardians.
In the Middle Ages the image of the salamander did not correspond to the homonymous lizard, black and with yellow-orange spots; a lizard would be the size, but it is not a reptile but an amphibian.
It was rather a mythical animal, which recalls the dragon (of the genus without wings) with horns and long tail, sometimes depicted with paws.
Figure 1. Salamander. From the Aberdeen Bestiary, English 1200. Aberdeen University Library MS 24, folio 70r. Used with permission of Aberdeen University. Copyright University of Aberdeen. 
Of course it is only a matter of proportions, so in the Bestiary of Aberdeen the salamander is a little snake. On the left, it dives into a well, poisoning the water; at the center it climbs a strange tree whose branches end with the red chapel of a mushroom, on the right it burns in the fire.
“A salamander is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. It vomits from its mouth a milky liquid; if this liquid touches any part of the human body it causes all the hair to fall off, and the skin to change color and break out in a rash. Salamanders only appear when it rains and disappear in fine weather. (Book 11, 116): It is fatal to drink water or wine when a salamander has died in it, as is drinking from a vessel from which the creature has drunk.” (Pliny the Elder “Naturalis Historia”)
In the medieval miniatures the salamander is often associated with a small tree, sometimes, next to the fire on which the salamanders burn, there is also a man lying or touching his forehead: that tree is nothing more than a seedling of cannabis or a representation fanciful of the malefic ovolo or the amanita muscaria. They are all psychoactive substances known since antiquity (the salamander brandy is still produced in Slovenia) and maybe the medieval alchemists roasted the salamanders to have a trip. (moreover, the salamander is related to the toad !!)
salamandra-kongelige

DEIRÍN DÉ

In this lullaby in Irish Gaelic the mother cradles her child telling him to sleep, that when he grows up he will go to look after the cattle.
According to the O Donaill’s Irish Dictionary, “deirin de” are meaningless words uttered in a game of children next to burning wood. But in Carmina Gadelica (Alexander Carmicheal, 1900), (here) we read that the word in Scottish Gaelic consists of ‘dealan,’ = fire, flame, lightning; and ‘De,’ = God ie the fire of God or the divine light.
“The golden butterfly is held sacred. It is said to be the angel of God come to bear the souls of the dead to heaven. If it be seen in or near the house where a person is dead or dying, the omen is good, and the friends rejoice. If it be not seen, a substitute is made by rapidly twirling a fire-pointed stick, moving the while from the dead or dying person towards the door or window. This is called ‘dearban De,’ ‘dealan De.’ The ancient Egyptians represented the soul leaving the body as a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, sometimes from the mouth of the dead.” Then “deirin de” = “the last puff of smoke”, the puff of smoke drawn by waving a stick with an incandescent tip.

second part

SOURCES
“Magia Celtica” Devon Scott
http://www.centrostudilaruna.it/il-piccolo-popolo-degli-elementi.html
http://www.centrostudilaruna.it/bestiari-medievali.html
https://camoscibianchi.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/la-fata-del-fuoco/
http://www.dolcevitaonline.it/brandy-di-salamandre-una-bevanda-psichedelica-slovena/
http://www.elicriso.it/it/piante_allucinogene/amanita_muscaria/
http://samorini.it/site/documentazione/bibliografia-italiana/allucinogeni-stregoneria-unguenti-rospi/
http://www.il-convivio.it/marte-alchemico-alchimia-e-astrologia-umanistica

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Pubblicato da Cattia Salto

Amministratore e folklorista di Terre Celtiche Blog. Ha iniziato a divulgare i suoi studi e ricerche sulla musica, le danze e le tradizioni d'Europa nel web, dapprima in maniera sporadica e poi sempre più sistematicamente sul finire del anni 90

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