Ig.n.is.

Abstract

The topic I am addressing is this mysterious phenomenon that we call Fire. It has permeated the fabric of our everyday lives, right from the beginning of its discovery, its domestication to the modern everyday use of its properties. The main focus of this paper is to understand the constant fluctuation of the relationship between humans and fire, and to use fire as a metaphor for life and offer a new way to strike a balance in our everyday lives. Fire—perhaps the most apparent property is its heat and accompanying it, light. Depending on its intensity and scale, either property can be the centre of attention. Also observed is this latent attraction towards fire, its brilliance, its movements and warmth (provided the fire is right in front of the spectator.) We seem to be easily captivated by fire, and its presence is significant, and a link should be drawn with our ancestral root that strongly suggests this hard-wired tendency that most of us display. The resultant sensation or emotion one feels tends to be diverse, as Gaston Bachelard has put it: "Fire is the ultra-living element. It is intimate and it is universal. It lives in our heart. It lives in the sky. It rises from the depths of the substance and offers itself with the warmth of love. Or it can go back down into the substance and hide there, latent and pent-up, like hate and vengeance." The above qualities are synonymous throughout the spectrum of the human psyche; be it social, religious, cultural or scientific. This spectrum does not appear suddenly, nor was it by sheer chance. There is a cascading effect on successive development of thought and spirituality that led to where we are, who we are, and why do we behave the way we do.