A Meditation on Fire
Close your eyes
​
Breath in
Breath out
​
Find the center of yourself
Go deep
Deeper
Deeper
There
​
There is a fire in you
Deep down
At the very center
Where everything else falls away
Until there is nothing
But the flames and you
​
Is it a candle?
Does it flicker and dance?
Or is it a bonfire
That roars its defiance
Against the wind and the world?
​
Perhaps it is a star
So bright and burning
That to behold it up close
Would be to dissolve
Into the universe
​
The form it takes does not matter
Just that it burns
​
This is your center, the hearth
In the home of your body
A place of warmth, of love
Of creativity and of rest
A place where we are so much ourselves
That it cannot help
But be home
​
Now, let us speak of Hestia
​
Hestia was the goddess of
Hearth and home
They say she is both the oldest
And the youngest of her siblings
First to be swallowed, last disgorged
​
They say that she lit the fire
And kept it burning
So that her siblings
Would not be lost to the dark
The way she was when her father
Swallowed her down
​
She held the center
Kept the fire burning
Kept them all together
Physically
Mentally
Emotionally
She kept them from falling
Apart
​
When it came time
To divide up
The great wide world
Her siblings had fought
So hard to attain
All she asked for
Was the hearth
A space of warmth
Of healing
Of safety
​
Zeus could have the violent sky
Poseidon the crashing waves
Hades the dark depths
Hestia wanted the hearth
​
She wanted home
​
She is always there
Deep
Deeper
Deeper
There
Where the fire burns
​
She tends to it
Be it candle flame or burning star
She holds the center
Keeps us from falling
Holds the dark at bay
​
Breath in
Breath out
​
Feel her warmth
Coursing through you
Feel your flame
Safely tended
​
Now open your eyes