Fire is at the core of our existence. From the original primordial fire of the big bang to the generative energy of the sun, all life depends on light and heat for creation and survival. Our Heart Fire, the energetic center of our bodies, functions as a pulse of life, just as the sun functions as the life pulse for our solar system.
As the sun radiates the heat that warms the planet and animates all life, our hearts pump blood and nutrients throughout the body and send electromagnetic waves outward that connect to the world around us. We are created in rhythm, kept alive in rhythm, evolve through rhythm. Tides, breath, and blood flow in rhythm. We are born into a universe of currents, and our heart is the great conductor of the body, orchestrating our flow.
Since my beginnings in yoga three decades ago, tending the Heart Fire has been my personal dharma. The direct awakening of the Heart Fire often happens when we are at a crisis point, when we fall to our knees, when the armor of our heart has to crack. The mystic heart is the awakening of direct experience that each one of us can access by tending the fire of any spark of love, bonding, inspiration, truth, or passion. This is the fire we can see in each other’s eyes that leads to a waking up and to serving life in all forms—your own sacred activism.
In the words of a Sacred Activist, Andrew Harvey: The human race is now an unprecedented and destined evolutionary crisis – a global dark night. This global dark night is potentially the birth canal for a new, embodied divine humanity chastened by tragedy and illumined by grace…
The birthing force of the divine human is the force of the Motherhood of God, expressed not only in new and radically evolutionary mysticism but also in sacredly inspired radical action on every level and in every arena. The teachings and practices of yoga have always held the heart in both practical and mystical ways. So let us return to the power and magnificence of our hearts: heart as fire and heat. Heart as intelligent energy and electromagnetic radiance. Heart as our illuminating guide toward love, creativity, and deep knowing. May the journey begin now, as we awaken our direct relationship to our Heart Fire, both primordial and intimate.
– Our Thanks to Shiva Rea