Estate Living Magazine The Slow Movement - Issue 39 March 2019 | Page 56

G O O D
L I F E
FIRE!
It warms, it cooks, it illuminates. Fire is central to our lives, and it’s
not too far a stretch to say that it is our use, mastery and – dare
I say it – worship of fire (and the high-tech advances on the same
theme) that define us as human.
Fire holds a significant place in legend,
mythology and religion. Like the Greek
mythological hero Prometheus, who
‘stole’ fire from the sun in a hollow reed and
brought it to humans, and the phoenix, a
sacred firebird found in the mythologies of
the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans,
Chinese, Hindu and Native Americans,
among others. Here is a bird that, after
living a long life, plunges into a fire of its
own making and dies, only to rise from the
ashes and start the process all over again.
In Christianity, fire is often seen as a
symbol of holiness and God’s presence,
and ‘tongues of fire’ as the Holy Spirit. in
Judaism, the ‘continuous fire’ that needs