Fire Divination

Fire divination or pyromancy is the use of fire to gain insight into a situation or an answer to a question. It’s been around for millennia and was probably one of the earliest forms of divination.

We have an innate awe and fear of fire, even today. In the ancient world, fire was both the giver and taker of life. People have always associated fire with the sun. Both flames and the sun bring life-sustaining warmth, new life and comfort. They equally take life and bring destruction.

Given the power of fire, it’s not surprising that it was worshipped in many cultures. Even in societies that didn’t worship fire or the sun directly, both featured strongly in rituals and religion. Fire has also always been a symbol of strength – just think of the fire breathing dragon. The person who holds fire is the one who’ll survive.

Even in mainstream religions today, fire and the sun are linked to a god and the giving and taking of life. Services, rituals, and events always include the use of candles and often open fires too.

Using Fire in Ritual Cleansing

In previous times it was commonly believed that people or places that were assumed to be evil or causing hardship, must be eliminated with fire to bring cleansing. This saw human sacrifices happening in ceremonies done by priests, shaman, kings and governments. In tribal areas, tribes would burn the settlements of their enemies. The witch hunts of the middle ages were carried out in the name of religion, sanctioned by king and country.

In times of drought, epidemics and other natural disasters, it wasn’t uncommon for people to sacrifice animals and their enemies to appease the gods. The remains were examined to see if the gods had accepted or rejected the sacrifice. Cracks in the bones, burn patterns, and the degree to which the fire consumed a body or carcass were all read as indications of how well the sacrifice had been accepted.

Although that might all seem very strange to us today, ancient civilizations didn’t understand unusual weather patterns or unknown diseases, so they mostly believed it to be a form of punishment from the gods.

Back to Today

Fire divination isn’t very popular and mostly unknown. It’s a form of scrying, the same as crystal ball, mirror, and water gazing. It takes practice and patience and mainly works well for people who’ve developed their clair-senses, i.e., the ability to see, hear, taste, touch and smell at a spiritual level.

Practitioners who use fire divination today mostly do candle magic and divination. The most likely reason that fire divination has faded into the background is that we don’t light fires as a matter of course every day. In many urban areas, open fires are controlled, so the practice has become impractical.

That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work though.

If you want to try Pyromancy

All forms of divination rely on intuition, focus and a clear mind without expectation. Don’t expect immediate results with fire divination, especially if you haven’t developed your clair-senses very well yet. Start by working on your intuition.

Good ways to develop your intuition is to hold something in your hands and see what feelings, mental images, tastes or smells come up. You don’t have to be able to confirm what you pick up, but if you can, it helps build confidence.

For example, ask a friend or family member to give you a small item that belongs to someone that you don’t know. Using your intuition, see if you can come up with information about that person, or even about the object. Let’s say it’s imported from another country. Do you begin to ‘see’ or ‘feel’ another culture? Objects absorb the energy around them all the time. Check if what you’re sensing is right.

Start with a Candle Flame

When you’re ready, start your fire divination journey with a candle and no expectations. If you go in wanting specific answers, your mind can start telling you what you do or don’t want to know. Especially if you’re trying very hard.

Raise your energy levels with meditation, incense and casting a circle of protection. Use a white candle because it’s neutral. Light the candle and make sure that there’s no breeze. Gently focus on the flame without staring at it. You should feel yourself starting to relax to a point where you feel slightly disconnected from your environment. Your breathing should become rhythmic.

Move your gaze so that you can see the flame, but aren’t looking directly at it. This state might feel a bit hypnotic. Do you see anything? Does the flame change color, get bigger or smaller, or start to flutter? What are your perceptions?

Sit with the situation until you feel yourself snap out of it spontaneously. Write down what you experienced. If nothing happened, you were probably tense form trying too hard. That doesn’t matter, just try again later when you’re more relaxed and less focused on an outcome.

Asking Questions

Once you’re comfortable with candle flame scrying, you can start coming in with questions. Always prepare well, make sure you’ve raised your energy levels and know what you want to know. You might find that a specific spirit guide comes through whenever you do fire divination. Conversely, there can be no revelation, and all information comes through the higher-self.

If you do have a spirit that regularly comes through, they’ll take on a form that you’ll immediately recognize. It will appear in the same place and often just outside your line of vision. They can also appear in your mind’s eye if you look at the flame and then gently close your eyes. A figure, shape, or face usually appears right in front of you. You’ll feel their presence throughout.

Keep questions short and few. Start off by asking if they can show you basics such as ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘that’s not for you to know now’, etc. As your confidence grows after each session, you can ask direct questions.

You can move on to open fires because if you’ve connected through a candle flame, you should be able to communicate through any flame. Things that can negatively impact results are if you’re trying to connect in a group environment or if you’re uncomfortable in the surroundings. All divination is about focus and pure intention. This article is from our most recent issue of Wicca Magazine. Click Here To Subscribe