It was a Thursday night and my wife, then partner of 7 years, and I had come home early from University to see family over the weekend. We were discussing the differences between modern day and the Renaissance era, and the ways in which human thought and perception had changed over the centuries. Of course, this brought us to the subject of Alchemy and how it evolved into modern chemistry. My wife made an offhand comment about how she thought that the older belief that the world was comprised of four elements, and that the newer periodic table of elements were possibly divisions from the original four alchemical elements. With some amusement (being still grounded in scientific empiricism with only an intrigue for the spiritual) I responded by asking what the physical force of fire was comprised of, as it is the bi-product of carbon based substances being exposed to heat which is nothing more than particles charged with electrical energy. She sat in contemplation for a moment before answering.
"Fire is just fire." she stated simply. This irritated me, as she seemed to not have a reasonable answer, and wasn't going to let her off so easily.
"So if fire is made purely from the element of fire then what causes it? We know fire is created when molecules are charged with energy and collide with one another to create the heat and the light, so what is there before fire? And you're not allowed to say 'God'." Again, she fell silent, her brow creased as she tried to formulate her response in her mind before vocalising it.
"Well, fire creates fire. Fire makes other objects catch fire so why cant't it make itself?" This made absolutely no sense to me at the time, and I made my confusion clear.
"How can it create itself? Fire needs preexisting substances in the correct combination for it to come into being, so by your own logic, fire can't create fire, air and earth create fire, and therefore fire is a secondary substance, not an element but a compound."
I believed that my argument was well structured and well presented, so I was somewhat disgruntled when she shook her head. My mind was blown even more when she made her next point.
"The fire was already there before the fire was there." At this point I thought she was trying to use the theory of non-linear time to justify fire as a fundamental element in all creation, creating itself, but I was wrong; and just when I thought the conversation couldn't get any weirder, she said "just like the other elements, air, earth and water all create themselves too." My confusion and impatience deepened, and I felt anger stirring in my gut, especially when she glanced sideways at me from the armchair, a mischievous, childlike grin on her face. Was she trying to confuse me or was she being simply digressing for the sake of ending the discussion having lost her side of the debate? I had to know for certain if she was being serious or simply mocking me. "Nope. I mean it, just like the universe, it makes itself." We had had a similar discussion about multiverse theory just a week before in which she compared the multiverse to bubbles, each bubble a universe which expands to the point when it pops, creating a cluster of smaller bubbles, which in turn grow and pop to create even more universes. This comparison only confused matters further for me, and I found myself begging for a serious answer.
"Universes are created by other universes, not by themselves!" (I now no longer entirely believe this to be the whole truth for reasons which are outlined in my article on Panentheism in which I discuss toroidal fields.) I was figuratively pacing backwards and forwards in my mind, trying to see what she saw that I was somehow missing; and then in a sentence she put everything at ease.
"Fire is made by particles acting a certain way, but the fire tells them to act that way to make it." It was something so simple I had overlooked it entirely. The fire exists in spirit and influences the behaviour of the particles which in turn creates the physical manifestation of the spirit of fire.
This discussion was the beginning of my exploration of alchemy and consciousness studies. I had been arrogant enough to believe that because I had read and understood the mechanics of how fire is produced and how it emits heat and light, that I understood the essence of what fire is. In the weird world of metaphysics, mind comes before matter, thoughts exist externally and are received by the brain rather than being created by it. In the same way, all things exist as a potential for being, a conceptual non-physical being before they are given form, and if all things in the universe are conscious in their own way, then it necessarily follows that said conscious conceptual being can directly influence the behaviour of physical systems in such a way to create the ideal conditions in which to manifest itself physically to have an even greater effect upon the physical world. In this scenario, fire exists as a spirit, a conscious form of subtle energy emanating from the primordial consciousness within the Grand Design. This conscious emanatory concept communicates with physical objects on an energetic level and programs them to behave in a certain way, in this case, causing the molecules to move in a chaotic fashion, bumping into one another at high speed and thus being charged with kinetic and electrostatic energy causing them to vibrate at a higher frequency and glow, emitting heat and light which manifests as the fire that we know. In the same way, the spirit of water communicates to molecules and dictates that they should stay close to one another but not so tightly as to be immovable as this would create a solid, and also to switch places with other molecules around them, old molecules constantly being replaced by new molecules to preserve the life of the physical water that is created, possibly why water has remained unchanged and at exactly the same volume on earth for the last 4 billion years. Similar processes could be taking place in wind systems and in crystalline structures also, as seen in most crystal formations, the molecules replicate themselves in a fractal pattern, usually in accordance with the golden ratio, which is why crystal structures are so pleasing to look at aesthetically. They are in sync with the golden ratio as a creative energy field which dictates and guides the way in which the molecules replicate and grow; they are quite literally being instructed. This may also account for Rupert Sheldrake's theory of Morphic Resonance; if all matter is formed out of the Universal Source field which is dictating the way in which molecular structures are formed, then once a structure has been successfully formed in accordance with the golden section, then that information is shared to every other piece of matter and energy in the Universe through the Source Field making it easier to form the same structure a second, third or fourth time around.
"All of that from a 40 minute discussion at 3 in the morning? What the hell are you people smoking?" Its a strange Universe we live in, and those who are in tune with that Universe are equally as strange. This is just one of many more discussions that have passed between myself, my wife and our two best friends, and I endeavour to post more of these paraphrased discourses for your perusal and amusement. Until then, may the Gods be with you!
Enki Endymion. O(
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