Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 53: Fire

Fire assumes a greater importance in Winter when our usual source of heat and light - the Sun - is at its weakest. From a flickering candle flame to a cosy wood-burner to a roaring bonfire, fire's reassuring glowing warmth is the natural antidote to a surfeit of cold and gloom.  

Winter Blessings and Beauties - Day 53

Fire

Here are some ideas for warming your Winter with the element of fire.

• There are lots of ideas for enjoying candles and candlelight here
• If you have an open fireplace, a woodburning stove or a bonfire, you can roast chestnuts or marshmallows, or make s'mores. 
• You can scry into the flames or embers of a fire, or even a candle flame.
• If you don't have a fireplace in your home, you can get the real fire effect by putting on a YouTube video. You can also buy candles that are scented like a wood fire if you'd like to get the full effect! Yankee Candles make one called  'Wood Smoke', St Eval have a fragrance called 'Embers', and the Woodfire Candle Company not only have wooden wicks in their candles which crackle like a real log fire, but they also have a scent called 'Campfire'. I'm sure there are many others out there too.
• Wrap up warm and enjoy a bonfire under the stars - don't forget to bring a flask of hot chocolate.
• Gaze into your fire - or candle flame - allowing your vision to soften. Imagine how your ancestors too, gazed into the flames on winter nights, lost in reverie. How much has changed through the centuries, and yet how much we still have in common. Feel how connected you are to those distant ancestors through the shared experience of fire-gazing, dreaming and unwinding, watching images form and fade in the flames.