Fire
Direction: South
Time: Noon
Season: Summer
Colours: Red, orange, gold
Qualities: Fertility in all aspects of life, creativity, light-bringing power, passion, joy, initiating, transformation, courage, mysticism, clairvoyance, prophecy.
Rule over: Ambition, achievement, illumination, inspiration, all creative and artistic ventures, poetry, art, sculpture, writing, music, dance, religion and spirituality, psychic powers especially higher ones such as channeling, innovation, sexuality. It is also potent for destruction of what is now no longer needed, for binding and banishing ritual and so for protection.
Animals: Dragonfly, firefly, fox, lion, lizrd, stag, tiger
Archangel: Michael, archangel of the sun and light and the warrior angel. Michael is the angel of power and of illumination and brings in the summer season and fertility, growth and energy into our lives and to the land, to animals and the crops. He is also potent, for reviving barren land despoiled by industrialization and for cleansing air pollution.
Visualize him resplendent in scarlet and gold with a huge sword, golden scales in his other hand and often a dragon crushed beneath his feet.
Crystals: Amber bloodstone, bojo stones, carnelian, garnet, hematite, iron pyrites, lava, mookaite, obsidian, red jasper, ruby sunstone, topaz.
Elemental creatures: Salamanders
Goddesses: Amaterasu Omigami, the Japanese sun goddess whose name means ‘great August spirit shining in heaven’
Brighid, the Celtic triple goddess of fire and of the hearth, patroness of healers, poets and smiths
Gabija, the Lithuanian goddess of the hearth fire, who was honored by throwing salt on the fire each evening after the main meal
Pele, goddess of volcanoes, fire and magic, who is still revered in Hawaii by those who claim descent from her and who still set up altars near lava streams.
Saule, Baltic queen of the heavens and earth, dressed and crowned with gold who drove her golden chariot across the skies and danced with her daughter the planets on the festival of St. Lucia, the light maiden, just before the midwinter solstice
Sekhmet, the Ancient Egyptian lion-headed solar goddess of fire and healing who is the patroness of modern businesswomen
Vesta, the Roman goddess of sacred fire whose Virgins tended the sacred fire in Rome
Gods: Agni, the Hindu god of fire, who is said to be manifest as the vital spark in mankind, birds, animals, plants and life itself
Apollo, the Graeco-Roman sun god, who was twin brother of Artemis, the moon goddess, and was patron of the arts, especially music, beauty and harmony.
Helios of the Greeks, known to the Romans as Sol, who was regarded as the sun himself. He ascended the heavens in a chariot drawn by winged snow-white horses to give light, and in the evening descended into the ocean
Lugh (Llew in Wales) the ancient Irish god of light and the cycle of the year, born at the midwinter solstice, made king at the summer solstice and willingly sacrificed at Lughnassadh at the beginning of August in order to maintain the fertility of the land and ensure the success of the harvest.
Ra or Re, the Ancient Egyptian sun god who sailed the sun boat across the heavens during the day
Herbs and incenses: Allspice, angelica, basil, bay, cactus, carnation, cedar wood, chamomile, chrysanthemum, cinnamon, cloves, copal, dragon’s blood, frankincense, galangal. Garlic, juniper, lime marigold, nutmeg, olive, orange, pennyroyal, rosemary, snapdragon, sunflower, tangerine, thistle holy, thistle milk, witch hazel
Place: Bonfires, all conflagrations, deserts, hearths, hilltop beacons, lightning, sacred festival fires, solar eclipses, thunder, volcanoes, at the height of noon or a blazing sunrise or sunset, plains shimmering in the heart, any sunny place, sandy shores on hot days, hear banks of yellow or golden flowers.
Sacred substances: Candle
Zodiacal signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
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