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