EDGEWALKERS

HISTORY

Fire has been used to denote passion, heat, warmth, purification, anger, and destruction. It has been described as irresistible, majestic, resplendent, beautiful, romantic, ceremonial, sacred, catastrophic, devastating, and uncontrolled, depending on context and perspective. Fire can draw people together, or it can destroy habitats. The late Joe Strummer, former lead singer of The Clash, once said that the best way to meet people is to light a fire and play some music, and people will show up. Fire is unforgiving, and is an incredibly powerful tool in a ritual setting. Fire is to be respected at all times, lest you fall victim to its potentially devastating effects.

The history of firewalking is quite vague. There are groups out there who have been doing firewalking for so long, they’ve forgotten why they do it. They will tell you, this is just how it’s done; this is just what we do; the gods have said this is what we do.The first recorded firewalk, however, took place in India, around 1200 BCE. The records of this indicate that two Brahmin priests took the firewalk together as a competition; the priest who walked further on the coals had this feat recorded for posterity. The firewalk at this time was used as a metaphor for spiritual strength and calmness of mind. In India the firewalk is often dedicated to the patron god of piercing, Lord Murugan, of the Hindu pantheon of deities, as many body stress rituals in Hindu culture are. The firewalk is a purification before going into the temple. You embark on a journey that ends approaching the firewalk. As you approach the fire, if you see fire, you walk beside it because nobody walks on fire. If you see Shiva’s sari laid out in a path across the coals, then you walk that path. And in that ritual there is no judgement for whichever path you take. If you don’t see your safe path within the fire, you don’t do it, you walk beside it.

The 17th century Jesuit priest Father Paul Le Jeune recorded witnessing a healing firewalk among the Montagnais Indians of Quebec. He described seeing a sick woman walk through the fire, claiming not to feel any heat.

Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert have used firewalking in healing ceremonies, using fire to “ignite their individual energies”.

Firewalking has been practiced in various countries in South Asia, Africa, Europe, Central Asia, the Caribbean, East Asia, the South Pacific, and North America.

Western firewalking was born in the late 1970s after Scientific American published an article that served as a sort of “how-to” on firewalking. In the 1980s, a man named Tolly Burkan, who claims to be the creator of the firewalking movement in America, started teaching people in western culture how to firewalk. In 1983, he taught Tony Robbins, who then started hosting huge firewalking events around the US, and the practice has continued to spread from there.

If there’s something you need to get rid of in your life, if it’s flammable, put it in the fire; if it’s not flammable, put it on paper and burn it in the fire. It’s incredibly cathartic. Do this with intention. Do this with commitment and see it through. It does not matter the level of experience; fire demands respect at all times.