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Human beings have discovered fire a very long time ago. Their relationship to the fire developed as the years went by. Eventually they learned to harness its power and use it to warm homes, cook food, forge tools, fuel factories, cars and planes, clear land, and kill bacteria and virus.

The way indigenous cultures celebrate fire may be different. The way we celebrate fire may be different. Yet, we can all agree, that fire is one of the four elements, along with earth, air and water. The elements can be harsh teachers and gentle nurturers. All cultures agree that the elements are to be respected.

Firewalking is one way to celebrate the element of fire and its teaching. Fire can teach us to take care of our physical needs, rationalized by our mental mind. It stands to reason, that fire can teach us to heal our emotional and spiritual selves.

Firewalking is one of the world's oldest and widely spread rituals. It is so ancient that no one really knows where it began or why. Perhaps, simultaneously across the globe, in the beginning of evolution, when volcanoes still erupted, early man had to cross the cooling lava to get to their hunting ground.

What we do know, is that the ritual, the teaching of the fire and the ceremony of Firewalking, was passed down from generation to generation, according to the natives' oral history. Many indigenous cultures around the world, independently of each other, celebrate the ritual of Firewalking for a variety of reasons.

The Kung people, bushmen of the Kalahari desert in Africa, light a fire when healing of the community is needed. The most gifted healers walk, while the rest of the tribe sit around them in a circle and make music and sing.

The Anastenarides in the Greek village of Ayia Eleni, walk over and over across the burning coals until grey ash remains, at every spring festival honoring Saint Constantine who walked into a burning church to save its icons from the fire.

The head priests in some Shinto Buddhist temples of Japan, prepare for a religious experience, conducting the ritual and ceremony for a specified reason, by marking each step of the way as the fire is built, lit, and prepared for walking. A prayer is offered for the greater good and the walk begins with the highest order of priest first down to anyone who chooses to walk.

Other cultures with a Buddhist influence such as India, China, Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Brazil tend to follow the Japanese formality of Firewalking, where the priests are definitely in charge of the event. The path of the burning coals are straight, raked out and patted smooth for the walk.

In Bali, the firewalk is a coming-of-age initiation for seven year old girls. The Hawaiian Kahunas dance on lave flows to demonstrate their power and the healing of the community. Throughout Fiji people walk over heated stones and is viewed as a special trait or power of the individual and their own healing.

Firewalking teaches us about the infinite power of expansion, the release and letting go of our self imposed limitations that we place on ourselves and our world. It is a method of testing our beliefs about the nature of our reality and a way to amass information that we can base our future actions upon. Firewalking is a practice experienced for thousands of years to teach us to open our minds and our lives to unlimited potential and creative possibility.

Special thanks to Michael Sky for his excellent material and history of Firewalking in his book entitled: "Dancing with the Fire", Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2860