Page 70 - ECOlogic Book

The Fire Within
(Summer, 1993)

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age . . . the force that drives the water
Through the rocks drives my red blood.” Dylan Thomas

In a letter I received from my friend Gisela Vief, I read, “There is something
about the cello playing that goes right to my soul . . . I had a shamanic
journey where my power animal opened up my whole front and strings
extended from the inside of me into the universe and connected me to it.
That’s how I feel about the cello. Somehow it opens me up to something
intrapersonal and archetypal . . . It has to do with learning to let the playing
originate in my soul . . . suddenly the music links up to an area of my mind
that was not previously connected to it.”

This writing strikes me as a perfect example of a deep creative process.
There is a wholly different quality to what my friend is experiencing and the
creativity that is involved in, say, following a recipe, perhaps changing an
ingredient or two. The difference lies in her statement about linking up with
something archetypal. I would call it something primordial, a latent fire
within each of us that burns brightly when our activities are connected to the
universe.

As Dylan Thomas suggests, this fire is not unlike the fire that glows in the
natural world, when we are attuned to it. It is the green fire described by
Phillip Shabakov in his book about the history of the environmental
movement, A Fierce Green Fire. He describes an experience Aldo Leopold
had when he was working as a wildlife management officer in a mountain
region. At the time, Leopold saw his job as that of controlling predators to
encourage game. In the line of “duty”, he shot a she-wolf with her cubs. As
he approached her he saw a fierce green fire in her eyes and realized that
neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with him.

This fierce green fire, the fire within, is everywhere in the natural world. The
Iroquois call in Orenda: the invisible creative power, the life essence that
permeates everything from the outermost stars to the smallest stone. Here,
I’m using the word “fierce” to mean an energy, a vitality that pervades the
natural world and you and me, seeking expression; unfoldment through
irreversible transformation.

“Fierceness” or “wildness” is often defined as uncontrollable, violent or
uncivilized behavior. Yet wild animals rarely act that way, unless they are
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