Fire in Shamanism

Man has aways had a special relation with the fire element. It was through the light of fire, that man saw for the first time his reflection, the shadow of his own body reflected in the walls of the caves, he mistook it as the first hypothesis of this being his own soul. This shadowed reflection might have been one of the reasons that led the early human to start having another point of view about the world, and made him want to paint on the rocks his everyday activity and his relationship with the divine.

In this time, fire started to be the source of heat and illumination in the cold and dark days of winter, it was also the perfect element to change the raw animal meat into a new source of nourishment. Radical changes happen with the coming of fire, changes in their food, in their daily works, to explore new dark paths, to give light in the caves so they could paint and make other kids of art, to wander in the night and also a great change happened in terms of spirituality. Fire helped people to gather around it, and in this way, tribes were formed, and communities start to evolve and spread through the landscape. Mastering the art of the fire was a proof of passage to adulthood and a proof of survival. This also led to the sacred gathering of shamans around the fire, to discuss events and work together.
If we take a look at these shaman gatherings that still happen today, we can see how fire is important in this kind of situation, inside any Yurt, Tipi or other shaman tent. It is the fire that feeds the heat inside the tent, the sound of the crackling fire and the smoke, the first inducing process which heps in the altered state of consciousness or what we call, shamanic trance.
In shamanism, it is believed that the fire is the natural element which helps us to communicate with the spirits and our ancestors, because if you listen close enough, you might hear them speaking to you or with each other, and so the shaman before starting his work, he lights the fire. It is also in the heat of the fire, that the shaman prepares his drum, stretching the animal skin enough so that when hitting the drum, the sound may be similar to the heartbeat.
Fire was the first element that helped in the creation of the universe and our own world, fire was and still is one of the most important elements.

The Yurt - In Shamanism

When talking about a Yurt, we automatically think of the Mongols and their round houses built in a peculiar way, but if we look into the ancient peoples of Europe, more specifically the Celts, they also had round houses with a pillar in the middle of the house, especially in Old Lusitania, where the European country of Portugal is now placed. Also the American Indians have that costum, they haven't made their houses in a round shape, but they had the same pillar in the midle, or far into the northern landscapes of Europe in Scandinavia, the Saami people did the same. All of these coincidences have an explanation, but we must go far into the past, when humankind used shamanism as a spiritual guidance and to communicate with the spirits and gods and for my explanation, i will stick to the Yurt, as an exemple of a tribal building with spiritual connotations and an early form of architecture, which revolutionized our ways to build.


All of us have the necessity of protection and to have a place to find peace and comfort, and so we built our homes, and turn the inside of those the most appealing and comforting places as possible, a little corner in the landscape where we make our own world, our own strongholds, where evil can not enter. This isn't different in the context when it comes to build an Yurt or any other building with a similar structure in ancient times, in fact, the purpose of building something in this way, had a more spiritual connection to the lifes of the people in those days.

The Yurt is a sacred space, were a shaman calls for the divine forces and the spirits, a place were the shaman plays his drum, and the sound of it echoes all around, like a sounding box. A place that has no time, were the shaman is closed and away from the world outside, with the creaking of fire and the constant rhythm of the drum as a beating heart, which lulls the shaman in a deep sleep and he travels to other realities. The post rooted in the soil passes through the inside of the tent  to expand the hole in the ceiling that opens to the out side, and the roof symbolizes the celestial dome, where the energies from the spirits and the spirits themselves, come through, and all that energy is trapped inside the tent. The Yurt is a perfect place without interference, it is the barrier between two worlds, our own cozy nest and the vast wild landscapes of the world. In ancient times, these kind of buildings were also the gateway to a third world, the world of the spirits, it was not only a place fo live, to cook, to sleep, and to do all the things we do at our homes, but also a place with a great spiritual connection and importance, a place that we must keep clean of any negative energies or activities. The yurt is also a place of freedom, a place that frees us from the problems of the outside world and our own problems, a place where we can actually solve those.

The physical appearance of our homes has changed dramatically over time, but it still has that cozy connection to peace, the place where we run back to hide, after and hard day outside, a place where we can hear our own thoughts, where nothing and no one can break through and bring chaos and change the entire site inside, turning it ino a strange, sad and gloomy dwelling, because that place is our own fortress, and we must defend it agaisnt those negative forces that may bring chaos.