This is the story of Cinderella and the Heart of the Fire.
Once upon a time,
Through the mists of ancient memory,
A story was told of a little girl whose name was Cinderella.
Cinderella was strong,
With wild freedom in her smiling eyes.
She loved nothing more than to go out into the wild places and have adventures.
She knew all the best places to find food,
Water and shelter.
She also knew how to make fire.
Cinderella loved fire.
She loved to play with fire.
She loved to watch fire dance.
She loved the feeling of fire's heat upon her skin and the way the golden light glowed out into the darkness.
She was very grateful to fire,
For fire was her friend.
One night,
As Cinderella sat gazing at fire,
She saw something move within the flames.
All at once the embers became mountain peaks,
The dancing flames became swaying trees,
And there in the heart of the fire a face appeared,
The face of Cinderella.
As Cinderella watched,
She could see herself riding upon the back of the most beautiful silver-white horse she had ever seen.
And the more she looked at herself in the fire,
The more she saw her heart-light,
And this touched her deeply,
For it was her sacred fire-heart shining out its light so bright.
But shadow covered the light.
A deep sadness was there,
A sadness only fire could see,
For Cinderella had forgotten who she was and where she came from.
Cinderella began to cry,
The dancing flames making her face glisten with tears.
For Cinderella remembered when she had felt very alone and frightened.
Her mother and father had long ago forgotten who they were and where they came from too.
And so Cinderella had no one to guide her and felt very sad and alone,
Except for her friend fire.
That night,
Cinderella stayed up very late with fire and talked and talked while fire happened.
But on this night,
Something quite extraordinary happened that had never happened before.
On this particular night,
Fire spoke back.
Fire spoke of many things that Cinderella did not know until she remembered them with fire's words.
She could feel the fire words inside her belly and inside her heart.
She knew that fire spoke with wisdom and kindness.
Fire asked Cinderella to close her eyes and look within herself to see her sacred fire-heart.
Cinderella sat very quiet and still,
Until she could see herself riding upon the beautiful silver-white horse as she had seen herself before in the heart of the fire.
She could clearly vision her sacred fire-heart.
Fire spoke.
I am going to share an ancient song with you and when I am done,
You will forever understand and know that you are not alone.
Remember that within the sacred heart of all living things,
The essence of fire,
Water,
Earth and air resides.
In the sacred heart,
There is no separation,
No good or bad,
No sadness.
Here you remember who you are and where you came from.
Here you remember and feel the oneness.
And so said fire,
When you look at fire,
You see yourself and when you give love to yourself,
You give love back to the oneness.
Fire went quiet for a moment and then began to sing the sacred fire song out into the night.
As Cinderella heard the crackle and hiss of fire song,
Her sacred fire-heart grew stronger and stronger,
Brighter and brighter.
Her body began to sway and her hips began to move and she danced and danced and with each breath she sang out the fire song and with each step she moved into her power and into her deep knowing.
Cinderella and fire danced and sang all through the night and out into the darkness.
And to this day,
If you sit very still and very quiet and gaze into the heart of the fire,
You may just hear fire sing the sacred fire song to you.
Earth my body,
Water my blood,
Air my breath and fire my spirit.
Earth my body,
Water my blood,
Air my breath and fire my spirit.
Earth my body,
Water my blood,
Air my spirit.
