Meantime, if you have a bit of free time why don’t you pop into Tim’s forum and see if you can shed any insight into this question.

That’s one heck of a good question. It’s also one heck of a big question and I confess, I’m still figuring all that out — projection, that is. Nonetheless, as it relates specifically to that post on apocalyptic hellfire, I think that ideally, this is an inner process but when it’s not internalized and is instead externalized via projection, one of its manifestations in the “world” we all share is war. At that point, it’s easy to tell the difference because it’s become an external reality.

My impressions on reading that piece was that I was reading an account of an internal process that had been projected outward.

I wondered: is it possible to come up with something which is NOT a metaphorical accont of an internal process projected outward? How do we tell the difference?

Can you tell me Jordan, if there is anything specifically related to “fire” or “burning” in the Gnostic scriptures?

http://egina.blogspot.com/2005/11/apocatastasis.html

and here (where I arrive at a working hypothesis);

http://egina.blogspot.com/2005/11/apocatastasis-revisited.html

“The black queen chants
the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king.”

[Source]

The last thing the ego wants is more suffering. Why on earth would someone want more love, if it only makes one vulnerable to deeper suffering? The mystic’s answer is that suffering, when purified and transmuted in the inner alchemy of the sacred heart, is recognized to be a manifestation of divine love itself. So when the mystic prays to God for suffering and welcomes affliction with open arms, this is not some sick masochism or martyr complex, but is rather an acknowledgement of a deep mystical truth. The mystic knows that affliction is the fuel of the fire of love, and that suffering is this fuel burning in the heart, feeding the sacred fire to grow even stronger. For the mystic, this fire of purification is what burns away the residues of attachment and aversion in the soul, and allows God’s will and grace to more perfectly become manifest there. [Source]

3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

[Source]

Mandala is Sanskrit for circle, polygon, community, connection.
The Mandala is a symbol of man or woman in the world, a support for the meditating person.
The mandala is often illustrated as a palace with four gates, facing the four corners of the Earth.
The Mandala shown here is connected with the Buddha Vajrasattva, who symbolises the original crystalline purity.
In the centre is a lotus blossom with eight petals, resting on a bed of jewels.
In the next place are the walls of the palace with gates towards the four corners of the earth.
The gates are guarded by four angry doorkeepers.
Before the meditating person arrives at the gates, she must, however, pass the four outer circles: the purifying fire of wisdom, the vajra circle, the circle with the eight tombs, the lotus circle. [Source]

Kali’s dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the five elements (Sanskrit: pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion and worship, this denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this burning takes place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit: gyanagni), which Kali bestows. [Source]

When I think of Heaven
Deliver me in a black-winged bird
I think of dying …
Lay me down in a field
Of flame and heather
And render up my body into
The Burning Heart of God
In the belly of a black-winged bird

Rain King ~ Counting Crows

My impressions on reading that piece was that I was reading an account of an internal process that had been projected outward. If you read it again with the idea that “Iran” is a metaphor for a body, it has a different feel to it.

Meantime, here are a few links as related to “purifying fire”. I’m doing them as singlets so I don’t trip the moderator switch.

Kundalini is Shakti, supreme energy, whom the sages of India worship as the mother of the universe. Shakti is the consort of Shiva. She is the active aspect of the formless, attributeless Absolute.

What is the nature of this Shakti? She is the supreme creative power of the Absolute Being. Just as heat, which has the power to burn, is not different from fire, Shakti, which has the power to create this universe, is identical with Parabrahman, the supreme Absolute. She is Brahman in the form of sound, the sound vibration of the Absolute, which manifested the universe. [
Source]

It’s an observation. Numerous paths speak of passing through a purifying fire.

It still sounds like kundalini to me.

If that’s the case, then what would you say is the reason for the apparent connection?

If we want to look at close cultural parallels of purifying fire, I’d suggest looking at the Zoroastrian scenario of molten metal purifying one from their sins. Here’s one source on this, although there must be better ones:

http://www.exitmundi.nl/zarathushtra.htm

The molten metal takes the shape of a river, and everyone has to cross it. Whoever was evil in life suffers terrible pains. The more you did wrong, the more you suffer. But what the heck: in the end, you’ll find out you’re truly purified of sin. The molten metal literally burns away every scratch of evil from your soul. O, and by the way: if you were already pure of heart, you survive the wave without any problem at all. The molten metal will feel like warm milk, as Zarathushtra puts it.

[…] in speaking of the punishment by fire assigned to souls after death, he compares it to the process whereby gold is refined in a furnace, through being separated from the dross with which it is alloyed.

It still sounds like kundalini to me.

See also: Strange Days - Beautiful Midnight