Being in right relationship with the elements is part of the shamanic path. We learn to talk and listen to the energies around us. Fire is an elemental. It has a personality, it demands respect. Remember the movie "Back Draft"? Wow-talk about personality. We talk to the fire, we dance with it, it becomes friendly.
When the shamanic practitioner comes to fire, she/he comes with that request for right relationship in his/her life. We come to the fire to reestablish rightness in our world. The fire brings balance, brings clearing, brings healing, brings release. Fire is fast change, an engagement with change itself. There is no going back, no reclaiming what has been put in the fire. Done.
Fire is a dance, isn't it? We come to fire with humility, and with our own centeredness. We come with rattle, drum, song. We come with dance. So many cultures dance around the fire. We are requesting an audience, demanding it. We are calling out to the pa-ka-reenas-the elementals, the ancestors, the directions, the stars, the moon.
We put into the fire that which we wish to be changed. We put into the fire what we wish to be consumed. We offer it, and we witness that change. We watch as what had one form, becomes another, and that metaphor maps deeply into our very cells. Done, we think, and feel, and know. Done.
On an energetic level our unconscious gets it. We are done with that. Free. We are Free of it. Do many fires. Do as many fires as you can, for fire is freeing.