Restoring Balance, a Call from the Living World Through Fire
- Lorraine
- Aug 5
- 5 min read
Fire is never the first sign. It's the last warning. This summer, Gironde burned, and with it, something in me was called back to order.
What the Fire Was Carrying Before It Could Be Seen
Fire is never born the day the flames appear.
It begins long before, in a land starved of water, in a forest waiting for rain, in a balance that has slowly come undone.
Perhaps it's the same for our lives.
We believe everything shifts in a single moment. Yet what shakes us today is often the fruit of small imbalances we never saw growing.
The wildfires that ravaged the Bordeaux region don't speak only of fire. They speak of balance.
The Earth's.
Mine.
Ours.
On July 24th, I was leaving Bordeaux to head south. For several days already, wildfires had been ravaging the region. The flames were advancing, evacuations were multiplying, and one thought stayed with me on the train: the home of one of my students, in L'Herbe, so close to the fire.
When I arrived, I called my parents.
My mother was worried. She told me her bag was packed. She was considering spending the night at my sister's, just in case.
I reassured her.
I had checked the maps. The fire still seemed far off. Nothing seemed to announce what was coming.
The next day, before the sun had even risen, I opened my eyes.
My phone was waiting for me.
During the night, my parents had been evacuated. They had left their home with a few belongings, taking my old cat with them.
In an instant, everything shifted.
Not being there.
Not being able to help.
Not knowing if the house would still be standing when I returned.
And then that thought that tightens the chest: all my medicine objects, left behind. The ones that have accompanied me for so many years.
The mind rushes to find answers.
The heart searches in another direction.
When Words Become Too Small, the Sacred Pipe Ceremony
I never travel without my Sacred Pipe.
That day, I understood why.
Facing worry and helplessness, I knew there was only one thing to do: enter into prayer.
I settled outside, in the silence. I prepared the Sacred Pipe and began the ceremony.
As in every Sacred Pipe ceremony, I honored the four directions, Mother Earth, the Creator, and what lives within me.
During the prayers to the directions, at the right moment, I turned to the Thunder Beings. I carried this prayer:
"If it is the will of the Creator and the Spirits, may the Thunder Beings bring rain upon the fires near Bordeaux."
The moment this prayer was spoken, a very fine rain began to touch the earth around me.
By the time the ceremony ended, the drops had become heavy.
Then I simply asked:
"May this rain go where it is needed. Not here. On Bordeaux. Where the fire devours the forests, the homes, and the living beings."
A few hours later, the news came.
It was raining on Bordeaux.
In that moment, I didn't only feel joy.
I felt a deep gratitude.
As though the Sky was answering: We heard you.
In Native American traditions, the Sacred Pipe is not an object we ask miracles of.
It's a path of relationship.
It reminds us that when the heart prays with sincerity, the visible and the invisible begin to speak with each other again.
Fire Speaks When We Stop Listening
During that ceremony, a message came.
Simple.
Deep.
The Spirits reminded me that nothing appears suddenly. When flames become visible, they are never the beginning. They simply reveal what, for a long time already, had been asking to be heard.
The trees, the animals, the Earth... all take part in the same balance. When that balance weakens, the Living World always ends up speaking.
Sometimes it whispers.
Sometimes it cries out.
Wildfires are not a punishment.
They are a language.
The language of an Earth calling her children:
To remember where they come from.
To remember balance.
To reclaim their place within the Living World.
During that prayer, I was shown that the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom accepted the sacrifice of their lives. Not out of resignation, but because they know that all life belongs to a circle far greater than our understanding.
The real tragedy may not only be the forest burning.
The real tragedy would be that nothing changes in us after seeing these flames.
The flames did not come to create the imbalance.
They came to reveal it to us.
Fire is not our enemy.
No more than rain is our savior.
Both remind us that the Earth never stops trying to maintain its balance.
Fire Also Spoke to Me About Myself, Finding My Own Balance
At the end of the ceremony, another invitation came.
Much more intimate.
"Don't only look at the flames outside. Look at the ones burning within you."
For some time, my daily prayers had become rare.
Without realizing it, I had let myself be pulled back into the concerns of the world.
Work.
Responsibilities.
Projects.
Nothing wrong in itself.
But little by little, the thread that connected me to the Creator had loosened.
The Sacred Pipe showed me this, with great love.
And with great truth.
Restoring Balance, the Sacred Responsibility of Human Beings
The Hopi teach that they consider themselves guardians of the Earth's balance.
This responsibility is not power over the world.
It's a commitment to the Living World.
Because human beings are not separate from the Earth. Our thoughts, our words, and our actions take part in the balance or imbalance of the Great Circle.
The Hopi have carried this awareness for generations: when human beings forget their sacred relationship with the Creator and with all forms of life, the whole world feels the consequences.
Perhaps it's now our turn to take up this responsibility. To remember that we too are guardians of balance.
This sacred relationship, in Hopi tradition, runs through what is called the Vibratory Centers, those inner doorways that connect us to the Creator. I teach this in my courses, for those who wish to go further into this reconnection.
A Prayer to Restore Balance
Creator,
May our hearts find the path of balance.
And not that the Earth belongs to us.
May our thoughts be just.
May our words be true.
May our actions honor the Living World.
May we recover the humility to listen to the trees,
The rivers,
The animals,
The stones,
And the silences that teach.
May separated hearts become ONE.
May we recover the joy of praying,
The joy of giving thanks,
The joy of dancing for Life.
May this fire not be only a loss, but also a reminder.
May it awaken the sacred fire that sleeps within us.
Let us learn to give thanks even before receiving.
For gratitude is already a way of restoring balance.
ASKWALI.
In Hopi, this word simply means "thank you."
A thank you offered to the Earth, to the Creator, to the visible and invisible beings, and to everything that reminds us, every day, of the path of balance.
Going Further
If this article resonated with you, if you too feel called to a deeper relationship with the Living World, with the Creator, and with your own inner path, I invite you to explore the teachings of the Hopi Way.
Through my teachings, I also share the great pillars of Hopi wisdom: the 13 Grandmothers, the Kachinas, the Sacred Signs, the Round Words.
Join the Terre de Reliance community.
Experience a sound healing session with the great drum.
Or come find me at a workshop at Studio Yoga With You, in Le Bouscat.
Fire doesn't ask to be mourned. It asks to be remembered in prayer.
ASKWALI
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