Fire
The element of heat, light, purification, transformation, will, intensity, illumination, and active change.
Definition
Fire is the element and symbol of heat, light, purification, transformation, intensity, will, illumination, and active change.
In alchemical and Hermetic symbolism, Fire often represents the force that alters matter, reveals hidden qualities, burns away impurity, and brings the work into motion.
Expanded Explanation
Fire is one of the four classical elements and one of the central symbols of alchemical transformation.
It warms, burns, illuminates, purifies, tests, destroys, and refines. Without Fire, the work remains inactive. With too much Fire, the work may be damaged or destroyed.
This is why Fire must be measured.
In alchemy, Fire is closely connected to the furnace, candle, hearth, athanor, Sun, Gold, purification, and the heat required for transmutation. Symbolically, Fire may also represent attention, desire, courage, will, spiritual intensity, and the trial that reveals what can endure.
Within hermetic alchemy, Fire is studied as the active force of transformation. It teaches that change requires heat, but heat must be held within the right vessel.