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In the town of Yazd in southern Iran, a priest tends a sacred fire in the Zoroastrian fire temple. It’s said that this fire has been burning continuously for 2,000 years. Generation after generation of priests have tended it, feeding it with sandalwood logs and banking ashes around the timbers at night so that it never goes out. The priest wears a mask in case his breath pollutes the flame.
This sacred flame isn't god, but in its purity, in its lack of substance and in the comfort it gives, it’s one of the ways that people have tried to imagine the unimaginable and describe the indescribable—the very nature of god.
However you define god, and whether you believe in god or not, the world that we live in has been shaped by the universal human conviction that there is more to our life than life itself, that there is a god-shaped hole at the center of our universe. We've come up with many different ways to fill that hole with many gods or just one, with gods of hunting, gods of farming and gods of war, with gods of sea and sky. We’ve imagined god as a stern father figure or a fertile mother. We’ve pictured a jealous angry punishing god and a god of justice, wisdom and infinite love.
But why did mankind start believing in god at all? The answer to that question can be found in the caves where our ancestors first approached their gods, and in the fields where we still call on them for help. In the cities of the dead where the spirits of our ancestors have been honored, and in the temples where the gods have been appeased with bloody sacrifices, but most of all, the answer lies in the human desire to be united with something bigger than ourselves, something outside us, beyond us or perhaps even deep within us. This, according to some, is the ultimate reality which is just another name for god.
This series is about the story of god and the different ways that god has been understood at different times and in different cultures, but in telling the story of god, we will also be telling our own story and understanding a little bit more about what it means to be human.
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word to memorize:
banking ashes / fire
bank the fire
Cite from "About":
Banking a Fire
Question: I would like to know exactly what 'banking' a fire means and how it's done. For years I have seen this phrase, 'bank the fire,' and wondered. It sounds like something magical one does to a fire so that it's still smoldering in the morning, thus making the building of the morning fire a snap.
Answer: Banking a fire is actually nothing more than the name implies. To bank a fire means to build a wall around it out of rocks or stones, or to build the fire next to a rock or dirt wall such that it blocks the wind.
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