VIRVATULI - MAGICAL FIRE IN THE WOODS OF NORTH-EAST FINLAND
In the end of August, the light summer nights of the sub-Arctic regions turn again towards the darkness to reveal the stars. It was the end of August 2020, and I was by the Lake Ylä-Keyritynjärvi, in the municipality of Rautavaara, in the North-East Finland. This place is about 2,5 drive North from my birth region, where my ancestral roots are deep and supportive.
It was the night of the vision quest. I had received inspiration in the previous new year, that the vision quest should take place at this place and time in these woods. I had spent the new year close here. We had witnessed the new year bonfire by the frozen lake. The subtle green Northern Lights were shining behind the veil of clouds, as we stood there in the marking of the new year.
Now, here I was, in the August evening. 8 moon cycles had passed since the new year, and now it was time to be back. I knew that I would be sitting in the woods through the night, from the sunset to the sunrise. These woods are famous for their great animal species of brown bears, wolfs, wolverines, and lynx. The bear hunting season had started, yet these woods were protected by nature conservation laws.
I had found a place for my “shamanic seat” earlier during the day, and now I found easily the same selected spot. I had to cross over a small wetland area, and I knew that it would be impossible for me to cross that wetland in the darkness. I wanted to sit in a place, where I had no other chance than to be there through the night.
The shamanic vision quest practice is about collecting power, witnessing, and receiving the power of nature. I had come here for collecting the perseverance and courage for facing what ever the life brings for my way and finding more of my own strength. I needed this at this time, to be able to walk my path as a human being, carrying all the suffering of the human experience, as my path had not been an easy one the past years. I wanted to rest with that suffering carried and held by the wild nature. I had experienced so much anxiety, that I was ready to face anything, to surrender myself for life and for death completely. Within that anxiety, there was already all the darkness and all the beasts there, and something with this practice felt like I could learn, to discover, to release something.
As I found my spot in the middle of the woods, I took my shamanic seat. I found refuge by the young juniper bushes, that were all around me. Juniper symbolizes for me the long life, strong stamina, and earthy healing powers. I felt protection from the young juniper bushes.
The night started falling. The sun was setting, and I could not see the sunset by the tall spruce, birch, and pine trees, that were all around me. In the night, it was completely dark. So dark, that I could not see anything at all around me. I could barely see the trees, as the sky had just a little bit of light from stars that were shining by the passing clouds.
I continued feeling protected by the juniper bushes. I usually sleep deep during the nights, so the challenge with over-night vision quest is to stay awake the whole night. I kept myself awake by singing silently cycles of 108 mantras in my head. I am sure, that singing mantras were also keeping me not focusing on fear. I had absolutely no fear to sit alone in the dark woods. It was completely silent. Not even birds were here. Only once I might have heard some bird in the distance. Only some wind on the top of the trees.
As the night was in its darkest, my mind was completely rooted in the ordinary state of reality. Sometimes we might take vision quest journeys to discover shamanic states of consciousness in the deep immersion with wild nature. In my vision quests, I have rather returned to the earthiness, to become ever deeper grounded in the nature as it is without any need for any other substance than pure air, or need for any alternate realities than this. I was here, seeing everything just as it is. My mind was clear and sharp, just seeing, being, and witnessing.
Nothing was happening in the dark woods. Just sitting in the safe feeling by the juniper bushes and trying to stay awake by singing mantras in my head. The hours can feel long sitting in one place without moving in the darkness.
Suddenly I saw a bright red light in the middle of the woods further away. I was so deep in the woods alone, that such bright red light could not come from any place imaginable. The red light stayed in one place, without moving. It was clear, far away in the distance. I just looked at it. I had not fear, I watched it with calm mind and just observing.
Quite quickly a thought passed my mind, that this could be a “virvatuli”, a magical fire that is known in the Finnish folk legends. They could be also called “treasure fires”. Our legends don’t say much about this kind of magical treasure fires, but they have been known existing, especially on the wetlands and on powerful mountains. Some legends have passed fear on these fires, as if they might be warning sings, that if you follow those fires, you will be led astray. They have been regarded as warning signs of illusions and confusions. In the end of his poem “Nocturne”, the Finnish poet Eino Leino concludes:
“I am no more chasing the magical fire (virvatulta),
In my hand is gold of happiness;
The circle of life around me tightens;
Time is standing, vane is sleeping;
in front of me a twilight road
brings me to a cottage unknown.”
It was interesting, that the magical fire appeared red to me. I had always imagined them green. As I write this, I can contemplate further messages on what is red and what is green in my life, and in the darkness. As I sat in the forest, I felt that the fire confirmed something that I would come to experience on the ceremony dedicated for those magical fires in the October full moon time. I would be leading a full moon ceremony inside of a mining cave, in the depths of the Outokumpu mine. Outokumpu means “a weird hill” in Finnish, and that hill has been famous for its magical treasure fires , “virvatuli”, before the mining company was established. They were pointing to the treasures and wealth of nature in that place. But how we would use those treasures, and take care of the environment over there?
I just observed the red light, the possible magical fire of “virvatuli”, which lasted perhaps 5-10 minutes before dissappearing. The legend tells, that if you try to catch them, they disappear. They can be of any shape, often light balls or flames. They can be silent or make sound. They can be of different colors and appear on the top of earth or waters in the uninhabited wilderness areas.
As the sun was starting to rise up, and the light increased in the woods, I slowly got up from my shamanic seat, and started the walk back to the cabin. A sister was waiting by the fire place, and she had already started to heat the morning sauna by the lake.
Later the same morning, I had written on my note book on the Day of the Finnish Nature on 29th of August 2020 like this:
“It was a warm night. I chose a place for the vision quest on the slope of the hill of Haravamäki in the woods. I wanted to go to the dark forest straight to the direction of North from the Forest Lodge. Before we (group of women doing the vision quest in their own solitude) left, we all gathered by the fire place in front of the sauna building, and we burned our spirit offering. There was very beautiful sunset on the calm lake. Tanja stayed by the fire to keep the sacred fire with the dog called Ix.
Each woman started to go to their own power places. There were a lot of mosquitoes in the forest. They kept me awake, irritating, and on the other hand keeping me company. I thought, that so shall it be.
It took a while, before it got dark. I knew already then that the time would feel long. I felt safe and peaceful: We had prayed for the Spirit of the Forest and the Mother of the Water to secure and protect our journey, and I could feel it. I had to prove to myself, that I am not afraid to sit the night in the pitch-dark forest, and I did prove that to myself. It was not completely pitch-dark, as the stars were shining brightly by the clouds. I looked at one specific star sign, which looked like the path of the rabbit.
I thought of this sentence: “You cannot accelerate the sunrise. It is beautiful to watch it together.”
I reflected upon the awakening of the humankind, and how we each are witnessing it to each other’s where ever we are. We cannot accelerate it: The nature does its own duty. “
I sent from the woods also love to all beings. How I wish that people would concentrate to the positive things and not to the negative things. As if there can be 10 000 good things and 1 bad thing in some person, and then the other person lets the 1 bad thing influence so much that it destroys all the positive things. I was contemplating, how those good things still cannot be destroyed. Life wants now to love the bad thing.
After contemplations, I started to sing in the woods. I made up a very simple new song to sing to all the different tree species:
“My juniper nation,
yes, yes, yes
The pine, my friend,
is, is, is
The birch within the birches
is, is, is
The aspen in the drum frame
yes, yes, yes
The spruce is listening
yes, yes, yes”
and I was repeating this in my native Finnish several times. As the light emerged after the dark night, I saw a special pine that had been right in front of me the whole time.
As I returned from the woods, the lake waters were still very calm. I decided to take the canoe or a rowing boat, and just go to the lake to feel it all. Today it is a day of silence and rest.
As I reflect back to the journey to those distant woods, I realize how that experience of a shamanic method and practice has two beneficial and practical aspects in my daily life. The one is that I feel more strong in the core of my being, that I know what I can do and what type of courage I have as a person. This gives me more spaciousness to explore my potentials in work life and life tasks as a whole.
The second beneficial aspect is that I am one with nature. Illusions of dangers of wild beasts or any other dangers of nature, be they viruses or large mammals, are not here in my awareness, as we are all one nature. I can be a natural being in nature, and I can relax being myself. I allow my life to take the cycles it is meant to have for this life time, and be free.
Photo: Shaman wands resting by the fire place