It takes internal courage to refuse to be intimidated by fire.

When it comes to pain, there’s no more painful way to die than to be consumed by flames.

There’s a reason why people who had different religious views or who had looked at the world in different ways were burned at the stake during the Dark Ages.

The people inflicting that kind of punishment knew exactly how painful it was.

It was their hope that when people find themselves lit on fire, the pain will free them from their ignorance.

Or at least that’s the hope.

The persecutors often read the shrieks of agony and torture as vindication of the truth that they are liberating through the consumption of those victims’ bodies by fire.

To come up with a dream image where you are not intimidated by fire is a very encouraging sign from your subconscious.

There are certain realities in your waking life that you have finally refused to accept.

You said, “Enough!

I’m no longer gonna go along.

I’m no longer gonna pretend that this is not a problem.

I’m no longer going to be part of the problem.”

You’ve drawn a line in the sand.

Maybe it has something to do with your relationships.

Maybe it has something to do with your responsibilities at work or your roles at work.

Maybe it has something to do with the person you see in the mirror.

Perhaps you ask yourself: “Why can’t I lose weight?”

And for all this time, you’ve given yourself excuse after excuse.

You’ve blamed everybody.

At some point recently, some part of yourself just said, “Enough!

I’m not gonna take any more excuses.

Things are going to change.

I’m not going back to the status quo.”

This is the most liberating thing that you can ever do because your subconscious is symbolizing all the things that could go wrong and all the things that can harm you in the form of fire.

It is very intimidating, but you’re not intimidated.

You’re not scared.

Instead, you look at the fire as the solution.

Why?

When you get gold out of the ground, it’s in its raw ore form.

It’s basically chunks of rocks with very small, almost invisible bits and pieces of gold.

You don’t even know if it’s gold.

It could be just a sparkly flex of iron compounds that are worthless.

But you get all of that stuff tons of it, and then you grind them down.

That’s painful if applied to a human being or an ego.

And then not content with that, you subject it to a tremendous amount of washing.

You know, that’s very disconcerting.

It requires a tremendous amount of humility — again when applied to the ego.

And then finally you put it through a furnace — a tremendous amount of fire and heat.

And what happens next?

Out comes this amazing pure yellow metal called gold.

My friend, you are gold.

You may not realize it.

People might not say it.

But you have tremendous potential.

But for that potential to become reality, a reality that people can respect, a reality that the world can reward, you have to go through that process.

This requires changing your mindset, becoming more humble, admitting your mistakes, changing your direction, and being open to embarrassment, shame, humiliation, and correction.

If you’re able to do that, then you’re able to claim the promise of that fire, which is transformation, cleansing, and rebirth.