Tonight Mother Nature is setting you a challenge. She has sent snow and cold winds to see whether humans will still observe Earth Hour between 8.30 and 9.30 and switch off all non essential electricity. This means light and heat too. She wants us to connect to those times when we had just discovered the gift of fire and to use candles if indoors to dispel the darkness or light a small fire if we are outside (do it safely) and huddle around it for warmth and light.

Imagine how magical it must have seemed when humankind first saw fire. They would have probably have got too close and tried to touch it and realised that they had to treat it with respect but they would have worked it out that it keeps you comfortably warm if you stay at a certain distance. As they had got too close they would have realised that you can heat up and change the look and taste of food and that when you eat it it warms you up inside as well as outside.

They would have seen the darkness become magically transformed as the trees and things that had become hidden became apparent again. They would have noticed that the fire threw sparks up into the air and that it created its own music of crackling and spitting and at the same time produced a show of shifting patterns and shapes in the flames. They would have gathered around a fire nightly and eaten together, huddled together and told stories, maybe made some up from pictures and faces that the flames sent to them. Their imagination would have been fired up and they would have lost their fears as they knew the secret of chasing the darkness away.

They had noticed that there was a ball of fire in the sky and that it came back after an interval of absence and that when it appeared the ground and their skin felt hot and that everything became clearer and differentiated by colours. All of this disappeared when the big ball went down beneath them into the earth. Now they could create their own ball of fire.

When turing off as much power as you can during earth our you are honouring Earth, nature and the Sun but also you could use it as a time to reflect on where this use of power first began. Originally it was just a fire to keep warm and dispel the darkness. Now we use power constantly in our pursuit of convenience, comfort and entertainment. Yes, I am using it to write this post and yes, you are using it to read this.

Earth hour is a good opportunity to reflect on how you use electricity and even if you can cut back for half an hour a day, you would be helping the planet. Light candles or a small fire (safely) and rediscover the magic that fire originally brought to our species, the companionship, the wonder, the gift of sight, the stirring of the imagination. Rekindle that original flame.

Here is an Earth Hour Ritual designed by a dear friend for tonight http://quantumphoenix.net/2013/03/23/ritual-for-earth-hour-2013/?fb_source=pubv1