In distant secluded parts of a desert in the mythical world where sunsets are green, blue, and lavender, torches with blue flames continually burn, no human keeps the flames going; they had been this way for a long while, there’s no counting on the time when the flames first began. The torches were built by someone’s hands; the flames are a living entity. Why they were put there has been a mystery. During some of the nights, there are dancers, not human, beings that are perhaps part of the flames; in human form, they perform in ways unattained by humans; they are dressed in what could be described as clothing formed out of red flames with decorative patterns of light flames of many hues, their hair is fiery, tossing as they dance, black flames represent a seeming foot ware and flared out flaming trousers. The sounds of flames in the wind and bells are heard, and few people are there to see this performance. Dances are created and performed with or without a human audience. From a distance, the dancing of the flame people appears to be a storm in space where lightning is touching the land.
Where are these flame dancers from? Perhaps the torches are expressing themselves, communicating their feelings to the natural forces around them, speaking to the people. Are the torches or flame dancers saying a feeling or something beyond that? Every dance is different and unique; they are of many creations. They are the flame dancers, people? Individuals who had watched the dancers perform had said they were the spirits of the dead. Some had said they recognized their grandmother in one of the dancers, but that could have been wishful thinking or a hallucination. The flame dancers never spoke; their language is the physical dance. There are probably thousands of interpretations of these dances. What are they trying to communicate? Perhaps the sensitivity of the earth is speaking to the dancers. It was said they reflect the moods of people or the weather. Travelers had said they had interpreted the dances they weren’t sure of the meaning at first; then, as they traveled to their destination, situations took place that was negative, the traveler had finally comprehended the dance, then later avoided what could have resulted in death.
People had warmed themselves in front of the torches. Such a place had become a temporary home for people on their way to find a place to settle. In the remote regions near the beach, the torches are elaborately made, attracting people to live around them; gradually, a town grew around these torches. Many dwellings were built without lighting. The torches brought light into the interiors. Residents had always said they didn’t know the source of the lights as their homes had illumination, yet during the night, they commanded that it should be turned off.
The torches seemed to control the weather; when the people wished for a rare rainy season, it was accommodated, not always as the torches were objects or beings of wisdom, understanding too much of climatic event that wasn’t natural would turn the earth off balance. Were the flames reflecting the mind of the people, or did they contain their spirits? There’s a hazy line between techniques and spiritual matters in the mythical world.
The same light of the torches is formed into homes for people; the heat doesn’t harm them; it distributes warmth and solid walls. As it is light, there is no limit to the form of architectural dwellings. Individual dwellers are their architects. The home goes where ever the dweller travels to, a torch in the configuration of a stem lamp or walking stick with a rounded bowl for the flames. Some locals carried their torches, forming homes anywhere they wished to be. Torches with a circumference that is wide by several inches and reaching high up are called the caring mother; exhausted travelers arriving there find a home already created; that is what the torch does.
In a sense, the torches are guardians; they advise the people and give them a home.
Robert J. Matsunaga
