(The Modern Prometheus)

Be Prometheus!

Steal the primordial fire from the gods
Ascend the mountain and enter the inferno
For the gods have kept it and hidden it from man. And man has forgotten that he is meant to live aflame.

Break the rules
Be a creator
Seize the power of the universe
Rebel!
Run laughing through the streets of your cities with the blazing torch held aloft.

The gods are following!
They come to beg their power back
But we do not look back

Share it with your brothers and sisters
There is no shortage and no limit
And by being shared it only grows and your flame burns brighter

Reach your hand deep into the furnace and extract the glowing coals
For you cannot be burnt if you too are aflame
Forge yourself in the fires, create yourself according to the ideal of the inner eye

Lead the charge.
Sound the battle cry!
Rise! Awake!
Shake the dust from your wings and the sleep from your eyes!
Fly with me!

Burn your life from both ends and save nothing for tomorrow
Throw your self on the pyre – light it with your own hand

Grab your torch and step close
I am a beacon on the mountain of the earth shining forth in the darkness
Come to me with empty hands and your desert hearts
Come thirsty for the fire
Come like moths to the flame
Come and follow me
Come and follow yourself
Come and jump into the blaze which will kill you
The flames which will burn all the false, all the unreal

Leaving only this burning
Only this intensity which burns itself out
Leaving only a living flame

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The fire which a Prometheus steals is creativity itself, life itself. It is knowing, it is capacity,
Living in rebellion, and creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.
The creative fire is uncontrollable, wild….

Jesus said….”I have set the world on fire…. And I watch while it burns”

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The fire must be stolen.   It cannot be given for good behavior, it cannot be won. It cannot be inherited or found by the wayside. The respectable who would receive it as a gift receive only a false light, cold and weak…
It must be stolen because it requires great courage, rebellion and creativity
It must be taken right from under the nose of those who hold it but do not know it.  It must be stolen because nobody knows it.
It must be stolen because nobody has it – the gods do not, the powerful do not, the wealthy do not.
It must be stolen because it is of infinite value – and all valuable treasures are well guarded.

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After the fire theft, there is the chase, the flight
You steal it and only then do you really find out just what you have done. What forces you have stirred up and awoken.

You must escape to prove your worthiness, your ability to take the heat.

You steal the fire and then you cannot hide, you hold a blazing beacon. You are that beacon. You cannot cover it, and it cannot be hidden under a bushel.
You seize your freedom and then you must be responsible for the price of that freedom.

Many Prometheus’ have been killed, poisoned, tortured, or crucified. (Or perhaps worse – worshiped after they are dead.)  Prometheus himself was chained to a rock for eternity while an eagle at his insides.

This is the retribution that society will try to take. This is the thanks you get
The gods do not like to give up power and men do not like to be reminded of their state of powerlessness.

Not just the gods will attempt to stop you and kill your fire. Your fellow men will too, the crowd will. They will come after you with their torches and pitchforks
Your flame will encounter closed hearts and vacant eyes, cold and windy streets.
Man will often reject the fire of life.  Man will turn away from his own liberator, will kill his own savior…

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Prometheus steals the fire and brings it back to Mankind.
And so it is. When you swipe the creative source you have no choice but to share it. You couldn’t keep it to yourself if you wanted to, it jumps to the light of another on its own.
And in fact in order to grab the fire you must be doing it for man and not solely yourself.  Only an unselfish consciousness can hold the fire.

You are the fire, you are the flame. You carry it as yourself. You are a locus of energy able to fan the candle flame of another….