Smiteful Elementals. Or, We're On Fire Up Here. No, Really. Or, Magick Sucks Sometimes.

Elementals. Impersonal, unruly.
I have mentioned it before, but obviously, the scale was quite different. 

This place is on fire.

AICC Active fire map, June 17 2015.
Currently there are 52 active wildfires burning in the state of Alaska.

And while I say impersonal, it feels personal in an I-cannot-quite-put-my finger-on-it sort of way. 
And I am sure it feels very personal to all the mushers out there who have lost "everything."

Every. 
Thing. 

I am reminded here that while the fires have lain waste to "everything," they have caused few injuries or casualties thus far, at least for humans & their closest companions. But my heart aches for the sled dogs who perished & their people who lost them to the Sockeye fire.

And no, I have not forgotten the wildlife. But that is a hopeless rabbit hole of despair I choose to avoid.

And this fire -- the Sockeye in particular -- it is most ironic. (Iconic too, but the media has that point covered.) And, regrettably personal.

Let us look more closely. The main fire map looks like this:

Detailed Map of Sockeye Fire #282
from Alaska Wildfire Information

But let us examine section A, milepost 77, the starting point for the fire:

Map of Sockeye Fire #282, Section A
from Alaska Wildfire Information.

The fire was named "Sockeye" for the road on which the ignition point is located (see map). But notice that Sockeye Road gives access to a road called Landlocked... This road (ironically) named Landlocked is the address of our community retreat center... The home of the annual Summer Solstice festival.

Entrance sign for the PCC-AK.
Image courtesy PCC-AK website. 

And, ironically or not, our Fire Tribe (a fire magick & safety crew) was making final preparations at the PCC-AK, also called "The Land," when the fire began (likely the result of neighbors with fireworks). Our folks made the second call to report the fire. They were also very fortunate to escape, because as the name of the road implies, they were "Landlocked" behind the ignition point. 

And so, while last Solstice looked like this:

Dancing around the fire, Solstice 2014.
Note the red suspenders, a designation of Fire Tribe,
safety on active duty.

This year, it likely will look more like this:

Sockeye Fire. Image credit: Marc Lester/ADN

And I cannot help but wonder at all the energy behind this. Energy on many, many levels. So many levels -- from global fossil fuel energy, to the relentless heat of this Midsummer Sun, to the fever of recent interpersonal tensions. 

And this leaves me at this text I received after the fire erupted from a shrewd friend of very like mind:

"Magick sucks sometimes."

Indeed, brother.
Ignition was imminent.