Re-issue of the book in English (2006)

Dreaming of Conflagration (1836)

Dreaming of Conflagration starts from the horror of the fire in his hometown that haunted his childhood and the death of his father. Soon, Vir wanders through fire's multiple mythical symbolisms that he encountered in books, in his travels and in the stories of the people he met. Fire as a threat, fire as a terror as well its destructiveness gradually give way to other aspects and functions of it. Dreaming in front of the fireplace, purification, radiance, the need for change and transformation symbolized by the alchemical salamander; fire and heat as a bringer of life. Stories and images from India and Celtic traditions intersect with the Greek myth of Prometheus and the story of the philosopher Empedocles who fell in Mount Etna in order to join the cosmic fire. All of these myths, stories and vignettes, reflect, in essence the author's journey and his reconciliation with the two sides of a cosmic archetype, life itself.