Scripture Through the Smoke: Moses and the Burning Bush — The Fire That Does Not Consume

The Story

Moses is wandering the wilderness when he sees a bush on fire—but it doesn’t burn up.

He draws closer, barefoot and curious, and hears his name called.

A voice stops him.

“Take off your sandals. You’re standing on holy ground.” — Exodus 3:5, The Message

He stands still.

Not because he’s afraid, but because something ancient and alive is speaking through the flame.

The voice calls him by name.

It doesn’t scold or command.

It sees him. Knows him. Speaks into the marrow of his being.

This moment becomes his initiation.

A man who once ran from his past is now face-to-face with a Presence that burns but does not consume. A Presence that speaks not just to him—but through him.

He asks the voice, “Who should I say sent me?”

And the answer is not a name.

It’s a vibration. A truth. A remembering.

“I-AM-WHO-I-AM.” — The Message

He is told to return to Egypt—not as a fugitive, but as a liberator.

“I’m sending you to Pharaoh…” — Exodus 3:10, The Message

The Traditional Lens

In the religious traditions, this moment is taught as God’s call to Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. It’s portrayed as a moment of obedience and divine commissioning—proof of God’s sovereignty and Moses’ chosen role.

But too often, the mystical is flattened.

The fire becomes a metaphor.

The calling becomes a command.

What if it’s more than that?

Through the Smoke

What if this was Moses’ first sacred medicine journey?

The burning bush doesn’t consume—because it’s not physical fire. It’s symbolic fire, the kind that shows up when your soul is ready to shed old skins.

The tree may have been Acacia—common in the Sinai desert and known to contain DMT, the same compound used in sacred ceremonies across cultures to induce vision, ego dissolution, and contact with the divine.

And it doesn’t stop there.

The Ark of the Covenant—the holiest object in Moses’ tradition—was said to be made including wood from the Acacia tree:

“First, let them make a Chest using Acacia wood…” — Exodus 25:10, The Message

What if the bush and the Ark are bookends of the same journey?

What if the wood that holds the fire is the same wood that later carries the Presence?

The fire, the tree, the mission—all connected.

Moses isn’t just a character in a religious text.

He’s a blueprint—a man who wandered, resisted, and still showed up to receive his sacred assignment.

The Hero’s Journey

Joseph Campbell called this the Call to Adventure—the beginning of the Hero’s Journey.

Moses is pulled out of his ordinary world (a life in hiding, tending sheep) and invited into the unknown.

He resists:

“Who am I that I should go?”

But the fire keeps burning.

This moment mirrors what so many of us face in deep healing work—when the Spirit speaks not at us but through us. 

When trauma cracks open into purpose. 

When we are called to walk back into the very places we once ran from—not for revenge, but for redemption.

Reflection & Ritual

Where are you being invited closer to the fire?

What part of your life is asking to be burned—not consumed, but revealed?

Can you hear the whisper beneath the flame?

Tonight, if you feel called, light a candle.

Sit in silence.

Ask the fire what it wants to show you.

Maybe you’re being called to remove your shoes… and remember that the ground beneath you is holy.

Personal Note from

the Author

I’ve walked through this fire more than once.

And now, as I prepare for my own medicine journey with Ibogaine, I can feel that same whisper Moses might’ve heard:

“I AM.”

“Take off your sandals.”

“You’re standing on holy ground.”

This series is a return—not to doctrine, but to direct experience.

To smoke, to story, and to the sacred.

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Series Note

I’m no longer religious, but I am deeply spiritual—and this series is part of my shamanic path. These reflections are simply my perspective, shaped by my journey through Breathwork, meditation, plant medicines, and the preparation for an Ibogaine experience.

This isn’t about telling you what to believe.

It’s about remembering. 

Exploring these old stories through new eyes—and letting them spark something inside you.

If it resonates, stay tuned for more entries in the Scripture Through the Smoke series.

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