English | Around the Fire

Human Lives are Meant To Be Intimately Woven Together

Posted by Sally Casper | Jan 13, 2020 | Fire Stories |

I read yesterday that the suicide rate among youth rose 56% between 2007-2017. Statistics like this appall and sadden me. They also inspire me around my work as Sacred Fire’s Director of LifeWays.

LifeWays is part of Sacred Fire’s critically important work in a world that feels increasingly unstable. These programs and initiations serve to re-introduce and reweave a social fabric that can hold tight in the uncertain future we are facing. This work is very close to my heart; I have found nothing more valuable to devote myself to.

Life Cycle Living, one of our key programs, is based on the wisdom of nature. When I walk into a forest I find a vast, organically intertwining whole. I’m immediately calmed, enlivened and restored. I feel hopeful in spite of all the social and environmental devastation swirling in our world.

Life Cycle Living is a profoundly simple yet effective way to move through life so that, as we grow, we benefit from the awareness of who we are becoming and create fruitful actions and outcomes. This recognition increases the likelihood that, as we begin to understand different life stages, we will awaken to the challenges and opportunities of each, move through blocks or limiting patterns, and embrace our place in the natural pattern of a human life, within community, bringing benefit to ourselves and our families.

Human lives are meant to be intimately woven together, just like the lives of the trees, plants, animals and other beings in a rich, fully functioning forest community. Acknowledging these bonds, we are inspired to take to heart our responsibility for maintaining the web of cultural connectivity that sustains us.

Sacred Fire: Building a Better Future

Posted by Sally Casper | Jan 13, 2020 | Fire Stories |

In “Why Fire Makes us Human,” Jerry Adler’s story for Smithsonian Magazine, he writes, “Wherever humans have gone in the world, they have carried with them two things: language and fire.”

Though we’re more “connected” now than ever before because of social media, so many feel alone, isolated and disconnected. For thousands of years, gathering around a fire was the original social media. Stories were shared, memories recalled and celebrations held. Coming together around the fire is a way for us to reconnect to ourselves, our community and our ancestors. It is a way for us to see our place in the Universe and find our way home.

Sacred Fire provides thousands of experiences of fire and community around the globe; this is how they are building a better future for people everywhere. (Photo credit: Jane Feldman)

I Started to See the World Differently

Posted by Sally Casper | Jan 9, 2020 | Fire Stories, January 2020 |

I started going to fires in 2000 in Santa Barbara, on the beach. At the time I was an atheist, although I had been meditating for a few years. I remember feeling genuine connection at the fire. The way in which people spoke authentically from their hearts was very touching.

I realized this is what I had been craving and searching for for a long time. I kept going to the fires and would feel the love and connection. People would talk about “Grandfather Fire,” and over time I started to see the world differently.

I started to acknowledge that there probably is a higher power. I also started to see the commonality of the many spiritual paths that people follow, with their focus on compassion and forgiveness, on helping other people and on doing good. Fires have transformed my life. I’ve now been a Sacred Fire Firekeeper since 2005 and have seen many others touched in a similar way.

Fire and Wisdom for Challenging Times: Upcoming Fire Speaks Events

Posted by Around the Fire Editor | Jan 8, 2020 | Hot News, January 2020 |

The 2020 momentum and excitement is building. A new season of Fire Speaks events, each centered around an audience with Grandfather Fire, is on the horizon. The opportunity to experience, first-hand, the wisdom and transformative energy of the Spirit of Fire in this unique way is a time-limited gift and not to be taken for granted.

Mark your calendars for a Fire Speaks in honor of the Tibetan New Year, in Tepoztlán, Mexico, on February 29; and for two California (USA) Fire Speaks events, in Santa Monica, on March 14, and at Mt. Tamalpais on March 21.

You can find a complete list of all upcoming Sacred Fire offerings on our web site.

Fires Are Spreading: Welcome to New Firekeepers

Posted by Around the Fire Editor | Jan 8, 2020 | Blog, Flashes, January 2020, ROUND 3 TRANSFER |

In early December 2019, seven dedicated women and men were initiated as Sacred Fire Firekeepers. This was the culmination of a long period of preparation and training–for some over a year and a half–and marked a lifetime commitment to their work and service on behalf of community.

Our new Firekeepers represent a diverse worldwide group! We now have sacred fires burning in Edinburg, Scotland and Corfu, Greece, tended by new Firekeepers Sylvia Law and Vivian Menjiver, respectively. There are two new Firekeepers in Australia (Sofia in Perth, Western Australia, and Liz O’Leary in Melbourne, Victoria). Tibrata Gillies now tends the hearth in Ontario, Canada. In the United States, Chris Griffin and Faye Townsend will hold Sacred Fires in New Hampshire and Florence, South Carolina.

These seven join a family of Firekeepers in ten countries, on four continents. Each provide a safe, reliable space for people to re-discover what has been forgotten, to connect with each other and to be renewed.

Welcome Chris, Faye, Liz, Sofia, Sylvia, Tibrata, and Vivian!

Language: English

Human Lives are Meant To Be Intimately Woven Together

Sacred Fire: Building a Better Future

I Started to See the World Differently

Fire and Wisdom for Challenging Times: Upcoming Fire Speaks Events

Fires Are Spreading: Welcome to New Firekeepers

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