Ancient Roots

Our relationship with Fire is ancient. Fire helped our ancestors in many ways, bringing them warmth, protection, and connection to the heart wisdom that kept life in balance. The Sacred Fire Community seeks to reawaken this ancient relationship in our modern world to help heal the coldness and disconnection many are facing in these times.

Recent History: Origins

The Sacred Fire Community is relatively young in its current form. We began in the mid-1990s as a group associated with Eliot Cowan, who has since become fully initiated as a Tsaurirrikame or elder shaman in the tradition of the Huichol people of Mexico. Many of us were clients or students of Eliot and his Plant Spirit Medicine work.

In 1996, while speaking about Plant Spirit Medicine in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Eliot met an expatriate American businessman named David Wiley. David had been experiencing a series of strange visitations from an “apparition” that took the form of a native elder. With the help of Eliot and confirmation from native Mexican shamans, David discovered that this apparition was in fact the elemental God of Fire—or Tatewarí (Grandfather Fire) to the Huichol people. Grandfather began using David’s body to communicate with Eliot and the group of people affiliated with him.

Reunions

Grandfather began encouraging Eliot to find a home for Plant Spirit Medicine. Students of Eliot's decided to have a gathering for Plant Spirit Medicine practitioners, their clients, and friends—the beginnings of a loose organization dedicated to finding a home for the medicine. This gathering was billed as a Plant Spirit Medicine Family Reunion, and the first one took place in Nayarit, Mexico, in the winter of 2001. At this first Reunion, Grandfather Fire, using David’s body to speak through, addressed the group and spoke of something called the Sacred Fire Foundation—which would eventually have an even broader mission to support indigenous wisdom and bring more Fire energy to our world.

Community Fires Are Born

On September 11, 2001, the whole country suffered through the trauma of the destruction of the World Trade Towers. Quite spontaneously, those of us who were associated with the Plant Spirit Medicine community began to organize gatherings around the Fire. This was an opportunity for people to connect and to express their grief, their fears, and their hopes around the tragedy. Suddenly, there was a great surge of interest in holding regular Fire gatherings around the country.

Blue Deer, Sacred Fire

The second Reunion was held in Santa Barbara, California, in 2002. At this time, Grandfather disclosed that the home for Plant Spirit Medicine would be named the Blue Deer Center—in honor of the Blue Deer at the center of the Huichol creation story.

At the 2003 Reunion in North Carolina, Grandfather finally spoke of the Sacred Fire Community and charged those gathered with the work of making it visible in the world. The various pieces of an identity for this organization were created and we were officially underway.

Fire Keepers and Lifeways

Within a year, a formal process for initiating Fire Keepers was instituted and our “Fire Chief" Annie King was tasked with overseeing the process of recruitment and support for this work. Grandfather also set forth the vision for the Lifeways programs and guided some of our elders in developing a process of initiation for young people.

These initiation programs were quickly followed by retreats for men and women. We came to see these initial Lifeways offerings as part of a broader initiative that would provide the support of ancestral wisdom for all of life’s major transitions—from birth through death.

Bringing Fire to the World

In a relatively short span of time, the Sacred Fire Community has begun to spark interest around the world. In addition to our many programs, in 2005 we gave birth to Sacred Fire magazine, which has since been spun off to an entirely separate organization—the very same Sacred Fire Foundation that Grandfather alluded to at our first Reunion.

In 2007 and 2009, we hosted our first two Interspiritual Conferences, highlighting elders from various authentic traditions. The third Interspiritual Conference is in the works for 2010. Reunions have been held every year for 9 years, and the 2010 Reunion will be held in Dorset, England. Dozens of young men and women have successfully completed our Initiation programs, and our many Lifeways programs continue to grow.

As for the Fire Circles at the center of it all: By the end of 2001 there were a small handful of Community Fires across the United States. Today, the Sacred Fire Community sponsors some 75 regular Community Fires (and growing!) in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and across the world.

—Written by Lawrence Messerman, Co-Executive Director of the Sacred Fire Community