One of the places so many folks first met John was around a fire. So we thought it appropriate to share what John said about a Fire Dreaming Ceremony.
I once had a teacher who was invited to lead a ceremony on Schnebly Hill in Sedona Az. This canyon is like no place on Earth. Deep in a canyon, the climate is warm and pleasant at night with a little nip in the air. The red and white sandstone cliffs towered over us but didn’t loom over us. The sky was big there. Because the canyon had a steep uphill grade, the horizon at sunset is very low. The moon rose with a bright white glow preceding it for hours because the east wall of the canyon was the headwall of the canyon. Faces in all the rocks seem to watch over us as we sat and prayed together. We had a nice fire which flickered and cast wonderful shadows all around us.
As we came to the part of the ceremony that my teacher was to speak a great silence overtook us. After a while there was some stirring, but he did not speak. After a longer time one could feel the anticipation and nervousness begin to wane. The crackling of the fire, and the howl of coyotes were the only sounds to break the silence. Some insect sounds here and there. Some movement in the underbrush. But it was the fire that made most of the sound. It was the fire that flickered and danced, its light changing everything around it. It was as if a magician were passing a wand across the world around us and changing it from moment to moment.
Finally, he spoke: “When you sit together, listen to the fire. It is sacred. It is the spirit of the wood, the days of the Sun, the days of the wind, the days of the rain and sleet and hail, it is the sacred Earth brought to us to give us those days back. There is history in those flames. There are stories of the Earth which will not be told again in the same way. The spirit of the tree is giving its body and is leaving the Earth now. Watch the fire, there are people there. Some you know, some are spirits you have never known. They are there to explain things to you. They are the messengers of the spirits of the trees. They must send them to you, because we don’t have the patience to understand the way trees speak, the way they form their words and the gestures they make are too foreign and might frighten you. So they send their messengers. Feel and understand their meaning.”
With this he said nothing else. the Fire Dreaming ceremony is based on this teaching. We come together in a protected quiet area. We create the fire together at sunset in a ceremonial way. The songs we sing call the spirits of the trees to speak to us. We ask for the good feeling and peace of the land to calm us and give us strength to wait for the trees to speak. After that we all wrap ourselves in our shawls, shields, and blankets and sit and watch the fire.
One by one we leave quietly when we feel we have seen enough. The fire is tended, but in such a way as when the fire reaches its peak no more wood is placed on the fire. Many times people stay until the final embers turn to ash. - John Armbruster
We will be keeping the earthkeeper fires going my friend.
Hugs, Dave, Tracy and Janisse ~ Take what you want, leave the rest, we share because we care.
John in Sedona 1994 and John after his final mask round at Earthkeepers Dance for Peace 2003