Posted by Helen on: 02.14.2008 /
Beth Patterson wrote to Off The Map this week. She hosts the website Virtual Teahouse whose theme is “Engaging the spirituality of everyday life”.
Beth is inviting all interested bloggers to submit entries for her first blog carnival. The theme is: how do you engage spirituality in your everyday life? The submission deadline is is 2/23/07 and the first edition will be hosted on Virtual Teahouse March 1.
I went to Beth’s site out of curiosity and learned she’s an Initiated Firekeeper for a Sacred Fire Community. I e-mailed Beth a few questions about that and about the carnival. Here are her answers:
How did you hear about Off The Map? Have you been to any of our events or did you find us a different way?
I just stumbled onto ‘Off The Map’ and enjoyed what you’re doing, so decided to write to you!
How did you get interested in Sacred Fire Communities and what’s involved in becoming an Initiated Firekeeper?
Sacred Fire Community is a community that believes that our world has grown cold and that coming to sit around the communal fire to laugh, cry, tell our life stories - to connect with each other - is a powerful form of healing for ‘what ails us’. It is not a religion, but rather a practice, and we invite people of all faiths, creeds and beliefs to the fire. That being said, it is an earth-based practice, and some forms of Christianity might have a reaction to that.
I became an initiated Firekeeper by keeping the fire…every month for several years, and then going to some training specifically around deepening my ability to work with the community that forms around the fires.
Most of the bloggers I know who would say they’re spiritual self-identify as followers of Jesus. Are you comfortable with submissions from people who experience their spirituality through Jesus? As long as they don’t write in a way which dismisses and invalidates the way other people experience spirituality?
I would love to have submissions to the Blog Carnival on Engaged Spirituality from Christians!! I consider myself one, although not tied with any particular sect or denomination (although my seminary degree is United Methodist - from Iliff, matter of fact). Your observation that the bloggers we’re seeking are staying true to their own belief systems without dismissal or disparaging others is right on.
Comment by: karen
1 02/14/08 4:43 PM | Comment Link |Are we talking actual fire here - embers, flame, fuels - or metaphor? If you’re referencing literal fire, what’s involved in “keeping the fire”?
Sorry I’m not clear on this.
Comment by: Helen
2 02/14/08 4:53 PM | Comment Link |It’s a literal fire - it looks like it’s lighted for ceremonies rather than kept burning all the time. I don’t know what’s involved in ‘keeping the fire’ - I should have asked that too!
Comment by: Beth
3 02/15/08 5:06 AM | Comment Link |Hi Helen–and Karen!
Thank you for being interested in the firekeeping. It is a literal fire, not kept burning all the time, but convened and lit in my backyard, with the community that gathers each month. All are invited to the fires–no one is kept outside the circle. The group that gathers varies in size from 6-25. It’s always a different configuration, and we almost always have newcomers as well as more seasoned members.
The gatherings start with a potluck, then we light the fire. We open with a ceremony, then start with jokes or stories that have lightened our hearts since we’ve last met. This is a time of lots of laughter and merriment. Then we sometimes do a little drumming, and we start the next phase. Sometimes there’s a theme or question, but usually those who care to talk or share, just open their hearts and out come questions, fears, joys, sorrows. Sometimes people share poems that are touching them. We have some Jewish members who will share wisdom from their holy-days when we are meeting during those times. We have a woman in seminary to become an Episcopal priest, and she will share from the liturgical calendar what is being brought forth for her. Unless invited by whoever is speaking around the fire, there’s no cross-talk, just respectful listening. There’s a richness of the sharing that is heart-warming…which is the point, after all! We usually take a break (to warm our backsides in the cold months), get some hot chocolate, or hugs. This is a good time for people to leave early if they need to. Then we reconvene for the second and then sometimes third rounds. These discussions usually go deeper and involve more discussion/dialogue. Sometimes we change the mood with a song or chant or more drumming. When it feels ‘right’ we are complete, and we do a closing ritual and clean up the back yard and go home, usually by midnight. It’s pretty simple, and pretty profound.
So that’s the deal! Thanks again for your interest. Would love to see some blog submissions from your group–all are being treated with respect and dignity.
Beth
Comment by: Helen
4 02/15/08 5:57 AM | Comment Link |Thanks for taking time to answer Karen’s questions, Beth!
The fire circles sound like very special times for the people who come.
When you chant or sing or have drumming, where do the chants and songs and drumming come from - I mean, do you have your own written just for fire circle gatherings? Or do you draw from other traditions/cultures?
Do most people who come also participate in a faith community which upholds a particular faith? For example, the woman in seminary presumably belongs to an Episcopal community. Do any atheists come to your gatherings (if you know)?
Comment by: Beth
5 02/15/08 6:22 AM | Comment Link |Hi Helen–
The chants or songs come from the heart of whoever starts them–nothing specific to the firecircle. We often end the circle sometimes with a lullaby that a member sings to his children and we all like:
“How could anyone ever tell you
You are anything less than beautiful?
How could anyone ever tell you
You are less than whole?
How could anyone fail to notice
That your loving is a miracle?
How deeply you’re connected to my soul!”
So…the variety of the songs, etc. comes from whoever is attending the circle, or whatever might come into my middle-aged mind.
Second question–many of the members do have primary spiritual communities outside the circle. We’re an adjunct, an added way of finding soulful communal life.
I’m sure there are athiests that come to the circle–but I don’t know if that’s so or not. I do know that many of us go through periods of soul-searching during grief, loss and the feeling of being separate-from that is part of the human condition. What is lovely is that these conditions are warmly accepted around the circle, as our purpose is to be human and real.
So our experience and hope is that hope that anyone who comes to the circle…including atheists…leaves with an unshakeable feeling of connectedness that warms their heart, no matter what their belief. I know that’s a rather vague answer, but it would seem to be the experience of most who attend the circle.
Thanks for your interest and engagement with the questions!!
Beth
Comment by: Helen
6 02/15/08 6:43 AM | Comment Link |Beth wrote:
No, I wouldn’t say it’s vague - I understand what you mean.
Atheists care about connectedness too. It’s encouraging to hear about communities where all human beings are welcomed and connected with and not pushed to change their beliefs/nonbeliefs.
Comment by: Beth
7 02/15/08 6:59 AM | Comment Link |Interesting–when I was editing my last comment I mistakenly wrote ’shakeable’ when I meant ‘unshakable’ feeling of connectedness
That’s what I’m left with: an unshakable feeling of hope that as we all find ways to open our hearts–through wonderful websites such as yours, or around the fires in our backyards–that we find a space that is home: welcoming, accepting, sometimes challenging, but always loving.
Thank you again, Helen!
Beth
Comment by: Helen
8 02/15/08 7:25 AM | Comment Link |Beth, I inferred ‘unshakeable’, I guess - I must have intuited what you meant!
Anyway I just edited your comment to add the ‘un’.
Comment by: karen
9 02/15/08 4:41 PM | Comment Link |Thanks, Beth. Your events sound lovely!
Some of the best community gatherings I had as a Christian involved retreats or events where we gathered to sing or talk or whatever around a campfire or bonfire. There does seem to be something primal that attracts us to that venue and makes us feel something special there. :-)
Comment by: Beth Patterson : Raising Resistance to an Art Form
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