~Fire Ritual~

“The way to move to a productive understanding of and relationship with fire is through ritual, where fire is experienced not as a combustive fire, but as a warm, comforting, and loving fire connecting us to the ancestors in the Other World. At the core of the fire ritual is the indigenous belief that each person is born with a purpose, and that this purpose was presented to the council of the ancestors in the Spirit World for approval prior to each person’s journey to Earth. We come into the world in order to bring to completion that very plan which, as we are born into this side of reality, became our reason for human life. In order to fulfill our purpose, we need the driving force of fire, just as a vehicle needs fuel to reach its destination.

Two things here are at work. We must remember what we came here to do, and we must have a community that knows and remembers our purpose and supports it fully. We do not want a community that tells us what it thinks we should do, but a community that unconditionally provides for us in a manner that allows us to accept our responsibilities and realize the life of our purpose.” -Malidoma Somé