Celebrating Gratitude with the Fire!
Evekyn Rysdyk
Shamans have always known what has been only recently confirmed scientifically, which is the fact that gratitude has the capacity to shape the nature of our reality. When we experience deep feelings of gratitude, love, compassion or appreciation, we align ourselves with Divine creation. These divinely aligned feelings radiate coherent frequencies throughout the body which promote health and vitality. In addition, these frequencies actually contribute to manifesting the life we want to live.
So, being grateful holds tremendous power. Perhaps that is why traditional shamanic cultures maintain ritual offerings of gratitude to the spirits as the primary method for assuring a “good life.” One of my teachers, Grandfather Misha of the Ulchi of southeastern Siberia, taught us to make regular offerings to the protector spirits to ensure that we would have “happiness”--that is good luck, health, prosperity and joy. Ceremonies of this kind were done as part of the responsibility each individual has for being in right relationship with the spirit world. Among the Ulchi, these offerings are seen as a part of keeping the delicate balance between the unseen realms and the human realm. In this paradigm, humans don’t expect to receive what they are unwilling to give. When the balance is attended to--when we remain in harmony--the spirits that love and care for us are strong and therefore more able to nurture us. It is a simple equation, give and you will receive.
The attitude about making offerings is much the same in the Peruvian Andes. Ritualized offerings called despachos* are part of what people in this part of the world use to produce and maintain ayni, or sacred reciprocity with the spirits. Despachos may be done for many different reasons such as starting projects, embarking upon new relationships, rewriting contracts, transitions and such.
In either case, these ritual offerings to a fire are ways to thank and nourish the spirits. As they are nourished so do they nourish us in return.
For your own Solstice/Midsummer Fire Gratitude ritual you will need:
• A safe place for your fire (see instructions later on in this article)
• A small sheet of paper for each person (6"x 9 "to 81/2"x11" is best)
• Colored pencils, markers, stickers to create your gratitude list
• A few flowers. These may be either fresh or dried.
• A bag of paper confetti (NOT the mylar kind!)
• A bag of small candies such as M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, etc.
• Small dry wood for the fire
• Matches
• A bucket of water
First it's important to create a safe space for your fire. Depending on where you live, you may ned a fire permit to have an open fire on the ground. If this is the case, a chiminea, or metal fire pit may be used. If neither of these is possible, build a small fire in a DRY ceramic flower pot or old cast iron cooking pot which has been elevated on a few bricks or stones to protect the ground. Make sure that the pot is stable on the stones so that it won't tip easily. If you are cautious, this kind of a "fire in a pot" can even be created on a patio. Just make sure that the surface on which the pot is placed is heat proof. With all fires, keep a bucket of water handy to quench it when you are finished.
Set the fire up but don't light it until the next steps are complete.
Next, each person present begins writing all those people and things that you are grateful for on a small sheet of paper. Use both sides and have fun making it pretty! Each person present gets to do this and these will be your offerings to the fire. Take time to make them thoughtfully and you may embellish the papers with drawings and stickers.
When you are happy with your list, find a few flower petals, or some colorful paper confetti and place a bit in the center of the paper. Add a few small candies. Now fold the petals, confetti, and candy up in the paper.
Start your fire with your favorite music to honor the sun and the Summer.** It could be anything from "The Good Old Summertime" to a rousing Celtic fiddle tune. (We're fond of David Arkenstone's music and can usually find something of his to suit most ritual circumstances!)
Laugh and celebrate until all the papers and candy are burned. Give thanks for the Sun, the Earth and your Life! Remember this is only meant as a guideline. The important thing is encourage a joyful attitude and perform the ceremony with a sense of deep gratitude for another summer!
-Evelyn Rysdyk
* For more information on making a Peruvian style despacho offering, see this reprint of the author's article from the Autumn 2004 issue of Sacred Hoop Magazine. "Creating Conscious Crossroads".
** There is a wonderfully fun and campy Sun song that was recorded in the early 1960's by Tom Glazer and Dottie Evans titled "Why Does the Sun Shine?" It was rediscovered and recorded by They Might Be Giants in 1993. The original version is available at: http://www.acme.com/jef/singing_science/. A video of the TMBG version on YouTube is here. - Editors
----------------------------------------------
We'd love to hear about your celebration and anything else you think readers might enjoy! Send your stories, photos and drawings to us at: editors@spiritliving.org.
----------------------------------------------
P.L.A.Y! Outside!
Primitive Fire Making!
Here are instructions for making a bow-drill for starting a fire without the aid of a lighter or matches. This is a challenging but extremely rewarding task. As with any fire, use great care and caution. You don't want to burn yourself or anything that you didn't intend to burn! Make certain that you have water at hand to extinguish your fire and protect the area from any stray sparks. It takes some time to gather and create the elements. This entire project is best done with responsible, adult supervision.
Decide where you are going to build your fire and clear space around it. If possible, place DRY stones around the fire pit to help protect your fire. (Never use river or lake stones as they can explode when heated!)
Fire is a combination of three things, heat, fuel, and oxygen.
Heat: As anyone who has ever rubbed their hands together knows, friction generates heat. If you generate sufficient friction, you can actually create fire. A bow-drill is an excellent way to accomplish this task.
Fuel: Never start a fire without sufficient fuel to keep it going. You need a full range of sizes of fuel to start a fire "from scratch".
- Tinder
Your tinder bundle is the first place your fire will be generated. It is comprised of tiny, flammable fibers that will catch the coal created with the bow-drill.
- Kindling
This needs to be dry wood in several sizes from matchstick-sized to pencil-sized.
- Firewood
You'll need a range of sizes from finger-thick diameter sticks to good sized logs.
Oxygen:
A fire needs to "breathe." To allow this you sometimes have to readjust the spaces in the fuel to allow for air to get to the fire.
Before going further, take some time and watch this Google video of a guy explaining all the details of making a fire with a bow drill. It will help you to understand all the parts of what you are going to do.
Creating your own bow-drill kit:
The parts of a bow-drill fire kit consists of four parts: the bow, the hand-hold, the spindle or drill and the fireboard. The hand-hold and the fireboard are held on either side of the spindle, which is spun by the bow to generate friction, heat and finally, fire.
- Make your bow from a light sturdy sapling, slightly longer than your arm from shoulder to fingertip.
- Tie a piece of nylon cord from one end of the bow to the other, like a bow for archery. If you don't have a nylon cord, you can use string, a shoelace, a strip of cloth or whatever is available.
- Use a dry, soft wood such as cottonwood, willow, larch, cedar, sassafras, alder, aspen, poplar, box alder or basswood to make the other parts of the drill.
- Make sure the hold piece fits into your hand snugly and firmly. Carve a small depression in one side of the hand-hold for the spindle to ride in.
- Cut your spindle from a branch 3/4-inch wide and 6-10 inches long. It should be round and straight. Carve both ends of the spindle to a dull point.
- Make you fireboard about a 1/2-inch thick and flat on both sides.
- Make a depression in it, like the hand-hold, for the other side of the spindle to ride in.
- Make you bow-drill "fire ready" by "burning in." That simply means using the bow-drill a few times to "start" the depression where you will be creating a coal.
Here is a close up of burning in. The depressions for the spindle are near the side. In each depression, there is a v-shaped notch cut into the board that extends one third of the way into the depression. The carbonized dust that is created by the drilling of the spindle into the board builds up in the notch which is sitting over a piece of birch bark to catch the coal.
Making a tinder bundle:
Tinder is the fine, shredded, fluffy, dry material that is used to initially ignite your fire. There are a multitude of natural and man-made materials that you can use as tinder which include but are not limited to: bark, dried grass, dried plant fibers, the head a cattail plant, birds nests, and charred cloth. One, great "must have" in your bundle is the papery, outer bark of the birch tree. If you shred the bark finely, it will make a perfect core of your tinder bundle as birch bark will light even when damp.
When you make a tinder bundle, think about it like a very soft and dry "nest" for the ember you will create with your bow-drill. The nest should be about 4-5inches in diameter.
Setting up fire wood to house the burning tinder:
Getting your tinder burning will just be the beginning. You need to have a ready-made pile of kindling prepared to receive your "baby" fire. I like the teepee style and I leave one area open to receive my burning tinder bundle.
Using the bow-drill
Once everything is in place, its time to start cranking on your bow! Keep going until you see a lot of smoke.
Gently fan the coal until it is glowing red. CAREFULLY, transfer the coal to the tinder and gently blow on it to help it catch the tinder alight.
Transfer your tinder to the teepee and nurture it gently until you have a nice fire!
(Thanks to models Michael Gelsanliter and Colleen Jones Turner.) We would LOVE to hear about how YOU did making fire! Send your stories, photos and drawings about it to us at: editors@spiritliving.org.
|
