The Sacred Hearth Fire

The Sacred Hearth Fire has been slowly smouldering this year, as my attention has been elsewhere, but the passion is still here, and was re-invigorated this weekend at the Erti Suli camp where we communally welcomed the ancestral fire using the fire churn, which was a playful yet profound and deep experience. I've also been helping my friend Tom on Nomad - A journey with Purpose integrating my approach to fire , so there a few things going on and more sparks may ignite over the next year.....

This image shows my interpretation of the fire churn in all it’s glory at the Erti Suli camp. This is  by far my favourite way of welcoming the ancestral fire, especially as part of a communal gathering. It involves the whole community, you can’t do it on your own, you have to work together in harmony. It is glorious. It is based on written records and folklore of the Neid fires used in Celtic Europe until mid 19th century as part of fire rituals, which I write about here. With everyone working in harmony, it is a magnificent and playful way to welcome the ancestral fire, to honour grandfather fire. I can no longer use bow drill/hand drill as part of fire ceremonies in larger gatherings :)

So even if it may seem there is little going on with the website, the fire still burns, and there may be writings and posts to come this Autumn and Winter, and who knows what will unfold over the next year! I was also overjoyed this morning at receiving a lovely email thanking me for this website, I don’t get many emails from the website so it was heart warming to receive such a lovely email about how thankful they were for my research. Even if I just help one or two people, practically and even better to connect with fire on a deeper level then that makes me happy!

Personally I feel that the modern bushcraft/survival movement/industry has turned friction fire into just a practical skill/commodity where the emphasis is on the individual working against nature to make fire. My emphasis is about connecting with fire and nature on a deeper level, working with nature to welcome the ancestral fire, rather than just "making" fire. I also encourage people to work together, as indigenous peoples still do, which is why I lvoe the fire churn so much. And even with friction methods, when you are treating them as just practical methods it is still just as easy to take fire as granted (once you have become skilled with the method.) So I hope I can inspire just a few people to approach fire on a slightly different level!

 I hope to update the website this Autumn and Winter maybe with a little more research, and I also hope to make some time to  harvest some nettles (for cordage) and Teasel (for hand drill spindles) and willow herb (for tinder) in the next couple of weeks! (and bracken in October time!)

Blessings
Ian

p.s. There is also the facebook page www.facebook.com/SacredHearthFrictionFire/