The Q’ero gave us this ceremony to use in the West. The transformational fire ceremony is done on the full moon of each month. Traditionally, one participated in a fire ceremony for approximately a three-year period before you began to do it for yourself. Then another three-year period was spent doing it alone (or with your teacher) before you attempted to do it for others. Until recently, this was the training process for this ceremony. Now, the Q’eo say that there is ‘no time’ for this lengthy process – that the earth and our civilisation are in such great peril that students should begin to do the fire ceremony as soon as they are guided to do so.

If you would like to begin your own fire ceremonies, then please read from the notes below.

• Prepare the fire: begin by placing the kindling where it needs to go in a cross (two sticks facing North/South and East/West)
• Open sacred space by calling in directions.
• Choose one caretaker for the fire for the evening – if you are the caretaker, make sure you don’t leave the fire unattended until the embers are almost going out at the end.
• You can chant, drum or rattle in order to enter into a slightly altered state and set your intention.
• Feed the fire with olive oil three times: offering first to the four directions, then heaven and earth and last, connecting the circle with the fire by honouring ‘all’ those present.
• Test the fire for friendliness, does it flicker and flame quite happily or does it need to die down a bit before you use it?
• When the fire is friendly, the space holder leads the ceremony of offerings, if you are on your own – you can offer a stick to the fire that holds your breath. Before you give this stick away, breathe into it something that you no longer need. Then, take another stick and breathe in something positive you would like to bring into your life to replace the heaviness. You can use paper, or anything flammable for this exercise.
• If this is a group fire ceremony, then a Pacha Mama stick is passed around the circle, usually a stick with seasonal flowers and fruits wrapped onto it. This is used as a prayer stick, where we blow all our wishes and prayers for the earth into it.
• After all the offerings are made, the oldest and youngest person in the circle takes the Pacha Mama stick and places it on the fire.
• Close sacred space
• At least two people, one male and one female stay with the fire until it is embers, no water on the fire.
• The person leading the ceremony also wears black as an energy cloak.