One Match Luxury Tiny Teepee Fire
Nearly every evening after dark, I build a fire in a small ceramic dish on my patio. I call it a One Match Luxury Tiny Teepee Fire. With only one match, everything in the dish is fully consumed into ash. The word “luxury” refers to the aromatic elements of the fire such as cinnamon stick, juniper berries, lavender, rosemary, star anise, and orange peel.
Through trial and error, I learned the fire’s structure is critical. Its foundation is a bed of pistachio shells, dried pine needles, and herbs. Then a pinecone is wrapped in papery birch bark and placed on the nut shells. Next, small twigs, no larger than a pencil, create a teepee structure around the pinecone. Then I sprinkle more pine needles, dried orange peel, herbs, and spices onto the structure. I light it with one match, low and toward the center of the teepee. The flames rise quickly.
Raccoons and foxes play on the lawn as I sit in the dark with my little fire. Sometimes they glance in my direction, then continue their nightly patrol. We share this tiny slice of nature. Connected, aware, and interacting through our very existence in this place and in this time. I call it a blessing. It is the way Creator intends, creatures living in community together.
God is depicted as fire.
I find it interesting when Christians describe hell as a place of fire, eternal suffering, and unquenchable thirst. Yet, the Bible often depicts God as eternal, all-consuming fire. However, God-fire never destroys what it touches. Instead, fire is God’s communication channel. There’s the speaking, burning bush of Moses. In the book of Exodus columns of fire led the Israelites through the desert. The Holy Spirit appears as tongues of flames at Pentecost. Our soul gives us life, connects us to God and is a flame living within us. The Bible refers to God as fire in 90 different verses, yet Christianity frequently teaches us that fire is punishment for moving away from God.
Why not become fire?
An ancient story of the Desert Fathers goes like this:
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said: “Abba, as much as I am able, I practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer and meditation, and remain quiet, and as much as possible I keep my thoughts clean. What else should I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame. And he said: “Why not become fire?”
Like us, Abba Lot did all the right things. He prayed, fasted, and kept good intentions. Yet, Abba Lot resisted transformation and held onto doing right instead of becoming fire.
When I sit with my fire I become the fire. My breath feeds the fire and raises it up again and again. I breathe in the scent of the burning herbs, spices, and pine. Yellow, orange, red, blue, and purple dance within the fire. For those few minutes, I am fire and I feel my connection to the universe.
Shamanism is the oldest Spiritual practice known to humans.
Shamans existed in every corner of the world 10,000 years ago. Shamanism is the oldest Spiritual practice known to humans. Every person on earth is descended from people who practiced shamanic spirituality.
The word shaman means “one who sees in the dark.” This also translates to seeing with the heart. Shamanic practices connect your inner flame with Spirit, nature, and the unseen worlds that exist in our consciousness. Shamanism reanimates our forgotten connection to all physical and spiritual creation.
Interested in experiencing and learning more about shamanic spirituality? You can book a session here.
One Response
I love your story about the 1 match fire.
I usually have incense and a candle burning when I’m doing centering prayer or in a “spiritual” zoom meeting.
Maybe I’ll step it up a bit to a One Match Fire. I rarely make the effort to have a fire in my fire pit, and maybe that’s the point. It doesn’t need to be such a big deal to be meaningful.