Under the Ancient Oaks: The Importance of Fire in Ritual

In the Western Mystery Tradition, fire is one of the four elements. But the much older Indo-European tradition, fire is one of three gateways to the Otherworld. And the camp fire is humanity’s oldest sacred circle. In this month’s Under the Ancient Oaks video, ADF Archdruid Jean Pagano discusses Indo-European culture and the centrality of fire in ritual.

As with last month’s video with Lauren Mart on prayer, this was recorded at the ADF Texas Imbolc retreat.

I’ll be one of the featured guests at this year’s Mystic South conference, July 13 through 15 at the Crown Plaza Ravinia hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Last year’s conference was excellent and I expect this one to be even better.

I’ll be presenting two workshops. The first is “Daily Spiritual Practice For Pagans,” a look at the regular things we can to do form, strengthen, and maintain healthy relationships with our deities, our ancestors, our friends and family, and with the wider world.

The second is “The Shredded Veil.” Modern Pagan tradition says a Veil separates the world of the living from the world of the Gods and ancestors, and that the Veil is thinner at certain times of the year, like Samhain. But over the past few years, many of us have felt like the Veil is shredded, and both magic and spirits are crossing over regularly, for good and for ill.

This workshop will examine our experiences of the shredded Veil and our theories about what might be causing it. It will include an open discussion where participants can share their recent Otherworldly experiences and compare notes, as we to try to refine our thinking about what’s going on.

And I’ll be leading a ritual: “A Gathering of Ravens: A Devotional Ritual to the Morrigan.” Join us as we honor the Great Queen, and as we respond to Her call.

I talk about all these things in my book The Path of Paganism, which is available from Llewellyn, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or directly from me. And I write three times a week on my blog, also called Under the Ancient Oaks, which is part of the Patheos Pagan channel.