Fire Alchemy 2025 was…. different (in the best way). It was the same in general structure and in returning humans, yet it felt NEW at our new home of Ronora Lodge. The castle is unforgettable, yet Ronora holds something different. Something sacred feeling. An essence that is already laid within the foundations of consent, trust, growth, and community.

This land is steeped in ceremony and intention already, and holds our container in surprisingly nourishing ways. Practically, everyone had a shared house within a 3 minute walk from each other, and our workshop spaces were close. The Chadwicke Lodge served as a central gathering point to connect and ground in for nightly dinners (provided by Fire Alchemy attendees!), noon-time meetings, registration, a marketplace, and workshops. Our fire circle was secluded - reachable by a procession down a torch lit woodland path to a lilypond and open area for our ritual fire circles with an indoor area for washing up & relieving ourselves. A variety of workshop locations suited anything we could imagine.

The thing we can’t quite put our finger on is that FEELING of belonging to the land already, and a buoyancy that lifts us up and allows the work we choose to do to FLOW in unforgettably easeful ways.

Rituals are a staple of our gathering.

Fire Alchemy 2025 saw a variety of nightly group rituals; countless rituals of the small group, private & personal, and beyond.

What is a ritual, exactly?

Ritual creates sacred moments within the everyday with attention & intention. Ritual creates the pathway to the sacred.

We are a people starving for meaning, for connection to source/spirit. Those whose ancestors immigrated to America have divorced from our cultural heritage in some respect - some more violently than others, but all disconnected from our roots of our native lands in some capacity. We are searching for meaning in our melting pot. What is ours? What is theirs? What invokes, and makes us feel connected? Grasping for something to connect us deeply, that which our ancestors cultivated over years and years in their close communal living with the land. Ages ago. Ritual provides a container and a spacetime to access our depths.

At Fire Alchemy we explore co-created modern day rituals to serve the constellation of the community that gathers. Ritual holds space to ground our collective human stories beyond the boundaries of culture, time, & space.

We see ritual as a way to connect the earthly physical self with the divine, through repetition, intention, and dedicated energetic motion. Ritual can have as many forms as the imagination can create, and is alive best within the community who keeps it.

We create our own rituals for the present moment. We co-create ritual with our community, fostering a sense of belonging for each human. We seek to be inclusive, radical, and honoring each human who is present in the space. Each ritual serves the group participating, and no ritual is ever the same.

We honor those who came before, the traditions we’ve learned from, our elders & ancestors, the knowledge sharers, the fire-keepers, the cultures & traditions who richly honor the elements who make life possible here on this earth. We thank you. We honor you. We remember you.

We draw from rituals we have experienced, partaken in, observed, participated in, and educated ourselves about. We activate intuition, creativity, & our human web of oneness to bring rituals organically through in a meaningful and practical way.

This is the container for the practical magic of the fire transformation.

Web of Intention

Guided by Ravena Rose’s vision, the web of intention was an invitation to collaborate on weaving our intentions together throughout the gathering. Ravena gathered sticks from the trees dropped on the land and tethered them together with twine. She wove beautiful yarns and strings to create a web between, spiderwebbing spaces for visions brought by the collective.

At their own pace, all were invited to write an intention tied to a thread, knotted on, joined to another thread, and offered as an individual turned collective intention for themselves and perhaps… also … the community.

For at Fire Alchemy, our individual ideations are each what makes up the whole.

The web lived in our hub, Chadwicke Hall, for the days of Fire Alchemy, with all adding to it as they felt called, or arrived throughout the weekend.

All intentions became one, sealed with everyone’s magic.

At the closing ritual Sunday morning the web was offered up to the flame in a bonfire; and spread to the earth and air via ash. We watched silently as the web burnt with laughter, tears, hugs, and celebrations for the intentions set and offered up to the universe.

Ravena offered us a Reintegration ritual upon returning home… for those of you desiring to remember this…. peek in.

FIRE SAFETY RITUAL

This is the most important ritual - of information - for you can only light as much fire as you feel safe to hold for another in safety. Fire Safety is a basis for our gathering: it holds us in the fire circle and allows us to expand outwards when we feel SAFE and HELD, SEEN and SUPPORTED. Each fire dance is a duet of safety & dancer, and here we refine our knowledge year by year.

Repetition invites depth.

Beacon, Lorca, Ravena, & Gaea co-lead the Fire Safety Trainings to anchor in the role of safety as sacred. Here, we share the practical steps of “How” in fire dancing; what to wear, gear, communications, how to put out fire of all sorts, emphasizing the mindset of unwavering attention & trust needed to keep each other safe.

This year, we split the safety trainings into a large one on Wednesday with much discussion, followed by a first fires ritual in a circle. Practical application of putting out fires was offered the next night on Thursdays. On Friday, those who didn’t arrive in time for the earlier training had a private one led by Beacon & Ravena.

All involve group discussion, repetitive information - because this is how info REMAINS active in our brains.

We break out into hands-on groups based on experience to intentionally extinguish a variety of fire props. Our advanced practitioners dove deeper into discussion of safety within fire dancing from physical, emotional, internal, and external spaces. Our newbies put out live fire props for the first time. Our intermediaries explored their edges and put out unusual large props like swords, crowns, dragon staves, and hoops.

There is always more to learn for fire safety. Check out gaea’s new page to remind yourself and brush up… www.gaealady.net/fire-safety

Witnessing Ritual

A ritual we repeat is that of the 4 sacred roles of fire dancing. Here, we allow every person to embody each of these roles in turn as a group in silence - then to reflect to each other afterwards. It is one of our most powerful rituals, and there are no cameras allowed, so we are all fully present with our eyes, minds, & hearts.

All 4 of these sacred roles are essential

THE SAFETY grounds and holds us with training of flames & consistent attention

THE DANCER channels the intentions into being through aligned action with fire

THE WITNESS weaves the dancer’s story into reality by seeing the human, without judgement, with full attention.

THE BEING IN PREPARATION grounds the self by dipping props/rehearsing or stretching or practicing/meditating/being aware

We wait for everyone to arrive, and then we begin. Breaking out into groups of 4, we each set intentions on how to be witnessed and support each other. After Gaea explains the process of shifting roles & flowing thru each role….we begin in silence. The whoosh of the flames, the sway of the trees, the crunch of the grass, and the intentions felt to the beat of hearts carry the ritual through.

Afterwards, we open up vocalizations to one by one, offer up what we saw, felt, and experienced in the group.

Solstice Ritual

Fire Alchemy now occurs over the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year! The light is long, the twilight extensive, and the golden hour elongated opportunities of magic.

Together we gather for a ritual opening to the Sun, revolutions and cycles and spirals the changing of time. We adorn ourselves with gold paint & jewels, dressing in solar colors of brightness. The solar power within each of us connecting our solar plexuses into the power of these long days, seeing the light within each of us. We revel in being seen as we have our group photo, then spin fire long into the night.

We remember the potential for alchemy is in every moment… and we seal it in with a cinnamon roll hug!

The Prayerformance

the Prayerformance is a huge undertaking each year. Participants formulate what they will be sharing before the event, but it crystallizes there. This year, Kitty Oaks brought together everyone’s tech, music, and needs to create an absolute beautifully extended show that felt us deeply from the heart. We saw tributes to mother’s past, selves born anew, savage daughters, love tributes, group acts, and so much more. It culminated with a call for a matriarchial revolution…

But what is Prayerformance?

Prayerformance is a mindset of offering oneself entirely through dance, energy, & time to be a channel between the divine oneness + human earth beings.

a note from gaea:

“I speak to this from my experience and that collected from other live performance artists mostly from dance, fire, cooking, and theater performance. However, prayerformance is and can be absolutely anything!

Prayer opens a line of communication to divine energies, often through repetition, breath, surrender of self, and clearing the mind chatter to stillness. Prayer comes in this text as a word I seek to use as a bridge - all words are attributed connotations from personal experience. Hence, I offer "prayer" as a hopefully understandable access point for the process of connecting with the divine, outside of ANY religion's tradition or organization, expectation form only in the function of prayer is applied here for connection.

This is essentially the most important aspect - to allow oneself to slip into form and become a vessel for the authentic expression to come forth.

We, the dancers, lose ourselves in the offering - a bridge between. This oneness connection between the two is always there. When tapping into it during leisure or entertainment allows the audience/witness/observer to receive more, as we are open & receptive. And performers, we unite and weave all these energies together, holding and shifting as needed, and allowing our expression to be purely authentic. Entertainment can be a spiritual practice.

Each year we are stunned with how our community grows in authenticity and magic to become more and more of our true selves - courageously shown to the world. This is the preparation to SHARE OUR GIFTS with the world outside the Fire Alchemy bubble. It is so important so be visible, for this inspires and changes the world itself.

Watch Ray’s recap video below of the Prayerformance!!

Fire Alchemy is a beautiful space for us too connect, expand, witness, and return year after year to recognize our own growth.

We are so grateful for each participant who weaves their magic to create the event.

We are grateful to the production team who weave the event together & hold the vision and flame until the next year.

We are grateful for each volunteer who makes things run smoothly and easefully during the event.

We are grateful for all our newbies who find confidence to light their fires.

We are grateful for everyone who returns back to the event to co-create in more depth each time.

We are grateful for our photographers and videographers for capturing the moments so we may remember.

We are grateful to Ronora for holding us on their land, for preparing a beautiful canvas, and returning it for the next group.

We. are. grateful.

Perhaps we will see YOU next year? Tickets and Info available should you desire to lean in!

We’ll see you there.

Fire Alchemy 2025 Reflections