June Full Moon: Prayers of the Fire

Dear Reader,

There has been a fire burning in the mountains here for several weeks now. It began through an unattended campfire a few miles down the road from where we live. The first day it seemed potentially manageable—but then the Wind came roaring in the next day gusting 40 miles an hour and Fire spread.

The air is much clearer now that the fire has become somewhat contained, and temperatures of 108 have become an overcast 88. Sometimes the air would clear long enough to forget for a little while—absorbed in some other activity, before the grief set in again. At night, the wind dies down here, and the air in our valley would thicken with smoke. Some nights after the sun set, we would see the orange glow from our stoop, broad and wide. Days later, flames flickering up the mountain.

When the wander group travelled up to these La Sal mountains in May, a friend noted how alive the forest was—the creek rushing full speed down the mountain among aspen and pine, fern and moss. And also she commented, how dead—how many fallen trees, rotten, burying parts of the forest floor almost entirely it seemed. This death that is now fueling these flames.

Many of the wanders I’ve shared with you have taken place in this now burnt and still off-limits landscape. The same beings that offered me some insight or solace—who I offered some smudge of sagebrush or a sprinkling of rosewater—they now have offered their entire being through fire. Their lifeforce in smoke, rising in a desperate prayer.

I can only imagine what the prayers of these burning Beings might be. But it is a prayer of the highest order. The governor of Utah asked us to pray for rain. A friend here said that praying for guidance from nature might be more appropriate. The prayers I am sending up to this holy, engulfed forest are for instruction for how to live within our means. How to live in the humility of our place as co-habitants, as sibling to all that is Alive. The Water that is scarce here that keeps us alive, that tames fire, that tames our summer irritations in the cooling of her creeks. The clear Air that allows us to dance to our hearts’ content, to garden, to sit under a shady tree being. The beauty of the Earth that asks us to root with each step, to touch Her and her plant beings, to become Her again with each day: with each planting, each harvest, each mouthful.  The Fire that transforms our lives, that lights our way. Let us be content and humble with the holy means our Lady Mother has so generously offered us—that we have the responsibility of nurturing and restoring for future generations of all life—not just our own beautiful exquisite children.

In this week of great light offered by the Cosmos: the Solstice Sun and the Full Moon are collaborating to illuminate our vision and our lives. They ask us to strip away what dishonesties we may be living, consciously or unconsciously. Having the most access to this light is not necessarily the most comfortable place.

The rest of this writing is an excerpt from the introduction to our Summer Solstice Ceremony here in Moab. 

In our history as a people, it was in this time that one of our nation’s greatest darknesses began to change shape: Enslavement. Yesterday, Juneteenth, marks the beginning of the emancipation of our enslaved brothers and sisters. We are still walking that journey toward freedom. May this day be a day we renew our intentions to freedom and justice.

To the South, the wild fire burns on in our mountains. Each morning we are awakening to the smoke hanging over us like a depression, grieving the homes of our fellow community members, and each of us grieving the loss and displacement of the plant and animal beings who call the mountain home. These mountains that give us our water, that provide us our solace and our strength. Let us honor the holy medicine of the juniper, pinion and aspen—of the sagebrush, nettle and ponderosa. They now sacrifice and release to the Cosmos, the Heavens, Father Sky—let us hear it as a prayer of the highest vibration—to all the Helping Spirits of the Universe, that we may evolve to a place of harmony so we may live together as a true community of beings.

As we bare our yearnings here today, let us offer gratitude together for the land we are part of, for our lives, for the sorrows and the joys we have and do know as a people. We are here in humility and celebration to raise our own darkness to the light and to be willing to be vulnerable and honest with Spirit, ourselves, and each other.

The wander is this:

Please GO and in a way that feels authentic and vulnerable to your being offer your prayers of gratitude to the Land. Let our gratitude be our fire that transforms our hearts.

photo by Gregory Hood