Gather Round the Fire: A Community Needfire Ritual for Winter

Without fire, there would be no life. For this ritual, gather together members of your community to participate in honoring the life-giving power of flame.

Supplies:

• Altarspace
• Wood, matches, kindling, and a safe place for a fire
• Candles
• Cauldron or large pot
• Ice cubes, water
• Drums
• Fire tool or poker
• Apples, apple cider, or apple ice cream
• White ice cream
• Spoons and bowls
• Bowl with tarot cards in it

1. Place the bowl of tarot cards on the space designated as the altar.

2. Ask for a volunteer to be in charge of the fire and to be the leader of the ritual. The fire maker should then select three women to represent the Norns (a.k.a. the Three Fates). One of the fates will be in charge of “giving fire.” With a candle in the cauldron, she keeps the fire safe and gives it to the fire maker. Another fate reads out the future to ritual participants with a one-card tarot reading. The last fate gives life in the form of the ritual foods—the apples, hot cider, ice cream, and so on.

3. The participants should get as cold as possible before beginning the ritual—take off your coats and sweaters, and open all the windows and doors if you are inside. You need to feel the winter deep in your soul. The leader should pass around the ice cubes so the participants engage in a sensory way with freezing cold and the need for fire.

4. While the participants get good and chilly, the leader should start the fire. People who really want the totally authentic experience of firemaking can try to create fire from sparking with a fire drill, but the ritual could then take hours unless the fire maker is well practiced in the art of making fire.

5. The following is the chant to be spoken while the fire is being made. The ritual leader should pass out the drums and begin leading rhythmic sounds to underscore the chanting.

    Winter winds howl and wail.

    We feel the cold in our bones.

    This is an old familiar tale.

    The ice binds and surrounds us all.

    Fates above, please hear our call.

    Fire thaws the ice.

    Fire creates the water.

    The heat warms our bones.

    Fire and ice bind our lives.

    Now feel the fire!

6. Holding hands, everyone should dance slowly around the fire sunwise, feeling the life-giving warmth. Next, repeat the chant.

7. The fate of the future goes around the circle with the bowl of tarot cards and performs one-card readings for each individual. If time allows, she should also do a reading for the group with the full set of tarot cards about the future of the community.

8. Last, the fate who gives life serves the group celebratory food— the ice cream and other cold foods are a remembrance of the cold of the icy times, and the hot cider and other hot foods represent the life-giving heat of fire. The head of the ritual should lead everyone in a discussion of the importance of the ritual of the needfire and any other topic important to every participant and the community.