7th Annual 100 Hour Transformation Fire

For six years now, the golden rod blooms and I know it’s time to begin to build this year’s transformation fire. The hills are alive with those magnificent golden blooms and the cloud rivers are nestling in the mountain hollows and it’s almost time to turn with the season…

The tradition of the 100 hour fire is rich with stories, characters, weather, lore, and magic. It’s an utterly unique expression of love and prayer and community and it’s almost upon us. Every year I have enjoyed curating a concept and gathering people around it. This year, the concept is Sacred Simplicity and I am excited to rest in the sweetness and spaciousness of a new approach to this sacred ceremony.

The container is relatively straight forward: keep the sacred fire burning for 100 hours, fill it with prayers for ourselves and our world, tend the tenders tenderly, tend the hill, and remember what’s true and holy.

Whereas in past years I have stacked the calendar with many offerings and provided a full schedule of ways to interact with this experience, this year it will be different.

The 100 Hour fire is a safe, sober, container to reweave ourselves back into the sacred, back into the cycles of nature, and back into ourselves for the long winter ahead and you’re invited.

The Schedule

All gatherings happen rain or shine or snow or wind. ~25 people is the maximum capacity for any gathering at Rootstock so you can expect these gatherings to be intimate and right-sized for communion and connection. You need to let me know if you’re planning to join by registering and, if you’d like to book multiple days, that’s welcome, if you’re planning to help support the ceremony with some Co-Creation Crew shifts.

Co-Creative Ceremony

The blocks of time labeled ‘Rest/Service/Play’ are wide open canvases. Sure, some volunteers will be fixing dinner or cleaning up breakfast but others might feel inclined to do some meditation together or learn some songs. This time is our time to co-create and share ourselves and a chalkboard will allow participants to plug in their offerings as they’re inspired.

You can register for any day or block of days that you’d like to come. You’ll have the option to book a bunk for your time, to donate a little cheddar to help keep us in firewood and dishsoap, and your confirmation email will prompt you to sign up for some volunteer shifts if you’d like to help produce this miracle (which we all have to do to make it work).

RECIPROCITY

The Transformation Fire is a devotional offering to the hill and all donations support the food and firewood needed to share this space with any profit going into the Rootstock Medicine Fund.  In the spirit of reciprocity, guests are invited to bring offerings for the altars, the fires, the temples, the tenders, the hill, or the community gathered.  Musical instruments, poetry, songs, meditations, sage, beeswax candles, fair-trade organic chocolate, winter squash and other offerings are most welcome.

All attendees should expect to participate in dishes, cleanup, and other tending as needed and are also encouraged to bring any magical tools or offerings or practices that they might want to share with the land, the fire, or the community here. This is a co-creative gathering which means that we all work to make the meaning and magic that we seek.