MAN ON FIRE
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this photo is that it has not been edited in any way, other than some minor cropping. As you contemplate the layers, you’ll see that I’m on the other side of the fire, the Summer Solstice fire of 2021. I was an exuberant volunteer for life, as our ceremonial leader, Leaf Running Rabbit, would say. In this moment, I was the “first follower,” stepping fully into a community celebrating the longest day of the year.
I feel quite humbled to be welcomed into multiple spiritual communities, and I realize how fortunate I am to live in a place and time where we come together with old and new friends to deepen our connection to land, to our ancestors, and to the elemental spirits that invisibly bind this world together. Invisible, that is, to our common ways of seeing. When we are provided with the opportunity to open the aperture, and see beyond the veil of our modern culture, much more of our incredible world makes itself apparent to anyone who chooses to see.