Firekeepers
[From Wikipedia]
Firekeeper is a common word to describe a ceremonial role in a number of native North American First Nations and groups. Although, there were certainly humans from all over the world that watched and kept a fire going. Fires burn the same anywhere, and someone needs to tend them over long periods of time. Firekeepers tend the fires in such ceremonies as vision quests, sweat lodges, and Sun Dances. In many native North American traditions the fire represents either the divine masculine of Great Spirit, or the spark of Great Spirit to which everyone is connected, or both. Firekeepers are, in many societies, nearly as important as the chief and medicine man.
Fire was a necessary and important part of any human civilization in the past. It provided a place to keep warm, to give light at night, for protection, and to cook food and heat water. The smoke from a fire was necessary to keep away large amounts of bothersome insects. A firekeeper is necessary to literally maintain and keep a fire from going out over several days, weeks, and perhaps even longer. In the past world of no matches, no flint, and no easy ways of making fire under wet conditions, it was necessary for someone to keep the flames or red coals burning for long periods of time.
The main fire is also a place of prayers, tobacco offerings, and provides hot coals for smudges of smoldering cedar, sage, and sweet grass. A hot burning fire with plenty of red coals is needed during heavy rains, or it will potentially go out. The fire provides a place to keep the sacred drum dry and warm, with a tight skin for better sound. The fire is a place of gathering, talking, telling stories and for renewal.
What would our tribal Grandfathers
have to say
that men of today
should know?
Spoken in lowered tones
of paternal wisdom,
what would our ancestral Fathers say?
What words would they send
across the reaches of Time,
what glowing embers of Truth
would they lend us
from their council fires?
Lost in the smoke of our confusion
so much must be found;
knowledge of family loyalty,
honor for our mates,
respect for strangers,
balance in the ways we walk
upon our troubled world.
Our Tribal Grandfathers knew
the ways we’ve lost and more,
gave their teachings
with a loving heart
to protect and
to keep their families strong.
Lost in the depths of our illusions,
it is hard to know
what makes a man wise,
and what does not,
But the old ones knew,
and we, their distant sons,
must listen hard.
T.S. Casey
