Ancient Fires Course Muinaistulet

The fire seremony day and night - Tuliseremonian päivä ja ilta

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Time to clean up and plant the tree - Siivoaminen ja puun istutus

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live video stream

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We will be streaming the fire ceremony live. You can watch it at our ustream channel or in the window below. We will stream from 11pm Finland time.

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

Ready for Saturday - Valmiina lauantaita varten

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5th working day - Viides työpäivä

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The work progressing - Työ edistyy

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Thank you Eero for all your great help with the project! Kiitos Eero kaikesta avustasi projektissa!

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Planning and building - Suunnitelmia ja rakentamista

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Making the first tests - Ensimmäiset työvaiheet

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Planning the fire ceremony - Tulitapahtuman suunnittelua

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on another note, I was thinking about the vessels that we have access to, to build fire on the water. I think it could look pretty stunning if we had a fleet of vessels coming to the land to start the larger fire. I think i missed exactly what the vessels are - can someone put some more information here?

aboriginal legends and methods

2009-07-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

I was having a look at some legends about fire in indigenous australian cultures.
Fire had many practical uses in managing the landscape (burning off scrub to stop bad fires) as well as a method of hunting. Smoke is used in some ceremonies to keep the spirits away.
There are also particular fire sticks used to start the fires..

here are two dreamtime stories involving fire

How The Sun Was Made

For a long time there was no sun, only a moon and stars. That was before there were men on the earth, only birds and beasts, all of which were many sizes larger than they are now.

One day Dinewan the emu and Brolga the native companion were on a large plain near the Murrumbidgee. There they were, quarrelling and fighting. Brolga, in her rage, rushed to the nest of Dinewan and seized from it one of the huge eggs, which she threw with all her force up to the sky. There it broke on a heap of firewood, which burst into flame as the yellow yolk spilled all over it, and lit up the world below to the astonishment of every creature on it. They had been used to the semi-darkness and were dazzled by such brightness.

A good spirit who lived in the sky saw how bright and beautiful the earth looked when lit up by this blaze. He thought it would be a good thing to make a fire every day, and from that time he has done so. All night he and his attendant spirits collect wood and heap it up. When the heap is nearly big enough they send out the morning star to warn those on earth that the fire will soon be lit.

The spirits, however, found this warning was not sufficient, for those who slept saw it not. Then the spirits thought someone should make some noise at dawn to herald the coming of the sun and waken the sleepers. But for a long time they could not decide to whom should be given this office.

At last one evening they heard the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, the laughing jackass, ringing through the air. "That is the noise we want," they said.

Then they told Goo-goor-gaga that, as the morning star faded and the day dawned, he was every morning to laugh his loudest, that his laughter might awaken all sleepers before sunrise. If he would not agree to do this, then no more would they light the sun-fire, but let the earth be ever in twilight again.

But Goo-goor-gaga saved the light for the world.

He agreed to laugh his loudest at every dawn of every day, and so he has done ever since, making the air ring with his loud cackling, "Goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga."

When the spirits first light the fire it does not throw out much heat. But by the middle of the day, when the whole heap of firewood is in a blaze, the heat is fierce. After that it begins to die gradually away until, at sunset, only red embers are left. They quickly die out, except a few the spirits cover up with clouds and save to light the heap of wood they get ready for the next day.

Children are not allowed to imitate the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, lest he should hear them and cease his morning cry.

If children do laugh as he does, an extra tooth grows above their eye-tooth, so that they carry the mark of their mockery in punishment for it. Well the good spirits know that if ever a time comes when the Goo-goor-gagas cease laughing to herald the sun, then no more dawns will be seen in the land, and darkness will reign once more.

http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.html

Crocodile took the fire stick

The crocodile took a fire stick with which to make a fire, for there was then none in the world. But every time he tried he broke the drill stick. Soon his hands were cut and bleeding and broken fire sticks lay about. Then the frilled lizard arrived. He sat down and continued work on a basket that he had started. The crocodile asked him to try making fire. The frilled lizard, who had fire sticks of his own in the basket, told the crocodile that he had been gripping the drill incorrectly, and then made fire. 'Waku (sister's son) of mine,' said the crocodile, 'it is a good thing you are my relative and it is a good thing that you made fire for us, for all people.' The crocodile took grass, lit it, and built a huge fire.

Finally, a myth from the Dalabon in Beswick Reserve shows how the crocodile selfishly guarded fire for himself only, until he was tricked by the rainbow bird who gave the fire to men.

The crocodile possessed fire sticks. The rainbow bird would ask for fire, but was knocked back every time. The rainbow bird was without fire. He had no light. He slept without a camp fire and ate his food of fish, goanna, lizards and mussels raw. The rainbow bird could not get fire because the crocodile was 'boss' for fire and would knock him back saying, 'You can't take fire!'

'What am I to do for men? Are they to eat raw food?'

'They can eat it raw. I won't give you fire sticks!'

The crocodile had fire. No man made it. The crocodile had had fire from a long time ago. Then the rainbow bird put fire everywhere. Every tree has fire inside now. It was the rainbow bird who put fire inside.

The rainbow bird spoke. 'Wirid, wirid, wirid!' He climbed into a tree, a dry place, a dry tree. Down he came, like a jet plane, to snatch the fire sticks, but the crocodile had them clutched to his breast. Again and again the rainbow bird tried.

'You eat raw food,' the crocodile told him. 'I'm not giving you fire.'

'I want fire. You are too mean. If I had had fire I would have given it to you. Wirid, wirid, wirid, wirid, wirid!' Down he came. He missed. He flew up. 'Wirid, wirid, wirid!' They argued again.

'I'm not giving you fire. You are only a little man. Me, I'm a big man. You eat raw food!'

The rainbow bird was angry. 'Why do you knock me back all the time?'

The crocodile turned around for a moment. Snatch! The rainbow bird had the fire stick! 'Wirid, wirid, wirid!' Away he flew.

The crocodile could do nothing. He has no wings. The rainbow bird was above. 'You can go down into the water,' he called. 'I'm going to give fire to men!' The rainbow bird put fire everywhere, in every kind of tree except the pandanus. He made light, he burned, he cooked fish, crocodile, tortoise.

The crocodile had gone down into the water. The two had separated.

'I'll be a bird. I'll go into dry places,' the rainbow bird called out. 'You can go into the water. If you go to dry places you might die. I'll stay on top.'

The rainbow bird put the fire sticks in his behind. They stick out from there now. That was a long time ago.

Story courtesy of Australian Dreaming: 40 000 Years of Aboriginal History (1980) comp. Jennifer Isaacs, Lansdome Press, Sydney, NSW, p. 106

How to make a fire?

2009-07-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

It would be great to learn how to create fire and how to keep it alive. I mean from the beginning, without matches or petrol based fuels. Could someone in Suomussalmi region teach that skill? Creating the fire ourselves we would have something 'real' at the core of our ceremony/performance.

The ashes, if we are burning some wood, could maybe be used too. It is an essential, lifegiving, 'yield' of the cycle.

-Joel

Lecture 14.07.2009

2009-07-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

Fire Mythology

Ancient India: Agni. Aryans brought the Vedic faith to India from Iran 3500 years ago. Their beliefs were then written in Sanscrit as the Vedas, and these became the basis for Hinduism. The Vedic sacrifices were vital for the continuation of the cosmos. Their purpose was creative, to rejuvenate Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures.

Brahmins (priests) took an intoxicating drink called soma, and the highest priest simulated a new birth, taking on the character of a god, playing out the birth process with objects; he wore a belt to be an umbilical cord, he wrapped himself in a goatskin to represent the membranes around the phoetus, and he acted out being born. For the sacrifices in this ceremony, fire was essential. Grains, butter, sandalwood and other things were placed into the 3 fire altars.

It was fire that was the medium that enabled Agni the fire god to transport the offerings to heaven to the gods. This Agni is the way for humans to address the gods. He is the link between heaven and earth. Agni was believed to the protector of the world. Propitiating him meant continuing prosperity and avoiding calamity.

- Ancient Greece: Prometheus. (Hesiod’s version)

Prometheus himself had created the human race, out of clay. He sculpted them and Athena breathed life into them. However, Zeus dedcided to destroy them because of their faults, and would create a better creature instead. He planned this destruction by depriving humans of fire and by demanding food sacrifices. Prometheus took fire to the humans in the stalk of a fennel plant form Olympus. He also tricked Zeus into getting only fat and entrails as sacrificed food. For this Zeuz bound Prometheus to a rock, to have his liver eaten out eternally by an eagle.

- Other myths with the same story:

- Indians of the Amazon River basin in Brazil say that a jaguar rescued a boy and took him to its cave. There the boy watched the jaguar cooking food over a fire. The boy stole a hot coal from the fire and took it to his people, who then learned to cook.

- Legends in the Caroline Islands of the Pacific link fire to Olofat, a mythical trickster hero who was the son of the sky god and a mortal woman. As a youth, Olofat forced his way into heaven to see his father. Later Olofat gave fire to human beings by allowing a bird to fly down to earth with fire in its beak.

- According to the Navajo, Coyote tricked two monsters that guarded the flames on Fire Mountain. Then he lit a bundle of sticks tied to his tail and ran down the mountain to deliver the fire to his people.

- Ancient Rome: Fires of Vesta. (greek name Hestia, goddess of the hearth).

Sacred fire burned in Vesta’s circular temple in the Roman forum. Six Vestal Virgins were selected by lo and served for 30 years tending the holy fire and performing other rituals, such as sweeping and preparation of foods for festivals. By analogy, they also tended the life and soul of the city and of the body politic through the sacred fire of Vesta. The rites of Vesta ended in 394 AD. The hearth has been throughout mythologies the centre of the home, and has served as a metaphor for the home. Its latin name is Focus.

- Ancient Ireland: The burning of the Wicker Man (photo).

The ancient druids (priests of Celtic paganism) built a large wicker statue of a human, and in very early times, would place a man inside it, before setting it on fire. This was meant to be a sacrifice to the gods. They generally sacrificed thieves and criminals as they pleased the gods more, but sometimes used innocent men. Today, some neopagan groups continue the tradition, without the person inside the sculpture. The wicker man is burned at festivals and celebrations, such as the winter solstice.

There is a Wickerman rock festival in Scotland annually, and also the Burnign Man festival in Nevada, USA

- Viking Burials: Viking burials for kings or leaders were elaborate, as the body was placed on a wooden ship with offerings, and then the ship was burned.

In an area called Rus, near Kiev, where Swedish Vikings had settled, a ship burial was observed in AD 921 by the Muslim Arab traveller, Ahmed Ibn Fadlan: “The burial featured the corpse of a chieftain dressed in sumptuous silk and brocade and surrounded by grave-offerings of food, drink and herbs. A dog, two chickens, cows and two horses were then sacrificed and thrown in pieces on to the ship. Another, human sacrifice – a slave girl- was strangled and stabbed and also placed on the vessel. The ship was then set on fire.” Another account describes the woman who was sacrificed as one of the king’s wives, and that she volunteered to go with the king into the afterlife.

- Japan: Around the 7^th of January and many days afterward, the Japanese have a tradition of burning New Year’s decorations to symbolize the act of moving forward. The decorations are piled into a large tower, called a dondo yaki, made of straw. This is lit and all of the decorations are burned with the dondo yaki.

Another ceremony happens on the 7^th day of the 7^th month of the lunar calendar, called the Tanabata. In this ceremony to celebrate the love story of two lovers separated by a river, people write wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on small pieces of paper and hang them on bamboo.

The bamboo and decorations are set afloat on a river or burned after the festival. The idea of burning the wishes is that by turning them into smoke, the smoke will rise to the heavens and the gods will receive the person’s wish. Also, at temples wishes can be written onto wooden placards to be later burned in a fire ceremony.

- Finnish fire mythology: Kalevala. The mistress of Pohjola captures the Sun and the Moon who have descended to listen to Väinämöinen’s kantele playing. She hides the sun in a mountain and the moon in rocks. She then steals the fire from the homes of Kalevala. Ukko, the Supreme God, is surprised at the darkness in the sky, and kindles fire for a new moon and a new sun. The fire falls to the ground, and Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen go to search for it at Lake Alue. They are told it is there and that it has been swallowed by a fish., a grey pike.

- They make a net out of flax. Finally the catch the fish, but are afraid to touch it with bare hands. The son of the Sun, Panu, said he would cut it open if he had a knife, and then a knife falls from heaven to him, and he dissects the fish. Within it is another fish, within it another, etc, till finally in the entrails they find a “spark of fire”. This spark turned quickly into a fire and burned the beard of Väinämöinen, burned the smith’s hands and cheeks, and then went over the Lake Alue to burn the forest on the other side, burning half the land of Pohja, Savo, Carelia. Väinämöinen followed it and cast a spell to contain it within the “hearth of stone” of kitchens and in fire boxes of homes. He “thrust the spark of fire in a little piece of tinder, in the fungus hard of birch-tree, and among the copper kettles. Fire he carried to the kettles, took it in the bark of birch-tree, to the end of misty headland, and the hazy islandäs summit. Now was fire within the dwellings, in the rooms again twas shining.”