"Fire has been used for 1.5 million years," Marshak states in The Roots of Civilization.  It is the one element that has been valued by all cultures.  Fire connects us to the past. It forges a reverence for the natural world and brings back feelings of interconnectedness that have been lost. Fire is the one element that can help forge our energies in a more positive way to change the direction in which the world seems headed.  Fire is the one element that connects all cultures at the heart level.   This Peace Fire is from the eternal Fire of the Potawatomi's and comes to camp for ALL people.

 

Vision 
The Peace Fire Circle will help to establish The Historic Methodist Campground, Des Plaines, IL, as a place dedicated to promoting enduring daily interfaith cooperation, where people from our community and around the world gather for initiatives that foster a culture of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

 

Mission

The Peace Fire Circle will continue and extend the traditions established at Northeastern Illinois University by the elders in 1996 and around the world for peace gatherings where spiritual, educational, and corporate leaders come together as one community working for peace.

 

Peace Fire Ceremonies

Special events hosted at the campground will afford the opportunity (for those interested) to gather around a sacred Fire in small and large discussion groups to explore how we can manifest peace in ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world. 

 

History

The Sacred Fire was re-lit on Feb. 16, 1996, at the Northeastern Campus by Firekeepers Mukta Thē Bruce Hardwick and Mukwa O Day Duane Kinnart reactivating the ancient energy that was in that land.  Since then, many renowned peace and spiritual leaders have participated in the NEIU peace fire ceremonies, including Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, primatologist Jane Goodall, Mongolian Shamans from the Mongol Tenger Unen Association, Angaanaq (Uncle) from Greenland, spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sri Sri jit Telang from India, Tibetan monks from the Drepung Monastery, and Native elders and tribal leaders from many nations.  The coal bundles and ashes from this sacred Fire have traveled to every corner of the world.

 

We are honored to have the Wisdom Keepers establish a Peace Fire Circle at the Historic Methodist Campground in Des Plaines, IL to provide a safe space for the next generation to experience the wisdom of the elders.  

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Justice for All Creation

"How can we reciprocate the gifts of the Earth? In gratitude, in ceremony, through acts of practical reverence and land stewardship, in fierce defense of the beings and places we love, in art, in science, in song, in gardens, in children, in ballots, in stories of renewal, in creative resistance, in how we spend our money, and our precious lives, by refusing to be complicit with the forces of ecological destruction.  In healing." 

 

 ~ Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer 
Mother, scientist, writer, and Distinguished Teaching Professor
 of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College 
Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York