History

Fire Family has its roots in the Firedance Festival, a sacred fire circle gathering that was itself directly inspired by and in many ways modeled after Rites of Spring, a gathering in Western Massachusetts put on by EarthSpirit, an extended spiritual community based out of Boston. The initial goals of Firedance were to transplant or recreate the style of magical fire circle that had developed over a decade and more at Rites of Spring to the West Coast. Firedance was a beautifully-produced festival with stunning artistic vision (thanks to Producer Adam Fleischer and Artistic Directors Jeff McBride and Abbi Spinner McBride), and ran annually from 2000 to 2004.

As often happens when people get together repeatedly to drum and dance around a sacred fire, a community was born around the fire at Firedance. Unlike festivals, communities are not owned by individuals, and the needs of a growing community are not the same as the needs of a festival. Accordingly, the fledgling West Coast Fire Family, with the active support of some of the elders of the EarthSpirit Fire Circle, created its own tribal gathering of the clans, happening for the first time in August, 2006 and called Phoenix Fire. This gathering is being run as a non-profit venture, with any surplus funds being used as seed money for future gatherings.