Foundational Firekeeping Training - 4 Week

🔥 Answer the Call of the Fire 🔥 - Step into Firekeeping!

Have you ever felt the pull to hold fires for your community—beautiful fires that fosters unity, inspires creativity, and weaves together spiritual nourishment with grounded community building?

This 4-week Firekeeper Training is an invitation to step into a practical set of skills, rooted in primal recnnection to fire, and yet urgently relevant practice: Firekeeping as Spiritual Activism.

A Firekeeper is more than a fire-tender—they are a steward of community building, & transformation, creating spaces where ritual, prayer, music, and presence can foster deeper connection, solidarity, and spiritual nourishment.

In these times of disconnection, Fire can offers a return to belonging and safe space for connection and Unity beyond differences : with each other, with the Earth, and in full undisturbed presence of an inspiring diverse in community. Diversity of songs, of stories, of arts, poetry and much more.

Guided by experienced Firekeeper Francesco, leader of an evolving international movement of Firekeeping, you will gain the skills and confidence to:

✨Prepare, Build and tend sacred fires
✨ Hold inclusive circles and ceremonies
✨ Organise meaningful fireside events
✨ Weave community through music, story, and ritual

This training combines practical firecraft (e.g. ignition techniquest/essential H&S toolkit), energetic and space-holding awareness, and practical community-building tools to empower you to bring fire into your life and community work in a way that is purposeful and inclusive

🔥 Firekeeping is more than practice—it’s a form of activism for personal and collective transformation.

When - 4 week training (+ 4 Fireside Sessions)

4 x Wednesday - 18:00-20:00

• 22nd October
• 29th October
• 5th November
• 15th November

+ Each training session will roll into an open evening Fireside Sessions @ The Salisbury Centre (20:00-21:45) .

Trainee firekeepers are welcome and encourage to attend (for free) to these session as a way toput Firekeeping learnings into practice . The training package includes a monthly 1-hr debriefing call on Zoom (to integrate learning from fireside events)

Financial Exchange & Community Empowerment Model

This training is offered as a trial hybrid model between The Salisbury Centre’s Community Empowerment Programme (focused on accessibility) and a partnership between the facilitator and the Salisbury Centre.

---------

While the training has a standard participation cost (partly due to the high cost of firewood required), a limited number of subsidised places are available for Salisbury Centre community members (see details below).

🔥 Week 1 – Foundations of Firekeeping

Focus: Connection, Awareness & Ritual Safety

Themes include:

• Firekeeping as a sacred practice
• Energetic contract with the land: listening, intention & reciprocity
• Plant allies & offerings: Copal, Frankincense, Mugwort, Tobacco
• Energetic & practical clearing for self and space
• Firestarter Ritual: grounding with breath, voice & song
• Safety & environmental awareness

🌹 Week 2 – Intention & Ceremony: Preparing the Fire & Space

Focus: Preparation, Intention-Setting & Sacred Logistics

Themes include:

• Preparing the fireplace: reading the land, placement, wind, moisture
• Firekeeper’s toolkit: knife, tinder, smudge, resins, firewood, water
• Ignition techniques for different purposes
• Fire intentions: relating to fire as a living being
• Creating a ceremonial container with clarity & integrity

🦋 Week 3- Fire & Song: The Art and Tools of Firekeeping

Focus: Expression, energetic awareness, and personal growth

Themes include:

• Reading the fire’s language: flames, embers, timing for feeding or waiting
• Dimensional awareness: holding sacred space while navigating community dynamic
• Shadow work & community holding: transmuting personal and group energy
• Artistic curation: voice, song, poetry, chanting, and improvisation around the fire
• Boundaries, safety, and care in communal practice

🐝 Week 4 – Fire as Community Focus: Integration & Sacred Activism

Focus: Ceremony completion, community building, and ongoing practice

Themes include:

• Tending the fireplace: reading the land, placement, wind, moisture
• Firekeeping tools: knife, tinder, smudge, resins, firewood, water
• Ignition techniques for different purposes
• Fire intentions: understanding fire as a living being
• Setting ceremonial intentions, creating a clear container for the work

Financial Exchange

This training is offered as a trial hybrid model between The Salisbury Centre’s Community Empowerment Programme (focused on accessibility) and a partnership between the facilitator and the Centre.

While the training has a standard participation cost (partly due to the high cost of firewood required), a limited number of subsidised places are available for Salisbury Centre community members (see details below).

💠 Training Cost (Full 4 Weeks) – £250

Your investment includes:

• 4 x 2hr training sessions (Wednesdays 18:00–20:00)
• 4 x 2hr Fireside Sessions (20:00–21:30)
• All firewood, fire starters & materials
• Monthly Firekeepers’ Community Zoom Check-ins (until March 2026)
• Membership in the Firekeepers Collective, with priority invitations to firekeeping roles at Arts & Music conscious festivals (e.g. The Salisbury Centre, Medicine Festival, Kelburn, UK events)

🔥 Subsidised Places

As part of the Salisbury Centre’s Community Empowerment Programme, members of the community can apply for:

• 1 x Free Bursary
  For those who genuinely cannot afford to pay. This is intended for people facing significant financial hardship, where even a subsidised cost would not be accessible. If meeting basic needs is already a struggle, this bursary exists to ensure you can still participate. Your presence matters, and you are welcome here.
• 1 x Subsidised Bursary (£150)
  For those on a low income who may still have some limited capacity to contribute. This tier is designed for students, carers, single parents, those unemployed or underemployed, or anyone navigating financial difficulty or systemic barriers. If you rarely spend on extras or feel stressed about covering essentials, this option is here to support your participation.

👉 To apply, please email events@salisburycentre.org sharing:

• What bursary you are applying for
• Why are you interested in this training & how it may benefit you
• How you might apply the learning within the Salisbury Centre community

--------------------------------------------------

🌿 Optional Add-Ons

1:1 Firekeeping Mentoring

• 1 hour session – £50
• 5 hours package – £200 (includes support for organising your first Fireside Event at The Salisbury Centre garden fire-pit, with no hire fee; 40% of income goes to The Centre)

Sacred Firekeeping Starter Kit – £100
Includes:

• 6pc "Okote" resin firelighters
• Natural fibres fireplace broom
• Flint & steel sparker
• Serrated saw for cutting fire-sticks
• Copal smudging resin & charcoal disks

Venue/Room:

Training will take place either outdoors at the Garden Firepit or indoors in the Art Room (with the Rose-Flame Sacred Indoor Fireplace in case of bad weather).The skills and firekeeping practices taught are fully applicable to both outdoor and indoor settings. Final location will depend on weather and room availability.

Accessibility:

Please, it is important to let the organisers know in advance of any access requirements. The Art Room is Wheel Chair accessible. The garden is also wheelchair accessible via a Ramp. Please, it is key to email the facilitator in advance. Please email FrancescoBenvenuti.ed@gmail.com

About the Facilitator:

Francesco Benvenuti is a firekeeper, ceremonialist, and community weaver committed to bridging spiritual practice with grounded community action. Rooted in a background of ecological science, global activism, and indigenous-inspired ceremonial work, he has spent over a decade facilitating sacred fire circles, ceremonies, voice workshops, and land-based rituals across Europe and the Americas.

He is the founder of the Oak Ash & Thorn Hub in Roslin and the Living Fire Collective—initiatives that support the rise of resilient spiritual hubs, trained firekeepers, and a trusted network of stewards carrying the Sacred Fire into the heart of culture, honouring ancient practices and rooting in sacred reciprocity laws. His work weaves together Georgian polyphony, devotional chanting, men’s spaces, and seasonal celebration, reconnecting people to voice, nature, and purpose.

More at: www.linktr.ee/harmonicmirrors