We are open to the request of a group of a minimum of thirteen people to go through the Nine Fires Ceremonial Journey. This process involves at least nine months of advance preparations leading up to a 13-day ceremonial retreat at the Patziapa Sanctuary in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala from August 8th to August 20th, 2024 for the Mayan Calendar 13-day week of Jun (1) Q’anil to Oxlajuj (13) Ajpu.

With the travel required to get to Patziapa, the in-person part of this journey would require 17 days of committed time. The dates to fly in and out of Guatemala would be arriving on August 6th and departing on August 22nd, 2024.

Once there is a committed group of at least 13 people by November 22nd, 2023, there will need to be a ceremonial request from the group to start the preparations for the Nine Fires through offering cacao to Tat Erick. This is 260 days before the first day of the Nine Fires ceremonies, marking the beginning of the

Through the ceremonial process of the Nine Fires, we will learn how to lay the Mayan fire, to call in the powers of the Daylords and their vibrations to create the matrix through which our prayers are manifested, and begin to develop a mirror relationship with the fire to gain a better understanding of ourselves, the natural forces, and our healing processes. This process is part of the Medicine Wheel of the Sacred Teachings.

When we meet in person at Patziapa in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala for this retreat, you will need to bring a number of items to be prepared for the ceremonies. This begins with your personal cacao ceremonial request to do the Nine Fires, as one of the Seven Gifts, and you will entrust your bundle to Tat Erick, on the first day of the ceremonies. 

For the fires themselves you will need to have a comal, personal pipe, a fire starting kit, a mesa, and enough ceremonial fire materials ready for all nine fires. Some of these will be able to be sourced in Guatemala, and many things would need to be brought in your suitcases for these ceremonies.

A description of each is given below:

The Seven Gifts
The number seven works from the Mayan Creation Story written in the Popol Vuh, and is the energy of all things in balance. In most mystic traditions around the world, the number seven carries great importance, and this is why we work with this number when relating to the gifts.

The gifts represent your ideas or views of what this work will be for you; they reflect a mirror image of what you want to gain from the ceremonies. These gifts are also to honor the request to go through these sacred ceremonial experiences and receive the teachings and shamanic practices of the Maya. The gifts are for the altar, the medicines, and the Sacred work, to maintain a good relationship with them, and are presented to Tat Erick. One of the gifts is the financial offering.

Another one of the gifts is a cacao drink ceremony- it is up to each person to choose their own ingredients and create their own expression. Each individual will bring all the ingredients to prepare this drink and share why they were chosen, then make and serve the cacao drink. The cacao has been a ceremonial sacred drink of the Maya that brings sustenance, strength, endurance, and beauty. The cacao ceremony is similar in nature to the Japanese Tea Ceremony, in which we can savor the elegance and beauty of life. All aspects of this ceremony - the choice of ingredients, preparation, and presentation - are to express our gratitude and to share the joy of savoring life.

Comals
Her name is Nan Ixok, and she is the ceramic “Comal” or dish, which will hold the ceremonial fire. She represents the sacred foundation in which your healing will occur. Choose wisely, due to the incredible heat and power of the fires. The Comal should be a shallow ceramic dish about 14” round and thick, fire ready. In this Ixok you will have a spiritual relationship with a great amount of emotions, visions, and understandings, so choose her well. You want to ask her to carry your burdens of your past, and to lighten your path in the future. You will be doing all nine fires on top of the ashes of the previous one, in this dish. When the ninth fire is completed, we will break the Comal and you will need to make nine pilgrimages to take the pieces and leave them at sacred sites. We will share more about the pilgrimages later in the journey.

The Bundle 
At the time of giving the seven gifts, a sacred medicine Bundle will be presented to Tat Erick as a symbol of your commitment to this sacred process. The small bundle should consist of items that represent the tools that you would like to use in your ceremonial life/practice. The medicine bundles of each person will be bundled together and placed upon our main altar, as a representation of all of you and your intentions, being held together throughout this journey by Tat Erick. The bundles will will remain with us like this until the nine ceremonies are complete, when they will be returned to you in ceremony. They will be holding the frequency of intention that you put into this as you go through your process of the nine fires, and will be infused with the energies of the ceremonies.

The Personal Pipe
The personal pipe is for each person to offer prayers using the sacred tobacco. This pipe should be only for your personal use, and not to be smoked or touched by any other person. We smoke our pipes as we call in the directions of each fire. Pipes are best to be received as gifts or make your own, they are not intended to be purchased. If you do not have a pipe, you can use a corn husk to roll the tobacco to make prayers.

The Mesa
We will lay a personal mesa/altar on the earth next to each fire to support your intention and anchor your prayers. To learn about the mesa and the items to include, the online course Anchoring a Secure Space in a Changing World- Empowerment & Transformation Through the Use of Altars is one of the required teachings in preparation.

Fire Starting Kit
Together we will strike our 9 fires ablaze. We will practice fire starting prior to meeting in person, and share recommendations for good strikers and materials to make nests to catch the spark as part of our preparations. 

Fire Materials
The Mayan fire ceremonies do not use any wood. With prayers, a mandala is created out of natural materials. The offerings that we put into the fire carry our prayers to the Creator.  Some herbs are grown or collected by the traditional Maya in Guatemala and are prepared in a sacred way for these fire ceremonies. We will provide some of the fire materials from Guatemala as part of your contribution. You will also need to procure, through harvest or purchase, additional fire materials enough for nine ceremonial fires.

Each offering carries a different energy and intention, a different prayer, and the combination is a rich banquet of energies offered to the Creator. The offerings used to create this fire mandala bring blessings to ourselves, our families, the earth, and all our relations. All the nine ceremonial fires are made inside of the same comal on top of the ashes from the previous fire, so the amount of materials that can fit are limited. Detailed information about the materials needed will be provided in the near future. Some materials include: natural taper candles, chocolate, honey, sugar, lots of dried herbs (the main part of the fire), cornmeal and more. 

The bulk of the materials for the Mayan Fires are dried herbs and dried flowers - each carries its own medicine, fragrance, and form. We often use cedar, sage, dried flowers, rosemary, lavender, calendula, etc… If you have plants that you work with, they make especially nice offerings for your fire. We suggest that you start gathering and drying plants every time you are able, and build up a nice supply to have ready for the ceremonies.