The Way of Fire
An initiation journey with fire, nature and community
Across cultures and throughout human history, Fire has sat at the heart of community life — a place where people gathered to share stories, mark important moments and seek wisdom.
Yet in modern life, many of us have lost our relationship with this powerful element.
The Way of Fire is an invitation to reconnect with fire as teacher, mirror and ally.
Through a powerful guided process, nature connection, ceremony, solitude and community, this journey offers an opportunity to deepen your relationship with yourself, the land and the more-than-human world.
At the heart of this journey is The Fire Quest — an overnight initiation with fire, held within a wider community of support.
What is a Fire Quest?
A Fire Quest is an initiation with fire.
Throughout human history, people have stepped away from everyday life at times of change, uncertainty, grief or important decision-making to seek deeper guidance through solitude and relationship with the natural world.
Sitting alone with a fire through the night creates space to listen — to the fire, the land and the deeper wisdom within yourself.
This is not a fixed rite of passage, although for some people it may mark a significant threshold in their lives.
Rather, it is an opportunity to step beyond the familiar, meet yourself in a different way and discover what emerges through relationship with this ancient element.
The Call
There are moments in life when something in us knows it is time to step away from the ordinary.
A relationship changes. We experience loss or grief. We want to honour the threshold of menopause. We reach a significant birthday. The children leave home. Our work, identity or sense of who we are is shifting. We become a parent, an elder, or find ourselves standing at the edge of something new.
Sometimes there is a question we are carrying. Sometimes there is simply a feeling that something is changing, that we need to pause, listen and find our way forward.
A Fire Quest offers a space to step out of everyday life and into a deeper relationship with yourself, the land and the fire.
You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what your question is.
You may come with a clear intention, a decision you are wrestling with, a threshold you are standing at, or simply a sense that you are being called.
The fire gives you space to listen and discover what is waiting to emerge.
The Way of Fire journey
For first-time questers, this journey unfolds through three stages:
Preparation → Fire Quest Ceremony → Integration
Each stage has its own purpose, creating a supported process that allows the experience to continue unfolding long after the fire goes out.
Stage One: Fire Immersion & Preparation
Building relationship with fire
21st March, 11th April & 25th April 2027
A woodland venue near Hebden Bridge (venue TBC)
The journey begins with three fire immersion days where we build relationship with fire, the land and each other.
Through fire tending, nature connection practices, embodiment, song, ceremony and council, we begin to explore the practices and ways of being that will support you through the Quest.
We explore traditional ways of working with fire, develop your awareness and cultivate the qualities needed to enter the ceremony with presence and intention. We also explore what has brought you to this point, deepen your relationship with the natural world and begin to listen more deeply to what you are seeking through the Quest.
The days are held by Leona and an Acorn Team of experienced Fire Questers, each bringing their own experience, practice and leadership to the journey. Together, they form part of the wider Village that will hold the Quest.
You will also receive personal preparation and support from Leona, helping you explore what you are bringing to the fire, what you are seeking or questioning, and how you are being called into this experience.
Stage Two: The Fire Quest Ceremony
A four-day journey with fire
6th–9th May 2027
Woodsworth Exploring, Oakworth, Keighley
The heart of the journey.
The Quest weekend is a four-day gathering on the land, held within a wider Village of people who come together in service to the Quest, the community and the vision of cultural emergence.
You arrive on the land on the first day, meeting the Village, greeting the land and settling in together with a beautifully prepared feast next to the fire. There is time to arrive, connect with the place and the people around you, and begin to settle into the rhythm of the Quest.
The second day is a gentle day of preparation. With support from the Fire Team and Village, you prepare yourself and your intentions for the night ahead. This includes a cleansing ceremony and time to explore and land with the intention you will carry into your Quest.
A Sacred Fire is created to honour and remember ancestors and is tended throughout the night. This is also the threshold from where you leave and where you return.
You will then spend a full night, from sunset to sunrise, alone in the woods with your own fire, awake in solitude and fasting from food and sleep for approximately 24 hours.
This is a time to listen deeply: to the fire, to the land and to the questions, intentions or thresholds you bring with you.
While you are out on Quest, the Village remains present and in service to the ceremony and each other and holding space for you.
The Village is made up of the Questers, the Acorn Team who have supported the journey through the Fire Immersion & Preparation days, and other people who come specifically to be in service to the ceremony and the wider vision of cultural emergence.
Most of those who come to hold the Village will have completed a Fire Quest themselves. They know something of what you are about to step into and bring their own experience, presence and willingness to cook, chop wood, care for, listen, share songs and experiences and celebrate life in service to the ceremony. Having been held by the Village themselves, they return in service to hold the next group of Questers.
At dawn, you are welcomed home by the Village.
The final day is a time of coming back together, feasting and celebrating. There may be music and song, fire and dancing, food prepared byt he village, storytelling, laughter and togetherness. It is a chance to be witnessed and welcomed home, to share what you wish to share, and to begin the process of making meaning from what you have experienced.
The Fire Quest is more than the night spent alone with the fire. It is a journey of arriving, greeting the land, preparing with support, crossing the threshold, being held through the night and being welcomed home into community.
Stage Three: Integration & Gratitude Day
Bringing the lessons home
13th June 2027
The journey does not end when the fire goes out.
Five weeks after the quest, we gather again to reflect, share and deepen into what has been revealed.
This is a time to explore how the lessons of the initiation can become part of everyday life — moving from a powerful experience into an embodied practice.
We also honour reciprocity by gathering around the fire and sharing food with the Village who supported the ceremony.
The integration is where the experience continues to unfold.
Investment
The Way of Fire is a complete journey of training, ceremony and integration, designed to support you to enter the Fire Quest with preparation, presence and a deeper relationship with fire, yourself, the land and the community around you.
Total investment: £705
This includes:
3 full days of deep ceremonial training and experiential learning, where we explore what has brought you to this point, develop your relationship with fire and learn how to make and tend fire, explore spiritual communication and ancestral relationship, and deepen your capacity for nature connection and embodied awareness
Learning and practising within the Eight Shields model, a nature-based framework that helps us understand and create the conditions that support healthy connection with ourselves, each other, the land and the more-than-human world
Embodiment, nature communication, song, council and ceremony, woven throughout the training and the wider journey
A 60 Minute 1:1 preparation and coaching session with Leona, held by Zoom or phone, giving you dedicated space to explore what you are bringing to the fire and how you are being called into this experience.
Preparation and support between the training days and the Quest, helping you develop your relationship with the fire, your intention and the experience you are stepping into
Zoom calls between sessions, creating space to stay connected, ask questions and deepen your preparation as the Quest approaches
Direct WhatsApp access to the Fire Team and wider group, so you are held in relationship and community throughout the journey
The Fire Quest weekend, including delicious catered food, camping, firewood, venue and shared ceremonial materials
A full-day Integration & Gratitude Day, held 5 weeks after the Quest, when the whole Village comes together once again to support integration and to offer and receive gratitude for the transformative benefits of this powerful cultural practice
Of the £705, £555 is the programme investment and approximately £150 covers the direct costs of the Fire Quest weekend.
The ceremony itself is not charged for. The £150 Quest Weekend contribution covers the practical costs of holding the ceremony, including the venue, food, camping, firewood and shared ceremonial materials. The facilitation and holding of the ceremony are offered freely for that weekend.
Once you have completed the full Way of Fire journey, you will have the opportunity to return for future Fire Quests. Having been held by the Village yourself, you can choose to return in service to future Questers and become part of the ongoing Village or to re-quest at cost price, making this an ongoing cultural routine that you bring into your life on an ongoing basis if you want.
Payment plans are available to make this as affordable as possible through an initial deposit of £205 and 4 monthly instalments of £125.
If you feel called to this journey but have specific circumstances or requests around payment, please get in touch. We’d love for it to be available to those who feel genuinely called.
Who is this for?
The Way of Fire may be for you if you feel called to:
Deepen your relationship with nature and yourself
Spend meaningful time in solitude and reflection
Mark a transition or threshold in your life
Explore initiation, leadership and community
Develop a deeper relationship with the elements
Become part of a living community rooted in connection and reciprocity
You may be standing at a particular threshold in your life: monopause, a change in relationship, grief or loss, a significant birthday, a change in work or identity, becoming a parent or elder, or simply sensing that something in your life is changing.
Or you may not be able to name it at all. You may simply feel a call, a question or a sense that it is time to step out of the familiar and listen more deeply.
No previous experience is required.
You do not need to know exactly why you are being called.
Sometimes the question only becomes clear once we sit beside the fire.
The lineage
The Way of Fire is inspired by teachings carried through the Eight Shields community and by a lineage of Indigenous peoples of North America.
We approach this work with respect, reciprocity and humility, honouring the origins and relationships from which these teachings have emerged.
This offering has also been shaped by this land, this community and many years of practice, training and relationship.
About Leona
Leona Johnson is a transformational life coach, ecopsychology practitioner and ceremonial facilitator with a background in social work, Forest School, nature connection and community building.
Her work weaves together the Eight Shields model, Connected Leadership, initiation practices, coaching and deep relationship with the living world.
She creates spaces where people can reconnect with themselves, each other and the living world.
Supporting team
Leona will be supported by an Acorn Team of experienced Fire Questers, who will each hold a direction within the Quest and bring their own experience, practice and leadership to the journey. They will form the core of the wider Village that holds the Quest.
Register your interest
If something in you is stirred by this invitation — whether it arrives as curiosity, excitement or a quiet sense of recognition — we would love to hear from you.
You are welcome to register your interest below or book a discovery call with Leona if you have questions before committing.
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"By far the most powerful process of my life. My words don't do justice to the experience. So much learned and still to process. I can say with confidence I am a not the same person I was when I started this journey. I am wiser, stronger, more hopeful. I want to sing more. I am more connected. I am more aware and I am so grateful. "
Danny MacDonnell
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"When I look back I can't believe how much my life has changed, and how much I have changed . I am more settled in myself, who I am and why I am here. So much transformation and joy in assimilating all the experiences and learnings"
Sam
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"A really deep and beautiful experience which has brought me finally into a more intimate connection and understanding with nature, the elements and in particular the guidance and wisdom of fire. It was and still is such a powerful journey with practical fire skills and also on a deeper journey of personal initiation as the magic and lessons continue to reveal themselves and unfold.
Carl