The Seven Fires of Creation as told by Eli Baxter

The Seven Fires is a cultural story of the Ozhibii’igeininiwag that presents how the world came to be.

The First Fire begins after a heartbeat was heard in the darkness and a flash of thunder was  seen, and there stood Gitche Manitou, the  Creator.

The Second Fire was the creation of the Sacred Circle and Sacred Fire by the Creator. The Sacred Circle is an essential and important teaching of the Anishnabeg people that tells a story of wholeness and how the circle is the Creation of Life. It is how Anishnabeg view themselves, their community, and their actions. It was how the Creator was able to hear his thoughts come back to him while he was thinking and caused a link into the mind, body, spirit, and heart. It is also within the Sacred Circle we see how the Creator formed the sun, the Sacred Fire.

Creator thought to himself that there must be twinness, and so the Third Fire created light and dark, good and bad, and so on.

Thinking to himself that this was good, he said being good was sacred, and so the Fourth Fire was created.

Then he thought that there must be sound and he made birds, and these birds became a sacred animal that was able to communicate with the Creator, but also because they carry the seeds of life he created, and so there was the Fifth Fire.

Then he thought that he would make someone that he could always go to, and so he made Mother Earth, and she was beautiful, and he loved her with all his heart, and so the creation of the earth was the Sixth Fire.

Then he said, I will make a man red from the soil and let him live on Mother Earth, and so he created Anishnabeg, the original man, and the creation of man was the Seventh Fire. Anishnabeg would travel the land and name all that Creator made, and he was to live in balance with the animals that Creator formed on Mother Earth, and when he was placed on earth he gently walked on the grass, breaking not one blade.

It is in these Fires we remember our connection to the land, and grow into who we will be based on the Creators gifts and teachings.