Fire Circle

The Crossroads Fire Circle at the 4-Way

The Crossroads Fire Circle at the 4-Way is the center point of our community’s celebrations and the site of the magnanimous public art installation created by Vinotok Grump Master and Visionary Artkitect JoeBob Merritt. It will be installed by Sunday, September 17, 2023 with the community coming together to decorate it with flowers and greenery at the Adornment of the Fire Circle. Come interact with the Crossroads Fire Circle throughout the week of Vinotok. Walk the Labyrinth. Place your grumps into the secure Grump Shrine or into the Grump when he arrives. Hang your Beckoning Prayer Flag. Altar activities on the Vinotok Pilgrimage culminate at the Crossroads Fire Circle.

Walking a Labyrinth
The Crested Butte Labyrinth of Life

A labyrinth is an ancient tool that can help in deepening our spirituality, bringing forward the connection to our soul which helps us tap into our intuition, creativity, simplicity, body, spirit, intimacy and community. It is a walking meditation or prayer that engages your body, mind and soul. It is a path inward and a path outward, which is the same path, and represents the path we are on in life.

Walking the labyrinth is a meditation. As you move slowly through it, take a step with each full breath, ask a question, put forth an intention, look for a sign. When you reach the center, simply close your eyes and breathe.

How we use the labyrinth is through very personal intention. The labyrinth invites all experiences into its energy; be it grief, joy, love, wonder, or play. Walking the labyrinth is the way to listen to our inner wisdom and receive the answers and support of Spirit and the Universe.

Each time you walk the labyrinth may be for a different reason. You may be seeking:

balance or centering, healing, experiencing the energies, connection to your higher self, or opening awareness.

When you start to walk the labyrinth, stand at the opening and take a minute to reflect on what it is you want to learn or the answer you seek. Pause, breathe deeply, and focus attention on your intention so that you are inviting a clear answer. The more consciously we prepare for our walk, the deeper the walk will be.

Start the walk by offering gratitude to your Ancestors, to the Earth, to Life and to the blessings of being at the very center of your community. This is the time to ask for guidance and support from that Being or principle in whose Light you walk and in which you believe, be it Nature, Higher Power, Creator, a spirit animal, an angel, wisdom guide, favorite god or goddess, or the winds. You can take this opportunity to bow to this special Life Force and give thanks. This can be a verbal, visual or a physical bow.

Acknowledge your intention, your support, and the commitment to the truth. When you are finished, take a deep breath, step into the labyrinth, and let your walk take you to the place of peace and understanding.

Once you reach the center of the labyrinth

relax, meditate, seek answers to questions.

At the Center of the labyrinth, you may feel how worries and busy thoughts have dropped away. This is the Still Point in which we pause, breathe, and open ourselves to guidance and received knowledge from the Source. Do not hurry. Simply be open and you will receive. Note the four cardinal directions around you. Honor these as well as the three directions – Above, Below, and Within. When you are ready, begin your journey outward, feeling your intentions deepening with every step and breath. This walking meditation releases tensions and brings a centeredness which allows our intentions to flow through us and out into the world. As you prepare to leave the labyrinth, offer another thought or prayer of thanks. You are Home. It is so.

Blessings from Marcie Telander, Vinotok Godmother


Sacrifice of the Great Grump
in the Transformational Fire

Invocation for the Elevation of the Grace and Gift of the Grump

Burn the Grumps!

Dispel Dystopia,
Deliver the Wastelands,

Destroy the Grumps,
Decide to Commit,
Dare for the Earth
Determine our Destiny–

Destroy the Grumps!
Divine the future–
Destiny is here.

Dedicate to All Beings,

Destroy the Grumps
and heal, heal, HEAL!

As we have reviewed, called forth and reckoned with those things from the passing year which we wish to purge and BANISH, we take responsibility for our part in each and all of these “Grumps.”

Written on small pieces of paper, each grump can also be experienced as a Blessing which celebrates wholeness in Transition and a BECKONING of the individual and collective renewal for the future. Our grievances and personal recognitions can be thought of as the healing fire which scours our inner vessels–literally “burning” them clean and now ready to receive the BLESSINGS of the new year. For many Northern European and other cultures, Mabon or the Autumn Equinox, was experienced as the New Year–the time in which the Dark Chases the Light and the Divine Feminine Earth gestates the coming of the Light and the rebirth and revelation of the Divine Masculine, the Green Man, at the Winter Solstice.

Video by Mark Schwiesow (2020)

The Vinotok Bonfire is the ritual of commiting to our accountability for our past and the Recommitment of our communal service to a healing future. We recognize the sacred story of the seasonal cycles–Life, Death and Rebirth–the Great Grump effigy rising like the Phoenix from the cleansing flames–for the community and for the planet.

Be Loved. Be more Wild than good. Wherever you are–you are here!

It is so! Blessings from your Godmother, Marcie Telander, the Sacred Smith and Grump Master, Joe Bob Merritt and from the power of our collective Soul on Fire–the Great Grump.