Reflections from a Fire Quest; Ancient ceremony, modern transformation, and the courage to stop playing small
When Fire Asks You the Questions You've Been Avoiding
Have you ever felt the pull to step more fully into your purpose, but found yourself holding back? Playing it safe? Letting fear dress itself up as humility or "being realistic"?
Last month, I spent an entire night sitting with fire in ceremonial practice—cold, uncomfortable, and confronting everything I'd been avoiding about how I was showing up in my life and work. By dawn, I was exhausted, cracked open, and finally clear. The fire had burned away my excuses.
This ancient practice—called a fire quest—isn't just about staying warm through the night. It's about allowing yourself to be witnessed, challenged, and transformed by one of nature's most powerful teachers. And the clarity that emerged has everything to do with the question I suspect you're wrestling with too: What would it look like to truly stop playing small?
In this post, I'm going to share what fire quests are, why they're one of the most powerful tools for transformation I know, and the three profound lessons that emerged from my night beside the flames. Whether you ever do a fire quest yourself or not, these insights can help you step more fully into your calling, right now, right where you are.
Theme One: Fire Teaches Us What Unwavering Commitment Looks Like
The Teacher That Never Wavers
Think about fire for a moment. It doesn't second-guess itself. It doesn't make excuses or take days off. Fire just burns—constant, true, completely committed to its nature. It transforms everything it touches without apology.
When you sit with fire all night, you're in relationship with a force that shows you, through its very existence, what it means to show up fully. No wavering. No backing down when it gets uncomfortable. Just pure, steady presence.
Here's what happened to me:
Around 2am, everything in me wanted to quit. I was cold, nauseous, physically purging old patterns. The warm house was just a short walk away. I could have made any number of reasonable-sounding excuses for leaving.
But the fire kept burning. It didn't care about my discomfort. It didn't offer me an out. It just asked me, through its constancy: Can you match this? Can you stay?
And in that moment, I realised how often I'd been giving myself permission to dim my light, to hold back, to not fully commit to what I knew I was here to do. The fire was showing me a different way—the way of complete commitment.
Theme Two: Transformation Requires Burning Away What's Dead
The Gift of Letting Go
Fire is both destroyer and life-giver. It consumes what's dead and releases light. It clears the old growth so new life can emerge.
This is ancient wisdom that every culture understood: before the new can arrive, the old must be released. Not gently set aside. Not carefully preserved "just in case." Burned. Transformed. Turned to ash so something else can grow.
What I learned in the dirt:
The hardest part of my fire quest came in the deep middle of the night. I spent long stretches with my face literally in the dirt beside the fire, feeling like I was composting parts of myself, old fears, old stories about who I should be, old ways of playing small that I'd been dragging around like dead weight.
It wasn't comfortable. It was physically intense—shaking, nausea, the sense of everything old and stuck moving through me. But the fire was burning those things up, and my body was processing the release.
Here's what I saw clearly: I'd been holding onto versions of myself that were done. The careful coach. The humble one who doesn't claim too much. The one who waits for permission. These weren't serving me anymore—they were dead wood. And fire doesn't negotiate with dead wood. It just burns it.
Not everything old is precious. Not everything from your past needs to be carried into your future. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do for yourself is let the fire have it.
Theme Three: The Sacred Meets Us When We Step Forward First
Life Gives You What You Need—But You Have to Show Up
Here's the profound knowing I carried away from that fire: When we bring our gifts, when we show up fully to who we are meant to be, life will give us what we need to do that. The universe, spirit, the sacred—whatever you want to call it—it meets us when we step forward.
But we have to step forward first.
This is the hard truth that fire illuminated for me: I'd been waiting. Waiting to feel ready. Waiting for permission. Waiting for the perfect conditions. Waiting for some external sign that it was time.
And the fire asked me: What are you waiting for? Why are you dimming your light? What are you so afraid of?
The clarity that came:
By the time dawn started to break the horizon, I felt something settle in me. It wasn't dramatic—no lightning bolts or visions. Just a recognition of who I am now, not who I was when I started this path ten years ago, not who I thought I should be, but who I actually am.
And she's ready. She's done hiding. She's done waiting.
The message was crystal clear: This is not the time to play small. This is not the time to hide our light. If we know our calling, it is absolutely our responsibility—our ability to respond—to bring our gifts fully.
You don't need to do a fire quest to know this truth. You already know what you're being called toward. You already know where you're playing small. You already know what gifts you're holding back.
The question is: Will you step forward? Will you trust that life will meet you when you do?
The Work Continues: From Fire Quest to Connected Self-Leadership
Everything I learned from that night beside the fire informs the work I do with my clients and community.
When I work with people in my Life Compass Curriculum or Pathways to Purpose coaching, we're not just talking about goal-setting or productivity. We're talking about connected self-leadership, about leading your life from a place of deep connection to yourself, to nature, to the sacred, to community.
We're talking about everyday spirituality, not spirituality that's reserved for special occasions, but spirituality that informs how you parent, how you work, how you relate, how you make decisions.
And yes, part of that work involves ceremony. The Nature Quest weekends I run in West Yorkshire bring people to the fire, to the quest, to the practices that our ancestors knew were essential. Because these aren't luxuries. They're how we mark the transitions of our lives. They're how we find clarity when we're lost. They're how we remember we're part of something larger.
The people I've held through their own quests, whether fire quests or nature quests—don't come back the same. They come back clearer, more aligned, more willing to step into their calling.
And that's what we need right now. Not more people playing small, but people fully alive to their purpose.
Three Practices to Work With Fire's Wisdom (Starting This Week)
You don't need to sit with fire all night to integrate these lessons. Here are three simple practices to help you embody fire's wisdom right now:
Practice One: Match Fire's Commitment
Choose one thing you've been half-committing to, a creative project, a difficult conversation, a practice you keep starting and stopping. Ask yourself: What would it look like to show up for this the way fire shows up? Fully. Without wavering. Even when it's uncomfortable.
This week, commit to showing up for this one thing every day, even if just for 10 minutes. No excuses. No backing down when it gets uncomfortable. Just pure, steady presence.
Practice Two: Offer Something to the Fire
Sit quietly and ask yourself: What old story, fear, or identity am I still carrying that's actually dead weight? If you were to symbolically offer it to the fire, what would you burn away?
Write it down on a piece of paper. Then, safely burn it (in your fireplace, a candle flame, or outside in a fire pit). As you watch it burn, feel the release. Or, if burning isn't possible, tear the paper into tiny pieces and blow them away like smoke. The key is to stop preserving what's done. Let it go. Make space for what's trying to emerge.
Practice Three: Take One Action Without Waiting
Identify one place where you've been waiting, for permission, for readiness, for perfect conditions. This week, take one concrete action toward your calling without waiting. Send the email. Make the call. Publish the thing. Start the project.
Don't wait until you feel ready. Fire doesn't wait. It burns. And when you match that energy, when you step forward in faith, the sacred meets you there.
Your Next Steps: Stop Playing Small, Start Stepping Forward
The fire is always burning, beautiful one. Not just in ceremony, but in the questions it asks of you every single day:
What are you waiting for?
Why are you dimming your light?
What needs to burn away so you can emerge fully?
You have what it takes to step more fully into your highest self. This is what these times are calling for. We are the ones we've been waiting for, and all that you've been through until now has led you here.
Ready to go deeper?
🎧 Listen to the full podcast episode here; where I share more about fire quests, the lineage of ceremony that informs my work, and how to bring this wisdom into your everyday life:
📥 Download your guide: Purpose Foundations £27 - to explore practical ways to deepen into your own purpose and mission :
🔥 Curious about ceremony and quest work? If you're standing at a threshold and need clarity, or if you're ready to stop playing small and step into your calling, I'd love to work with you - https://www.leonajohnson.life/work-with-leona or reply email me on connection@leonajohnson.life and let's start a conversation.
Connection matters. Ceremony matters. Your gifts matter.
And together, we can create the culture of belonging and regeneration that our world so desperately needs.
May you walk in beauty,
Leona
