​Sherry received a calling to her spiritual path through Nahuatl shaman Don Lucio Campos in the central Mexican highlands in 1999 and was initiated as a quiatizques (woman bringer of rain) in this traditional path. From this she became devoted to bringing fire and spirit into community. She was initiated as a Firekeeper and participated in growing the organization of Sacred Fire. Soon thereafter, she was asked to develop and oversee the LifeWays series of programs grounded in the human life stages and is now working to evolve those into a comprehensive whole called Life Cycle Living.

Sherry trained as a psychotherapist and had a private practice where she was involved for many years with facilitating women’s groups. She helped to create the Ukalái Women’s Gathering and has offered that program in the US, Australia and the UK. She is an initiated tepahtiani, or healer in the Nahua tradition. She and her husband David live in Carrollton, GA in the U.S.

Linda Azar is passionate about bringing people together to experience joy and connection with each other, and with the natural world. If there is laughter and dancing involved, even better. She has a diversified professional background, having a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a diploma in Filmmaking. In both professions, she developed a deep understanding and love of collaboration and teamwork toward creating a shared vision. She is currently self-employed as a board-certified Life and Wellness Coach and runs a studio jewelry business. Linda is also an apprentice to become a mara’akame or traditional healer, in the Wixárika (Huichol) tradition.

In 2003, Linda attended her first Sacred Fire Community Fire and has been regularly attending Sacred Fires in Asheville and Maggie Valley NC ever since. Before she realized what was happening, her life had been transformed. Linda has been the local event coordinator for the Asheville Fire Speaks event from 2015 to 2022 and holds it as her mission to spread the gift of fire to as many people as she can. She lives in Candler, NC with her partner Jim and their corgi mix, Kaiju. In her free time, she loves improv comedy, lying in the grass on a sunny day, and making up songs for everything.

Sylvia comes from a bilingual background, with both Scottish and Spanish heritage. She studied an undergraduate degree at the University of Dundee, specializing in vocal soundscapes, which explored our cultural connection with the divine natural world. Sylvia was selected as a New Contemporaries of Scotland, and later studied a Master of Arts at the University of Arts in London. Since graduating, Sylvia has facilitated many community groups in both therapeutic and educational spaces, as well as supporting with learning and development training, and coordinating events hosting both local and international guests. Sylvia’s main focus and thread in her work is to create inclusive spaces to gather together and to encourage opportunities for listening and growth to connect to the wholeness of our nature. Sylvia is an initiated Firekeeper, committed to holding her home hearth that welcomes her community in Scotland and shares the wonderful medicine of fire as the universal language of the heart. Her passion for bringing the vitality of fire and spreading it further afield is key to her role and her ambition to inspire future generations to come. Sylvia lives rurally in the Scottish Borders and enjoys tending to her new home, with her beloved partner and cat, spending time in the garden and lovingly caring for the plants and wildlife. Sylvia is wholeheartedly committed to building and supporting the global community as part of Sacred Fire.

Larry weaves together long-standing interests in nature, bringing people together, and healing in his work for Sacred Fire. He served as a Congressional aide on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. long enough to realize that politics was not his calling! He escaped to the wide-open spaces of the American west before joining the Peace Corps and serving in Sri Lanka. There he taught English to teacher trainees. He later earned a Master’s degree in international relations and went on to study culturally diverse healthcare teams–earning a PhD. for that research.

It was during graduate school that he and his wife Jessica first began sitting with others around the fire as one of many groups that later evolved into Sacred Fire. Both he and Jessica later were trained and initiated as Sacred Fire Firekeepers. He is also initiated as a Mara’akame (traditional Huichol healer). Above all, Larry has a passion for bringing more fire, heart and healing into the world. Aside from cycling, he most enjoys sitting in a beautiful natural setting with Jessica and partaking of a good cigar! He and Jessica share their home in Carrollton, GA in the U.S. with their yoga cat Jack.