The Eighth Fire Mural

Words by Philip Cote
MFA, Young Spiritual Elder, Educator, Historian, Activist and Cultural Interpreter.

"This story comes from the arrival of the Seven Fires back in 692 A.D. who were said to be luminous beings that came from the Atlantic Ocean to be amongst the people to help them by showing them what will come in the future, this is just one of those stories.

About a boy who would be born with a gift of translating the Sacred Birch-bark Scrolls and with this gift he would bring back all the ancient knowledge to help the people in this new time of the Eighth Fire a time of Spirit. This time of spirit is about what the ancient ones referred to as Heart Thinking, what heart thinking is about is legacy thinking meaning what will we leave our descendants during our time here.

There is a white bear a reference to a sign of the eighth fire its said that we will see a white bear come down from the north, there is a boy connecting to the bear and the boy himself is connected to everything on the panel as he is magical and knows why he is here there is a thunderbeing sending signals to the boy and there are two thunderbirds symbols of co-creators of new life on mother earth.

The white bear is bringing in the new power of our times the great sun stands behind the bear showing the power of life, the fish and the birds together give us the sign that there is prosperity in this time coming for all, and good health for all.

There is a boundary depicted in this mural its meaning is showing us the two worlds, the physical and the spiritual as they are side by side showing us and how balanced
everything really is in our world and we must do our best to help this new time come forward."

📸 by Kimberly Simmons (@canadiankas_photos) 
🎉 the official unveiling was hosted on Friday, June 2nd, 2023 in partnership with the West Toronto Community Legal Services. 

This mural is located alongside the building of West Toronto Community Legal Services located at 1032 Bloor St W. It was funded by the Bloorcourt BIA and the 2022 Tourism Relief Fund (Government of Canada and FedDev Ontario). It was completed in November, 2022.