Weaving Pagan Fire Circle Chants

Singing around the bonfire, weaving chants into the drumming, synergizing with the dancers–for me, that’s the core of the pagan experience. The magic of the fire circle is central to my spirituality. I love ritual and spellwork as well, of course. But the cauldron of the drum circle is where I do my best priestess work. It is home.

There’s quite a few fire circle chants that can be sung at the same time as one another. It’s very, very common to begin with one and then gradually add more, letting them make entrances and exits, flowing through a complex chant jam. These songs, like many pagan chants, are all in a minor key and all can fit into the same chord sequence.

I’m a member of the pagan choir Crow Women. (We’re the sponsors of this website.) Our first album was called Crow Goddess and the first track is still one of the most-played of all our songs. We called in Born of the Elements Medley. We had been going to pagan festivals for a decade and loved weaving together chants at the fire circle. In the track, we included seven of the chants that are typically sung together. I think this recording does a great job of capturing the fire circle vibe. Here’s how that sounds:

So, dear reader, let me tell you where the various chants came from.

Goddess and God

This pair of chants nicely represents the the balance of the Goddess and God. The words focus on rebirth. Like the rain and the plants, we have our time here on earth, and then we depart, perhaps to return again. These two chants can be sung in turn or at the same time. In my experience, these are two songs that many people know. I often start them up when I’m hoping to get more people involved in the energy of the fire circle.

We all come from the Goddess
And to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Flowing to the ocean (by Z. Budapest)

Hoof and horn, hoof and horn
All that dies shall be reborn
Corn and grain, corn and grain
All that falls shall rise again (by Ian Corrigan)

One of the most influential recordings of pagan chants is Chants: Ritual Music by Reclaiming. They released their version of these two chants on that album. Here it is:

Tip #1 for chant leaders. When starting a collage of chants, be sure to let the first one get well established before you add another on top of it. For people who are just learning the chants, it’s frustrating if they can’t become confident on the first chant before another one is added to the mix.

Isis, Astarte…and friends

Another very well known chant that’s in our recording Born of the Elements Medley is Isis, Astarte by Deena Metzger. It goes like this:

Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Innana

This can be sung simultaneously with We All Come and Hoof and Horn. Again, that seminal/ovular recording Chants, by Reclaiming, included a version of this song. They also included two more chants. We didn’t happen to put them in our medley but we often sing them as part of the mash-up at the drum circle. Many more verses along these lines have been concocted over time, but this is the version in Reclaiming’s recording:

We are an old people, we are a new people
We are the same people, deeper than before

I am a strong woman, I am a story woman
I am a healer, my soul will never die

Here’s that track:

There are a variety of chants of god names, sung to the same tune as Isis, Astarte. In my pagan community in New Mexico, we have one that goes like this:

Pan, Wotan, Baphomet, Cerrunos, Osiris

We do this one at double-time compared to Isis, Astarte, so you get through the gods twice in the time it takes to sing the goddesses. It’s a nice way to pep up the chant jam.

One nice thing about Isis, Astarte is that it’s easy to sing harmony to it. After all, there are only a few notes in this melody! Just go up a third and sing parallel harmony (the exact same melody but starting on a different pitch). So, if the melody is on “do”, you sing to yourself “do, re, mi” and that “mi” is the third. Or, you can sing the fifth if your voice is high. That’s “do, re, mi, fa, sol” and the “sol” is the fifth. It sounds great when you get the whole chord going at once. For low voices, find the “sol” and then go down an octave.

Tip #2 for chant leaders. You love chants! You know how to do harmony! And yet, when a group is dependent on you as leader, if you decide to harmonize by, for example, singing a third above the group, they will follow you. Now you’ve modulated into a higher key, rather than beautifying with harmony. Try sitting out a round of the chant. If the group sucessfully continues without you, maybe you can get away with singing harmony. Bring it in very quietly at first. Let the group get used to it. If they don’t jump to where you are, you should be able to increase your volume.

Born of the Elements

Our recording actually begins with the chant Earth My Body.

Earth my body, water my blood
Air my breath and fire my spirit

This is another very, very well known chant. It’s another good initial chant to use to get the fire circle crowd singing, or to bring in anytime it seems helpful to get more people involved. It also lays right over the chord sequence of We All Come from the Goddess and the other songs we’ve been talking about.

I’m sure I learned it at some fire circle that is now lost in the mists of time. But, as the Crow Women were playing around with chants to put in this medley, we decided to throw in the lovely descant and verses written by Kiki Williamson of the band Spiral Rhythm. They call their track Element Chant.

I am born of the elements
I am born of the elements

Earth my body, soil and sand
Make me strong in heart and hand
Water my blood, flowing strong
Aid me with your healing song
Air my breath, blowing true
Let my life take flight in you
Fire my spirit, burning bright
Lead from darkness into light

The descant “I am born of the elements” is very easy to teach people on the fly during a drum jam, but those verses are not. But, if some people know them, it’s pretty fun to show off by rattling off all those words. They’re really pretty, too. Here’s the Spiral Rhythm recording:

Tip #3 for Chant Leaders. You MUST sing at the same tempo as the drums. There are 3 ways to accomplish this. 1) Sing at the tempo the drums are already at. Sing the chant quietly to yourself. It might not fit. Perhaps the drums are too fast and there’s no way you could get the words out at that speed. Sometimes the drums are too slow and your peppy chant will sound dirgy. If that’s the case, don’t do the chant! If it fits, go ahead and add the song on top of the existing drums. 2) Wait for a silence, then start the chant at the speed that works best for that song, and the drums will follow you. If you want to cheat, you can always get the drums to stop by breaking out in the yipping and cheering that often signals the end of a period of drumming. 3) You can try to get the drums to change tempo. To do this, you need to get the attention of one of the leaders and use hand gestures or words to let them know you want them to speed up or slow down. This is the least effective option. Better to work with what’s already happening.

A Lesser-known gem of a chant

In our recording Born of the Elements Medley we added in the chant Mother of Darkness. We learned it from the recording Circle of Women, produced by Alice Di Micele.

Mother of Darkness, Mother of light 
Earth beneath us, soul in flight
Songs of love and love of life
Guide us to our hearts

They sing it in medley with We All Come from the Goddess. Their harmony is lovely, well worth listening to if you want to practice harmony singing. I highly recommend the whole album.

Tip #4 for Chant Leaders. Support the balance. Usually the drums will slow down and simplify when a chant is happening, especially if you have sensitive drum leaders. That’s such a pleasure! But the dancers need a different kind of drumming when they really want to dance the concrete out. Keep it in balance. When you’ve been chanting for a while, and it’s time for a shift, you can call out to the drummers for some dance drumming.

Keep the music alive

In each pagan community, there’s a set of chants that are sung often. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We have our set of favorites. Over the years I’ve offered many chant workshops to help people learn the music. I’ll be doing one at Mystic Mabon Southwest (September 18-21 2025). I’ll be teaching all the chants in this post, as well as many of our local favorites.

I think it’s vital that we continue to sing the chants that define modern paganism. I hope that you will make a point to sing chants at the next festival or pagan event you go to. If you know them, teach them. If you don’t know them, learn them. Singing our truth as a group is powerful. Be part of the musical magic!

Cover photo by Tao Wen

For more information about the Crow Women pagan choir, and access to all the blog posts by Alane and the other 9 crowsingers who have written for Pagan Song, you can visit the Crow Women author page here on Pagan Song.

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