While living in Mexico in the mid-’90s an apparition appeared to Don David Wiley, later to be recognized by indigenous Nahua and Huichol elders, as the Spirit of Fire who asked him to become a shaman. Not that he was looking for this or even knew what one was. However, he accepted because of the astonishing and undeniable miracle that was present before him. David would learn that this was because he had a unique combination of qualities and skillsets Grandfather Fire needed to help fulfill a monumental task:

"Reach out to the people of your modern world and provide help while teaching how to live life more aligned with Spirit and the nature of the world through awareness, connection, and engagement.”

This was something well understood through his and other elders and traditionally passed on from one generation to another. This was when David Wiley began the long road of apprenticing and eventual initiation into two living indigenous traditions in Mexico: the Nahua & the Huichol. He would then become a teacher of those traditions and their medicine to those who would be called.

Since then, he would welcome and baptize the newborn, initiate the young into adulthood, council and heal the living, bury the dead and help escort their souls to their final resting place.

He would help institute the Sacred Fire Foundation to provide grants to indigenous groups around the world to help preserve their important, irreplaceable wisdom and establish Sacred Fire, an international community dedicated to reconnecting people to heart, each other, and the world through the Spirit of Fire and Firekeeping.