Vena Cava · Gainesville, Florida

A heartwarming
welcome home.

The vena cava is the great vein that carries tired blood back to the heart. That's what this place is for. We play with flow, fire, and ceremony. We grow our own food. We've opened this land more than a hundred times in three years, each gathering a heartwarming, and there is room at the fire for you.

Come to the next fire jam How to come closer

What this place is

The world drains people. We circulate them back.

Vena Cava is a small eco-friendly burn community on living land in Gainesville. Five of us live here full-time and keep the hearth; a wider circle of members tends the garden, spins fire under the oaks, cooks for each other, and carries what they learn back out into the world. We are alcohol-free and medicine-minded. Nothing here is for sale. We run on gifts, sweat, and showing up.

You don't need to be anyone in particular to come. You need to be willing to participate.

How we hold each other

The six.

Not rules. Agreements. They're short enough to remember mid-burn.

All are welcome here.
See a need, fill a need.
Finish what you start.
Leave it better than you found it.
Give what you can, receive what you need.
Ask before you touch.

The rhythm

The community breathes on a schedule.

Weekly
Potluck game night
Members welcome. Bring a dish, bring a game, bring yourself.
Monthly
Regional fire jam
Spinners come hours to be here. Potluck food, gifted vendors, music on the PA, spotters at the fuel depot. A regional burn for forty people. Everything you need to know →
Seasonal
Garden, acro, yoga, sound
Working the land together, moving together, listening together.
Winter
The annual firewalk
The ceremony the whole year leans toward. Coals underfoot, community around you. The fear is the door →
Summer
The annual retreat
Days away together. What the fire jam is to a month, the retreat is to a year. The exhale →

The mirror

What the fire taught us.

After every jam and ceremony, we ask one question: what did the fire teach you? The answers live here, so the community can see itself.

"I drove two hours not knowing anyone. By the time the fuel depot closed I'd been fed twice and taught a new poi pattern."

— first-time spinner, spring jam

"Finish what you start means the burn, the dish you brought, and the conversation you opened."

— returning regular

The whole wall → Add what the fire taught you

The way in

Come closer, at your own pace.

There's no application, and donation at the door. There is a path, and every step of it is an invitation.

Come to a fire jam
The front door. Watch from the grass or step into the circle; both count as showing up.
Keep coming back
Regulars get known. Join a potluck game night, a garden party, a sound bath.
Become a member
Plant your own bed in the community garden, use the gym on-site, help shape what happens here.
Live here
In-house membership is rare and earned through relationship. If it's meant to happen, you'll know, and so will we.

Start at the fire jam The whole story