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Then, against all odds, volunteers worked together to nurture the tree back to health, creating optimal conditions for its survival through careful watering, mulching, and installing sunburn protection and steel supports for the limbs.
During the last year of production, Hoffman worked on the film from western Ukraine, a country he fell in love with after traveling there to work on a film about the plight of the Ukrainian people during the war with Russia.
A few years later, Margaret Magnus, Ervin’s wife, Meher Mount communications director, and co-director of Tree of Fire, took a look back at what had happened to the tree and the global outpouring of love that followed. “Because the fire damaged the tree so badly and so many people were touched, it brought people not only to Meher Mount but to thinking about healing and love and resilience,” she says. “And that’s when I realized there was a story to be told.”
Working together remotely, Magnus and Hoffman completed the movie in 2025, then began submitting it to film festivals, “trying to give it as much exposure as possible to different kinds of audiences,” Magnus says.
At first, Magnus envisioned a short 10or 20-minute documentary. “Three years and many, many interviews later, we ended up with a 75-minute film,” she says. Co-director Ben Hoffman was living in Ojai during the Thomas Fire and felt a personal connection to the story. “Often filming alone, I would lose myself in the eyepiece, letting shape, light, and color guide the lens,” he says. “I hope audiences feel the quiet magic in this story and enjoy the beauty of the stories and the place.”
Avatar Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani in 1894, was later called “Meher Baba,” or “compassionate father,” by his early disciples. He believed that God incarnates in human form every 700 to 1,400 years, with each incarnation referred to as the Avatar. “We who follow Meher Baba believe that he was God in human form,” Magnus says, “but he’s also an important spiritual master, whether you believe that he was God or not.”
In 1956, Meher Baba spent the day at Meher Mount, sitting alone under Baba’s Tree and forever marking its importance. “To me it was like this sentinel on the hill that’s been overlooking this land, this mountain, for centuries,” says Ron Holsey, Meher Mount board vice president and guest caretaker. Ray Johnston, caretaker from 2002 to 2010 with his wife, Elizabeth Arnold, returned to the retreat after the Thomas Fire to help with the recovery of Baba’s Tree. “I’ve always referred to the tree as a silent sentinel for change, because the tree has been a symbol for change in my life,” says Johnston, current resident caretaker.
Agnus Baron, a devout follower of the Avatar, co-founded Meher Mount in 1946 and lived there until her death in 1994. She told Meher Baba she would care for the sanctuary “through hellfire and damnation.”
Sam Ervin and Margaret Magnus at Baba’s Tree. Photo by Perry Van Houten