Water Woman
We are going to burning man this year.
I feel much more prepared this time around. Physically, we have been incredibly self-reliant and I have always felt taken care of out there. But this time, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually — I feel ready.
I feel ready to be open.
To be in love.
To experience joy.
To surrender to the flow.
In my first two burns, I have learned that it is a practice in applied trust.
Can I trust that I will have what I need?
Can I trust that I am safe?
Can I trust myself and my own intuition to guide me?
Can I trust the process?
This is the journey that we go through together.
I have read a lot of people writing recently about how they see burning man as “bad” because of the fires, the state of the world, the partying, the resources use.. etc.
Having lived through the intensity of the California fires these past few years, having our house burn down, losing a ton of my stuff, and healing from PTSD every time I smell smoke — I now have an even greater appreciation for what happens at the burn.
Fire is an essential element of life.
In ayurveda, it is Pitta: intelligence, discernment, digestion.
Fire is the sun.
The core of the earth.
The Hearth.
Fire.
Like anything in our universe of opposites, fires can used for good or evil. What happens at burning man has a foot squarely in both sides of this polarity.
There is love, connection, expression, respect for natural cycles, and honoring of the dead.
AND… there is debauchery, luxury, resource use…
But isn’t that life? In every moment we have one foot in the light and one in the dark.
In his book that power of Myth, Joseph Campbell states, “Every act has both good and evil results. Every act of life yields pairs of opposites in its results. The best we can do is lean towards the light. Intend the light” .
Our phones are created with rare earth minerals mined by slaves; our electricity causes pollution; our cars guzzle gasoline; and we unwrap our organic food and throw away the plastic.
These social media channels that you are reading this on harvest our attention, time, and energy — that could go into building a more beautiful world.
And it will.
How do I know that?
Two decades of psychedelics, transformational culture, and now burning man have shown me what is possible.
Humans are here to create. We crave it. We crave it so bad that we will spend days of energy preparing to drive out to the middle of a foreboding desert climate to build art — just to burn it down. And then, the next year we will do it again.
Life is impermanant. Everything that is born will eventually die.
The Tibetan monks create beautiful mandalas our of sand, painstakingly working for months or years — just to watch it blow away in the wind.
Is this wasteful?
This is life.
This is creation.
And yes, we will do it the American way with gas, cars, and plastic.
But maybe, just maybe, two people with vision, heart and resources will meet and birth a solution to one of the crisis of our time.
Do you believe that is possible? I do.
Maybe, one of the tech bros will receive a download while watching the temple burn. Witnessing thousands of people together, weeping, grieving their loved ones — 60,000+ people.
The largest grief ceremony that I have ever witnessed, or even know of. It may one of the the largest grief ceremonies happening right now on planet earth.
Life is too short, and too beautiful, to spend time in judgement. That is one of the lessons I am here to learn this lifetime.
So, I will pack my bags, and drive out to the desert for the annual ritual in applied trust. I will open myself up to radical authenticity, self-relience, and most importantly… Freedom.
“Nature intends the grail. Spiritual life is the bouquet of natural life, not a supernatural thing imposed upon it. The impulses of nature are what give authenticity to life, not obeying rules that come from a supernatural authority – that is the sense of the grail. The grail becomes symbolic of an authentic life that has lived in terms of its own volition, in terms of its own impulse system, which carries it between the pairs of opposites good and evil, light and dark”. - Joseph Campbell