Some VERY RADICAL suggestions for this summer’s gathering, drawn from my 25 years of experience. Order of suggestions is not important, they are to be taken as a whole. Note: I use both meanings of radical here: “Highly different from the norm”, and “getting to the root of”.
Remember, a gathering is not a festival, a party or an extension of your social/cultural life in the city.
Remember, the woods--rather than the city--were INTENTIONALLY chosen as the local of the gathering.
Remember, while you may have friends at a gathering, a gathering is not a “hang out with friends” event.
Actively seek to connect with the Earth: both physically and spiritually.
Actively seek to connect with yourself. Be willing to grow: to examine and explore parts of you that you have locked away.
Consider that one beautiful way of learning to connect with others as equal to yourself, is to connect with people who only have a slight variation from you. You can relate so fully and so easily because of this. You can explore yourself deeper, because the other attendess are loving mirrors FOR you. Some people call this Resonance Magick: one of several Equally Valid ways of being community.
Be present at the gathering: your job, your life back at home is not you. In socializing with others, remember there are plenty of things to talk about that do not include those things.
Realize that you are YOU! You don’t need to live up to anybody else’s expectations.
Realize that other people are OTHER people. They don’t need to live up to your expectations.
Accept the Radical idea that you can be very different from someone else and still celebrate who they are.
Let other people get to know you. Get to know other people.
Allow yourself to be vulnerable in the presence of others.
Allow others to be vulnerable in your presence.
Think “Community”. Think “Tribe”. Be highly motivated towards helping CREATE earth-centered, Bonded Spiritual Community: the thing that put Radical Faeries on the “Awareness Map” in the beginning.
Realize that a gathering is NOT an orchestrated schedule of events, meant to keep you entertained. You are very much a part of the DYNAMIC nature of the gathering: you contribute to what happens there. You contribute to the the unfolding nature of the gathering--something that can not be known before hand.
Remember, even in our entertainment of each other, we are being community.
Actively participate in the circles and rituals that the community dynamically creates. If you sit on the side lines, then you miss one of the major purposes of the gathering: the creation of a Bonded Community. Not only that, you will be sorely missed by that bonded community.
Allow yourself to be nurtured. In heart circle, let your “tribe of companions” love you, even if you have never really been loved before; believe me, they understand far more than you realize about what it’s like feeling unloved.
Allow yourself to be loved and nurtured, outside of heart circle!
While sex often occurs at a gathering, don’t see the gathering as “a place to score”. Set aside--for the time of the gathering--the dominate culture’s concept of dating. Learn to see the other gathering attendees as complete beings: body, mind, heart, and spirit.
Realize that all of the people at the gathering are wounded in some way, and in need of healing. Be willing to be a part of the healing. Be willing to be healed.
Spontaneously create music with the other attendees. Types of instruments to use are up to you: drums are great instruments, and they are not the only ones in existence; humans created musical instruments thousands of years ago.
Dance to the music that is collectively--and dynamically--created.
Leave your pre-recorded music at home! One person’s “to die for” music is another person’s nightmare. It has been said that then generation span of the various music styles is only 3 to 4 years; what does that say when the age span of a gathering is 60 or more years? If people “tune out” because the music being played doesn’t resonate with them, then community won’t be able to form. The original gathering calls explicitly told people not to bring music from the “outside” into our sacred realm. In looking through the window I have to the past, I see that bonded community started falling apart when pre-recorded music was allowed in.
Look forward to a most beautiful and very rewarding Spiritual Journey through self and through community. Be prepared to leave the gathering knowing that your companions with hold you in their hearts forever: you won’t be saying goodbye, you will be saying “see you soon, my love”.
If the gathering experience envisioned by these suggestions is not at all appealing to you, then consider staying at home; let those who really DO want a life-transforming experience, have one. The reality, pictured by these suggestions was the core--the soul--of the early gatherings . . . . lost,, but perhaps, not forever.
Am I a dreamer? Yes! Am I the only one? . . . . . Oh, I really hope not. Please tell me that you have this dream as well.
Remember, a gathering is not a festival, a party or an extension of your social/cultural life in the city.
Remember, the woods--rather than the city--were INTENTIONALLY chosen as the local of the gathering.
Remember, while you may have friends at a gathering, a gathering is not a “hang out with friends” event.
Actively seek to connect with the Earth: both physically and spiritually.
Actively seek to connect with yourself. Be willing to grow: to examine and explore parts of you that you have locked away.
Consider that one beautiful way of learning to connect with others as equal to yourself, is to connect with people who only have a slight variation from you. You can relate so fully and so easily because of this. You can explore yourself deeper, because the other attendess are loving mirrors FOR you. Some people call this Resonance Magick: one of several Equally Valid ways of being community.
Be present at the gathering: your job, your life back at home is not you. In socializing with others, remember there are plenty of things to talk about that do not include those things.
Realize that you are YOU! You don’t need to live up to anybody else’s expectations.
Realize that other people are OTHER people. They don’t need to live up to your expectations.
Accept the Radical idea that you can be very different from someone else and still celebrate who they are.
Let other people get to know you. Get to know other people.
Allow yourself to be vulnerable in the presence of others.
Allow others to be vulnerable in your presence.
Think “Community”. Think “Tribe”. Be highly motivated towards helping CREATE earth-centered, Bonded Spiritual Community: the thing that put Radical Faeries on the “Awareness Map” in the beginning.
Realize that a gathering is NOT an orchestrated schedule of events, meant to keep you entertained. You are very much a part of the DYNAMIC nature of the gathering: you contribute to what happens there. You contribute to the the unfolding nature of the gathering--something that can not be known before hand.
Remember, even in our entertainment of each other, we are being community.
Actively participate in the circles and rituals that the community dynamically creates. If you sit on the side lines, then you miss one of the major purposes of the gathering: the creation of a Bonded Community. Not only that, you will be sorely missed by that bonded community.
Allow yourself to be nurtured. In heart circle, let your “tribe of companions” love you, even if you have never really been loved before; believe me, they understand far more than you realize about what it’s like feeling unloved.
Allow yourself to be loved and nurtured, outside of heart circle!
While sex often occurs at a gathering, don’t see the gathering as “a place to score”. Set aside--for the time of the gathering--the dominate culture’s concept of dating. Learn to see the other gathering attendees as complete beings: body, mind, heart, and spirit.
Realize that all of the people at the gathering are wounded in some way, and in need of healing. Be willing to be a part of the healing. Be willing to be healed.
Spontaneously create music with the other attendees. Types of instruments to use are up to you: drums are great instruments, and they are not the only ones in existence; humans created musical instruments thousands of years ago.
Dance to the music that is collectively--and dynamically--created.
Leave your pre-recorded music at home! One person’s “to die for” music is another person’s nightmare. It has been said that then generation span of the various music styles is only 3 to 4 years; what does that say when the age span of a gathering is 60 or more years? If people “tune out” because the music being played doesn’t resonate with them, then community won’t be able to form. The original gathering calls explicitly told people not to bring music from the “outside” into our sacred realm. In looking through the window I have to the past, I see that bonded community started falling apart when pre-recorded music was allowed in.
Look forward to a most beautiful and very rewarding Spiritual Journey through self and through community. Be prepared to leave the gathering knowing that your companions with hold you in their hearts forever: you won’t be saying goodbye, you will be saying “see you soon, my love”.
If the gathering experience envisioned by these suggestions is not at all appealing to you, then consider staying at home; let those who really DO want a life-transforming experience, have one. The reality, pictured by these suggestions was the core--the soul--of the early gatherings . . . . lost,, but perhaps, not forever.
Am I a dreamer? Yes! Am I the only one? . . . . . Oh, I really hope not. Please tell me that you have this dream as well.
posted by:
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SF Bay Area
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