Burning Man Transformed My Life — Without Ever Being On The Playa.
I’ve never been to Burning Man.
I’ve been to a LOT of festivals. I’ve produced or participated in more than I can count, in fact 2016 was the pinnacle of my “Party with Purpose” production era, with an Activism and Action Days-packed tour of permaculture projects linked to music festivals from California to Florida and back again that year.
I also drew the curtains on this stage of my life that year, which concluded with an arrest on live TV (me at center between Casey Camp, Ponca Tribe, and Russell Eagle Bear, Sicangu Sioux) and five months at what was certainly NOT a festival, though some who came to Standing Rock seemed to think it was!
The majority of people surrounding me through these years past pretty much all know what Burning Man is, many of them likely even identify as ‘Burners’.
The scene, as it were, has skyrocketed into public awareness since I first heard of it through the Theatre Bizarre crew in Detroit, circa 2000.
Sidebar synchronicity alert. Searching to verify links, fact check etc. led to this piece linked above by my Burner doppelganger, another badass Detroit Dani, who wrote about the last show I attended (2005, I moved to Seattle in ‘06) when it was still held in the houses by the State Fairgrounds. Doxie is a Fire Lead for Burning Man and we chatted in 2016 about something festival and Bloom and.. something else I can’t remember now… probably Standing Rock.
On FB though, I’m the real /Dani.Detroit heheh.
And there’s over a decade of great lessons I’ve compiled by sharing them there, however I won’t be writing on Facebook much more, and I don’t live in Michigan anymore either. I tribute my roots in these ways of naming to honor lineage.
Detroit is my place of origin, but this story isn’t about where I’m from.. it’s about where WE are going.
The future is shaped by those who are living and trying and being the change by pushing the boundaries of what has been limited before. WE are the ones balancing upon the fulcrum of the now.. WE must step back to see past learnings, then take two steps forward to advance those lessons into the world.
ME, and.. you?
Our visions for a more equitable, just, and regenerative world are being brought to life every moment, being built upon these lands, built by the hands of people just like you and me.
People who are not only taking action but also.. taking great risks.
What’s the risk?
Have you heard of the book “Your Money or Your Life”? It was written by Vicki Robin, a marvelous woman I had the pleasure of working with at both a festival (Imagine Music & Arts) AND a conference (like a festival, but without the.. festivities. See my blog of the 2015 Bioneers event here).
Will you risk the money, the costs associated with creating something, simply to experience that, then burn it all down?
How about risking the life you live now in relative comfort, knowing that the transformation you will undergo may mean that you can never.. go back to who you were?
The risk, in my opinion, is whatever YOU are willing to make it, like, having to climb the mountain to see what’s on the other side.
Burners embrace climbing that annual mountain, enthusiastically risking both money AND life in a way, to experience — even for this one short week a year, a different world — a life, without money.
And the greater risk, I suspect, is NOT risking who you have been, in order to become the greatest YOU there ever was.
“So if you think you can risk it, well…
What an opportunity to be free of it!” ~Nahko Bear
What would you be willing to give, to give up, or to give into, in order to live in a socially just and environmentally conscious world?
Maybe it’s a former life.. style. A way of living that we now know is not sustainable or worse, is actually causing harm to a people or place that is external to us so we just didn’t know before.. or, we did, and didn’t see any other way.
Could you do it without knowing for certain what will come next? Can you envision that world, closing your eyes to see, taste, smell what the world is like without toxins, trash.. TV? ;) Feeling freedom like a caressing breeze on your skin, which is made of happy-dancing cells in symbiotic harmony with all of nature?
Perhaps, you’d give up all your money, your job, house, clothes, car, jewelry and art and shoes and bric-a-brac, if you really truly believed with all your heart that it would better the world and yourself to do that even for just a little while.
Perhaps not, maybe, that’s just me ;).
Fortunately, you don’t have to give up or give in, that’s not what I mean when I speak of GIVING.
What we’re talking about here, is the Gift of Giving. The Present, the Unconditional Love packaged in something that means something to YOU, for simply giving it to another… and now, the meaning is SHARED.
Anyway. Burning Man.
And Transformation.
I did, in fact, risk my life at a Regional Burn, and was ‘that girl’ for a day… been there and lived to tell. Not only did I survive, I also died a thousand deaths and received my mission from God, but, I’ll save the tale of my first Critical Northwest (known as Critical Massive at the time) experience for another time, probably in oral delivery because it’s quite a story.
It’s only now, as I approach completion of my 7th 7 year cycle, that I can see the profound impact upon my life that working all these years with all these people who are willing to give so much of themselves to create an experience that transforms the lives of everyone who is a part of it for having seen that it is not only possible..
It’s AWESOME.
And it wasn’t only because of the magic mushrooms.
Where we are going now.. is HOME. The experience that Burners create for that week in the Nevada desert is one that many of us have been working for years (lifetimes?) to create in our own homes, backyards, and gathering sites.
How do we bring home the values, the ethos that is exemplified by the philosophy of Burning Man? How can one live fully in the gift, doing and giving all that we have and are for the greater good of the planet, of all people and of life itself, that future generations may know the feeling of home, of safety (third ;) ), of community, of unconditional LOVE?
The 10 Principles of Burning Man, well, they burn in my heart. They lit the fire that has driven me to volunteer, to organize, to participate fully and give unconditionally, and to be.. a Village Builder.
This Aussie fellow Wick made a set of symbols to go with the principles and they are pretty RAD, check out his site with downloadable files here.
The 10 Principles of Burning Man
Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the Ten Principles in 2004 as guidelines for the newly-formed Regional Network. They were crafted not as a dictate of how people should be and act, but as a reflection of the community’s ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the event’s inception.
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
My dear friend Griff Green, pictured on my laptop in the image above, asked me recently what I’m doing for Burning Man this year. The look of surprise on the faces of those who’ve known me through my festival production years is priceless when I tell them I’ve never been.
He gifted me something incredibly meaningful… a hardware wallet, and an Eth.
Encouragement, to stay this new course I’ve set upon, to learn the world of crypto-economics through the Ethereum platform, which shares my values and offers a myriad of ways to step back — to step FORWARD — into the world of technology once more in a new, powerful form.
Give. Eth.
So much Gratitude!!
And excitement for how community, and art, and celebration, and GIVING, is coming together now through software for the good of nature, and of those who are giving it all they’ve got for the good of nature’s caretakers, the people.
Please check out Giveth, also on Medium, and follow on Twitter.
~*~ Post Script ~*~
This post marks a great transitional moment for me as I begin to share, to give, in new ways which means endings for many ways of old. I’ve retired the old blog..
..and I’ve begun, anew.
The Mobile Office Mystic, is at it..
Again :)
