Hello beautiful humans!
I'm back out of the forest... back in Babylon. I feel quite recharged, refreshed, and motivated; so it's been easy to roll with the utter stupidity of the standard-issue CULTure. Being in the woods with people who are tuned in and unplugged to such a higher degree really makes the contrast of Bill Gates' "New Normal" pretty ridiculous.
My first day out, going for a smoothie up the road, had me planning my total escape into the life of a forest-dweller because the statist reality was just too much. Right up until I had some calories in me, then I was ready to just laugh at the stupidity of it all again.
On the way back, I ran into this, on SE Hawthorne...
So... this is what Portland is like right now. All the murals (which are covering windows) on this store in SE Portland have been tagged up like this. Meanwhile the windows that aren't covered all have BLM signs in them...
The Gathering
This was by far the smallest Nationals I've been to (and as far as I know, the smallest there has been) with just about 250 people on the land at the peak. For reference, the last few years were a range from ~1500 to ~17k people.
In the whole week of cooking, I still made less food than I usually do in 1 day at Instant Soup. The great thing about that is that it gave me a lot more time to just enjoy the land, connect with people, and record just about 6 hours of interviews - which will be edited & released in the coming weeks.
This was by far the most peaceful, respectful, and relaxing gathering I've ever been to. The LEOs only came through once during my time on the land, I never heard a single call for Shanti Sena, there weren't even that many dog fights.
And, another wonderful thing is that I went and sat at Vision Counsel for the first time - actually a few times throughout the 7th - and we were able to come to consensus on the region for next year's Gathering on the first day! Counsel went on for another day, with a few more points being consented to; just for reference, it is not uncommon for this to take a week or more.
Here is the whole of our consensus from this year's Vision Counsel:
We the People, being individuals present at Rainbow Family Vision Counsel at the 49th annual Rainbow Gathering of Living Light in the Payette National Forest on the 7th day of July 2020, convene and consecrate our manifest through Consensus by Silence.
1. We reaffirm that our living vision thrives and relies upon Consensus found on the land in Open Counsel.
2. Consensus is our very best means of advising, but is not binding, and new advice or current situation may cultivate new consensus from individuals present when the people gather in counsel on the land.
3. We suggest that Harvest Counsel be called as close as feasible to the consented 2021 Gathering region, on the weekend of the full moon after the fall equinox.
4. We encourage individuals to share all of the vision counsel consensus instead of just part of it.
5. With great joy and abundant enthusiasm, we invite all who carry hope and intent to join us in a morning of Silence from dawn until noon to constitute World Peace through inner peace, and to Gather with Open Hearts for the 50th rainbow gathering July 1-7 2021, and to counsel our vision on the seventh day, somewhere in the regions of: Santa Fe, Carson, Cibola, Lincoln, Gila, Apache, Coconino, Kaibab Prescott … in a National Forest.
6. We call for a discussion on Rainbow Caravans to be held on July 1st at Main Counsel.
7. The Earth as a whole is the common heritage and responsibility of the life borne upon her.
8. We close the 2020 Vision Counsel with a silent passing of the feather.
Where I'm Heading Next
Right now I'm relaxing & recovering, doing some organizing and re-stocking, and getting ready to head back out into the forest for the 9th annual Jackalope Freedom Festival, August 1st - 10th in northern Arizona. Jackfest is a totally free, decentralized event out in the woods. Similar to the Rainbow Gathering, but quite different as well.
I'm excited, this year, to be bringing a bunch of Rainbows to Jackfest for their first time. We will be setting up a whole camp space, tentatively called The Rainbow Dragon Cafe, which will feature wonderful vegan cuisine and probably a variety of home-brewed teas, with the shop featuring a half a dozen or more creators, including crafts, herbs, coins, writings, body & energy work, and much more.
If you care to learn a bit more about Jackalope, here is my experience from 2016, published right here on the Hive Blockchain:
- Part 1: In the forest buying silver with Bitcoin I earned on Steemit!
- Part 2: Crypto-anarchist vegan preppers in the woods... talking about Steemit!
Upcoming Content
You can expect a lot to be coming down the pipeline... but of course timing is always the thing right. I can say that I'm definitely going to be getting some more coverage of the strange-ness in Portland, I'll be doing all kinds of recording at Jackfest, and I've got those ~6 hours of interviews from Rainbow... plus all sorts of topics I want to write about, videos in mind, and series to finish (Tao, Vaccines, Real Life)... and of course it's almost time for another post about how inherently wrong voting is.
Basically just going to go with the flow, so we'll find out together. Thanks for dropping in folks!
