June 20 11 am to 4 pm
Poly at Burning Man Live the Dream / Family Synergy Orientation
Long time Burners Harold “Calico” Goldstein & Deborah “Lady Laughter” Drake tell us about various Poly and Alternative Lifestyles camps at this yearly event which has become a life style of its own, spawning activities in locations world wide throughout the year.
For what started out as just a beach party, the Burning Man Festival has grown to a major source for artistic creativity & expression, community, social awareness & change and acceptance of everyone’s individual rights, feelings, beliefs and Lifestyles. Nowhere else on Earth can you find a conservative Christian comfortable chatting with a group of nude people about a fire dance performance! This is one event every person should go, at least once in their lives! You will come back changed for the better of all around you.
This year’s overall theme – Evolution is so perfect for the times we live in.
Pot luck lunch 1pm
Afternoon activity 2pm: a Burning Man style Human Carcass WASH (Thanks Poly Paradise for the use of the name!) Be washed by many caring hands…
To be followed by a SUMMER SOLSTICE RITUAL AT 4 pm
Saturday July 18th 11am to 4pm
Shooting a Poly Movie
lead by audio/video engineer Paul Gibbons. Paul will offer some examples of what has been done in the past and some new ideas for the future. Could Moon Is a Harsh Mistress be done as a Poly movie? Interplanetary battle, multi-generational group marriage & sentient computers fighting for freedom. Would Time Enough for Love make a good follow-up? Perhaps a miniseries following two-thousand-year old Lazarus Long from planet to planet and through time returning always to HIS poly household of unusual men, gorgeous women and their kids at Tertius Colony. Bring YOUR ideas for a poly themed movie! Pot luck lunch 1 pm. Afternoon activity: Hot tubbing and socializing.
August 1st Meet at 10 am
Day trip drive to Switzers in the Angeles Forest. Caravan from Terry’s home in Winnetka. Bring your own sandwiches and beverages for picnic and something to share with others. Enjoy a stream, the trees and good company. We could then camp in the Angeles Forest, get a cabin in Wrightwood or come back to Terry’s place for a sleepover OR—what would YOU like to do? CALL 818-886-0069 TO LET US KNOW! If no one calls in on this one by 7-1-09, we’ll just do the day trip.
Saturday August 15
Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover Discussion and Family Synergy Connections Party 11-4
DARKOVER novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
We'll discuss fascinating novels based on the concept of a world on which a few hundred Terrans were marooned in crashed space ships hundreds of years ago and were forced to build a viable community from this limited gene pool—Darkover Landfall. Under these circumstances it became a kind of selfishness for a woman who could bear healthy children to have them only with one man. Men had a legal wife and barragana(s) (formally recognized lovers who bore them children who were acknowledged and sometimes given land or positions of power). Spell Sword and Forbidden Tower, two novels based on a real life group marriage which lasted 16 years! We will also discuss the subject of many of Marion’s characters being bisexual as was the lady herself. She was in triads, had an unusual marriage to a man by whom she had children and spent her final years with a female love partner. Heritage of Hasture deals with how men relate to men and women to women in Darkovan culture.
Pot Luck 1-2
20 Years in the Desert
By Harold Goldstein
In 1986 a small beach party was held near San Francisco, both as a Summer Solstice celebration and to help someone recover from a broken relationship. Three years later this ‘event’ was moved to the Black Rock Desert due to ‘authority interference’. Twenty three years later, we know this event at the annual Burning Man Festival!
WHAT IS BURNING MAN?
Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind.
Why Burning Man is important for people in the Poly lifestyle is MUCH easier. Black Rock City (the name given to the city formed each year where the festival is held) is the singularly most open and free city on the face of the Earth. Everyone accepts everyone regardless of ANYTHING! This is the only place you can see a group of Born Again Christians standing talking to a nude, gay Triad about the fire dance performance they just watched without their batting an eye or making any comment on the triad’s state of undress, orientation or that they are obviously a trio,
To understand the source of this open acceptance, you must look at the Ten Principles of Burning Man (quoted from the BM web site)… and the Golden Rule.
Radical Inclusion
Gifting
Decommodification
Radical Self-reliance
Radical Self-expression
Communal Effort
Civic Responsibility
Leaving No Trace
Participation
Immediacy
First, of these, let’s take a closer look at a few of these Principles:
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
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.
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.
The first is by far the most important – yes anyone & everyone is accepted as they are.
And yet, above or paraphrasing the above, there is still the “Golden Rule” of Burning Man:
“As long as you do not infringe on ANYONE ELSE’s Experience, do as you choose”.
Yes, very similar to the Wiccan Rede, but taken to an even higher level. This all inclusiveness and the understanding that each person should be left to their own experiences is why Polyamory and all of the other Alternate Lifestyles are so openly accepted.
So, what do you do at Burning Man and where do you camp?
There are a many Alternate Lifestyle camps at Burning Man; the largest of the Poly camps is Poly Paradise. Followed by ‘…And There is Only LOVE’, , Jonny & the Playa Cruzers, Orgasmateria Pleasure Lab, Poly Domes, The TempleWhore Outpost, Tranquility Bay, Comfort & Joy, Beaverton (both gay based) and more!!! Not all camps listed here are there every year, some have merged with other camps, and others are new. Please check the links list below for details. There are also a large number of BDSM/Swinger/Gay & Bi camps on the Playa all of which have their own subset of Poly members.
So that covers some of the where, on to the ‘what’ to do.
To start with each of the above camps has their own schedule of events. For example, daily at Poly Paradise you will find the Poly High Tea (a time for people to gather & ask questions/get answers and in general discuss Polyamory) and the world famous Human Carcass Wash! Orgasmateria; ‘…And there is only LOVE’; and Comfort & Joy each do workshops/classes (2-6 each camp) daily ranging in subjects from Beginning Rope work for lovers to the Continuous Female Orgasm and many other classes on sexuality/relationships and much more.
As Black Rock City is located in Nevada, the marriage capitol of the nation there are MANY weddings held on the Playa. Some are regular with a standard wedding license; others are ‘play’ weddings, or even weddings for just the week… or a day!!! Lady Laughter officiated an eight person handfasting in 2001 (only a part of the members of this octal group marriage were present; the rest were added properly later). So Poly weddings are commonplace on the Playa.
Then, of course, there are all of the other scheduled (over 2400 last year!) events listed in the BRC ‘What/Where/When’ guide. And the 3000-5000 unscheduled events you will have to hunt for!
What do you need to do NOW to be able to go this year?
OK, if you do not have one yet,
GET YOUR TICKET online at www.burningman.com NOW!
You can choose to camp as your own camp in the many undeclared parts of the city, however (and especially for your first time there) you will find it much more enjoyable to be part of a theme camp. If so, go to the link for theme camps and read thru the 700 or so camps listed and pick out the 3-5 that you are most interested in. Contact each of them and find out 1) if they still have space for more people. 2) What they will be doing and how you can HELP with it. 3) If they charge a few for being part of the camp (to cover major group expenses or meals) and how much. Then make your decision as to which camp you will camp with.
Now you can work on your preparations… you have only 5 weeks to prepare! You will need to READ the Survival Guide (on the web site) and plan accordingly. Work with your chosen theme camp as to what supplies they will be able to transport for you. Will you be tenting it in your own tent; renting (shared or unshared) an RV – if you can find one this late in the year; or just sleeping in the camps common space.
Don’t forget your costumes, decorating your bicycles, planning meals and your transportation to/from the Playa.
Important Web Links:
www.burningman.com/themecamps/09_camp_vill_a.html
http://tickets.burningman.com/
myspace.com/andthentheresonlylove