Near Taos: Rainbow Gathering in New Mexico, Dipping in & out of Bliss, Blissware

Rainbows Gathering in New Mexico {2009}


Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow's Gathering,

it's the people,
and this national forest land,
and the freedom
to be who you are,
and, for some,
to be beautiful,
funky, and natural.

Rainbow is all ways free.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


People twirl
balancing sticks,
and good musicians -
this marimba player,
mmmmm, she plays so well -
play in the meadow,
near the center pole,
and near the circles,
and all around -
at the center of
this Rainbow Gathering.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.

People are the center
of this Rainbow Gathering.

Not anthropological poetry,
here is a little record
of dipping in and out of bliss
and at Rainbow.


This year the rains
fell a lot and
people celebrated
and got dirtier and dirtier,
but rain keeps things clean.

Not a major Indian festival
in India,
people come together,
get dirty,
but get cleaner.
A kind of purification occurs,
and a celebration of identity,
hippie identity, at the Gathering.
38 years after the first gathering,
Rainbow is still around, a survivor,
especially vis-a-vis law enforcement.
Rainbows know how to navigate in the woods.


Mud people,
in the main meadow,
play and play.
You take off your clothes
and people throw mud at you
until you are completely covered.
People run and slide,
and our numbers grow,
as the drummers drum.
Kids have so much fun.
It's fun to take off
your clothes
and slide in the mud.
What lovely rain.

One love, and
karma-burning at Rainbow, ~
this is like a
major festival in India
but it's in New Mexico, ~
and it's hippie.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


Lots of men
(and women)
bring their dogs here.
There are a lot
of hippies, and
people living
on the edge, around, -
and Rainbow is a
tip of a
countercultural iceberg.
Much isn't forgotten,
over 40 years,
and we all gather here
to celebrate this earth vision.
Is this religion?

There's more nudity
than last year
in Wyoming, and a lot of
different stuff too,
but Rainbow hippie
patterns come through time,
steady-like, -
this cultural stuff
is freeing.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


Women are freer,
and happier, here,
than in Babylon,
I see.


On Friday, I'm standing
in line for dinner
at the Magic Bowl kitchen camp,
and Holly with her son
and friends walk by.
It's so nice to see
an old friend
from college,
to visit and talk,
and meet her
extended family,
learn their language -
quite familiar,
yet slightly unfamiliar.

On July 4th, independence day,
yesterday, people danced freely.

It's indirect freedom,
connectedness,
shared intuitions,
and visions of what life can be,
that I find wild,
wondrous, and fascinating here.

Much freedom
emerged in the 1960s
in response to
Babylon, within Babylon.
People are alive,
and living, here now.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


On arrival, there are
little risks,
little doubts,
in a gathering of
possibly 7,000 people.
Hippies, earth people,
wanderers, hobos and bums
find philosophy here ~
Rainbow Hippy.
But many people here live
on the edge of life,
without resources.
Hippies can thwart
and feel thwarted
in Babylon -
this is karma -
from which we learn.

Yet Rainbow generates
great, fascinating energy,
in all.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


Signs are on trees,
in camps,
and along the way.
There are many,
and they inform Rainbow.

{New photos this year here soon}.

Drumming happens a lot here,
all the time, -
it's powerful and beautiful.

Africa necklaces, flags
and dreads are around a lot.
One love.

I talked with someone
tripping, as real rainbows
came out in the sky
after a rain.
Surreal and delightful.

Rainbows ~ In one group of folks
singing near a fire ~
there were really rocking -
and one women was
erupting vocally with
Janis Joplin energy. Cool.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


Is this Tao near Taos
near the Taos national forest ~
can't say.



Sunday, July 5, 2009

Friends' kids
had fun
in Kids' Village.

Music is on the trails,
Music on the paths.

Hawaiian music is in the air,
and beautiful.

Harmony is, too.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


But there's some
little discord here, too,
vis-a-vis harmony.
And people have their
stashes and drink,
which they share,
but rockily sometimes.

Contact improv
at Rainbow this year, -
was most fun.
Contact jamming outside,
I saw the
forest's ridge line,
and heard the drumming
from the other direction.
Jamming.
So much drumming -
and drumming which rocks.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


Bare feet are everywhere …
people live closely
with nature at Rainbow.

Hippie earth people are here.


Circling at dinner,
so many gather,
and the food moves
around the circle,
dished into expectant bowls,
our bliss ware.


A magic hat goes around,
Do any monies
go into his pocket?
Did I hear last year
that he pockets this?


Rainbow meets at 9000 feet,
and the air is thin.
People walk slowly,
get winded easily
and feel the elevation.
It's clean this high.

Wandering around aimlessly,
learning … there's so much
to learn and write here ...

Back to native ways,
among all the backpacking tents,
yet with bleach
in the water
for hand washing,
to keep people healthy.

Since 1972, things change only a little.

Kitchen camps … Kids' Village
was big this year,
and served a lot of food.
So did Crucial Kitchen.
How does Rainbow keep energy good
in this anarchic hippieness? -
'I love you' and 'please
wash your hands' all the time …
experience gleaned over 38 years?
The food is great.

Getting volunteers easily,
hippie-wise isn't easy …
many don't work,
yet things get done,
food gets served,
latrines get dug,
and people have a good time.
And people shit in the forest.
How does Rainbow work?


No om circle on Saturday,
but a great cheer welled up
after the Saturday all-morning,
welcome silence.


There's such colorfulness
in the main meadow.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


I gave the kids
of my friends little gifts.

Playfulness absurdity,
and whimsy
abound here.
It's surreally surreal.
Fellini-esque-ness.
Carnivalesque.

Dipping in and out of bliss
at Rainbow.


Hippies get close
to the earth quickly ...
Lots of pot and smoke here …

And a connectedness -
coming home - occurs
for many.

A lot of people
at this gathering come
from New Mexico
and the states around
the Sante Fe National Forest,
and some come from all over
the United States.



Monday, July 6, 2009

The days are so full.

I arose with daybreak
and walked to four corners,
a place on this years
Rainbow map
I hadn't visited before.
One woman was sleeping
by the fire, head in the dirt,
with gray pants and a red top -
it had been a long night.
It was around 5:30 am
and 3 drummers were
singing out their music there.
One man was playing
an unique string instrument.
Around 7 others of us
were just hanging out,
listening to the drumming.
One woman, 60-ish, sweet,
hippie, colorfully-clad,
and personally together,
pointed out the color in the clouds.
Yes, how beautiful! She started
dancing outside the circle;
I was already moving
to the music
in the circle.

People play Hackysack {Fussball),
musicians roam
(but no one is paid at Rainbow -
All Ways Free),
with guitars, harps and diggeridoos -
so many guitars -
people are creative and free.

I met a friend along a path -
French is his name -
and he gave me a book
which he wrote
on the Gaia hypothesis, healing
and medicinal herbs as allies,
- so sweet, so generous.
Thank you, French,
for the gift of this book
which I'm reading.


The last night in the meadow,
dinner in the circle
was bean chili
with soy seitan in it,
with fresh, herbed India thin bread -
it was so good,
and the food
was abundant.



As people cooked
in kids' village,
people played music
near this kitchen -
so good;
Rainbow is a dream.

Cuddle parties happen.

The days are so full,
and rich, in this
alternative life vision,
this dream of Rainbow, -
so much to write about.

I slept a lot at Rainbow.

There's anger among hippies,
and hippies can be flighty;
the Rainbow medical camp
is called 'CALM.'

Hippie clothes and hair
are natural and dread
{French – so many}
but there were more T-shirts
this year, and less hemp clothing.
Same and different are
curious in the hippie world.


I, an observer,
inside, outside … just here,
akin, yet apart … and writing.

The vision circle –
people speak here
of their love for Rainbow,
of what's on their minds –
there's space for this –
and this echoes of
Native American processes.
When people hold the feather
they can speak for a long time,
creating shifts in time.
Time is different at Rainbow.

In the circle, I was going
to let Rainbows know
'bout World University & School
but I got cold,
before the feather got to me.

David Alexander, a spokesperson
in this vision circle –
shares his visions of goodness,
of hippies and goodness.
While many hippies can be good –
peace and love -
there's a resistance
to the norms of goodness, as well,
among hippies -
Babylon? -
and among some people
on the edge, at Rainbow.
So some at Rainbow
do what they want,
and are compelled to do,
yet people come together -
Rainbow thinking is very
integrating, and this
helps, and brings people back
year after year.



Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Woke at dawn – 5

I elicited
the relaxation response
in my tent.
How to go to the vision
council at noon,
and get my stuff
out of this national forest
on my way to Sante Fe, and Holly's?
From now to Babylon time?

Flax seed oil (for Omega-3
fatty acids, and a multivitamin)
every day. MMmmmm.

The day is so beautiful,
in this little, open spot
where my tent is,
in this forest,
hearing drumming again
in the early morning.
Hippies are alive in the night.

I walk up to the road …
are there spaces for another vehicle now,
among the mish-mash of cars? Yes.

Back to my tent to write,
on a low battery …

Get the car, if I can get
a ride back 7 miles
at this time in the morning …
then come back to vision council?

But I decide to leave
before the last days
vision council at noon,
and pick up hitchhiking Yoko,
a 17 year old young guy
with serenity, sweetness,
philosophy and spirituality ~
so much wholeness came
from the East in the '60s ~
who plays Hawaiian music,
and we drive to
Sante Fe.

Entering back into the
world with serenity ~
the transition is smooth.


Yoko meditates ~
at the Gathering
and in the car ~
and I see his
serenity grow
as he does -
so sweet, he's sweet,
while I elicit the
relaxation response, ~
MMmmmm, sweet, too.

Ah, blissware.

* 

...

(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/07/near-taos-rainbow-gathering-in-new.html - July 7, 2009)