tytti gave me her long black socks and headed back to madrid. i came with her half way. the long black socks were good for riding on the motorbike. afterwards i used them for walking along the road, sticking my thumb out. i walked, and no-one stopped, so i kept walking. when i got to the village of rubieblos de moras, two days later, i met stefano in the supermarket. he had just left the rainbow and was at that moment thinking about heading back to liverpool. gabriel and maria had met him on the road and put him up for the night in maria's grandfather's house in the village - a big señorial house with wooden beams and a big wooden table covered with a great frying pan filled with steaming spanish tortilla when they invited me to lunch that day. i had already seen maria that morning in the village. she was sweeping the streets. i thought about saying hello to her but for some reason didn't. why would an attractive young girl be sweeping the streets like that? i had wondered. round the table i found the opportunity to ask her and she told me that the police had entered her flat one night in valencia - following a phone call from her misanthropic neighbour complaining of her loudness . the mysteriously violent police had attacked her in her flat. she had bitten the police officer in self-defence and had thus received the two year penalty of sweeping the streets for four hours a day. "i had no idea the spanish police could be so unscrupulous" i said.
after a few days at the rainbow i decided to continue my journey South. i had already packed my rucksack and was on my way out when hadas - an isreali sister whose joy-of-life smile had already caught my attention - was standing on a log, making our heights equal, saying that if i were to stay a little more, she would be pleased to get to know me. she actually stood higher than me on that log, which felt rather strange, but it was just the right height for me to put my arms around her waist. i instantly knew that getting to know her would be very good idea, and helped her to move her tent down to the river where the yellow poplar leaves filled the air with the autumn wind, and the line of orange cliffs rose directly above us, echoing back the sounds of the polish brothers playing the glockenspiel in the morning.
one night we went up to the food circle and found everybody sitting around solemly. a talking circle had spontaneously been called, to settle the issue of an elderly spanish man who had been accused of molesting young girls in a previous gathering by another man who had just arrived. the talking circle is an important way of getting to know each other and sharing ideas - being in community - which had not taken place until this conflict arrived. whoever held the talking stick had the sole right to talk, while everybody else in the circle listened. anybody who tried to impose their voice over the one who held the talking stick was silenced by other people's call for "focus, focus!"
it was an excellent way to spend time together, sharing ideas and deciding how we really wanted to live together. the hungry ones said "look everything has been said. let us now eat", whereas the ones hungry for communication said "who cares about eating food now? talking together is infinitely more important".
the rainbow gathering invites everyone to be who they are and so there are some people who come to spend their time smoking weed while camping in nature, but the rainbow's ideals are larger than that. the frequent singing of the song "we are opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love-light of the One" is not incidental. the rainbow ideal is to form a temporary spiritually conscious society radically different from normal society by our combined commitment to Love. to love Life, to love Mother Earth, to love one another and to love oneself. it is an ideal it is not always achieved. it must be renewed in each new moment.
the focus of the talking circle returned to the centre of what we were doing together. many gave generalised comments, saying "well, it is my first time at a rainbow gathering, but i find the idea of sexual harrasement totally unacceptable. anybody guilty of that should be excluded straightaway." others said, "aye, we all talk of love and unity, but underneath it all we are selfish and imperfect, let us now acknowledge it!" others were more forgiving, saying, "we all form part of the same whole; another person's struggling is also our own. if we are really a family, we should not immediately throw out anyone who does not conform to our ideals, but try and help him. we all have our own personal journey of self-betterment to follow. let us support each other, let us not abandon the weak!
i was amazed by how many clear honest voices spoke out, encouraged by the set-up of the talking circle to share their deepest aspirations. many comments focussed on cutting through the suspicion and prejudices to accept ourselves as we are, always focussing on self-improvement. it was taking human interactions, human weaknesses back to the most elemental level and many said: "let us be realistic. let us allow each other to be who we are. let us focus much more on overcoming our own weaknesses rather than trying to erradicate those of others."
a few days later it was the celebration of the new moon and the last night of our month-long gathering. everyone was sitting round the fire when pato the basque started up on his guitar, spontaneously improvising his inspired perception of the magic of the moment . . . es un momentico muy especial. later he told me that he had never done anything like that before. hadas and i had already decided to leave that day, but for some reason hadn't been able and had returned to the fire for one more night. i was awestuck by pato and his awesome quality of being fully in the moment, inventing spur of the moment poetry, springing from feeling the uncontainable forces of nature - the wind and the water and the fire - flowing through us, producing encounters of rare beauty, a smile here or a hug there. everytime pato served at the food circle, whenever our eyes crossed, it was always his who lingered the longest, throwing out an immense avidity of observation "i will observe i will observe i will observe," his eyes said, "nothing will escape my attention."
so many rainbow encoutners have affirmed my loyalty to be true to my values, to be fully present in the moment, to be fully myself regardless of how that may differ from those who surround me. stefano's joie de vivre has inspired me immensely. his joie de vivre which makes him roll around the ground laughing uncontainably while tytti says: "i think he has ADHD", which causes us to jump up and down uncontainably upon encountering each other shouting, without apparent reason: "barmy army, barmy army!"
one night, stefano challenges my intellectual predisposition - which i now see as a potentially menacing trait to his pure free flow of feelings. "why do you have to pay so much attention to the meaning of words?" he challenges me. "if a word is useful in the moment to communicate your poetic attention, let it be" he says, "but if the word does not serve to communicate, let it drop and use other words."
"let your words come directly from your heart" says stefano. "we are free, regardless of what the people in society say. we have already chosen the circumstances in which our life will unroll. everything has already been chosen by us - that is how free we are".
during the rainbow, i introduce myself as Corazón, although those familiar with common UK names doubt that it is my real name. "it is easier for the spanish to remember" i say, "and i am able to feel really connected to the meaning of that name"
el corazón is the heart.
the day everyone leaves, a group of single travellers gather in the car park looking for a lift south. there is a young man from germany named joshua who is travelling alone in his spacious van. we all mill hopefully around his van. at first he appears overwhelmed by the thought of us all travelling (illegally) in the back of his van, but after a certain point he gives up worrying and says "pile in!" and we all pile in and a spontaneous little rainbow caravan is formed, everyone squashed together singing songs and calling out "thanks joshua!" to joshua at the wheel. that night we arrive at a beach near valencia. joshua's destination is morocco but he is in no great hurry. for a few days we keep up the rainbow spirit, forming a circle and singing before eating together. hadas teaches me the song "agua de estrellas" which goes:
en tus ojos de agua infinita
se bañan las estrellitas mama
agua de luz, agua de estrellas
pachmama vienes del cielo
limpia limpia limpia corazón agua brillante
sana sana sana corazón agua bendita
calma calma calma corazón agua del cielo mama
it is a passionate eulogy to the sacred divinity of water. though it be the most terrestrial of elements, it comes from el cielo - the sky/ heaven. water is light, is the stars, comes from on high - as pachamama - cleans, heals, calms our hearts, shining water, blessed water, water from the sky.
after a few days at the rainbow i decided to continue my journey South. i had already packed my rucksack and was on my way out when hadas - an isreali sister whose joy-of-life smile had already caught my attention - was standing on a log, making our heights equal, saying that if i were to stay a little more, she would be pleased to get to know me. she actually stood higher than me on that log, which felt rather strange, but it was just the right height for me to put my arms around her waist. i instantly knew that getting to know her would be very good idea, and helped her to move her tent down to the river where the yellow poplar leaves filled the air with the autumn wind, and the line of orange cliffs rose directly above us, echoing back the sounds of the polish brothers playing the glockenspiel in the morning.
one night we went up to the food circle and found everybody sitting around solemly. a talking circle had spontaneously been called, to settle the issue of an elderly spanish man who had been accused of molesting young girls in a previous gathering by another man who had just arrived. the talking circle is an important way of getting to know each other and sharing ideas - being in community - which had not taken place until this conflict arrived. whoever held the talking stick had the sole right to talk, while everybody else in the circle listened. anybody who tried to impose their voice over the one who held the talking stick was silenced by other people's call for "focus, focus!"
it was an excellent way to spend time together, sharing ideas and deciding how we really wanted to live together. the hungry ones said "look everything has been said. let us now eat", whereas the ones hungry for communication said "who cares about eating food now? talking together is infinitely more important".
the rainbow gathering invites everyone to be who they are and so there are some people who come to spend their time smoking weed while camping in nature, but the rainbow's ideals are larger than that. the frequent singing of the song "we are opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love-light of the One" is not incidental. the rainbow ideal is to form a temporary spiritually conscious society radically different from normal society by our combined commitment to Love. to love Life, to love Mother Earth, to love one another and to love oneself. it is an ideal it is not always achieved. it must be renewed in each new moment.
the focus of the talking circle returned to the centre of what we were doing together. many gave generalised comments, saying "well, it is my first time at a rainbow gathering, but i find the idea of sexual harrasement totally unacceptable. anybody guilty of that should be excluded straightaway." others said, "aye, we all talk of love and unity, but underneath it all we are selfish and imperfect, let us now acknowledge it!" others were more forgiving, saying, "we all form part of the same whole; another person's struggling is also our own. if we are really a family, we should not immediately throw out anyone who does not conform to our ideals, but try and help him. we all have our own personal journey of self-betterment to follow. let us support each other, let us not abandon the weak!
i was amazed by how many clear honest voices spoke out, encouraged by the set-up of the talking circle to share their deepest aspirations. many comments focussed on cutting through the suspicion and prejudices to accept ourselves as we are, always focussing on self-improvement. it was taking human interactions, human weaknesses back to the most elemental level and many said: "let us be realistic. let us allow each other to be who we are. let us focus much more on overcoming our own weaknesses rather than trying to erradicate those of others."
a few days later it was the celebration of the new moon and the last night of our month-long gathering. everyone was sitting round the fire when pato the basque started up on his guitar, spontaneously improvising his inspired perception of the magic of the moment . . . es un momentico muy especial. later he told me that he had never done anything like that before. hadas and i had already decided to leave that day, but for some reason hadn't been able and had returned to the fire for one more night. i was awestuck by pato and his awesome quality of being fully in the moment, inventing spur of the moment poetry, springing from feeling the uncontainable forces of nature - the wind and the water and the fire - flowing through us, producing encounters of rare beauty, a smile here or a hug there. everytime pato served at the food circle, whenever our eyes crossed, it was always his who lingered the longest, throwing out an immense avidity of observation "i will observe i will observe i will observe," his eyes said, "nothing will escape my attention."
so many rainbow encoutners have affirmed my loyalty to be true to my values, to be fully present in the moment, to be fully myself regardless of how that may differ from those who surround me. stefano's joie de vivre has inspired me immensely. his joie de vivre which makes him roll around the ground laughing uncontainably while tytti says: "i think he has ADHD", which causes us to jump up and down uncontainably upon encountering each other shouting, without apparent reason: "barmy army, barmy army!"
one night, stefano challenges my intellectual predisposition - which i now see as a potentially menacing trait to his pure free flow of feelings. "why do you have to pay so much attention to the meaning of words?" he challenges me. "if a word is useful in the moment to communicate your poetic attention, let it be" he says, "but if the word does not serve to communicate, let it drop and use other words."
"let your words come directly from your heart" says stefano. "we are free, regardless of what the people in society say. we have already chosen the circumstances in which our life will unroll. everything has already been chosen by us - that is how free we are".
during the rainbow, i introduce myself as Corazón, although those familiar with common UK names doubt that it is my real name. "it is easier for the spanish to remember" i say, "and i am able to feel really connected to the meaning of that name"
el corazón is the heart.
the day everyone leaves, a group of single travellers gather in the car park looking for a lift south. there is a young man from germany named joshua who is travelling alone in his spacious van. we all mill hopefully around his van. at first he appears overwhelmed by the thought of us all travelling (illegally) in the back of his van, but after a certain point he gives up worrying and says "pile in!" and we all pile in and a spontaneous little rainbow caravan is formed, everyone squashed together singing songs and calling out "thanks joshua!" to joshua at the wheel. that night we arrive at a beach near valencia. joshua's destination is morocco but he is in no great hurry. for a few days we keep up the rainbow spirit, forming a circle and singing before eating together. hadas teaches me the song "agua de estrellas" which goes:
en tus ojos de agua infinita
se bañan las estrellitas mama
agua de luz, agua de estrellas
pachmama vienes del cielo
limpia limpia limpia corazón agua brillante
sana sana sana corazón agua bendita
calma calma calma corazón agua del cielo mama
it is a passionate eulogy to the sacred divinity of water. though it be the most terrestrial of elements, it comes from el cielo - the sky/ heaven. water is light, is the stars, comes from on high - as pachamama - cleans, heals, calms our hearts, shining water, blessed water, water from the sky.
