7-16-5AA
I believe love is something one Does, as much as something one Feels.  It's a set of behaviors, some subtle, like the "kind look that becomes habit," and others gross and mundane, like meeting one's commitments and taking care of what needs to be taken care of.  Love is a Verb, and Love is the Law.  It's about melding two persons, two souls, and two realities in a way that's as beautiful, creative, fun, functional, and resilient as they can make it.

It's not at all unlike making a plant, its roots pushing sexually into the earth, gaining nutrients and solidity, its stem strudy, long, and unobstructed, so the nourishment of the earth is carried efficiently to the leaves, stretching toward the Sun.  It sends out new green shoots, flowers, fruits, grows, and goes dormant all in their seasons, in rhythm with the Earth, Sun and Moon.  It has a script written deep within of how to cope with any contingency, bending this way and that to follow the Sun, roots wrapping around the rocks, embracing obstacles until they become new sources of strength, defending itself against all attacks, and healing itself when wounded.  It doesn't live forever, but strives to live well in its time.  In the end, it becomes an instrument, a pipe of Pan, Krishna, or Kokopelli, or a drum, or a harp, all depending on its nature.  Nothing is wasted.  It becomes an instrument on which the large, coherent, conscious energies play their tunes.
 
 

8-1-5aa
Happy Lammas.  Today begins the Harvest Season, the season of material prosperity.  The Creative energy prepared at Imbolg, planted at Ostara, nurtured at Beltane, brought to flower at Litha, now swells with fruit brought from the gods and goddesses into this material realm.

Starwood XX.
Wow.  The very thought that there have been 20 Starwoods, all as real and present as the nose on your face just rocks my world.  1655 people including work barter people such as myself rang in a New Century with music and love and the biggest bonfire ever.  Dancing naked with my sisters and brothers served as a reminder of the past as it was before the idiot hammer of civilization clapped us in chains, and of the future as it might be when the dreams of our kind are made real.

I dug most of the hole that anchored and grounded the chimney log of the bonfire, a hollow Beech (ancient wisdom) 27 feet long (3x3x3.)  The hole was four feet deep through the detritus of other fires, down to the water that flows underground.

On Thor's Day night Animal and I tended the nightly fire like two playful Vikings, kept everybody safe and warm and watered till Jen's personal grounding ritual with mud rang in the dawn.  Dr. Chaos arrived right on time with gallons of Discordia Juice, (Vodka and OJ,) and we all got a second wind.  Met Connie, Avatar of Discordia and healer extraordinaire, and danced the triumphant dance of the Justified and Ancient.

Pirate flags flew from every mast, and the smell of sage filled the air as those who know the uses of freedom howled at the Moon, and always the beat of the drums like a heart pumped the energy roundabout.  Had whiskey and cigars with a masked man in a tall hat as Mammy Wata loosed the veil and Papa Legba opened the gate for the blessings of the Road Gods to spill forth, and Chango withheld the lightning of desire until the charge was built to the busting point.

In my first year as a full-blown suspenders-wearin' WOODBUSTER I found my thrill, building and tending the fires of chaos and transformation, watering and keeping safe the Satyrs and Nymphs spinning in surreal ecstasy of Spirit.

More pix, Starwood from the SubGenius perspective:
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/fun/devivals/Starwood-2000/Starwood20/starwood_2000.html

More pix, WOODBUSTERS
http://www.woodbusters.com/images
 

Some letters to the Starwood mailing list:

Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 08:32:10 EDT [Show full headers]
To: [email protected] [Add to Address Book]
From: "Arcadia" <[email protected]> [Add to Address Book]
Subject: Re: [Starwood Festival] puppet on bonfire
 

I had a blast working on the fire. (I was the big one in overalls with a pitchfork.)  Actually, a blast is an understatement. I feel like I had my 15 minutes of fame.  Less drugs that at any previous Starwood, for me and apparently for others.  A good thing.  Got into the intensity of the fact that it was all REAL.  Think about it: Starwood is a phenomenon that could never happen at any previous time in recorded history, at least not in the past 1500 years or so, and it's REAL ... because we all got together and made it happen.

Working on the fire is tremendously satisfying and rewarding, but more hands would make lighter work. And tending the fire is about the biggest ego trip in the world.  Like being a broadway actor and a pro football player rolled into one, but better because one is surrounded by good people, and not swine. We need more Woodbusters, and the Woodbusters need more of the all-important support staff: nothing like a sweetie in black leather bondage gear to urge one on.  That's *Motivation*.

I guess if I have a point to make, it's that Starwood belongs to all of us. Everyone is a participant, and everyone's energy goes into the cauldron. It's a joint project, a piece of Immediatist Art in the Hakim Bey sense.

Yes, more portajohns farther afield would be nice, and that is something ACE and Brushwood need to address.  But those who complain about newbies should do something about it themselves.  I suggest a non-formal "adopt-a-newbie" campaign.  Befriend them; make them feel comfortable and accepted, and explain the unwritten rules to them.  Every newbie is a regular waiting to happen, and they all can use some help up the learning curve.

It's also easy to complain about children.  They are a pain, and the
atmosphere does not lend itself to responsible parenting.  But for all that, I am moved to tears by how many children come, and the things they are learning.  They are our future leaders, more important in some sense than anyone else there, and we all need to pull together to keep them safe, and make them feel like more than excess baggage that walks around.  Besides, when they feel loved and cherished, it motivates them to behave better.

All things done for pleasure are Her rituals, and that takes in a certain amount of chaos and decadence.  There have been times in the past when I felt like that sort of thing went a little over the top.  That's really why I resolved to become a Woodbuster in the first place, since that seemed the best place to sow good energy and gently weed out what seemed wrong.  That's what it takes, really, individual initiative.  We need to get over the idea that "I wish *they* would do things differently." There is no "they."  It's only us.

Matt

Arcadia
 
 

Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 09:17:52 EDT [Show full headers]
To: [email protected] [Add to Address Book]
From: "Arcadia" <[email protected]> [Add to Address Book]
Subject: Re: [Starwood Festival] *sigh*
 

On Tue, 01 Aug 2000 02:07:44 EDT, [email protected] wrote:

>   *sigh*
>  why only six days?
>   why?
 

Well, it's that "peak experience" thing, bud.  Time and time again, folks who enjoyed "special times" together have sought to start intentional communities and such and found that the energy just was not the same when it's every day.  If Starwood were every day, what would we do for something special?  Peaks and troughs are just a part of life.  We make plans, dream dreams, save up money, build up potential energy all year to let loose at Starwood. I like it that way.  Like Mama said in the Voodoo ritual, Chango holds back the lightning until he *has* to let it go.  Some folks seem to do
festivals like every other week or something, but those folks seem jaded to me, blasé', unable to appreciate it.  Maybe it's better we mainly see each other at our best, when each of us is fairly throbbing with divine archetypal energy.

>
>  you guys, i have been reading your commentary and feeling your
emotions... and i gotta tell ya.  i'm hurtin real bad.  this fest is truly a
community.  i dare call it home.

Yeah, it is home, a taste of Summerland, a glimpse of what Fully Actualized Humans are capable of.  Think of your tears as seeds.

The human animal has realized or at least tried every dream and fantasy that was current in 1900.  We built free love communities, went to the moon, embraced freedom and equality (somewhat,) etc etc.  Every crazy idea that mobilized human emotion then has become reality since then.  Not everything turned out as we thought, but that's OK.  Not everything does.  What is mobilizing human energy now?  The internet, the "dream" of world-wide
neo-colonialist empire, mountains of gadgets... No wonder half the bleedin' country has to be on antidepressants just to cope with the emptiness and boredom of it.  No wonder college is a 7-year drinking binge for so many young people.  What have they got to look forward to?  A cubicle, a boss, and a mountain of material shit that just underscores their aloneness.  The dream that will triumph will be the dream that makes people want to get out of bed in the morning, get together, and do it.  Such a dream WILL happen, and all the money people and the power people will go along for the ride, in service to that dream.  It's ultimately the creative people that steer the boat, an idea that scares the piss out of those controlled by the need to control. They do everything they can to convince us we are powerless, superfluous, unnecessary, but behind that is the existential fear and angst that so much energy goes down the drain into so many games that yield nothing.

Starwood represents a possible future that's worth tireless effort and enthusiasm in the face of the crushing forces of mundania.  We can laugh at all of them because we have seen the future, and it's us.  Lines of drummers and dancers make the perfect foil for cops in riot gear.  They should form the perimeter of demonstrations.  Wired networks of angel headed hipsters cannot be stopped by any known force. We are the ghost in the machine.  We are the terrible beauty of icebergs breaking apart.  We will win the children, because our symbols vibrate with the resonance of ancient passion.
Our wisdom is wiser, our beauty more iridescent, our fine things are cooler, and when we dance at the gates of dawn, the very gods dance with us.

Whew. A little too much coffee this morning...

Matt