Burning Man

The ‘playa’, a dried desert lake in the USA, becomes every year a city of 80 000 people. Your ticket gives you access to this ground but… there is nothing there yet. The empty playa is a white canvas waiting for YOU to CREATE & bring your wildest dreams to reality. Accordingly, this years theme was ‘Waking Dreams’…

A video of Burning Man 2020, just to give you an idea of what it might look like 🙂

People build theme camps, art & art cars. It is a do-ocracy. It is a movement guided by 10 principles, of which a very important one is the ‘gifting‘. There is no money at Burning Man. Except for ice, there is nothing to buy. Burning Man is a gifting economy. Some gifts I recieved: looking to planets and the Pleiades in the Observatory, communicating with an aliens after someone opened himself as a ‘portal’, steering someone’s plane (3-dimensial driving ow yeah!), amazing concerts (Desert Dwellers, The Human Experience) in a huge pyramid, free books from the ‘Goddess Library’,… The diversity of gifts are a reflection of the diversity of people and their passions. The whole spectrum is there: scientists, engineers, programmers, surgeons, shamans, teachers, musicians, carpenters, bike mechanics,… The diversity of skills results in astonishing art and experiences.

Photo by Rob Bruce

Because you cannot buy anything, the principle ‘radical self-reliance‘ is very important. It is up to you to bring enough water, food, solar panels and fuel for 2 weeks. It is up to you to build structures that protect you against the burning sun and blasting dust storms. It is up to you to create a shower, sauna, hot tub, human carwash, rain forest or whatever way to keep people fresh & clean AND to catch all the grey water. ‘Leaving no trace‘ is a very important principle. Still, it is everything but an environmental friendly event. All the running generators, all the wood that is burned, all people flying in. But Burning Man is a great way to learn to live off-grid. You learn how to design & build structures that can last in the craziest winds & dust storms. It is opening our creativity to discover solutions for the challenges our world is facing today. Burners founded ‘Burners Without Borders‘ to help communities all over the globe to deal with challenges like climate change, natural disaster, horizontal leadership,…

I helped building our ‘Naked Heart’ village for 172 inhabitants. We woke up every day at 4:30am to start building before the crazy heat. We survived crazy storms (our material less so) and experienced that “a family that will sweat together, will stick together”.

Sunrise after the storm (photos by Believe)

During the build week, we do not only build structures, but also the culture of the camp. During every meal we held a sharing circle (sometimes with goggles and masks to protect us during dust storms), to answer questions like: “What do you want to let go off?” “What did you overcome the last year?” After the Burn week we reflected about the struggles we experienced in camp: “Could little tribes within the whole group, help newcomers to feel more belonging and responsibility?” “How can you lead and communicate in a positive, feminine way when people don’t show up for their work shifts?”

Every theme camp brings it’s own gift and experience to the playa. In our ‘neighborhood’ I found a viking hall with ritual theatre fire shows, a hair saloon, pirate ladders climbing up to a fire spitting piano, ‘Decentral’ offering workshops about how blockchains can decentralize power, Partner Dance Adventures, Orgy Dome, HeeBeeGeeBee Healers with free massage, energy work, coaching,… Our camp, Naked Heart, is devoted to explore and enhance the feminine by offering expression and connection workshops. Naked Heart started as a camp to catch the processes of people after the ‘Emote-a-Thon’ workshop in which all women are on one side of the room, and all man are standing strong on the other side of the room. One by one the women get the chance to pick 1 or several men to which she wants to express all her emotions (which can include physical aggression, if the man gave consent), for 5 minutes long. A very deep experience, in which the effects of patriarchy and colonization, are expressed and felt. A whole dome of crying women and men.

With the question “Which workshop would you love to join the most, if there is no judgement or shame?” camp leader David is a ‘dula’ for workshop leaders, because this workshop, will be your gift to the playa! When people hold space at Burning Man, they are ready to do this in the ‘default world’ too. So this camp is an example of how during Burning Man, a new culture is created and spreaded into the world. My gift to the playa was the creation of the ‘Radiant Seed Temple’ devoted to radical ritual and reimagining our relationship to the wild. In the night we held ‘death ceremonies’ in which old patterns, blockages, not-expressed emotions were released. In the morning we held ‘rebirth ceremonies’ to remember and connect with your radiant essence.

Proud at the ‘sigil’ I designed, inspired by the ’empress’.

I offered a Grief Ceremony, based on the 5 gates of Francis Wellers (book ‘The Wild Edge of Sorrow), as grief is an essential part of Burning Man. Burning Man has a temple in which people can write and hang photos of people they love and lost, shame and restrictions they want to let go of. It is a place for prayer and grief, were weddings and burials happen side by side. After the wild night in which the Man is burned, there is the night of the Temple Burn, witnessed by 80 000 processing people, in utter silence.

Temple Burn (by Fern) – 80 000 people in utter silence, grieving & letting go.

Burning Man fulfills our human need for ritual, expression, community and belonging. No matter your gender, job, skin color or age, everyone is equal in the dust. ‘Radical inclusion‘ is one of the base principles. For many people it is an opening to experience that anyone is open to talk to anyone. Everyone is inviting strangers for a drink, food or experience. “Hey, do you want to join me in the Orgy Dome?”, was an opening sentence I experienced 😀

If you are open for it, Burning Man can be the deepest spiritual & transformational retreat. Because there is a save environment (shaped by the principles of ‘radical inclusion‘ and ‘consent‘), no judgement, and a crazy amount of non-conventional experiences, you can explore your longings and kinks, discover YOUR unique gift and your ‘playa name’. My first Burn (Kiwiburn 2017, blog) completely changed my life. I found a fox tail and my wild uninhibited self. I discovered that I am here on earth to bring people in connection with their body, tribe and nature through dance. ‘FoxyLene’ was born!

There is the expression “the playa provides”, because everything you ask for, will come your way. The manifestation energy on the playa is insane! It is very tangible that YOU create YOUR REALITY.

There couldn’t be a more fitting theme as ‘Waking Dreams’ for this burn. (Photo by Believe)

My journey during this Burn was a magical chain, in which every experience clicked into the previous one. The experience of the ‘Emote-a-Ton’ was deepened to an archetypal journey when I met experienced dreamworker Stephen Aizenstat, that gave me on a week long personal program. Next to ‘living in a tribe’, my focus was ‘energy’. I learned how to pull in energy from the earth and sky in my body, how to give and receive energy from different chakras (‘energetic sex’) and how to heal someone, using energy. I felt like a bee gathering nectar for bringing more juice and depth into my relationship with Lennart. Now it is time to rest, integrate and get rid of the dust!