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trippinglynet · 5 years

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Larry Harvey's Gnosis Article: Summer 1995

In 1995, Larry Harvey penned an article for Gnosis magazine using his nom de plume, Darryl Van Rhey. (An anagram for “ND Larry Harvey” or “Name of Larry Harvey”) Gnosis was an American magazine published from 1985 to 1999 devoted to the Western esoteric tradition.

Burning Man: A Modern Mystery

On Labor Day weekend in early September, thousands of people will converge in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Somewhere near the center of the awesome space - reputedly the largest flat expanse of land in North America - they will erect a giant effigy. The Burning Man, as it is called, will tower over a spontaneous community, a miniature civilization complete with clubs and cabarets, several radio stations, and a daily newspaper, The Black Rock Gazette. The masthead of its journal sets the tone of the ensuing weekend. “Welcome to Nowhere,” it reads “Its name is whatever you name it. Its weath is whatever you bring it. Next week it will be gone, but next week might as well be never. You are here now.”

Throughout the festival that follows, people indulge their whims and creative impulses. However they choose to express themselves - through costumes, dancer, sculpture, or the construction of elaborate theme camps - they are encouraged to do so in an environment where distinctions like “professional” and “amateur” or “ audience” and “spectator” soon become meaningless. By day the campground is a colorful community of tents and fantastic shelters with flags and banners flying in the wind. By night it is transformed into a dreamscape as artists craft light, sound, neon , and the primary element of fire into luminous spectacles.

On the final evening of the festival, participants join in a grand promenade. Dancers bearing torches lead them to the Burning Man along a pathway flanked by monumental spires. Clamor, cries, and high-pitched ululations are succeeded by a hush as the four-story figure is ignited. Then a wild pandemonium ensues as lapping flames engulf the torso in a solid sheath of fire. Mounting upward, they ignite a fuse: fountains of fireworks spout out of the giant’s head. Most animate now, at the moment of his demise, he soon shudders, and the three quarter-ton figure comes crashing to the ground.

Organizers shroud the meaning of this celebration in a cloud of calculated ambiguity. Pressed to explain their intentions, they cite a simple doctrine. “The Project,” one is told, “never interferes with anyone’s immediate experience.” Participants are urged to create their own interpretations. The weekend might be described as an avant-garde art festival, a ritual enactment of creation and destruction, or an exotic free-wheeling party. Yet to the student of religion, these rites suggest a time, a place, and a social setting that has precedents in ancient history.

Throughout the classical period of Western civilization, there existed a diverse spiritual movement that is known as mystery religion . The mystery cults, as the were called, arose within a new world order. The conquests of Alexander and subsequent spread of Roman rule through-out the Mediterranean world had greatly expanded the scope of classical civilization. Stretching from the shores of the Atlantic to the Caspian Sea, it occupied a fast cosmopolitan domain, teeming with commerce and hosting the ideas of many cultures. Immense allocation of men and monies and displaced entire populations. The citizenry of the empire, uprooted and heterogeneous, now congregated in large urban centers. Within this sophisticated and self-conscious milieu, huge societal gaps separated rich from poor and urban from rural populations, and intense economic specialization further divided the classes. It was a world, in other words, remarkably like our own.

Arising from this complex milieu, the mysteries derived from diverse sources. Traditions drawn from many cultures flowed like tributary streams into the great Mediterranean basin, bringing with them the worship of Isis and Osiris of Egypt, Mithra of Persia, and the Anatolian Great Mother. Yet the mystery cults had much in common. All were grafted onto the stock of agrarian fertility festivals - relics of prehistoric past - they were essential urban in character. They typically employed theatrical parades and pageants to attract a pool of individuals who might share little else in common, and they were organized as lodges. Membership within a cult implied a broad equality with fellow mystai or initiates.

Ceremonies often took the form of pilgrimages. Participants removed themselves to sacred sites. Mystai sang and danced to flutes and cymbals; others wore masks and sported strange attire. Such celebrations might take many days, and while they lasted, class distinctions were dissolved. “Persons are being initiated into the mysteries throng together at the outset amid tumult and shouting,” wrote Plutarch of the Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated near Athens, “but when the holy rites are being disclosed and performed, the people are immediately attentive in awe and silence.”

Such initiations were performed by firelight at night in enactment of a central myth of death and rebirth. They were often the tribal traditions from which they sprang, placed a unique emphasis on personal choice. Many people probably attended the festivals simply to have fun. Intense, ecstatic, and immediate, the rites did not stress doctrinal belief, but valued outward show and inward feeling. Aristotle states the mysteries weren’t about a teaching’ they were initiations focused on direct experience.

The mystery cults, long a dominant form of worship in the late classical world, perished with the fall of Greco-Roman civilizations. Yet the modern immolation of the Burning Man, surrounded by impromptu rites of celebration, forms an arresting analogy. The parallels are striking; fire, sacrifice, pilgrimage, visionary spectacle, egalitarianism, revelry, recruitment from an urban population, direct experience as opposed to doctrinal belief and, and central to it all, a myth of death and rebirth. Organizers of this modern mystery disclaim any conscious plan to reproduce the past. Yet it might be that culture itself is responding to the changing needs of our society. As students of ritual understand, the past and present rotate on a single wheel of time. - Darryl Van Rhey

Darryl Van Rhey is a writer based in San Francisco. For further word about Burning Man call (415) 985-7471 or contact this Web site: http://www.well.com/www/tcircus/Burnman

#Gnosis #Larry Harvey

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pj-fanfics · 6 years

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bees ocs/info

Gen 0 Girls Marge 52 Cera 48 Iris 46 Rosa Maria 46 Winona 45 Lisa Frank 45 Dee 44 Kala 42 Bianca Beiley 41

Boys Tbone Vicious Everest 56 Ein 50 Sylvester Tweeny 50 Roger Mandler 49 Rachim Blush 48 Mort Salechii 48 Dylan Sanders 47 Chip Dautrive 47 Stan Wharshell 47 Bernard Beiley 47 Bepis 47 Cosmo “Red” Mage 46 Murray Worltur 46 Banjo Pikaman 45 Otis Cotta 45 Don East 45 Emmett Le Motte 44 Fernando 44 Jerimiah 43 James 42 Jericho Obaje 42 Marcos 41

Gen 0.5 Girls Eileen 40 Berry 38 Gretchen 38 Sanza/Darryl Bleu 35 Jenny Cotta 33 Jenna 32

Boys Mimi 39 Earl Grey Madris 38 Chipotle 37 Pang Rosemary 36 Guts Windkiss 35 Kaiji Ibiki 35 Maurice 34 Boba Tawhiri 34 Neil Mode Li 34 Max 30 Caspian 32 Goliad 32 Otto 31 Alvin 30 Alejandro 30 Leif 30 Jaeger Allison 29 Dan 29

Gen 1 Girls Aleu 28 Caroline 25 Candy Salechii 24 Mindy Willow 24 Kassandra Bleu 24 Mindy Willow 24 Tanya Von Ultra 23 Meg 23 Skye Cree 22 Lilly Ruth Herdier 22 Yasmin Shelsvic 22 Darla Dautrive 22 Kelsea 19 June Vi 19 Madi Shep 18 Elaina Mage 17 Isabelle Mage 17 Coco 17

Boys Cobalt 28 Felix 26 Naga 26 Sheen 25 Comet Dash 24 Ned Philos 23 Lucian Primo 22 Dwight Arlo 22 Drake Dante 22 Bowie 21 Flower Davis->Mephitidae 21 Adande Shep 21 Hunter Beiley 21 Hans Davis 21 Martin 20 Buddy Sanchez 20 Demyx Cage 20 Mika 20 Edward 20 Shane Le Bouf 20 Gus Beiley 19 Benny 19 Bale Knight 18 Teener (Tanner) Durante 18 Senketsu Iwata 18 Gerald Worltur 17 Ross Salazaar 17 Zac 17 Burnham 16 Chavapa 16 Duke Knight 16

Gen 1.5 Girls Lilac 14 A’uili Belson 13

Boys Morgan Le Bouf 11 Geo Worltur 11 Estevan Serio 9 Declan Brodeur 9 Ellie Nguyen 9 Nolan Allison-Cabrera 4 Milo 3 Burian 2

Gen 2 Girls Dora Durante born in 2016 (Darla + Ferro) Chessa born in 2020 (Albert + Ernest) Zoya Shelsvic born in 2022 (Nate + Tanya) adopted 2025 Sophie Salazaar born in 2023 (Jill + Ross) Wendy born in 2023 Jesse Lukas born in 2025 (Teo + Yasmin) Ellie Belmont-Wilson born in 2026 (Alva + Elaina) Gem Dash born in 2027 (Vesper + Teener) Melisandre Iwata Born in 2027 (Sen + Lynn) Honey Beiley Born in 2028 (Hunter + Nanna) June Misha Medvedev-Vi born in 2028 (June + Manya)

Boys Raza born in 2015 (Benny + Woo) Whitaker and Walter Lukas born in 2017 (Yasmin + Teo) Sven born in 2017 Travis and Phillip Knight born in 2017 (Leaf + Bale) Greg Durante born in 2018 (Darla + Ferro) Wade Lukas born in 2020 (Yasmin + Teo) Clive born in 2021 Larry born in 2021 Carlisle born in 2021 Ronin (Squirt) born in 2026 (Adopted Coby + Gabby) Colt Salazaar born in 2026 (Jill + Ross) Russel Shelsvic born in 2027 (Tanya + Nate) Dwight Shelsvic born in 2029 (Tanya + Nate) Sol Shelsvic born in 20 (Tanya + Nate)

Gen 3 Fiona (Phillip + Tinno)

Lady/Guts: (Erela) 9, Breen (9), Jett Fly (9), Clarence (9), Terra (6), Sarah (6), Marty (2), I forgot the rest whoops (all gen 1.5)

Murray/Kala: Gen 1 Leila 22, Gerald 17, Arnold 16, Gen 1.5 Dory (14), Fern (12), Geo (11)

#bees ocs #oc info #updated may 3rd 2019

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junker-town · 7 years

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This 'Jeopardy!' contestant won with only $1

He was playing chess while they were playing checkers.

Naval officer Manny Abell pulled off a rare feat on Jeopardy! Tuesday night by completing a come-from-behind win with only $1 to his name.

Seemingly out-classed by his competitors, Manny entered “Final Jeopardy!” with $1,000, while his opponents each had $12,300 to their name. He had the final laugh. The question was on Asian Geography:

It’s the only country that borders both the Caspian Sea & the Persian Gulf.

Carlos and Fran were both sure of their answers, betting the farm on Azerbaijan and Tibet respectively, but ever-steady Manny was waiting — dropping Iraq for $999 and walking away with a single dollar bill.

It was his third win in a row, bringing his three-day total to $42,799. The best part: We’ve seen this before, under similarly amazing circumstances. The last time a player won with $1 was in 1993, when Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Darryl Scott did the exact same thing.

youtube

Now we’ve got to ask if Manny was playing the long-con on this whole thing, just waiting for the moment a $1 win would arise. I say that because not only are both $1 wins, both are by service members and Manny copied Darryl’s celebration from all those years ago.

Swag levels off the charts. Manny was playing chess while we were all playing checkers.

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