Where could I start?
The place: fabulous! The French Pyrenees; in the middle of the Cathars country... Therefore, a landscape full of castles and legends.. I arrived there on my own, with my parents’ car. I had a little accident in the wee hours of the night that precedeed my arrival. I sprained my index and banged my head, but, thanks God, nothing too serious. I damaged the front of the car and smashed the right front light. I felt terrible about that. I arrived at the last village before the dirt road begins, and chose a remote spot to go to sleep at the back of my car. 4 hours later, I woke up and went to look for a doctor because my finger hurt me enough so that I couldn’t do anything with it! Imagine going to a Rainbow and not being able to use your hands! The doctor didn’t make me pay, except for the medecine she gave me. Amazing! I was very close to the Rainbow! I took two young French hitchhikers who were going back to the site, so they led me to the parking lot of the Gathering. I parked my car, and slowly took my stuff out of it. At that moment, I heard the sound of a harmonium in a marine blue van nearby. I went to listen and met a very nice French Krishna guy, and we had a great discussion before his charming Spanish wife invited me for lunch. We ate in tree barks, with our fingers, some delicious krishna food (full of natural stuff).
After some time there and at the welcome center, I decided to begin the ascent. The trail was about a half-hour walk, but it was hot that day, and I was loaded like a mule. On the way I met some cool Italian guys (some of them I had met last year) and they helped me to carry my stuff up. After a few dust clouds, and a dried out throat, we arrived home: an immense clearing of dry grass lay out before us on a slanted ground, surrounded by a pine forest. I spent about an hour at least trying to find my spot, but once I did, I was glad. It was not far from the healing center, in the forest, on the edge, so that nobody was really around. It was quiet, and I could only see nature when I got out of my tent. Just like last year in Italy, as soon as finished to tauten my tarp, it began to rain. I went insight and took a delicious nap. Then the adventure finally began...
There were so many people (about 3000 spread out in the woods). All brothers and sisters. One sister counted 32 different nationalities! One of my key encounters was a sylphid Italian girl at the healing center who told me how much she’d love to go to this highly mysterious place about an hour of car from the Gathering, where Marie Magdelene had last been seen, and where there’s a high teluric energy... At that healing center was an American doctor who was very conscious of his work, worked exclusively with herbs and who despised all “that Babylon crap”. They put some “camphree” (a sort of fluorescent green paste) on my injured index. The doctor at the village had said I should not move my index for ten days and had tied it to my major with some sticky yucky band-aid. Thanks to that plant, in two days, my pain was gone... another day, I was at a river laying on the grass with a wonderful English couple. Suddenly, I got stung by a wasp. Jez, the guy, directly unrooted some physically unsignificant plant and told me to chew on it before I could put it on my sting. It was plantain. It stopped the pain, kept it from swelling, and took out most of the venom! One day, I became sick, which is weird because I was in perfect health at the Italian Gathering in spite of the terrible weather conditions and all the humidity, and there..? But anyway, it was awful. I had all the symptoms of a flu, with fever, running nose, vertigos, sinusitis, and what not... I went to the healing center and they gave me herbal tea, and propolis, and other magical things; I got healed by plants only, and it lasted a day and a half. I swear. All this to tell you that, hum, that makes you think... and think... We are really conditioned to take all these horrible pills and antibiotics, you name it, whereas about every single plant has great healing virtues for the human and it’s so close at hand; Plus, a friend there who’s an aromatherapeutist told me that here in France, we have almost all the species that you could dream of for every kind of health problem you might have. Interesting... enthralling, in fact...
I also got a back pain relieved. I had dragged it for months... In a few manipulations (shiatzu and a Chinese massage), it was forever gone... And all this for free, and from two charming girls who were happy to help me... what else could you ask for?
The mystical place was called Rennes-le-Château and we first went to Rennes-les-Bains to bathe in the river and its hot spring... The chapel in Rennes was amazing with a devil carrying the stoup (the priest who built that was a satanist), and very intriguing murals... The view from that hill was absolutely fantastic. On my before-the-last day there, I and a group of Israeli friends went to other hot springs. This time, it was no joke (meaning it was not close to any village). In the middle of a mountain. There was boiling water gushing from the ground, and down a steep slope, there were five small pools made out of stones and mud, and in which you felt like in a natural jacuzzi. It was fabulous. The rain started to fall but we wouldn’t even feel it. I will never forget that moment of total happiness and plenitude.
Let’s see. Oh yeah! I spent shabbat night (friday evening) in the middle of the forest around a fire with like 30 Israelis. It was fabulous. We sang traditional Jewish songs and less traditional ones (Israeli ones from the 70’s and 80’s) and it remains probably my best shabbat ever.
Once again there were so many instruments and funny/heavenly conbinations like for example: two accordions, a guitar, a clarinett, and a sax!! There was a yurt called Shambala; There was a happening there every night. The night I went was an “open mike (without the mike)” night, and, obviously, I sang... I tryed out my newest finding: a medieval French song about a shepherdess rejecting a shepherd’s advances... then this guy started playing the sitar with others playing asian percussions. It was so powerful!
The full moon night saw a big bonfire (but nothing compared to the Italian Rainbow) and there was nothing else organized for it (the event of the full moon) really. Good energy everywhere but not the most memorable night, except for the wild untamed-looking girls dancing naked around the fire...
There were also some darker sides unfortunalely: this troublesome loser of a guy who went around during the food circles and told girls that “Saddam Hussein is wishing you a happy sexual frustration and good appetite” or “Georges B. asked you if you were ready to die”. I had to almost fight the guy (French, to my shame), because nobody was doing anything, and he was getting on everybody’s nerves... Also, there were way too many dogs.. but that’s an old story, right?? Oh, but the worst is most certainly this: there were shameless thefts during the Gathering. I got my nice blanket stolen hanging dry outside of my tent; Some people got their camera or wallet stolen... It just takes one person sometimes... That really gave kind of a cold blow to a lot of people. Very unrainbow... And, man, were there a lot of guys on a “power trip”..! This is what I think: At the Rainbow, you’ll find regular brothers and sisters, and guides. Among those, you have the real guides (rare and precious, and not the same to everyone), and con-artists..., impostors. Those are annoying and sometimes dangerous... If you want an example (dixit my great German neighbors): they were asking that guy the way to this place, and instead of giving them a simple answer, he started to lose himself in some shady “the path is near, ...and far; ...it’s here, ...and there, ...maybe even beyond us...”. Dude! Get a life!
And there was a pretty odd situation with a donkey, too. The poor animal was tied to a tree during the whole rainbow, most of the time, completely useless (he had carried some stuff up at the beginning). Sometimes, he would neigh like he was in so much pain. His whinny could be heard miles around. It tore me everytime I heard him...
Ok, enough with the not-so-good stuff.. It just takes me this kind of image to forget everything else: as I was going back to my tent in the night, in the middle of the forest, I came accross a fairy with short hair, standing, in the way, with her guitar and her heavenly voice enchanting the forest...
Oh, so important: the water facilities had never been that easy and functional: one stream had been rerouted and you had faucets of pure delicious water not far from the main field and at the healing center, so everybody could wash dishes and fill their bottles whenever.. Even the showers were super elaborate, with a system of metal pipes channeling water and underneath which you’d put some burning wood and the water was actually pretty warm, if not hot...
One day in Nice, before I left for the Gathering, one good friend asked me, horrified, when she learned that the Rainbow was not a “festival”: “so what do you do all day?” In fact, it’s an excellent question. How do you spend your time at a Gathering. But once you go there, you even forget that you’ve aked yourself that in the first place. A single day is (well, can be, I’ll just talk for myself maybe) so intensely rich in encounters, in teachings, in physical activities, in love, in ecstasy... The simple task of going to fetch your torch light in your tent when night is falling is a whole adventure in itself because you don’t know whom you’re going to come accross, or what natural wonder you might attend. I remember standing in complete awe as thousands of lightnings were tearing the sky in a distance without stopping, at about four in the morning...
The food was very good, very healthy (I think I even lost weight which is pretty unbelievable), but lacked salt/sugar (next time I’ll know what else to bring!). A lot of alfalfa salads, porridge, soups... But it was usually at night, around the many individual fires that we would really eat well, with sometimes some tasty Babylonian treats, like this fantastic, to-die-for Belgian chocolate you just ate with a spoon...
One day, the Préfet of the Region came with policemen and firemen. The préfet is a very high person in the French administration hierarchy. That one represented the whole South West of France in that case. He came to inquire about our squatting the mountain, and the firemen were there to sanction fire abuses. I was only reported that but I’d have given anything to have seen what follows: the préfet and all the other guys were pretty uptight when they arrived and ready to argue and fight, if needed. Instead, they were sat in a talking circle and only spoke when they held the talking stick! The head fireman used the talking stick as a sort of microphone... At the end of the “conference”, they seemed very relaxed. The firemen were reassured: they saw that we pretty much all knew how to handle fire, that we were highly cautious of any danger, and gave us a few advices in case the forest would set on fire (which was very unlikely anyway because the rain would pay us a visit almost every day... They left appeased and serene. What a beautiful story. I love it!!
Finally, there were so many workshops, but I was too busy doing music with a friend and his shrouti-box from Pakistan or singing Bossa Nova with a Brazilian friend. However, I did give a workshop. I went around at the afternoon food circle and asked people to meet at the black flag after the meal, if they wanted to know how to breathe for proper singing and better support. It was totally unprepared but it went really well. At the end of it, there 35 people attending! Great memory...
There’s so much more, but i hope that insight was rather inspiring and that I’ll see at least some of you in some other gathering.
Harmony and beauty,
Peace and love
Yann
Chers amis,
Il nous aura fallu plusieurs jours à ma soeur et moi, pour nous remettre de ce séjour, tellement l'expérience fut forte. Oui, pendant huit jours, nous avons vécu dans un monde parallèle, hors Babylone. Cette expérience a eu lieu lors d'un Rainbow Gathering, organisée dans les Pyrénées orientales durant un mois, en pleine montagne et dans un lieu prévu au dernier moment. Nous y avons rencontré des personnes quasi divines, vu à quel point elles réalisent leurs propres désirs, plutôt que de répondre à ce que la société attends d'eux.
Si chacun participe à une rainbow gathering, n'est-ce pas la société entière qui va se transformer ? !
Ce mouvement, âgé d'une trentaine d'année, provient probablement de Hippies évolués, inspirés par les amérindiens. Existant hors les médias, il prend de l'envergure et de la diversité : rassemblement jusqu'à 20 000 personnes aux Etats Unis. Et s'étend au reste du monde au Brésil, en Argentine, en Afrique du Sud, en Egypte, en Israel. En Europe, quelque part en Espagne, un Rainbow permanent existerait.
LA TRIBU ARC-EN-CIEL
Un rassemblement consiste à recréer une ville pendant un mois ou plus dans un lieu sauvage. La nature y est bien sûr hyper respectée voire dynamisée. Des tentes collectives, des tipi ou des toiles de récup tendus, surgissent. Des cercles de toutes sortes se forment partout, souvent autour d'un feu central et une immense marmite de Tchai ou de tisane, préparée par toi ou moi qui passons par là. Mieux vaut se promener avec un bol sur soi.
Il suffit de s'asseoir. Les mots d'ordre sont les suivants : "pas de drogue", "pas d'alcool", "pas de chef", "frères et soeurs, nous sommes potentiellement", "Ne polluons pas." Un état d'esprit de voyageurs et de nomades. Et un autre rapport à la famille.
Les apparences n'ont absolument pas d'importance dans les rapports sociaux. Quel que soit ton habillement ou ton comportement (marcher en dansant, se promener nu, cracher du feu...), on te reconnaît spontanément comme un frère potentiel. Nulle part un soupçon de méfiance. Un état de confiance à grande échelle. Quel confort ! Chaque balade est un bain de sourires et de visages rayonnant.
Vue la grande ouverture de coeur de chacun, les choses sont hyper subtiles et ultra délicates. On peut donc facilement blesser quelqu'un par mégarde. Ainsi, il y a beaucoup de respiration dans les relations et les silences sont de riches moments de communion. Il est réellement ridicule de vouloir meubler un moment avec des paroles.
Une pratique d'ici consiste, après avoir fait connaissance avec un autre, de le serrer dans ses bras. "Embrasser" reprend son sens véritable.
CERCLES COLLECTIFS
Celui qui coordonne un lieu car il en a l'expérience (la cuisine par exemple) s'appelle un focalisateur. La seule institution ici est l'organisation en cercle, puisque chacun y a une place équivalente à toutes les autres. Nous prenons les repas en cercle. On chante et on joue de la musique en cercle. Il y a aussi le cercle de visions, une assemblée continue où chacun peut donner sa vision des choses et les critiquer. Un bâton de parole circule afin de respecter le temps de chacun. Ainsi a été décidé le lieu du prochain rainbow gathering.
Chaque acte collectif est souvent précédé d'une célébration. On constitue une ronde et on chante ensemble. Imaginez une ronde géante, plus de mille personnes se tiennent par la main dans une immense prairie qui surplombe. C'est le moment du food circle.
"Food circle", "food circle" crie t-on par échos à l'avance. Unique indication d'une heure toute relative. Deux repas par jours, bio et végé, sont préparés et servis en autogestion à plus de mille personnes. C'est bon et gratuit, un chapeau magique circule pour financer le lendemain. Puis, le temps de ce gigantesque cercle, chacun peut en faire le tour, annoncer des choses et surtout proposer des activités pour partager ses connaissances. J'ai ainsi participé à un workshop (l'anglais est ici la langue commune) de transe collective : oublier son esprit et laisser son corps s'exprimer librement...
Un rasta anglais joue de la contrebasse avec un pyrénéen excellant en Cithare, une clarinette entre dans l'harmonie, puis une flûte traversière... Un barbu tout nu, digne d'un mythe, danse dans la prairie entraînant dans son chant une farandole de troubadours. Le soir, de multiples percus aux rythmes surhumains raisonnent ensemble, on croirait de la musique électronique.
Le prochain Rainbow international aura lieu en Bulgarie. Amis, organisons une caravane !
The French Rainbow Family
http://frenchrainbow.free.fr/
Rainbow Us
http://www.welcomehome.org
The Middle East Rainbow family
http://www.rainbow.israel.net/2003.shtml