The 1st Gaia Festival was born this past weekend on the sacred land called black oak ranch where hundreds of thousands have gathered over the last thirty years. From the Hog Farm Pignick to Camp Winnarainbow, to Kate Wolf Festival, Northern Ca Women’s Herbal symposium and Earthdance. Many have kicked up the dust in Laytonville’s hot sunshine and wondered at the moon in the cool starlight.
Producer, Susy Barsotti had the big idea to take the best of all their years of festival production and the occasion of masses of people gathering together to put some strong intention around it. While it is altogether delightful to celebrate with food, dance and music, with that many people the time has come to gather our energy and turn it toward action, beauty, sustainability, network, connection and healing. It was with that intention that the Barsotti’s gathered the most diverse profound artists from near and far, multicultural, young and old to join us together at the heart. The indigenous presence was deep and quite moving from the Native Pomo dancers, to John Trudell and Bad Dog, youth and elder councils met at the medicine wheel lodge put together the women of the herbal symposium, all of the stages were adorned with sacred creatures, bear. Owl, Raven, each evening we joined in enormous circles and sang down the sun with the voices of Bobi Cesbedes of the Yoruba tradition, Zili Misik bringing Haitian sounds and spirited longings of Ma Muse.
I had the truly extraordinary privilege of being the Mother of Ceremonies on the Earth and Sky Stage along with the inimitable presence of Visionary Activist and Weaver of Context Caroline Casey. . She benevolently mentioned President Obama’s birthday and asked us to see him to live up to his name, the translation of which is “bless the good” and see him in ancestors cloaks, innocent as the day he was born as if in his “birthday suit”.
Her lightning storm dispensation of ancient cosmic consciousness and present day reclamation was enough to make our heads spin and spiral and we both unglued the language and put it back together to fit with the quality of life that we would much prefer. One where we are called Gaias instead of Guys, One which we add the missing l to words like peacefull and beautifull, to fill our mouths and psyches with the completion of our ideals. One which we are willing to give up our addiction to having an enemy visualizing a global community called, Imagine Nation. We repeated the Gaia dream of zero waste, toasted every band with a prayer for the water and constantly reminded everyone that we are in mercury retrograde for another two weeks
Mercury retrograde is a challenge of communication which may lead to confusion and chaos and when one finds themselves in mercury’s mayhem it’s helpful to employ words that start with re- Remember, recall, relate, rehearse, realize, retreat, reorganize, rehabilitate.
We had a birds eye view of the festival audience from that robust Main stage position and could literally see people awaken with new thought and direction. Here’s one of the offerings we made from the stage. Close your eyes. Now imagine you are a dandelion gone to seed, so your head is completely full of the puffiest of puffs giving you the most marvelous hair do. Ok. Fill each seed with the loving message you like to send into the world. Every seed jam packed. Now, feel the wind in your puff, just gently blowing you to and fro. Now you realize you are surrounded by thousands of other dandelions just as poofy. And at the count of three we’re going to blow. Just the look on their faces was priceless was consciousness rising. We counted to three and blew…..and the laughter filled the bowl as we could surely see those delicate envoys sail away with the gentle winds. We remembered that Joy is power and laughter is the antidote to so much toxicity.
The consciousness at the festival included a stage for the children and bands sent there to perform specifically for the little ones. Usually it’s just a play area, but these were main stage artists singing for the children. Paul Stamets was there with his fungi magic mindfulness. We were offered A cannabis forum with Sheriff Allman and John McKowen and others. A psychedelic medicine forum and the morning mystic physical healing of Qi Gong. The Gaia invitation was to play and re imagine our world at the very same time Gov. Rick Perry gathered his minyans at Reliant Stadium in Texas to pray for God’s interference in a women’s right to choose and gay lovers to marry, Caroline advised us to inhale leadership and suck the g out of the word kingdom.
All within the sound of our broadcast were moved and brought to their senses. It was an awakening of a new festival in the heart of Pagan celebration of lamas, the harvest. In answer to the madness, the lies and twisted consciousness that is flooding the mainstream with terrible noise, piranha consciousness and the illusion systems of Dow Jones and Standard and Poor’s ,we laid ourselves down on the Gaia, our mother, and held her as she held us and we knew it was the truth, that we call come from the mother and to her we shall return. Re-member
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