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Sunday, July 05, 2009
Rainbow Gathering Turns Into Mudfest
By Hailey Heinz
Journal Staff Writer
CUBA — Robbie Gordon has been attending Rainbow Family gatherings for 29 years. He is 63 years old and needs a wheelchair to get around.
Wheelchair access is no minor thing at a Rainbow gathering, particularly in the rainy, muddy area near Cuba where this year's participants are camped out. But Gordon has a plan. His wheelchair is equipped with PVC piping that can be pulled like a rickshaw. When he needs to move around, other Rainbow participants just pull him wherever he needs to go, even if that is through the mud and over tree roots.
"It takes five or six people to get me back to the road," Gordon said Saturday.
July 4 was a sacred day for the Rainbow Family, a loosely organized group of people who gather by the thousands in a different site every year to pray for world peace and celebrate unity.
This year's gathering is at the Parque Venado area in the Santa Fe National Forest near Cuba.
Many participants observed complete silence during the morning of July 4 and sat in a circle praying silently for world peace. The silence ended about noon when a parade of all the children at the gathering broke the circle, causing the group to start cheering and celebrating.
While gatherings are sometimes marked by drug use and other disturbances, Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano said this year's has gone smoothly.
"Some of our employees went up to the gathering, and they stayed for a little bit," she said. "A lot of the Rainbows went up to them and were thanking them for the work they had done."
Gordon, one of the elders of the gathering, reclined inside a teepee-style shelter with a fire burning in the center. The group was discussing astronomy and alchemy Saturday afternoon, staying warm and dry while rain poured down outside.
"Let it rain," Gordon said. "It's God's way of getting us into the tents and talking about things that matter, not just partying in the meadow."
Rain notwithstanding, there was plenty of partying in the meadow. Even as sheets of rain turned the main meadow area into a slimy mud pit, revelers kept up a quick, persistent drumbeat and danced in a throbbing crowd.
By about 3 p.m., many participants were sliding through the mud, covering their entire bodies and lifting one another into the air. Many were fully or partially naked, running muddy hands joyfully through their hair and splashing each other with the goo.
While many embraced the rain, others huddled under tarps to stay out of the mud and downpour.
For Lizzie Rego, 5, who was there with her mother, Fran Rego,, the rain made this gathering less fun than others they've attended.
"The rain's been a real damper," Fran Rego said as she held a shivering Lizzie. "But when it doesn't rain, it's like heaven."
A man who identified himself as Sundog, though, embraced the rain.
"I think it's a sign of cleansing and rebirth," he said. Sundog was at the gathering with his son, Jasper, who sat on his shoulders and peered out from under a tarp.
"What's happening here is real," Sundog said. "World peace is real. These are things we will do in our lifetime."
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