“…life nowhere appears so brave, so bright, so full of oracle and miracle as in the desert.” – Edward Abbey

 

I fell back in love.

Not in your usual sense, though. Not with a person, but with a place. The high desert.

As I was walking alongside a fellow goddess, my feet stirring up the sand below me, the stars lighting up the sky above, the heat radiating from the warmth the sun had left upon the ground and hearing the cries and howls of the surrounding spirits, humans, and animals all together in this magical place.

I had arrived at the Building Man festival.

What is Building Man? Well, up until two days before it I also had no idea.

It is a music and art festival centered around sustainable life workshops. i.e.- plant medicine, solar power, building your own transportation (bamboo bikes), etc! There were so many I had wished I could have made it to, but sometimes life takes over.

The Facebook page for it describes the festival as such:

Building Man Sustainable Living, Arts, and Music (S.L.A.M.) Festival is Utah’s first and only art and music festival run on solar and wind power.

The JenkStars offer a host of sustainable living and building workshops. Its our goal to send participants home with real world skills that they can implement in their own lives. In addition to the building workshops, we offer daily yoga classes, healing arts classes, crafting activities, kid’s activities, live art, and of course four days of live music and DJs from our solar stage.

Getting back on track-

I found out about the festival a few days before its occurrence through some friends. And through some amazing luck, I not only had the time off but was given a free ticket through a friend of my roommate, who happened to be in two of the bands performing. Pixie & the Partygrass Boys and SuperBubble, who are both definitely worth a listen! (Thanks, Ben!) 😀

Tiffany & I decided to head to the festival the second day of the shenanigans- Friday the 5th. We arrived around 6 p.m., parking in our own created spots behind the “Far Far Away” sign. We set up our camps, which delighted me- my first music festival in the Taco! Man, I have to admit it is very convenient to have your whole bedroom/home with you on such an adventure. But Tiff made me realize how new I was to this game- she had twinkle lights that ran on batteries instead of powered through the truck and tapestries that went around her whole trunk set up. Not to mention our “porch” between our cars- she had a floor mat, table, and chairs! We were set for some fun!

After gathering our wits about us, we decided to explore the festival.  As we walked through the camps to the main hub of it all, it started to sink in how much the desert means to me. It has such a freeing and full of life feeling that I have never really experienced anywhere else. As the sand stirred beneath my feet and the laughs and voices of those at the heart of the festival could be heard, I felt a sense of home.

We arrived at the main area right as people were finishing up the “horse race,” where you created or brought your own “horse” and raced around the camp. There were some very interesting “horses!” One guy had a tennis racket duct taped to a nerf football. Another had a huge fluffy stuffed caterpillar. Some actually had the wooden sticks with horses at the head. But this was just the beginning of the creativity that I would see this weekend!

The whole area is a place of art. From the TeePee, main stage, sacred dome and more- it was obvious they were built with intent and art in mind. So many structures around the festival were scattered pieces of artwork. Like the swings that Tiffany and I ended up climbing into to watch the sunset. Her seat was a bench with swing straps carabiniered in, while mine was the main part of a shopping cart with metal chains for support. It was a neat set up, though difficult to stay in!

The night continued on, and we found our way into the sacred dome. What a feeling that place invokes… there was a sacred altar set up with some of the biggest crystals I have ever seen! Some I did not even recognize. Along with a beautiful pattern of the flower of life, sage and cedar smudge sticks and articles that people had seemingly left behind for their own meaning. It completely captured my attention- every detail was amazing. We each took our time entering into meditations and appreciating the space that had been created. Little did I know how much time I would be spending there!

We meandered out of the dome and found our way back to camp to finish preparing for the night. Once we were dressed appropriately for the evening events, we made our way back just in time to catch Pixie & the Partygrass Boys. Man, did they blow my mind! What a fun experience! We were all dancing and singing, magnetized by the pure and wonderful energies the band radiated. And the outfits everyone had on! I had not come prepared. There were dinosaur onesies, so many tutus, fur, sparkles, animal print- truly anything you could imagine. I have made the decision to begin investing into better costumes for such occasions.

The night was filled with good music and great people. After returning to the dome for another meditation, I decided to allow myself to be totally led by my intuition that night. It did not disappoint! I climbed up the spine of a dirt cliff and watched the party progress for a bit, entertained by the many people. After observing for some time, I saw something that caught my attention enough to make me want to join the excitement below- fire dancers! What a talent that is. So many of them too! The way they moved their bodies around the flames, seamlessly, was enchanting. There was one guy who caught his hair on fire though- luckily they put that out pretty quick.

As I sat amongst the crowd, watching the dance between flesh and flame, two girls sat down beside me. They started talking to each other and then pulled me into the conversation. Ended up that they were already friends and they had both sat beside me because they were drawn to my energy that I was emitting as I watched the dancers. We all sat there, talking and watching, enjoying the moment and the people in it.

The night was full of synchronicities, as I allowed myself to be lead by my feet and found myself amongst new and old friends. Up on the hill doing yoga, in the dome meditating, dancing by the stage and frequently drawn to the flame dancers throughout the night. It was funny how many people had come from Moab- from one spot in the desert to the next. It is a special kind of family that forms out here.

The next morning was a late start, but a beautiful one. As we all began to stir, we decided to try to make it to the Plant Medicine workshop, which was scheduled to take place in the dome. We showed up there a few minutes early so we went ahead and found some seats and listened to the workshop the was already taking place. It was on politics and how to handle gridlocked arguments with those of opposing views. A very intriguing and informative lesson, that can easily be carried into other aspects of life. The main lesson:

• Listen to actually hear, not to respond.
• Try to truly understand the emotions of the other person. Our beliefs generally form from an emotional base. If we can understand where they are coming from emotionally, we can better understand their thought process.
• Come from a place of LOVE. Always.

As this class dissipated and turned into the next workshop, it was interesting to me how many people that I had either met the night before or previously had known found their way into the dome. There were so many other intriguing workshops being offered at the same time, to see so many acquaintances pulled toward the same one reminded me of how life brings you what you need when you need it. Such as people with similar life paths and messages.

Red Star was the name of the medicine woman who lead the workshop. She told us about some of her past and how she got involved in this type of lifestyle. On a mat in front of her, she placed her medicines (i.e. bear root, rapé, yucca, etc.), herbs, crystals, oils, essences and more. She went over them, explaining their purpose, some of their history and delved into the energies of plants.

Plants want to help us, they want to heal us. We are very similar to them. Think, for instance, how we stand tall on two legs- reaching for the sky, the sun. Much like a tree, or any other plant, really. They grow up from the Earth. Most other animals are on at least four feet.

She told a tale of how when people began eating meat, the animals got together and planned that for every animal eaten, they would create a disease for humans. When plants heard about this, they decided that for every disease made, they would create a cure.

Another fascinating thing she discussed, was that whatever the plant can cure, it can also cause. So you should always be aware of how much you are taking in.

One of the concoctions she had was a sacred mixture called Rapé (pronounced ha-peh), also called shamanic snuff, which is considered to be a very grounding mixture that clears the chakras and can purify the body. It is known to have the following effects:

• helps re-align & open all your chakras
• improves your grounding
• releases any sickness on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels
• opens up the third eye
• de-calcifies the pineal gland
• clears any mental confusion
• releases any negative thoughts
• removes any entities
• connects you to your divine breath
• elevates your connection with Spirit

She offered it to any who were interested at the end of the session. My friend Noah and I were the first in the circle to experience it, as we had sat close to Red Star and been eager to experience it.

The ceremony goes as follows:

• She places the correct amount of Rapé into one end of the kuripe (a bamboo straw/pipe shaped like a “v”).
• You begin taking deep, calming breaths.
• She places the end with the Rapé into one of your nostrils.
• You very carefully breathe through your mouth now.
• She quickly blows through the other end of the kuripe to insert the Rapé into your system.
• As quickly as you are ready, she performs on the other side as well.
• You continue to breathe through your mouth until the strongest sensations pass.

Noah went first, then I was right after him. She looked me straight in the eye and told me how to breathe. Once I was ready, she inserted the piece into my left nostril and rapidly blew the Rapé up my nose. It was an overwhelming feeling. My head rushed and began to clear almost immediately. Tears rolled from my eyes in a seamless manner, freeing themselves from my soul. She asked if I was ready again, and I could only nod- knowing I was, but unable to speak. She did the other nostril and the same feeling rushed through my whole body. As soon as she had finished with me, Noah asked me to enter into a meditation together. Facing one another, focusing on breathing through the mouth and paying attention to the sensations that flowed through our bodies- it was an exhilarating experience. On each inhale I could feel the energy rising through my throat to above my head; on each exhale I felt the grounding energy as the kundalini flowed down my spine into the Earth. It got even more intense from there.

The wind began to pick up extremely quick, shaking the dome and stirring up dust all around us. As I focused on my meditation, I was still aware of the feeling that the dome may not hold up against this storm. Everyone ended up running out of the dome, some following Red Star to a safer place to conduct the ceremony. I opened my eyes to see this occurring through the dust. I threw my shirt over my face to block the dust away. Tiffany had disappeared but I saw her hat on the ground. It was clear it was time to evacuate the area. I grabbed her hat and we started to run back to the camp. What a mixture of emotions that was! I felt amazing and so alive! But my feet were heavy and I felt so grounded, trying to run seemed unorthodox, but beautiful.

When I got back to my truck, I had to rehang some of my tapestries to keep the dust from blowing into it. Then I crawled into my space and laid down for a meditation. I needed to re-ground from all the excitement. I ended up staying in the truck until well into the night, fading in and out of sleep and meditations.

The desert weather was as wild as the souls that were inhabiting it. Rain calmed down the dust, but the winds riled up the camps, stirring the bodies within. Tiffany had left the festival while I was in-between sleep and meditation, so when I awoke I was alone at camp. I found myself climbing to the top of another hill, where I ran into a girl who was camping close to me. After trading words back and forth, I continued my hike above the campsites and sat on a rock at the edge of the cliff, overlooking the whole area. What a magical place this was becoming to me.

Tiffany never returned to the festival, but it worked out, as I took advantage of the alone time and the energy of the experiences and did some soul work deep into the evening. I will not go into full details here, but around 3 a.m. I finally felt like I was done with the soul work, and physically and emotionally lighter than I have ever been.

Ocoee was with me at this point, being the best company a girl could ask for. We peeked out from behind my elephant tapestry into the night, where you could still hear and feel the beat from the main stage. A decision was made and we crawled out of the truck, making our way through the campsites, which seemed like traveling through different worlds from all the lights, energies and conversations flowing from them. As we approached the main gate, it looked as if we were coming into a group of zombies, falling over one another on their way out or on the dance floor. I was captivated by a piece of art that I had witnessed being worked on the night before and it looked finished now. Lit up and colorful, sacred geometry and the natural flow of the wood all working together… I could have stared at it for hours more.

Lo and behold, beneath the art was Noah. Ocoee and I sat with him for a few, discussing the piece in front of us. Then we stumbled into our friends Sam and McGee, who agreed to watch the sunrise with us on the spine of a hill. We all hiked up the hill, overlooking the ending of the festival as the first light peeked through the mesas and red rock, lighting up the clouds and Earth all around.

A magical ending to a mystical weekend.

Love & Light