Is there an alternative? Can we grow a contemporary community out of the remains of a traditional one? Where is the path, and what does it actually look like?
Drawing the right people in is core to any intentional community. The Rainbow way does this not with hard structures or bureaucracy, but with myths, traditions, and a kind of cultural fog that encourages trust, intuition and openness.
These myths and traditions create norms. Imperfect, sure – but they work. They create moments of beauty that thousands of people keep returning to, year after year, across the world. There is no perfect society, only transient beauty and moments of truth. And chasing “perfection” is almost guaranteed to destroy whatever you set out to build.
So what does the path into a gathering look like?
Here are the three “rules” people whisper about when talking Rainbow Gatherings:
1. Word of mouth. Keep the core info off the web. Let it travel through trust networks.
2. Poetry rather than fact. Hints instead of instructions. A “hippy map” that’s half metaphor, half directions.
3. A path you have to feel, not follow. Scraps of fabric on trees, not signposts. A 10–20km hike. No road access. You arrive because you wanted to arrive.
Moving through this unspoken (but intentional) fog filters people. It brings in the “right” ones, and – controversially – excludes the “wrong” ones and many who are simply less mobile, less connected, older, disabled, or caring for children.
But also imagine a Rainbow Gathering ten metres from a main road, next to a bar and a supermarket. You’d get something far worse than the infamous A-camp at US gatherings. Some environments simply destroy the culture before it even forms.
And over time, gatherings invent their own myths, their own traditions. Some drift into rules, and those rules slowly turn the space into something more like a holiday camp than a gathering of the tribe.
So the question returns: How do we build contemporary community today – messy, trusting, open – without killing it with clarity and control? Maybe the answer is still somewhere in the fog.
Published Date 7/10/12 12:31 PM
Is there an alternative? Can we build a contemporary community out of a traditional society? Where and what is the path to it?
Drawing the right people in is core to building intentional communities. The rainbow way of doing this is to use myths and traditions to help create norms, rather than using hard structures.
The myths and traditions help to build a norm, all though not perfect this does work and creates moments of beauty for large numbers of people around the world year on year. The is no perfect society only transient beauty and moments of truth – and the seeking of perfection is the sure way to destroy the thing it sets out to create. Here I look at the process of finding and getting to the gathering.
The 3 “rules” of building and finding Rainbow Gatherings.
* Its a word of mouth network, keep the core information about the gathering off the web.
* Poetry rather than fact, hint rather than tell, draw the “hippy” map so that it is hard to understand.
* The path hinted by fabric scraps in the trees rather than clearly signed, make sure the gathering is not accessible by road and a 10-20km hike.
The working through this (unspoken but intentional) fog – brings the “right” people to the gathering. And for some controversially excludes not only the “wrong people” but also disabled, older generations, mums with kids and the less connected people. However imagine what a rainbow gathering would be like right next to a main road with a bar/alcohol shop and supermarket – you would likely see something worse than the “A camp” in US gatherings.
Many gathering invent there own myths and traditions – some gatherings start to have rules (LINK) and these soon start to look and feel more like a holiday camps rather than a gathering of the tribe.
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