A Persian woman's View on Burning Man's New Age Pagan Rites
Pastor Dale Morgan
A Persian woman's View on Burning Man's New Age Pagan Rites*
By Maryam Karimabadi
This was my first year at Burning Man. My take on this huge famous
gathering may be very different and in some ways shocking. So here it is:
Everyone had told me about the harsh environment and the heat and the
dust and that it is a survival quest and the most awesome happening on
Earth. One dear woman friend had said: It is a big ejaculation in the
desert producing tons of pollution. So I had to go and see for myself. I
got there and surprisingly I was at peace with the environment maybe
because I am supposedly a woman of the desert even though I grew up in
the city back in my country Iran. OK what bothered me at burring man was
not the environment, but the concept. Here we have so called the best of
the American crops (hippies, environmentalists, conscious and
progressive! folks, advance women and all kinds of other groups)
gathered in the desert under the umbrella of Burning man. Every one
believes that they could have not chosen a better gathering, some even
believe that this is one of the most if not The most conscious
gatherings on earth. A lot of people have prepared their art pieces and
their dreams for Burning Man for the whole last year and here they are:
THE BIG PARTY. Every other stand offers alcoholic beverages for free,
people walking in specially bought and prepared costumes beyond
imagination. Drugs of all kinds widely available and many interesting
art forms.
Now all this is fine and dandy, yet this is happening when in Iraq
anywhere between 1,200,000 to 3 million people have been slaughtered
more than 2,500,000 handicapped and close to 3 million refugees produced
in one of the hugest genocide since Vietnam. Not to mention the amount
of depleted uranium which has been left there to continue killing life
for another few million years and cluster bombs which keep exploding and
killing people specially children for many years yet to come. Now what
are the crop of American society doing? Party until you drop night in
night out for 10 days and nights.
Many of the art pieces had explosives in them, constant shooting of big
fires into the desert sky every night. The concept was Green Man this
year, yet the only green you see is the neon lighting on the man who was
burnt accidentally 2 times this year. This means 2 huge toxic releases
in to the air. There were also 2 huge oil barrels which were exploded in
mushroom clouds. The last night many more structures were burned. Lots
of toxic gases. Smell of oil and gasoline everywhere.
Before The Man gets burned, 40 to 50 thousand people are circled in the
playa. One could imagine what would happen if all this energy would have
gone in protesting against a criminal system which is killing and
maiming millions for its greedy Empire. How would it be if all this
effort could have gone into reforesting the Earth and building houses
for all the homeless orphans of this bloody war?
Yet everyone, mostly on drugs, mesmerized by the presence of the mighty
green Man, pacified by mass hypnosis of endless party and circus, waits
to see the man BURN DOWN. When a hand falls off every one cheers and
many shout: Die man, die! A lot of people that I talked to thought that
the burning of the Man is symbolic of letting go of the ego, yet the
entire ritual has such a big ego around it. To me the burning of the Man
was more the expression of conscious and unconscious global SELF HATRED.
The destruction of humanity. Destruction of the environment. Symbols of
war, fire and the play of the dysfunctional Masculine proud of his
constant ejaculations.
I had to leave Burning Man on Sunday after the burn since I could not
tolerate it any more.
Two young people who I met there believe that this is one of the highest
achievements of the secret government, the Freemasons and other secret
societies - to help with the creation of such a thing to keep people
mesmerized and subdued at the time of war and global takeover, so they
would not have enough energy to rise against the establishment. This for
sure resembles the Roman 'bread and circuses' time, when the Roman
Empire kept its people subdued by giving them bread, wine and entertainment.
After I came back I was energetically sick and took me many days to
recover. I researched the Bohemian grove and other secret societies and
found out that they also have a mock man who they burn. It is pretty
obvious that the government supports a gathering like this or even has a
hand in it. The sacred dark ritual gone public. What better than that?
Every one under the same umbrella, thinking and walking in the illusion
that we need more partying to create more peace for the self to counter
the darkness in the world.
The new age and its self-centeredness, always taking care of me, me, and
me only, enrages me. From one festival to the next go the American New
Agers and you hardly hear of the war anywhere. There is this thick air
of numbness affecting everyone while they float in the dream of
salvation only for the self.
Next year's Burning Man title is "THE AMERICAN DREAM". It could not be a
better name for this mass numbing gathering which looked so much like an
OPERATION DESERT STORM CELEBRATION to me. No wonder they tell you that
promoting political thinking is prohibited on the playa.
Good luck to all of us.