FIRE IN THE VALLEY

The first Bridge of Fire burned this weekend in Nicasio thanks Jeff and Laura Kimpton. The fact that Fire in the Valley was postponed several times was part of the reason we were able to get it done. It took us that long to figure out how to get General Vallejo over there. The General Vallejo chain saw carving  stood in front of a car dealership in Vallejo for years, until dry rot and termites did what they do to unprotected wood. He was carved by chain saw artist Miles Tucker. In the end, he was rotten to the core and I am sure the all the indigenous tribes in the area had a similar sentiment about the real life counterpart, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo when he was lord and master over his vast land grants back in the mid to late 1800’s.

This weekend he burned to the ground, but he did not go down easy and stood on one leg for at least an hour as if to say “it’s only a flesh wound,” but the fire was to have the last word. He fell face down directly toward Bruce Hurst, the guy who brought the General over on his truck earlier in the day. It was a fitting gesture I thought. And it was a fitting and honorable end to the General. He made a beautiful fire. Everyone who came was happy to see him glow like a huge charcoal in the night as he was consumed from the inside out

The Bridge of Fire also burned and was a fine start to what will be a bigger more elegant version on the Playa this year and probably continuing until…..well, I’m done. This small bridge I burned was going to be the entrance to Fog City which will be the camp where me and some bridge angels will hang out this year. But when I got the chance to burn it. What else could I do. I’m a burner. I burn things. I’m gonna be burned when I’m gone.

It was a great night with all kinds of other fires and all the crazy fire machines. There were a lot of good people and good food and fun was had by all. My appreciation goes to Jeff and Laura, davex, and Bruce Hurst for giving the General a ride in addition to his generous donation of firewood that helped both fires burn hotter, and let’s not forget Bonefire Bob who torched it.  I am looking forward to next year. I’m looking for something to burn.

There are more pics on this blog under the Burning Memories tab. Check them out.

peace, moonfire

At this moment I have so many things to do. The lines I have to follow to make the ends meet where they become circles are endless. Lots of times I have to let them go and watch them fly off into space  willy nilly out of my control or just watch them get locked into squares or triangles or some geometric shape that sits on a shelf waiting to be reopened.

So, I just put one foot in front of the other sometimes running so fast that the moments pass like the landscape out the window of a speeding train. But even in that moment the view can be incredible. That indian in me sits there watching the world go by and even though it’s blurred in my consciousness, it is still poetry. I know the moments are good and I try to practise the quiet sitting. Certainly in the last year, I have seen things of beauty and felt energy that I used to miss because of the speed I was traveling. These things have always been there and my eyes have always seen them, but my heart had not been ripped open and my spirit had never travelled so close to the edge of Creation.

Now the edge is my home. It is where things happen. I could jump or I could fly into the sky. I could sit and let my feet dangle like a child on a playground. But what I am doing there now is listening to the wind howl with ideas that seem impossible to that middle of the path guy I used to be. I stand against it arms outstretched with a rebellious, daring smile, but never worried about being blown over because the wind is now my friend. And the light…the light at the edge is so bright. It’s not this tiny little glow at the end of a tunnel. It’s the blinding white light of creation that energizes every cell of my body. It heals me. It feeds me. It gives a path forward over this Bridge of Fire.

I remember the day one week after Donovan made his leap of faith. I went to the bridge to the spot where a passerby in a car saw him go over the rail. That was the day that I knew my life was altered forever. Even though I was with Kandy, I was alone in many ways. I stood there feeling his presence coupled with the knowledge and the recurring vision of what he had done. In my being, I felt the bridge begin to spin like a carousel out of control and as I was overcome with the reality of my grief, my body felt hot and the bridge began to burn in my mind. That was the moment that the Bridge of Fire was born. It was also the moment of my rebirth.

For weeks, I was in this place and so close to the edge, I could touch it. I could feel it drawing me closer, almost beckoning me to step past the crumbling edge. I saw so many things there and had so many intense experiences. My behavior while I was there frightened some people in my life, but I was never in danger. I was being given the blessing of seeing the thread of life beyond this world, but I had to retreat. I knew I couldn’t stay there long. My entire self  had been disrupted. I was too vulnerable. I saw clearly the validity of life on both sides and on all the planes of existence, and I understood that whatever choice I made would be OK. So, because it was not a time in my life to make any important decisions, I walked away from the edge.

So, now it is one year later and I am venturing back toward the edge regularly. I can do cartwheels there now . I have no fear. It is the place where I have always found strength and magic tools to keep me alive in everyway. When I was youger, I used to go there accidentally. Now I realize Iwill eventually live there and take a vacation to the middle mostly for the benefit of other people. I have found my place. My son by his sacrifice, has given me a new life. I would be a fool not to accept it. I certainly don’t know where this path will take me, but I have never felt so certain about the direction of my life.

So, the Bridge of Fire has grown out of this. It is barely a seedling, but so many people want it to grow, and in the last few weeks I have realized that I am not on this bridge alone. There are so many circles of people who have offered help, support, and love. We are all watching our own lives spin around and sometimes there’s no clear path out of the pain or the confusion. The answers are not always clear, but the moment you are living right now is real and as my brother told me last week when I was crying while I was talking to him on the phone, “Feel it. Feel all of it. It is life.” So, along with the tears, I am also feeling the laugh out loud joy of my journey to create the Bridge of Fire. It is not just a Burning Man project, because it will take a community to manifest it on the playa and beyond.

This is not my project. I do not own it. I hope everyone will put a nail in it. I hope everyone will bring an something to offer to the fire. I hope everyone will accept a part of as their own and when it burns watch the fire transform it into dreams and visions. It will go on past this year with plans to bring it back to my community and I hope to yours. I don’t expect everyone  to stay with me on the edge, but I look forward to our journey together as we breathe life into this thing.

Peace and Love,

moonfire

At an undisclosed location,, I will set fire to the first Bridge of Fire. It is a structure I built to take to Decompression this year to introduce the Bridge  project to the Burning Man community. I was goig to use it for the entrance to our camp (Fog City) at Burning Man this year, but I was offered the chance to burn it, and…..,well, I’m a burner. Easy decision. Where’s the torch. Other people will there burning other stuff, and what’s more fun than burners playing with fire. I am really looking forward to this weekend. I’m sure it will lift me out of this funk I am in and inspire me to build the Bridge of Fire. I will post pictures around the usual places next week, and the check the blog for a report back from the event.

peace and love, moonfire

Update

Fire in the Valley was called off because the rain, but we love the rain anyway. We will all try again next weekend. It’s up to the gods of fire and water.  A day or so later, I will be on my way to Vian, Oklahoma to where I will place my Son’s ashes an his Grandfathers grave. I am hoping to be accompanied by Kandy, my blood brother, David and my brother in the medicine ways, Harold. This is also in the gods.

I was asked this morning if I was feeling sad about not getting a grant from Burning Man, and I had to laugh inside because after what I have been through in the last year, this is a minor disappointment and falls into the category of the trivial. Besides, I say we don’t need no stinking badges. I’ve been doing this on my own for years. I’ve never gotten any money from Burning Man, and although my project has been small, it got done.

I still intend to build the Bridge of Fire. It will just be a lot harder to do now, and I certainly feel challenged to do it. This forces me to become more vocal, more persistent, and probably more of a pain in ass.

So, we all know the bottom line to this thing is money. I initially joked that all I needed to do was get $100 from a thousand people, because I was told that last years Basura Sagrada cost over that amount to do. That did and still seemed incredibly over the top, but it’s amazing how costs add up. I asked Burning Man for $20,000 and that was a minimal budget for materials, transportation, and logistics. So, now I have $0.00 and still feel like this can be done. Am I crazy? That’s a different subject.

So, how? First on the list of priorities is people. You all know the saying about the fact anything  is possible if a small group of comitted people are intent on doing it. Well, that’s all you with all your skills and all your networks of support. I would like to think that a lean Bridge of Fire Machine could pull this off. There’s no reason that this should cost some incredible amount of money and whatever it costs, some of the money should not be burned, but used to benefit the community. I still think that small donations from a whole lot of people is the answer, but I am open to any ideas for raising money. Anybody got experience in this area?

I will continue to blog a post needs both human and material in the days to come. I will put up pictures, drawings, tentative budget, description of my vision, and the philosophical intent. The web page will be up by mid March and I hope to begin construction by then of March.

I know of meetings happening today in which David Best will finalize his decision about his plans for Burning Man this year. This will have an effect on the Bridge of Fire, and I will post an update as soon as I know anything.

I know for most of you, this project does not carry the depth of meaning as it does for me and Lady Lavender, and I appreciate how people have already responded. I am asking you to pour yourselves into it. Create  you own meaning and let’s create a collage that reflects the personal life experiences of all of us. 

Help me create this. Help me with this journey to the other side.

Peace and Love, moonfire

moonfire on the bridge

So, we went to Decompression to talk about the Bridge of Fire and at the end of the event, I climbed up on the bridge and started swinging the rope lights. Some woman apparently thought that because the lights were still plugged in or that because the bridge did not seem to be that sturdy, I was in some kind of danger. She asked Lady Lavender, “Should he be doing that?” Lady Lavender looked at her for a bit and said “I don’t know, but he’s going to do it anyway.”

That’s how it is with the Bridge of Fire. This project is certainly bigger than me and there are several practical reasons that I ask my self if I should be doing this. So, I just let moonfire do it because he’s going to do it anyway.  After seven years on the Playa and five years of building fire art, I have learned that I can do amazing things, and the person who does these things is named moonfire. So, I will combine all my skills with everything I have learned and with the support of Burners and others, I will accomplish something that I “shouldn’t” be able to do. But he real reason I know I can do it is because I got a fortune this week that said,

 So, it begins with a vision and a desire and a really good reason. This Bridge of Fire gives me life for another season. There is a voice I hear when I am in doubt, or when I am sad. It came to me in a dream of Donovan and he said, “you can do it, Dad.” So, whether I should or shouldn’t doesn’t seem to be the question. The question is how.