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THE GLOBAL RAINBOW GATHERING OF THE TRIBES, PALENQUE 2012

We get to Palenque on the afternoon of December 13th. In the town we already spot some freaks roaming the streets. We ask around to the locals and we are directed towards a road that will take us where “many many foreigners are gathering with tents”. The giant head of Pakal Votan in the middle of a roundabout wishes us good luck as we exit the town.

I’m at my first experience with Rainbow and with Marcus and Anais, an Austrian/Spanish couple of friends with whom I've traveled. We will see the place and then decide if we wish to stay or not. My feeling is that this will be the first Rainbow for many people, considering that it is a very special edition, in a very special time and place.

The Rainbow gathering happens to be among the few “official” gatherings/festivals in the whole Palenque area celebrating the famous winter solstice of 2012. The other events are the ceremonies organised by the Dreamspell movement with various Mexican spiritual groups by the Palenque ruins and Popul Vuh: Space Mothership a 3 days psytrance party with darkpsy Russian djs, starting Dec. 14th near the Rainbow. An interesting combination! I wonder if Pakal Votan knew that such a crucial date would have attracted to his homeland such an array of “flora and fauna”…

For months on Facebook thousands of people from all over the world had shared their intentions and excitement to go to Palenque, by foot, by boat, by horse… in a sort of modern day pilgrimage that had sent my imagination racing: what will it be like?

Days before arriving to Palenque I read that finally the Seed Camp has been planted and the gathering has officially started (about 2 weeks later than originally planned). The various comments of those who are already there (and have access to the Internet??) speak of a kitchen that needs bigger pots and ask people to bring many meters of tubes to channel the water from the spring. There is a general prayer that many other good willing brothers and sisters will arrive soon, since among the 30 people on site the magic hat has gathered so far 30 pesos (about 2 euros). Mmmm… I’m very curious to see how a gathering with thousands of people is organised without a “central production”, without ticket, without all those things that I have always associated to the concrete possibility of manifesting a gathering.

After 10 km of untarred bumpy road through a beautiful countyside with big trees, rivers, horses and cows, we finally arrive to a beautiful multicolored banner that says “WELCOME HOME!” Under the banner a group of multicolored freaks smile at us and shout: “Welcome home!!” We park the car and we are intercepted by the welcome team, who wishes to explain us the rules. (Wow, rules?!)

Photo Leon Mac

We sit under a big white tent with the rules hand-written in many languages, while, in full Kali Yuga style, a Japanese guy with long black hair and a cloth draped around his waist volunteers to explain them. He says in a very Japanised English that we have to put our tents on the left side of the river since on the right side there is the kitchen and the “fud siolco” (food circle). Food is served twice a day when for the third time we hear people screaming “fuuud siooolcoooo!” (the first two times are to call those who wish to volunteer in the kitchen). It is forbidden to bathe in the river above the kitchen, it is forbidden to use soap (something tells me that this rule is very respected). The water from the spring can be taken from a tap in the kitchen. The results of the water analysis have not arrived yet (water analysis??) but the Japanese guy has been drinking it for several days and he is fine. But the most important thing is to “make shit in shit pit, wash ass and cover shit!” This tradition of the shit pits is one of the characteristics of Rainbow gatherings, which also ends up turning into a sort of “natural barrier” keeping away those who can’t come to terms with shitting in a hole where hundreds of people have shitted.

I appreciate the Japanese guy who makes sure we understood everything, while an extremely thin longhaired guy plays the mandolin and a girl with the hair of her legs longer than her dreadlocks, sits in front of us with her legs open... Once we are done with the formalities, kissed and hugged all the brothers and sisters, we go and explore the site.

The place is very beautiful, a shady plantation of palm trees which create a very fresh environment. The river marks the border of the plantation, and it is made of many natural ponds where tens of naked brothers and sisters are bathing peacefully and lovingly. Beyond the river is a rudimental kitchen made of a sort of storage room, rudimental cutting boards placed in a circle, a small trench excavated in the ground to host the fire with two big pans on top to function as a rudimental stove department. A few meters further two big plastic containers and a water hose compose the rudimental wash basin. I’m very happy to notice that the hoses to channel the water from the spring and the big pans have arrived! Everything is perfect! But I can’t help wondering how this kitchen can prepare food for thousands of people twice a day.

Photo by Erre Castillo

By the kitchen starts a path that finishes further down in the valley, where we find the famous “fud siolco”, the heart of the Rainbow: a big space with a fire in the middle. Two naked guys covered in ash are starting the fire, blessing the stones around it, one by one. Near them a group of people are determined to do yoga, in spite of the extreme inclination of the ground.

We stop to share the first impressions: everything seems more or less fine, mainly because the place is really beautiful, the people seem very nice, with many original Americans hippies. We decide to stay. We will visit the shit pits tomorrow…

Photo Noam Chojnowski

Once we are back on the other side of the river we find our Portuguese friends, Filipa and Magda, who have been there already for a few days. We decide to plant our tents in their very strategic camp, on the edge of a corn field.

The following days go by very smoothly. I feel that I’m adapting more and more to the situation, which is anyways one of the most extreme where I’ve ever been, considering the amount of people (when we arrive we are about 500, but every day another 500 arrive) and considering the minimum level of organisation. This on one side is exhilarating (wow, we have evolved to the point of not needing a boss!) and on the other side is terrifying. Besides the infamous shit pits (which are really extreme and soon full of flies), there is no “security”, no first aid or emergency service with ambulance (with poisonous snakes!), no possibility of buying food, with no choice other than hoping in the miracle of the rudimental kitchen manifesting food twice a day.

Photo Noam Chojnowski

Anyways, we decide to get our camp organised. With Marcus and Anais, the Portuguese friends, a Spanish guy with a panda tattooed on his rib cage, an Argentinean guy who has arrived from Argentina by bicycle and a naked American from Washington, we manage to put together a self sufficient camp to cook food at least once a day and with a pickaxe for digging private shit pits in the corn field. We then go to Palenque town to buy food in the market, testing the collectivo system: Mexican pick-ups that for 15 pesos bring the Rainbow Warriors back and forth from town. About this issue of the collectivo many people say that there has never been a Rainbow where “public transportation” (or even cars in general) can get to the entrance! Usually one has to walk for hours before getting to the site. This is therefore a very “democratic” version of the Rainbow, open to anyone and not just to the “real” Rainbow Warriors (with the obvious positive and negative consequences…)

In general the days go by fast. I like early morning baths in the wonderful fresh river and walks in the camping talking to all the crazy characters (la creme de la creme!) I often entertain myself watching the local teenagers coming to see the naked women. I look at them and think that 500 years ago it was them who were naked with the Spaniards watching their women with their eyes out of the orbits! I imagine that in their life they will not have many other chances to see such an abundance of beautiful tits and asses and I imagine that they will tell about it to their grandchildren. Like the Spanish conquistadores told about the naked girls on the beach in their travel reports, making millions of Europeans dream with their eyes open…

After a few days my main feeling is that the Rainbow is somehow “retro”: it is like travelling back in time. The attachment to the hippie traditions is so strong that if these gatherings are a modern manifestation of an ancient Cult of Nature (together with psytrance parties), the Rainbow family is the orthodox branch of the cult.

When a part of the hippies left the USA in the 70s to go to India (and specifically to Goa) they mingled with the hippies of other nationalities and I think this contact, together with having abandoned their home land, resulted in the freedom of breaking the rules. They started opening up to electronic music brought by the Europeans (and to electricity in general) and over time gave birth to Goatrance parties. On the other hand the hippies that remained in the USA gave birth to Rainbow gatherings. Like two branches of the same tree.

Photo Noam Chojnowski

This Rainbow orthodoxy can be seen in the shit pits, in the rudimental kitchen, in the old hippie songs repeated over and over again in infinite circles, in the code language used in the camping, like an old dialect (six up: police!; shanti sena: peacekeepers; food circle, etc). Even the tradition of calling each other “brothers and sisters” sounds to me cheesy and retro, like the communists who called each other “comrades”. An old hippie one night tells me that the torches are called hippie killers and I’m almost moved thinking about a world that does not exist anymore… or is in transition, now that the gathering is even announced on Facebook!

Concerning drug use, beside many joints, someone takes LSD and there is a rumour that a camp is offering DMT for free, soon becoming a very popular spot. Alcohol is the only substance explicitly prohibited.

But my favourite thing by far is the food circle! Cooking and serving food for about 2000 people in these rudimental conditions, without ever knowing the right quantities, without a central coordination and with the money coming from the the magic hat is absolutely extraordinary!