Yoga Healing Arts Camp
About the National Rainbow Gathering
The National Rainbow Gathering is an annual, free, outdoor, camping, spiritual gathering in the National Forest centered around a silence and prayer circle for world peace at noon on the 4 th of July. The people of the Gathering are called the Rainbow Family of Living Light, and it is said that anyone is welcome who has a bellybutton. When folks arrive to the sight of the Gathering, they are met with the greeting, “Welcome Home!” and a family atmosphere is encouraged throughout by addressing each other as “Brother,” “Sister,” and occasionally getting a group of folks to yell out loud “We Love You!”
Decisions are made by consensus process so that each participant in the gathering has a forum to speak their visions, questions, and concerns in the organizational process. “Leadership” at the Gathering happens only by the informal process of focalization, networking, and working together to make visions happen rather than a top-down hierarchical structure. If you want something to happen at a Rainbow Gathering, it is your responsibility to make it manifest and to inspire a crew of volunteers to work with you. Focalizers become such by experience and good-natured people skills.
There is no money exchanged at a Rainbow Gathering. There is a trade circle where you can barter for any item you may need or want. Food is provided by a donation collection called the Magic Hat that you are asked to contribute to if you are able. Food is prepared by volunteer work at various kitchens, most of which are vegetarian and some are vegan, spread out throughout the site of the Gathering. Different kitchens function as communities bound by a common interest. Some kitchens are found representing sects from a variety of religions and cultures. Other kitchens are based on activities such as Dunun West African drumming, drinking coffee at Montana Mud, or supporting organic meat and dairy farming at Kickapoo. Each kitchen that collects food donations from Main Supply cooks a large amount of food to carry in big coolers to the nightly dinner main circle. Some camps are set up that focus on activities rather than on food, such as Yoga Healing Arts Camp and Granola Funk Theater of the Wood. An Information Booth is set up in a central location including a map to help the family find the various camps.
Everyone present at the Gathering is invited to bring their friends and their bowl and spoon to main meadow to join hands in a circle and Aum around the food to be eaten that night, and then sits down to be served. Everyone present is encouraged to pitch in by preparing food, serving food, carrying and filtering spring water, gathering and chopping firewood, digging and keeping sanitary trench latrines. Everyone enjoys the fruits of the community labor by sharing good food, and grooving to good music by the many nightly campfires.
The highlight of the Gathering is a silence in prayer or meditation on the 4 th of July from sunrise until noon. At noon thousands gather and hold hands in silence in Main Meadow, and are joined by a parade of children from Kiddie Village , rising up in Aum and then celebration. People are there for a month beforehand helping to set up the site and for a month afterward helping to clean it up, so that at the end there is no trace.
The region of the following year's National gathering is chosen by consensus council each year at the gathering, and then scouts meet and report on possible sites in that region and a final decision is made in early June. The Rainbow Gathering happens on public National Forest land under the protection of the 2 nd amendment to freely assemble, although the Forest Service sometimes puts up a bit of a fuss as the site is first being set up. Much more information on the National Rainbow Gathering as well as Regional and International Rainbow Gatherings can be found at www.welcomehome.org , as well as on the Rainbow Family Tribe on www.tribe.net .
-by Xylem Larla Dey, 2004