Caution For Those Driving to Seed Camp

Updated 6/20/17 2:50 p.m. California Time.

Please note there will be two CATTLE DRIVES in the next few days 

on the roads leading to the Gathering Site.

The FIRST CATTLE DRIVE will be on Monday June 19^th on County Road 63, near the Gathering site. This is the paved road between 395 and the dirt road FS24. We are working together with this rancher in order to Gather peacefully on this site. This means there will be cattle walking on the road! We are still trying to get more info on what this means for folks driving in that day. We are not sure if it means the road will be totally closed for some time.  While the road IS open, please be aware and drive slowly, watch for animals on the road and understand there may be REAL delays.

Tuesday morning, June 20^th (the next morning) there will be ANOTHER CATTLE DRIVE from 6AM until 9AM which WILL block access to the Gathering temporarily. We DO know that the road needs to be closed during this period of time. This is the dirt road between 64 and the last left turn to Welcome Home.

🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🤠

RIBBONS:   Once on the Site, you will see PINK RIBBONS and GREEN RIBBONS attached to vegetation. The PINK RIBBONS mean STAY OUT. These are areas that are ecologically sensitive and that we want to protect from human disturbance. The blue ribbons signal good creek crossings or access points.

PINK means STOP do not enter area.

GREEN means GO.

LEO's are sitting on the corner of Grant County Road 63 and Forest Service Road 24. Please read the side bar on this blog for instructions on how to get into the gathering without a mandatory court appearance ticket.

Welcome Home (a.k.a. Directions to the Gathering)

 Updated 6/20/17 @ 3:30 p.m. California time - updates will be posted on and off through June 22 or 23.

Welcome Home
46th Annual Rainbow Family Gathering of the Tribes
Last week of June (give or take) to July 7

We, who are brothers & sisters, children of God, families of life on earth, friends of nature & of all people, children of humankind calling ourselves Rainbow Family Tribe, humbly invite:

•     All races, peoples, tribes, communes, men, women, children, individuals -- out of love.
•     All nations & national leaders -- out of respect
•     All religions & religious leaders -- out of faith
•     All politicians -- out of charity

 to join with us in gathering together for the purpose of expressing our sincere desire that there shall be peace on earth, harmony among all people. & to hold open worship, prayer, chanting or whatever is the want or desire of the people, for three days, but upon the fourth day of July at noon to ask that there be a meditative, contemplative silence wherein we, the invited people of the world may consider & give honor & respect to anyone or anything that has aided in the positive evolution of humankind & nature upon this, our most beloved & beautiful world -- asking blessing upon we people of this world & hope that we people can effectively proceed to evolve, expand, & live in harmony & peace.

Feel free to arrive a few weeks early to create the gathering and/or stay a few weeks late to clean it all up.

RAP 107 ~ Gathering Consciousness

Please protect this Beautiful Land.

Walk softly. Harm no living thing. Harmonize - Blend in. Use only down, dead wood. Cut no living trees. Preserve the Meadows...camp in the Woods. We are caretakers of this land.
Everyone sharing makes a strong Human Tribe!

Please Protect the Water Sources by staying out of DELICATE spring areas. Avoid camping, peeing, washing above spring areas. Keep ALL soap (including biodegrable, Dr. Bronners, etc.) out of streams, springs or the creek! Use a bucket to take your bath 60 feet away from the water source.
 
To be certain of drinking water: boil it for 20 minutes!  Use the slit trenches or covered latrines - cover your paper & waste with ashes or lime, wash hands. Break the fly/illness connection: shit-fly-food-you! Dig no shitters near water areas or kitchens.

Protect our Health! Use your own cup, bowl & spoon! Wash them after eating and rinse in disinfectant-water.
 
Visit C.A.L.M./M.A.S.H. if you feel ill - especially if you have a contagious disease - or are injured.

Camp Together - Establish neighborhoods. Community Fires only! ~ Each with 5 gallon water bucket and shovel for Fire Protection. If you are the last to leave a fire PUT IT OUT!

Watch your gear: Be Responsible ~ "Tempt Not Lest Ye Be Lifted From."

Pets are discouraged but if you must bring them keep them fed, on a leash and out of the kitchens, springs & fights. Clean up their poop. Clean up their poop. Love them.

PACK IT IN - PACK IT OUT !!!

Cleanup begins when you arrive. Bring in only what is necessary. There is no janitor here...you are the cleanup crew. Separate Garbage for recycling. Don't litter - Find collection point. Compost in pits only.

You are the Gathering! Participate in Shanti Sena, the peace keepers council, and all activities, councils, work crews, workshops. Volunteer wherever needed: kitchens, welcome home, firewatch, parking lot, shitter digging, supply, front gate, etc. R-E-S-P-E-C-T your Sisters & Brothers energies. Keep the Balance: Earth, Sky, Trees, Water & People!

Alcohol is Discouraged, Guns are Inappropriate, Violence is contrary to the Spirit. Please take no photographs or videos of people without permission. Discourage Drug Abuse.

Buying and selling endangers our legal right to be here. The Magic Hat is our Bank, donate early to fund our Needs. The Magic Hat goes around at mealtime circles and with the Magic Hat Band.

Our power together is many times our power separated.

Enjoy the Rainbow with an open heart and you Will see the Vision.

Join us for the July 4th Silent Contemplation & Prayer for Peace, respect those maintaining silence from dawn. Hold the silence until the arrival of the Children's Parade and all the children are in the center of our circle.

Click here for the some suggestions on what to bring. Remember the more you bring in the more you need to hike out and take home.

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

CONSENSUS:
Spring council for the 46th annual rainbow family of living light gathering of the tribes reached consensus by passing the feather in silence as follows:  "The 2017 Annual Rainbow Family Gathering of Living Light will take place at Flagtail meadows."

***** DIRECTIONS *****

The gathering is taking place at Flagtail Meadows in the Malheur National Forest south of John Day, Oregon.

From the south:  Take the interstate of your choice to Highway 395 anywhere in California, Nevada, or Oregon to Seneca, Oregon on Hwy 395. About 8 miles north of Seneca, turn left on Izee-Paulina Lane (Road 63). Continue for 11 miles. You should pass the Diabartolo Ranches. Turn right on Forest Service Road 24 go 2 miles. Take the second left. WELCOME HOME.

From the north:  Take the interstate of your choice to Highway 395 anywhere in Washington or Oregon to John Day, Oregon on Hwy 395. Go south on Hwy 395 17 miles. Turn right on Izee-Paulina Lane (Road 63). Continue for 11 miles. You should pass the Diabartolo Ranches. Turn right on Forest Service Road 24 go 2 miles. Take the second left. WELCOME HOME.

TIP!  In the early days, the USFS may change the parking rules multiple times and the parking that was legal when you put your car there may become illegal two days later. Stay plugged in to the parking rules on a daily basis for at least the next week or two if you want to avoid your car being ticketed to towed.


WARNING!  LEOs are sitting at the intersection of Grant County Road 63 and Forest Service Road 24 and looking to pull people over for anything they can pull you over for. Read the side bar post to learn how to avoid a mandatory court appearance ticket.


Some ACME Mapper Site Images

Click here for a handy printable version of this information in PDF format.

Misc. Info

Elevation is about 5,200 feet at the meadow. Folks on site now setting up Handicamp. If you have mobility limitations, please ask for Handicamp when you arrive.

I think the coordinates are N44.20043° W119.23107° Datum: NAD83 or N 44.20014 W 119.22926


Some folks are saying the cheapest airport for last minute flights is into BOISE, IDAHO. 


GAS:  Oregon does not allow people to pump their own gas. Most gas stations in this area are only open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Rumor is some gas stations will allow self-serve outside of these hours but only with a credit card. Some family have tried this and it didn't work -- so be prepared. Gas stations are far and few apart in this part of Oregon. UPDATE: Gas Stations in rural Oregon towns are allowed to offer self serve by credit card after hours, but a local gas attendant said that many stations do NOT leave their pumps ON. They turn them off when they close. So this opportunity will be sporadic. Rumor has it that the SHELL STATION in Canyon City, 2 miles south of John Day, leaves their pumps on at night and you can purchase gas with a credit card.

Be prepared for sunny days and cool nights into the 40s. Rain happens in Oregon.

If you have questions about parking and shuttles, click here. 

Please copy and distribute freely. Ignore all rumors of cancellation.

Why Gather by Garrick Beck

Excerpts from All Ways Free Summer 1997. (Reprinted from All Ways Free, Winter ‘88) - Written by Garrick Beck

Why should anyone want to go thru the 1001 tasks that are the life-support system of the Rainbow Gathering? Hauling large rocks for bakery ovens, digging & filling latrines, tending medical emergencies, installing water pipe systems that need to be taken apart,…sorting garbage, not to mention doing all this with the added difficulty of our own problems: upset or belligerent people, alcoholics in rainbow clothing, rude or unhygienic behavior; and sometimes with only minimal help or even opposition from the public service of the government.

…

Why do it? Why face all the problems, all the maps & mailings, all the fundraising for printing; all the long-winded discussion over procedures; why consume all this time of our lives? For what? Why gather?

…

We are utterly capable of seeking and finding the pure natural experience without subjecting ourselves to all this trouble. So why do we put this on our shoulders and go on? Why do we do it? I mean: Why gather?

Because   we love each other. We really do.

Because   we are creating something new and beautiful….

Because   we hold the vision of a peaceful world in our inner eyes - in our hearts - and we make it real in this outside world.

Because   is a thrill to experience a cooperative society.

Because   only when we take personal responsibility for the needs of each other - water, food, security, fuel, healing, childcare and recycling - do we take mature responsibility for our lives.

Because   the children need something gentle and loving to look forward to.

Because   it is important to teach and learn as much as possible about human cooperation.

Because   we are fed up with war economy & economic exploitation & political over lording, and we want to try something else.

Because   gathering teaches thousands of people, even tens of thousands, respect for the earth, the water, the plants & the animals.

Because   even the addicts, the dissolute, the spaced-out space cadets, the drunks who come are in need of love, and every society must care for its own.

Because   laughter, music, celebration and rejoicing in life are needed in this world in great measure.

Because   gathering unifies ancient tribal wisdom with current ideas and technologies.

Because   we want to inspire hope that it is indeed possible - and in fact pleasurable - for people of all kinds to live in peace.

Because   our councils are open to everyone to speak, we hear ideas, poems, stories and wisdom from the seven corners of the earth.

Because   the work and play-shops are education’s, the massage delightful, and the music rich with interlace harmonies.

Because   light and life and love deserve to be celebrated by lots of us.

Because   when we hold hands in our circles we can feel the energy that moves the atoms and the moon and stars.

Because   gathering teaches us to have faith, to trust each other, to believe in good and goodness, and to have the strength - in the face of the rest of the world - to carry on.

Garrick Beck (1988)

On Belonging

I often find it hard to explain to people my perspective on what my Rainbow family means to me. Some gatherers argue that we are individuals, but I have always felt that while we are individuals, we mean more to each other than the random people who show up at a football game. I view the gathering as a big dysfunctional family. However, the word ‘family’ is loaded with baggage so sometimes it’s easier to use other words.

In The Values of Belonging by Carol Lee Flinders (co-author of the Laurel's Kitchen cookbooks), she puts forth the principles of belonging in the introduction to the book. Reading them, I felt she was expressing what the gathering means to me in terms of our relationships to each other. She makes the point that the values of belonging say “This is where I belong” while the values of mainstream Western civilization would stay, “This belongs to me.” I’ve included the bullet points of her values of belonging which for me expresses some of the best aspects of gathering. 

• Intimate connection with the land to which one “belongs.”
• Empathetic relationship to animals
• Self-restraining
• Custodial conservatism
• Deliberateness (being present)
• Balance
• Expressiveness
• Generosity
• Egalitarianism
• Mutuality
• Affinity for alternative modes of knowing
• Playfulness
• Inclusiveness
• Nonviolent conflict resolution
• Openness to spirit.

What do you think?

Sage Advise for First Time Gatherers

People who participate in Rainbow Gatherings have a written a number of raps over the years that help distill collective wisdom on how to have a fun, safe and memorable gathering. If you're a first time gatherer, or still in the fog about gathering logistics, here's some great links, all posted at Bliss-Fire.

The Mini Manual is a great how to plan a gathering, how to be safe at the gathering and how to keep yourself and the rest of the gathering healthy.

Rap 107 is the short version on gathering safety - learn it, know it, live it.  Print out extra copies to share with folks at the gathering.

Not sure what to bring, check out the awesome Turtle guide. If you've never camped before, remember the golden rule: “Bring every good thing. If it ain’t on this list, consider leaving it home. If in doubt, leave it out. ‘Cuz if you bring it in, you gotta bring it out. And well, dang! You just might be surprised how little you really need.” Bring love and hugs and good vibes, and most importantly, bring you.

Have children, then you want to read the Kidz Rap.

If you're not using to being on the opposite side of the law, you better read Rap 420.

Wondering about how alcohol fits into the gathering, if you ain't a problem and you keep it in your personal camp, then it's not an issue. Otherwise....

Peace out!

Words of Wisdom

Courtesy some good siblings.

How to Gather (AKA gathering basics)

Just an FYI, no one speaks for the gathering and there are as many different opinions as there are gatherers. For a hipstorical perspective, click here. For a more recent perspective, here's a great video for those new to the gathering that was done by some folks in Oregon in 2012.