i've read through the basics thread, but i'm still kinda blurry on the whole idea of the Rainbow Family, i read an article about the Rainbow Family in the December 2006 High Times and i'm quite intrigued and would like to know what i can about the Rainbow Family. i don't have a local Family, i looked through the list of Rainbow Clans. can i still be considered a Rainbow? instead of trying to search all over the internet for information on the Rainbow Family i thought i'd ask here where i know Rainbows are frequent. i'd like a definition of what a Rainbow truely is from a Rainbow. what classifies someone as a Rainbow? is there anything expected? how can i be a Rainbow? can anyone help, i'm really curious and interested in the Rainbow Family
rainbows are a beautiful thing, its bout being a family, praying for peace, being together in the wonders of nature our home. my only advice to u is to go to a gathering, take part in it, help out the kitchen ur camping near. hope to see u at home sometime brother hugs loving u
yes you are a part of the rainbow family...even tho you never knew it... and rainbows come in all flavors and styles ... but to really know what rainbow is ...you need to experience it first hand.....
You missed the part that said you really need to go to a gathering to find out what a gathering is about. You will just confuse yourself more by talking to us. I was just ranting in another post about alcohol at gatherings, and confusion about what gatherings are. I imagine that shithead_n_dozer feels differently than me, but hey, were all allowed our opinions. I feel that Rainbow gatherings are when we get together to Pray for Peace, in whatever way we feel we need to. Some people feel alcohol can be a part of that, and I feel it runs contrary to gatherings. I have met a lot of A-campers and I even have good friends who are A-campers. Most are good folks, and many are warriors for the family. There's a story that one year at an Ocala gathering a truckload of rednecks showed up with baseball bats and two by fours to fuck up some hippies, but they never made it through A-camp. So A-camp is like front gate security. They scare away a lot of good family too, so... A-campers are family and they share the same kind of family bond that non-drinking Rainbows do. I feel though that the whole 'tired in your neck' thing is not Rainbow. Rainbow is not 'anything you want to be'. We are a peaceful tribe, and I stand firm on that. Anything that falls within peaceful maybe, and a lot of shit I see in A-camp falls outside that. that's my rant.
i've been planning to attend a gathering ever since i heard of the Rainbow Family, and of the different stereotypes of a hippy, i'm not an activist, i'm not the guy that's just all into the music, i'm a naturalist, i think we should all live like nature intended, so i was quite pleased when i found out that that's a main idea of the Rainbow Family. i just need to find a gathering that's near me, anything in British Columbia, Washington, or Montana during the summer? i'm from Alberta and haven't found a local Family or heard of any gatherings in this province. but i really hope to attend a gathering as soon as i can, and most every year from then on. i hear home calling, but i have no way to get there
check out http://groups.msn.com/flyingheartsong Not much happening in Alberta as far as I know. There is a gathering, sort of, a weekend-long healing gathering on Salt Spring Island this summer solstice. There is talk of another gathering sometime after that. there is a Kottaney Gathering, that is the Rainbow Rumour, and last year I think there was a Manitoba gathering, but I'm not sure what is happening this year.
Vancouver Island Gatherings are the best, by the way. Kootenay gatherings are nice too. Though the year I was out there, in 2003, there was no local family at all. We were all from somewhere else. I think the local family gathered quietly elsewhere and were pissed that we gathered in a fragile watershed area up in the mountains.
raven u bring up good points but to reply to the originator. and to you, rainbow is a unity community ya got a bellybutton u belong... yea that includes a-camp & leo &everybelly.. i had posted some vids that might help but theyre all on my myspace www.myspace.com/iriesoaringeagle they should give u lil info & feel.. but you cant truly appreciate what it is till youve gone... & usualy takes a few b4 your truly tuned in..
raven23, i think i get what you mean about the A-campers, could you clear up the meaning of that for me please? i know what you're saying about experiencing a gathering to really know what the Rainbow Family is about, but the rant about the A-campers is what i'm having trouble seeing what you're trying to get at
A-camp is the alcahol camp its like front gate, it provided a buffer zone that attracts trouble makers & stops them from comming in... but..with that much alcahol abusre..can cause some trouble too.. best advice... pull in around 4-5 am when theyre passed out or cant walk straight...lol theyer good ppl.. just.. dont always behave..
There is a book titled "People Of The Rainbow, A Nomadic Tribe", by Michael I. Niman. It is well writen and easy to understand. It will give you a lot of information about the rainbow tribe. I bought the book I have at amozon.com. It was used, but I got it cheap and it was in very good shape.
And you'll hear us talk a lot about Babylon, and that means 'civilization' 'the system' 'society' 'the giant consumer/military/conformist/addicted world'. Which is why I think that even if we drink, we at least have to realize it is yet another thing that Babylon has us by the balls over. Part of what attracts me to Rainbow is it's the vaguard of a new sustainable culture. Are we going to be a new culture that lives in harmony of the earth, or are we going to be the same old dumb-asses who get dragged down by things like addictions? The reason it's difficult to answer the question of should there be alcohol at gatherings is that we haven't been working hard enough to create attractive alternatives to the people who are trapped in addiction. This is our culture, and these are our brothers and sisters. i do apologize to any of the a-campers here; I don't mean to say that my shit don't stink and that Babylon isn't holding me down either. It is. So the next step, I feel is, how do we rise up away from Babylon. How do we heal. So the short of it is, yes, you can drink and be Rainbow, but if you are more concerned with violence than healing, then you are not Rainbow. I know I'll get yelled at, because everyone with a belly-button is suppossedly Rainbow, but if I were to go to an event where the only thing we had in common was belly-buttons, I wouldn't feel the same as I would at a gathering. Something else has attracted me to Rainbow, and it wasn't bellybuttons. Bellybuttons I can get at a biker convention, but that don't make it Rainbow. Anyone with a bellybutton CAN be Rainbow, but it isn't the defining characteristic. Sorry, I am not the most concise writer, am I?
i get where you're coming from entirely, well maybe not in the direct since i haven't experienced a gathering. but i get where you're coming from with A-campers posing somewhat of a problem and being somewhat backwards to what the gatherings are about. and bablylon's got everyone by the balls in some form or another, i think it's great that there's a group of people all dedicated to releasing themselves from that and being at one with nature and being in peace and harmony with everything around them everyone has the ability to be a Rainbow, but not necessarily the motivation. i hope that's another way of putting your opinion on everyone CAN be a Rainbow. my goal is to attend a national gathering some day, and i hope i see you all there. i have to find some gatherings that i can get to easily for the moment being though. since i have no transportation and the only way i'd be in the area during a gathering would be if i'm on vacation with the rest of my family and maybe i'd drop by and get to hang out with people with the ideas about society. thanks for clearing up what you have. there will always be an unanswered no matter the topic, and i will only truly know through experience. thanks guys any other FAQs that i haven't asked if you have answers i'd greatly appreciate it
Well, short man 420, from what I have read, I consider you a rainbow already, gathering experience or not. And as for the whole alchohol thing, I can see where raven is coming from but i also have to add that not everyone who drinks is a "redneck", I am drinking a beer right now...but I do agree that in situations of large crowds, such as a national gathering, alchohol can be a catalyst of hateful behavior, which is totally anti- Rainbow. Lsd, mushrooms, peotie, etc, can also turn ordinary folks into assholes and these things are common occurrences at gatherings. I have only been to one national gathering and it was pretty cool but our stay was cut all too short by a couple of fellow travellers who fell pretty ill (they were getting sick before we got there), i plan to go to more when circumstances permit, but like us all, Babylon, has me by the balls too! All in all, I think you'll find some kindred souls within the whole of the Rainbow family. Peace, and good tidings. PS. I met Soaring Eagle once, in West Virginia, he's a hell of a dude, but I am pretty sure he doesn't remember, since, I never tell anyone in person that I am "sodabandito"
No, not everyone who drinks is a redneck. Hippies can drink too, and not all drinking is destructive. Binge drinking is the culprit here.
well thank you, i appreciate being let into the Rainbow Family and any mind altering substance when used in a large group setting has the potential to explode and have horrible consiquences. personally i quit drinking about a year ago after i realized it made me violent towards myself and others and i didn't like it that way. (keeping in mind that i'm only 16 i think not drinking alone is a huge feat)
everyone is a part of the rainbow family ...but very few truely practice the rainbow way...including alot of family that attend the gatherings .....but it is a start, a seed waiting to sprout and grow, maybe one day with a little nuturing .....rainbow will change the world. as for front gate we always bring sweets to tame the wild beasts
but too be truthful, raven23, I didn't drink at the Rainbow gathering, due to the whole A- camp stereotype....I love to drink, but I am way too mellow to set up shop in A-camp!
