THIS YEAR was my third visit to Black Rock City, the temporary city that manifests every summer in Nevada. I rarely take out my camera at the event, having learned from previous experience that it’s almost impossible to capture anything close to the energy and magic that is Burning Man.

After meeting author Darrin Drda, I made an exception.

I encountered Darrin through his free workshop, a metta meditation designed to connect Burners with ourselves and the work we are called to do in the world. At this time of great change and crises, it has become our duty to rise to the challenge, rather than retreat into dullness and the illusion of security.

Coincidentally, 17 days after my interview with Darrin, the Occupy movement erupted onto the world stage. While many are still asking “what do they want?’ and “where did they come from?” – those of us who have been immersed in the consciousness shift immediately recognized: this is what Burning Man looks like when it attempts to manifest in the “default” world.

As Eva Ensler, author of ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ said recently when speaking about the Occupy movement:

“What is happening cannot be defined. It is happening. It is a spontaneous uprising that has been building for years in our collective unconscious. It is a gorgeous, mischievous moment that has arrived and is spreading. It is a speaking out, coming out, dancing out. It is an experiment and a disruption.”

To be clear: this is NOT to say that Burning Man directly “led” to the occupation of Wall St, but it has clearly been a creative source of incubation for the paradigm shift that is rippling around the globe. From the Arab Spring, to the environment activists, to the legions of yogis, all these energies now have the opportunity to emerge from their silos, and truly see each other and their common cause.

We have much to learn from each other, and it all starts with the profoundly simple invitation: “Welcome home.”

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Check out Occupy Burners to get involved.

What happened to community, and why don’t we have it any more? There are many reasons – the layout of suburbia, the disappearance of public space, the automobile and the television, the high mobility of people and jobs – and, if you trace the “why’s” a few levels down, they all implicate the money system. More directly posed: community is nearly impossible in a highly monetized society like our own. That is because community is woven from gifts.

Never was this more true than Burning Man. As I spent the week in awe and gratitude towards all that had manifested the Temple of Transition, I in turn, felt enormously compelled to return the gift. It could be no other way.

I posted my film a week ago and the response was overwhelming. Comment after comment, email after email from fellow burners thanking me for capturing the Temple’s essence. A few even used the direct term “in your debt.”

It wasn’t that I could ever be paid monetarily for my film – it was a recognition that they had accepted my gift, and therefore, are compelled to pass the gift onward. This is how true abundance is born. This is how true community is created.

Not through “shared consumption” as so often characterizes our adult gatherings today, but through “shared indebtedness” towards each other, and our gifts.

I remember coming home from the Burn last year, and having pretty much the exact same feeling.

Basically, not knowing how to put into words the experience. At least, not in a way that conveys the moment of standing in the desert, staring a dust storm in the face, reaching back for your dust mask, dropping your goggles, and pedaling out into the unknown.

There is no feeling like it in the world.

Eventually, I was able to write about my experience from last year – though I left it unpublished until very recently. It was less about getting it out for others to read, and more about capturing the wisdom offered to me by the experience.

As for this year… it’s coming. In the meantime, enjoy my photo essay Burning Man: Metropolis.

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
~ Anais Nin

Written in the Ascension Tribe tent at Burning Man.

After 4 days in the Black Rock Desert, I’ve returned. Many friends have asked what the experience was like, yet predictably, I find it difficult to describe. Yet I’m going to try anyway in an upcoming article for BNT.

Stay tuned…