We recently had a commentary on “Burning Man,” that bizarre annual “celebration” in the bleak desert of Nevada that has just ended, again in turmoil.
If it isn’t rain causing party-goers to trudge in knee-deep mud (as two years ago, when in the chaos a life was lost), or a dust storm (as last year), it’s an even bigger dust storm this year, blowing down a temporary structure called the “Orgy Dome” (no detailed explanation of what transpired in the dome is necessary).
Born of the hippie and New Age movements in California, it’s an event that attracts seventy thousand, including upper-end high-tech types (Google founders are part owners of the event). Occult-like rituals rule the day.
This year there was the added tragedy of a homicide when a man identified as 37-year-old Vadim Kruglov, a Russian national residing in Washington state, tragically was found dead in a “pool of blood” during the burning of the Man effigy.
For some, the Man symbolizes the establishment, control, or societal expectations—and burning it signifies a liberation from societal norms.
From an occult standpoint, fire is purifying. Burning the Man can be seen as a ritual of transformation, akin to alchemical or magical purification.
In case you think this is just a California eccentricity (transported to Nevada), a Christian who has monitored the event since the 1990s, Carl Teichrib, recently told podcaster Melissa Dougherty:
“You realize really quickly that this is actually a global movement. So there’s not just one Burning Man; there’s lots of Burning Man. Burning Man in Nevada is the mothership, but there are roughly 110, maybe 115 ‘burns’ around the world.
“There are burns across the U.S., a number of burns in Canada. China has a burn [above]. Israel has a burn—it’s called Midburn [below]—and there they burn effigies of Adam and Eve. South Africa has a burn.
“And it spun out of that hundreds, potentially even thousands, of other events that are all part and parcel of what we would call ‘transformational’ festivals or evolutionary culture. It’s a huge network, a global network—a global kind of movement—of exploring spirituality in this artistic kind of sense.
“When I went to the eclipse festival in Texas last year, I went because it was the epicenter of transformational spirituality. The eclipse festivals are a subset of the burning kind of community. They existed before Burning Man, but they’re all kind of part and parcel, and there’s a lot of bleed over. Like 35,000–40,000 people were at the Texas Eclipse Festival, and it was full of burners, full of Burning Man imagery, full of Burning Man personalities, many references. Every day you’d run into references about Burning Man.
“So, it’s not just a party in the desert. It has a global footprint. Here’s the kicker: so much so that by—I think it was—2019, the Smithsonian Institution had dedicated their entire Renwick building to Burning Man for the summer. And then the Cincinnati Art Museum dedicated their building to Burning Man sculptures and Burning Man art. My wife and I toured the one in Cincinnati, and they had this going across different parts of the U.S.
“So, I’m sorry—when you hit the Smithsonian, you’re no longer fringe. You’re no longer a side event. You are mainstream. You are in a position of influence. So, that’s the dynamic that’s happening.”
Prayer need here, for certain.
