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We came to create. We came to partake. Nobody within the Black Rock City limits is a
merely a bystander, so we arrived and built a brave new world. When it was over, we burned
it, packed it all out and left no trace.
What Is Burning Man? Ten Principles
Burning Man is a current, divine existence that reaches toward the ethos and tenets that
are alive and well within Neotribalism. It is a next-generation byproduct of the
Beat/Sixties movement given a pure rebirth and revolution deeply immersed in Northern
California and West Coast festival culture. Burning Man, and Neotribalism link the self-
sufficient tribal principles of the old-style communal hippie set with the Gotham tech
progressives of the Bay Area. This is combined with post-Club culture, and the sacred and
chromatic aesthetic of several mixed indigenous philosophies from around the world, most
fervently the Far East.
[Photo by Jeff Kravitz]
Journalist Charles Shaw: (RealitySandwich) wrote: “Neotribalism espouses the “archaic
revival” Terrance McKenna had popularized, at once rekindling our relationship with our
tribal past while at the same time picking up the mantle of the previous generation’s
counterculture and pushing humanity forward into its next evolutionary step. It began in
the late 1990s as little more than a fashion statement that emerged from the Burning Man
Festival, yet has evolved into something that today is so much more, but still can't
really be quantified. In the simplest terms, it is a spiritual movement, and despite the
aesthetic pretentions, a serious one at that.”
This is closest to approximating what is actually going on culturally within the
participation, holiness, and amalgamation of music, art, community and human experience in
Black Rock City. At the end of the week, beneath the ashes lie the life lessons- that if
practically applied- will mine the absolute best out of who you are - and do so by any
means necessary.
Neotribalism has evolved to a plateau. In 2013 Burning Man remains a salient wind in the
time's sails; an era of unprecedented global uncertainty on a variety of levels. People in
the Burning Man movement talk of a “paradigm shift" or "transformation" evolution, giving
rise to a newfound land of the artistic underground, dancers, designers, musicians, DJs,
writers, filmmakers, and so much more, Neotribalism is the lone definitive cultural
element that I could reach and grasp in the hopes of relating the concept of cosmonauts,
the absurdity of art cars, freaks, ruffians. The Tiffa Novoa-inspired post-apocalyptic
stylistic creations born from the El Circo troupe are embodied by so many denizens of
Planet Black Rock. My sojourn into the depths and annals of Burning Man 2013 is a
testament to this inspiration.
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