Author Topic: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked  (Read 2473 times)

jbeegoode

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5345
    • View Profile
Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« on: March 24, 2021, 10:19:00 PM »
So, Nuduke and I and anyone else who cares to, are collecting TP rolls and other cardboard articles to make sculpture and then burn. It is at the inspiration for Nuduke's sculpture and then, "what the heck" setting it on fire and dancing around it...nude, this year...or last.

Before it confuses the "monthly whatcha been doin' free range nude" thread, here we are:

This is about any ritual, any dancing around any fire, sculpture making, structure burning thing that comes up. I'd suppose that Burningman could be defined as a free range naked place. Saguaro Man in Arizona isn't nude. Both have their own rules, or "ten Principles" This thread isn't just that. This is set something on fire and do what you will naked. The rest is optional.
Jbee

P.S. The original conversation started around February of 2021 on that thread with pictures.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2021, 10:38:34 PM by jbeegoode »
Barefoot all over, all over.

jbeegoode

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5345
    • View Profile
Re: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2021, 10:35:26 PM »
We have been having a yearly piano burn out by Ajo for many years. A friend of mine owns a pit made to get fill-dirt to elevate a highway. It is ideal for burning big things. He has a friend with a piano store which comes across irreparable pianos during the course of a year.

Unsold Christmas trees and palates are also collected. It makes for quite a show, the old pianos make shapes and colors. We have a potluck. It has gotten out of control, greater than expected and the flames have been seen from the highway, prompting the fire department to show up unwelcomed and unannounced, looking perplexed.

There is a trick to making it last longer, extending the fun, which can be over very quickly. There is a trick to making the flames follow direction instead of just a thing burning up all at once. There is a trick to keeping it in control.

Last time, a band that plays only surfer music jammed on for over two hours as we danced and stood and observed the burn in a grand circle. Surfer music a believe rules in such a case. There's something wild about it.

The time before that, it was lit too soon in the wrong place by an a-hole and the heat nearly melted the bands instruments.

Anyway, it is great fun to dance around this sight, in cloaked capes, screaming like drunken cowboys.
Jbee
Barefoot all over, all over.

nuduke

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2327
    • View Profile
Re: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2021, 05:22:22 PM »
That piano burn sounds fun! We had an all wooden framed piano some years ago.  It went progressively and irretrievably out of tune so we got the council to take it away!  Dang! Should have had a piano fire!
Do you burn them whole ie with the frames in?  Is there danger from snapping piano wires.  I once had the pleasure with several others of breaking up an old cast iron frame grand piano with sledgehammers.  The breaking wires were lethal!  It's a wonder no one ended up in hospital.  What I remember most is the strange strained music at first as the hammers contacted the frame.  Quite spooky as if the piano was in pain!! :)


Right we have a thread for the TR sculpture fire ceremonies.  I am just getting to the end of mine nd will post more pics when finished.  I have run out of TR now and so have no backlog to make the job quicker.  I'm now having to await the natural harvest of cardboard that emerges as we use each roll. 


Mine won't be anything like as big as yours, Jbee!  12 feet tube?!  You're going to have to resort to some glueing and engineering structure to get that to stand up on its own.  Maybe a wooden armature?  I have made the base of mine out of 2 6inch x 5 inch x 9 inch card boxes with a half brick in each and a wooden 2 x 1 stake glued in.  In this way the legs of my sculpture are supported so it stands up.  I hope it's not windy on midsummer!
The whole thing is 5ft 3inch tall and 2 ft wide.  I have added another plane of tubes at 90deg to the original celtic knot.
John

jbeegoode

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5345
    • View Profile
Re: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2021, 01:41:31 AM »
They are stacked up, as is. There ultimately isn't much left but the wires and metal that holds them. My friend has collected enough to make a short front yard border fence. It is interesting fun.

That tall carpet roll is very stout. The flames may travel up it and shoot the top. It will burn slower that the TP rolls. It may be enough support unless it will fall "timber" twelve feet out. There is much to consider. The idea of flames shooting out of a tube appeals to me.

I have many, but larger cardboard boxes. I'll keep a few, as they may work out some way. The heat would make a cylinder spin on a point with louvers on top....
Jbee

Barefoot all over, all over.

nuduke

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2327
    • View Profile
Re: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2021, 11:24:26 PM »
So, I've nearly finished mine - photos to follow.
But I've been wondering how to perform the burning to make a little event of it.  I've been looking up pagan stuff to see if the pagans have any good ritual ideas (not that I want to associate myself with any particular faith system).  There's lots of stuff, most of which involves writing something on paper and burning it - most of the articles have more text given over to how to burn a sheet of paper or a wad of dry herbs safely than actually any ritual content.
Last time (new year) was a bit of a bodge - I lit the sculpture and sort of walked round trying and indeed failing to feel mystical.  This was probably due to the wife's prior moanings at my doing it naked.  However, she will be banished next time!! :)
My most popular thought for when, is midsummer solstice night (or perhaps dawn about 4am!).  The Wiccans have a fire festival - Beltane- on April 30th/May 1st so I'll stay clear of that! Anyway, I want to keep my hard gluing work on show for some weeks at least just to appreciate it as a work of art (stop laughing at the back of the class!).  The previous sculpture was standing in a room for 18 months!
I found this quotation somewhere "The Element of Fire burns away all that is old and outdated, Fire transforms one state of matter into another, Fire purifies and empowers."  Good thoughts for the turn of the year at solstice.
So Jbee, you are the spiritual ritual expert (what with the sweats and all).  Have you any thoughts on a way to make this little event mean something or at least be a sort of fun ritual.  Note a) it will be brief, a matter of less than 5 minutes, the TP rolls burn rapidly and b) I'm not going to be taking up drums or instruments for this - it'll annoy the neighbours. Naked and as simple as possible for me - it's all in the mind you know...(which is what the men in white coats will say as they usher me onto the big white van).
John

jbeegoode

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5345
    • View Profile
Re: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2021, 06:18:37 AM »
Well, burners generally and semi-officially, don’t actually put much meaning on their activity. It is just fun, cool and creative. Faux religious ritual to imaginary not-really-gods might slip in there. It more a grand hyperbole based on absolutely nothing.
Fire has been a big deal through millennia. It means different things to many. There are a variety of embellishments as to its meaning.

Fire has many associations in symbolism and seasonal timing and sometimes these two to conjure up hope to reinforce or manifest desired changes. For example, Beltane has been like that. Fireworks before the Chinese got a hold of powder, was just fire in the works.

Fire can create a stronger ritual. Ritual creates extra energy toward any enterprise, or plan, or hopeful prayer. If there is something that you desire, like a warm summer with plenty of opportunities to indulge in naturism and not have to mess with clothing. Maybe burn away some personal thing, or personal quirk, or an obstacle.

Burning can be intentional. A reinforcement of any intention, making the strength of the intention more solid, the belief of its creation, or make a resolution in a more profound way as to imbed it into the mind both consciously and subconsciously in alignment.

Fire is used in sacrifice. Sacrifice is to please, gods, or make a big deal out of prayer for something in the future. That kind of thing is best discussed before the fire, or sacrifice and the intention should be thought of as it has already happened. It is good to have a plan of implementation and take steps toward its end and then burn, or wash your hands as you turn the result over to your chosen higher power, god, or gods.

I took a course on ritual to get my masters. Ritual is hardwired into human thinking and behavior. Minor ritual like dressing up to look the part of a business man or a doctor, makes the magic more powerful. You walk into a docs office and there is reception, “important” questionnaire, all of the trappings. You get weighed, the white coat for the ritual all is used like any good witch doctor in his decorated hut and feathered bonnet. It gives you more faith in the magic of medicine and science. Fire can get a person psyched up, in infinite ways. There is biological change from belief alone. Faith healing has been known to actually work in miraculous ways. There is biological science now to back that up.

In India the pujas are elaborate rituals which are supposed to be done in a perfect precision of ancient ritual. Scents, certain flowers, food stuffs, are all offered in precise orders, to the gods, or a particular god. You could add things to your fire.
Native Americans often associate fire and heat, and summer season, and certain animals, and cleansing, and directions, and certain imaginary deities or gods, warmth in a winter, gratitude in Spring, or in the moment. Warm stuff is fire stuff, like sunrise.

Then, there are the European pagan fire concepts. All over the world, fire has been central to life, as gathering, storytelling, mesmerizing fire gazing into incredible contemplations, essential to food and warmth, survival and other worlds, or dimensions. It is holy.

Make what you will. Make it important. Be guided by your inner sources. Make noise and “spirited” fun. Burning is innate, no matter which of the multitudes of takes you lay on it.

Guys in white vans, these days, realize that white folks was once wild, too, shouted woohoo, had their own voodoo, and that wasn't coo coo, but infact cool....
Jbee
« Last Edit: March 31, 2021, 06:21:07 AM by jbeegoode »
Barefoot all over, all over.

nuduke

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2327
    • View Profile
Re: Burners and Ritual Around a Bonfire Something Naked
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2021, 08:57:55 AM »
Brilliant! Thank you for these very apposite and useful thoughts, jbee.  I knew you had lots of knowledge about rituals but didn't realise you had a degree in it (or part of one, anyway).  Your remarks are empowering : I shall compose my own little event to make the burning bit significant for me and hang any compliance with anybody else's!  :)
I look forward to further news of your construction.
I shall post my pic a) when I'm on a suitable device and b) when I can work out why my pics wouldn't embed last night.
John