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Raver J + Legion of PLUR

A Raver's (Short) Story supporting #NoDAPL

· Art-Stories-Poetry

Before reading, please note:

 

  • By pushing Option + “X” on the keyboard this Aquarian-like symbol appears: "≈".  This symbol, as well as this indented formatting and italics, will be used to denote musical lyrics.
  • First, I suggest reading straight through the story.  Then listen to the musical links.  The music might inspire you as it did me. 
  • Hyperlinks in the story are active and link to songs.
  •  Hyperlinks in the action resource guide will lead to important websites for you to take action and help us spread the message of #NoDAPL
  • Update! December 5th was the date for eviction for many camps at Standing Rock.  The Army Corps of Engineers and the Obama Administration will not permit the easement the company needed to complete the construction of the pipeline.  This is huge and worthy of much gratitude.  However, this project is merely mitigated, not over and... this is not the only issue happening in this world.  Eco-championing is needed in local and global communities all over. everyday.  Keep your loving actions moving.  Look into issues and if you feel called to help, sign petitions, make phone calls, join movements, create change.
  • One last thing, the word Koch is pronounced "cock".

Raver J and the Legion of PLUR

Written by Jivana aka Raver J - inspired by our Rainbow Warriors at Standing Rock and those fighting similar battles to protect the Planet all around the world.

Let the story begin... this transmission is coming to you....

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Last night we danced. Moving, creating heat, infra-red fire, an offering with our bodies. Generation was the name loosely chosen to refer to our purpose-driven, pop-up party. As we listened and moved, we opened. Electricity from synthesized beats coursed through our veins recharging us with what we would need out in the field the most - Love.

Now is the time≈, a track had affirmed.

During the swirling vacuum sounds (preceding the drop), that celeste sense of being came over me. I was an eave of a peaking wave of an interstellar dust cloud able to perceive the galactic churn and my connection to the black, non-color, nothing-everything awareness of all. Yet, simultaneously, I still felt attached to a form - of molecular size - in this rolling wave. A pin-dot of infinite reflective and vibrant potential. It is always in these moments when knowings appear. The chorus lyrics backed up the unspoken understanding infusing me.

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The next day, the doors of the painted bus opened with an exhausted but powerful sigh. It had been a long journey from Vagus to the sacred Confluence. Before everyone poured out, Zoe leaped from the top bus-step to the soil, her pigtails rebounding, her fingertips planting into the Earth, grounding - tuning in. Following her twin sister, Zephyr gracefully dove forward and then radiated out like a star with her in-air, no-hand cartwheel. They faced each other, eyes gazing, just far enough away where their palms could still press against each other's and yet have one leg extended, so toes could touch on point. A beautiful mirror of Self, ready to dance.

“Make it beautiful,” Zephyr always says, “everything is art.”

Before twirling out from the center-point, to draw a circle for our tribe to stand around, Zoe would switch her leg so they made an X from which their pointed toes would gently ground the impression. This was the place we planted our crystallized intention, the offering we brought LaDonna in gratitude for starting the movement, and of course the Land for all its Life-giving beauty. From here, we would carry hope, tea, incense, and the requested survival items. Survival items not for a party, not for this evening alone, but for the continued struggle, as the situation had yet to harmoniously evaporate into any of the numerous fortnights. Additionally we brought our machine based arsenal, "the gear": armed with camera-appendages for documentation, and accompanied by modern drummers for our peaceful legion.

It was still a marvel to me that modern technology, including computers, had wreaked so much destruction upon the world and yet at this particular pinnacle in our shared history, we had reached a point where at least computers were able to help us perceive and project the outcome of our actions. And it wasn't looking good if we continued the current course. Although intensive on Her for their manufacture and "end life", it seemed to me, that She had consciously chosen to communicate through this technology because the people that could help Her most were from the culture destroying Her. We were the most attuned and enslaved to technology and yet we would know how to use it for our own means so long as She could whisper new dreams through our music. To get in front of us, to have our attention, she had to present herself through it - to liberate us, so we could liberate Her.

We plodded the trail, listening to our agreed upon solemn tune, preparing our internal systems. As we zig-zagged through outlying encampments and cars, we made our way to the histrionic nucleus.

I could hear someone ask one of the Twins “What is her power?”

Zoe enthusiastically responded “She can penetrate hearts”.

“But we are here peacefully”, our fellow PLUR warrior pleaded, sounding distressed. Most of our standard party crew, the Technorati had come, as well as other members of the New Moon Collective. But we had newbies, those who had responded to a call which was manifesting as the largest gathering of tribes in over 100 years. She was a recent joiner.

With loving sass, Zephyr followed up on her sister Zoe's comment, “She doesn’t rip them out, she has the ability to energetically evoke a change of heart.”

“Empathy dissolves the archonic influence” Zoe spurted.

“Ignore my sister, please. TMI.”

"But Zeph, empathy." Zoe pleaded with her dramatically long enunciation of the key word.

"Oh sure, fair enough my love." Zephyr blustered with a huffy sigh before continuing the explanation "She is able to somehow invoke empathy in others. I have to admit, it's fairly... well, I won't give her too much credit because we are all here to do our part but... let's just say it can be damn convenient. Look I'm a ninja not a scientist. She carries some strong reflective element, or magnetism or... ."

Zoe cut off her twin to finish her sentence for her, "She helps us all act as a catalyst in showing people who they really are."

"Yeah, because we are not just fucking Consumericans." Zephyr of course wanted to have the last word. I didn't see Zoe grimace by her sister's snarky but accurate interjection but I would bet energy she did.

They were right. I had something specific I offered our group, but so did they. I could not do what I did alone and I believed it was the entire experience that we offered as a group that had been shifting situations. We were not here to create anything, and certainly not to destroy. We were here to transform the state of this system. We were the electric charge showing up to offer a path between two states of entropy.

Approaching the field, tension was sensed. There was commotion and elevated voices banging against the glass of crisp air in this fragile situation. A shattering seemed inevitable. We stalled before approaching the front line to sync our breath, to become coherent with one another, and tune our hearts with Hers. We needed to offer calm pliability to the potential emotional snap. I had trained us to observe first. Action must come from a centered place.

There they were, our people. Both protectors. Those on our side of the river, defenders of the weaved tapestry, the masterpiece of Life itself. Their reflections bore a clarity of intent, signs of loving protest backed up by colorful peace flags on steeds. It was a beautiful sight to behold; how many of them had answered the call. The largest gathering of indigenous tribes in a century.

Hold on to this, I reminded myself. Imaginally maintaining a feeling of majestic reverence for some aspect of a situation always comes in handy later.

Something good in the distance? I wanted to believe it could be true, but those on the other side of the river, were what we considered misguided protectors. Hired guns. Faustians for sure. They supported the current destructive and unraveling system, and bore what seemed like an impenetrable defense with kevlar covered hearts, and semi-automatic riffles. They were backed up by weaponized tanks.

Months back, Dine had looked out over our tribe at The Great Party; our roles now reversed. But we were not here just to return the favor. We were here to play a part. To help create a desired effect. Not for our own worldly self-glory in this lifetime but for the larger mythopoetics of this magnetic moment as it might be reflected upon thousands of years from now.

Someone, some people, somewhere are always standing up to a Giant. Here, in this moment, our people did not hold stones to throw, no, they wore crystals loaded with intentions, brought sage to burn, tobacco to smoke, and Love to share.

I had reminded our tribe, “Transform each and every thought into something loving” when I buried our offered crystal. The one we planted in the medicine wheel the go go twins, Zoe and Zephyr, had outlined for us. Every act had to come from a place of love and peace. Under the current circumstances, this recommendation would be quite a practice; difficult but worthy of perfect attempt.

One of the esteemed Elders withdrew a peace pipe in a fluid, but rapid motion. Although his intent was to invoke prayerful words of tolerance, the pipe must have looked like a decorated tomahawk. In the lighting, we were silhouettes, and the heart-blind are frightened by shadows. That simple gesture would elicit a vicious, trained, automatic, mental response that resulted in a cold onslaught.

Tonight, how different than our last.

Tear gas assailed Her protectors. We immediately reached into our pockets to toss them the supply of gas masks we had carried with us from the bus, and then fastened on our own. The attackers could not make us cry; our vision would not be blurred. Tears about this situation had already been shed. Now only Love would be allowed to fall onto this embankment and merge with these sacred waters.

The heart-blind Faustians next unleashed a rain of rubber bullets that assailed our unarmed and unshielded front lines. The palm-sized bullets tore into their bodies, ripping muscle tissue, causing them to falter and some of them to fall. Watching the atrocity in real time, in shared space, caused my heart to breach from my body of its own will. I looked over at Zephyr. She had watched her beloved die from afar not so long ago. She stood there, breathing, unblinking, but I knew, a storm of emotions brewed in her. His image superimposed upon her screen of reality from whirling mists of sorrow projecting out onto the scene. I saw him too. Oh Cutter, be with us now.

Inspired by the shared memory of our loving comrade, I shook the ground with an extended bellow of “Enough!”. Like a bassdrop, it became our readying cue. Major Intention set the mood by initiating a mix into another song. We stood our ground to smugly mouth the lyrics as they issued forth - LOUD - from our mini (but powerful) speakers.

And they were. Total mother fuckers. All of them. Those that were penetrating the Earth to lay "The Kind", that dirty Koch partner pipeline, and those that were allowing it to happen. Whether the intention was unconscious or conscious, their underlying motivation was a reverence for a concept: digits in the computer, sometimes paper, plastic, or coin. Ultimately, something dead and not alive. Rape, pain, destruction, and death all for an elaborate, human-created, unnatural, abstraction called money.

Another round of rubber bullets sprayed the crowd of now wounded, but resilient protestors. It was time; I yelled “Now, Rave!”

We were a stampede of shimmering sequins in the moonlight, charging forward boldly to join the front lines on the river bank of the side we had chosen and absorb the others into our electric field. The protectors we joined were not some rebel tribe. They were not rioters. They were people of our country, protesting peacefully, and defending what was sacred to them, and which should be sacred to us all. The protectors, living reminders to Humanity of who we really are. Protecting not just these waters but taking a stand for the future and our Life-source which allows us to experience the animating, illuminating, band of frequency - the Light, the Rainbow, the Love.

The music changed again, this time mixing into a track that unleashed a screeching echo of what sounded like a folkloric Eagle. The cry reminded me to call out, “Invoke the vision!”

In unison, we clutched the crystals and sacred stone medallions that dangled from our necks as the lyrics would instruct us to…

Taking another inspirational cue from the song, I let the vibrations penetrate my heart, the sound waves charging me. I closed my eyes to deeply feel the music mixing with my own pulsing rhythm, and from that place of being, I projected what I imagined as sine waves of rainbow energy. For reasons still at this time not quite known to me, my energy could disarm the arsenal of militarized weaponry, or at least the guns. This was our window to cross the freezing waters before a distraction might break my attention and thus our temporary shield.

Our flow toys created dazzling spiral patterns, lassoing the attention of Koch militia. Light glove performers, like magicians, wiggled and danced their fingers, drawing local police in as watchers of their shows. Our burly production team, who had hosted our dance party from the night before, tag-team tackled the State front lines with love-smothering hugs, mollifying them.

Hugs provided time to secure the lenses onto our temporary adversaries. All of us who had the nerve to jump on the bus from Vagus were loaded with heart-creation diffraction glasses and lots of pretty lights. With these diffraction lenses on, heart shapes would appear in when looking at any light source.

Yes - let them see Love. Everywhere.

We looked up to see tank attendants and operatives scurrying to counter our music with their attempt at a piercing defense, the LRADs. However, earlier in our journey, we had been given a tip and so were prepared with in-ear protection against their auditory assail. Zoe and The Green Fairy, had efficiently distributed the special hi-fidelity earplugs to our fellow protestors; evidenced by them all continuing to stand tall in shrill defiance. Our poi masters threw their tools, trained by the twins in Hojoutsu, to restrain the operators. The tools spinning like toy helicopter blades made intricate geometric patterns, before wrapping around their wrists and torsos, incapacitating members of the force.

Zephyr broke from her activities to get visual check on me then, back handsprang multiple times until she reached me. She had a tempest laugh as she yelled, “You know we’re fucked right?”

“Because we'll be considered enemies of the State?" But I didn't answer her. I didn't have to. We had all made our decision to be here, consciously.

As if from the deep crystal aquifers under this river confluence, I could hear the ethereal voices of Lakota and Hope asking me to believe.

Ah, sweet synchronicity.

Zoe, barely making a splash, appeared behind me like a ninja-mermaid with Dine on her shoulders. I made eye contact with Dine then shouted, “Like we practiced last night.” With a nod and a wink, I then placed my hands on her waist to guide her rise. The go go twins squatted in a wide stance lunge so Dine could jump off Zoe’s shoulders, feet into their hands so they could raise her and have her, long, ebony hair wave like a flag in the wind.

“Squeeze!” I yelled sweetly above the music, her body tightened on my command as the twins took a tiny, simultaneous bounce squat for a bit more momentum to lift her, above their heads, to full height.

From afar, giant, bright spotlights suddenly focused and flooded the field to sear our attention.

Perfect.

Closing my eyes to transform this assault into an opportunity, I tuned into the music, and with all my concentration, I used that energy to redirect the light they were using to blind us, to illuminate her.

Two can play at this game.

Dine Fawn was back. We had broken her out of jail. The caged bird now free, and spotlights shining upon her. There she was in full glory, a symbol of hope, the peak of our human pyramid radiating the rainbow between her hands and amplifying our frequency of Love.

“I got you Red” I yelled to Dine just as someone’s hands were placed on my waist and two bases appeared to hoist me up behind her, to support her, just in time as the water canons went off.

They blasted us with the water cannons, trying to atomize us. Their shameful insult, to turn what we were fighting for against us, could only make us shiver. They would not dishearten us. We would not let their cold scorn and disgracefulness leave freeze-burns on our bones. Their frigid aspersion was no match to the fire of our solidarity. They didn't know the liquid crystal all around us only made us stronger. So slowly, one by one, their circuiting began vibrating at our rave-frequency. With gentle seizure they fell - heart-planting - into the Earth. We had opened their hearts through our light, music, and hugs. Finally they could feel Her energy. As if waking from a dream, they left their gear on the ground and came to stand with us.

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RESOURCE GUIDE:

How to Help Standing Rock #NoDAPL

Please note: EVICTION IS SET FOR DECEMBER 5TH, 2016. IT IS IMPERATIVE TO MAKE THOSE CALLS THE CALLS IN THE NUMBERS BELOW THIS WEEK.

Virtual activism

Join the Propeller “Water is Life” campaign where you can do things like tweet support and earn points.

CLICK HERE for the Facebook Event link to share with friends and family.
Or, please feel free to forward this post.

Where ever you are, please take a pause. Invite others to join you (if possible, be in nature or by water). With your prayer, you join a collective unified field of consciousness for the amplification of our intentions, creating a ripple effect of continuous prayer circulating Mother Earth.

 

You can specifically direct your presence towards:

 

*Protection for all Water Protectors in North Dakota
*Healing for those that have experienced physical & emotional trauma/injury from human rights violations by police
*Unification of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples at #StandingRock
*Conscious Awakening of police officers, Energy Transfer Partners, Government & Corporations
*Renewable energy implemented globally by all nations choosing the preservation of Mother Earth over profit
*Conscious distribution of wealth
*Peace, Justice, Honour, Respect, Freedom
*Feeling & visualizing the #DAPL STOPPED
*LOVE over fear

The power of this daily prayer happens because of your Presence. When we collectively focus our attention and direct it to our desired intentions, we create miracles.

 
Please utilize the power of your voice, words, presence, breath, body, song, dance & focus. This is prayer. And, continue to take action.

6 Steps You Can Take Now

1. Options To Contribute With Financial Support

Contribute to the Sacred Stone Camp gofundme account
www.gofundme.com/sacredstonecamp

Contribute to the Sacred Stone Camp Legal Defense Fund
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/d19fAf

Contribute to Oceti Sakowin Camp
www.Ocetisakowincamp.org

Contribute to Medical and Healing Camp
www.holisticlivingschool.org/standing-rock-fundraiser/

You can donate items from the Sacred Stone Camp Supply List
http://sacredstonecamp.org/supply-list/

2. Use Your Voice To Make Phone Calls & Write Emails
You can tell them you are a concerned citizen and you want them to stand in honor and respect of human rights and indigenous people's rights. You'd like them to use their voice and power to stop the militarized police brutality at Standing Rock in North Dakota to Peaceful Water Protectors. You are advocating for the Dakota Access Pipeline, that is traversing the ancestral graves of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, BE STOPPED, as it threatens the planet and the drinking water of millions of American citizens.

Call the White House (202) 456-1111
Call North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple at 701-328-2200.

Call the Army Corps of Engineers and demand that they reverse the permit: (202) 761-5903

Call and email the executives of the companies that are building the pipeline:

a. Lee Hanse Executive Vice President Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. 800 E Sonterra Blvd #400 San Antonio, Texas 78258 Telephone: (210) 403-6455 Lee.Hanse@energytransfer.com

b. Glenn Emery Vice President Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. 800 E Sonterra Blvd #400 San Antonio, Texas 78258 Telephone: (210) 403-6762 Glenn.Emery@energytransfer.com

c. Michael (Cliff) Waters Lead Analyst Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. 1300 Main St. Houston, Texas 77002 Telephone: (713) 989-2404 Michael.Waters@energytransfer.com

3. Sign The Petition
Sign the petition to the White House to Stop DAPL
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov

4. Move Your Money. Make an Impact.
Move your money out of the banks that are funding the #DAPL
CLICK HERE for an article from YES Magazine with the list of all the banks from around the world that are connected with #DAPL and how to contact them.

 

Fare Wells Fargo is the latest call to action in this MOVE YOUR MONEY MOVEMENT. More specifics on HOW to do this: www.farewellsfargo.com

5. SF Bay Area Call to Action November 30
CLICK HERE info on the Facebook Event to Stand in Solidarity with the Women that are on the front lines at #Standing Rock.


6. Create an altar devoted WATER.
Fill a bowl of water and offer your prayers, along with any other sacred objects, let the water evaporate for a day or so, then offer to a body of water or soil. Repeat.

Other Ethos-based, Connecting Dots Activism By RAVER J

Why do we need oil anyway? It’s more than just cars... it's consumerism. It is about the underlying current of consciousness we have in modern society. So beyond boycotting consumerism, plastic, and pesticides (oil is used in plastics and pesticides/ non-organic farming), what else can we do?

Consideration of PLURalism - think about our values as ravers. Within the term pluralism (which can simply mean "many", but often has to do with a tolerance of ideas), we conveniently have "PLUR". PLUR: peace, love, unity, and respect. Between the spaces in PLUR, I would argue, there is an inferred responsibility to take action in this world. The concept "unity" (or as some like to say, "we are One") extends past Humanity, to the entirety of this complex web that is the Living Planet. So consider or meditate daily on our values.

Attitude of Gratitude - There is a saying, "gratitude turns what you have into enough". How do you have an attitude of gratitude? Stop for 30 seconds out of your day, whenever the thought arises to practice, and name 5 things that you are grateful for in your life today.

Self-Love - Minding your thoughts and being kind to yourself is often the first step in tolerating others. We are often caught in our heads and not listening to our hearts. The mind has desires too, of course, but they are often of the superficial sort which lead to consumer behaviors. We feel we need things to fill a void that could be filled if only we simply tuned into our hearts for a moment, instead of our heads. Since about 2007 I've had the motto, #FollowYourHeartSaveTheWorld because when we tap into our heart's desires. When we satisfy ourselves on a deep level, learn that there is an abundance of energy once we are recharged. It is from the heart-centered place that we can not only take care of our own desires but take care of the desires of those around us. Take time out of your day to do a 1 minute meditation on your heart. Bring awareness first to your breath, then observe as you move the breath into your heart. Imagine (as you breathe) that you awaken a conscious rainbow that becomes ever brighter and removes, even if temporarily, all fear and doubt in your life and fills you with Love. Now, as you continue to breathe, let it grow from your heart to fill your entire being with rainbow light. And then of course, especially as ravers, take time out of your day to dance... Recharge; then share your energy with others.

Action - Love is often about taking action. It is about communicating, doing, showing. The simple practices I have just gone over are part of action but you can take it further. Do so only after you have spent a few days cultivating Self-Love. You must regenerate your lost power, or revitalize it before you can give more to the world or you will feel drained. If we want a sustainable world, we must learn to operate ourselves, our management of personal energy, in a sustainable fashion. Once you feel good, once you feel empowered, start to move from that centered place, that clarity of being, that place in your core and your heart and... sign petitions, go out and clean the park, join in on virtual protests, join organizations that are "fighting the good fight", create art that sends a message, hold a workshop or an event, do something.

Support - Although this could be argued as action, I felt it was worthy of its own category. Let's investigate the marginalized communities that live among us. Let's subscribe to their newsletters, or like their pages. Let's get to know them and let's support their arts. Let's support their message by sharing it through social media. Let's talk about them with our families. Let us not forget them if what happens does not turn out like my story... because this is not an isolated case and it will certainly not be the last.

#Plurrpropaganda #RaverJ

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Artwork: Top + Bottom ComicKarl. Go Go Twins by Ross. Second to the bottom by JamiBug as inspired by the work of Fonz. Story partially inspired by music from The Crystal Method.

A little about this story

I created a character in 2003 named Raver J. She was my alter-ego, my inner-being transforming through rave culture into an advocate and activist for the planet and the people affected by modern society's often unconscious desires.
 

Raver J's story has been in process since 2003. I have shared, over the years, mostly her image, and as technology improved in the last few years specifically I have been able to use her in the way I had envisioned which is something I refer to as #PLURRPropaganda. She is meant to be a source of inspiration for other ravers to take the love they generate out on the dancefloor and channel it back into the world where it is needed. Especially in these times, just awareness via social media is helpful to many causes that have gone unnoticed for so long due to the control on our media as well as our limitations on technology.

The Standing Rock issue is particularly important to me. I, the author/ artivist, have never identified as a Caucasian due to my mixed heritage. I always checked off boxes denoting that I was of mixed blood, sometimes that box simply said "other". It is important to note, before I go any further, that atrocities like what we are witnessing at Standing Rock, are going on all over the world and have been... and have been....

As a supporter of Amazon Watch (one of the many organizations dealing with very similar issues in another part of the world), I have witnessed how the issue is always the same; a clash of societies and values. It's "modern society" and what they perceive to be important, vs. the people that are defending not themselves and the Earth itself. The quality of water, the quality of air, the livelihoods of people, and the compassion for all the other sentient beings are affected by consumeristic-driven devouring of the planet for often senseless needs. Standing Rock is special to me because I do have at least a drop of indigenous tribal blood. I feel like this is an affront on my personal family, though, as previously mentioned, I have been compassionate to all global issues. Similarly I think it is hitting home for other people in the country who are finally, perhaps for the first time, seeing the clash, and perhaps waking to the possibility that there might be, and possibly should be, alternatives to the direction of our current global modern society. We are truly at a point where we are fighting for the Earth. You know, the wondrous thing we depend on for our current and future daily living .

As I cannot be at Standing Rock, I have written a short story sending the spirit of Raver J and her Technorati tribe for energetic support. (I have also been sharing information on social media related to the struggle). This story is dedicated to the brave, peaceful, warriors of the Rainbow that are coming together as prophesied so long ago....