The Temple

[gfish]

Wow. Somehow I let it slip almost 3 weeks since my last post. The Mackenzie canoe trip might have been the last time I went so long. Not sure what happened, just kept failing to find the time. I fear this signals the beginning of the end of my regular blogging era, but we'll see.

Since I'm home sick, I thought I'd make a post which demanded lots of images and web research of the kind I try to avoid at work. Ever since the 2011 Temple was announced, I've been meaning to make a post about it.

So, every year a Temple gets built at Burning Man. The design changes, and currently a different group builds it every year. It is burned on Sunday night, in what I'm told is a much more solemn and moving ceremony than the burning of the Man. I've sadly never been able to stay due to travel time constraints.

I really like this year's design, and I'm looking forward to seeing it on the playa. I think this is the first time I've bothered looking up the design ahead of time, but last year's design didn't really work for me. It was very different, and that's not a bad thing. It did have a very interesting organic details and some neat little nooks and cranies that I appreciated. But it was roughly and ugly and not a little bit spooky. Overall it made me think of a design from those studies on how to mark nuclear waste disposal sites so that even post-collapse, illiterate societies will know to avoid digging wells there. It very much sent the messages described in that study:

This place is not a place of honor.
No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
Nothing valued is here.

(I'd love to see some of the other designs done as an art installation on the playa. They're beautiful and terrifying and incredibly evocative. They're just not Temple material!)

The Temple is non-denominational; it's not even religious. Many people would consider it strongly spiritual, certainly. I'm not sure how to classify how I feel about it. The tradition is that people write notes and leave items to be consumed in the fire. These are usually in regards to a loved one who has died, or some other painful experience. Most notes are just jotted onto the unfinished wood with sharpie, but there are a lot of pictures, some very nicely framed and obviously prepared ahead of time. I once saw a wedding dress.

Let's be honest -- I don't always handle religion very well. It's a character flaw of mine, and as I've gotten older I've become a lot more tolerant. But deep down, part of me is still pretty scornful of the whole thing. The Temple is by far the largest bit of vaguely organized spiritual expression that has ever really moved me. Every year I go and spend an hour or so wandering the structure, reading the notes. Most are simple goodbyes. Mostly to loved ones, some to those for whom the love had soured and turned to hate. Some are sad, some are accepting, some are bewildered and lost. The sense of the scope of human suffering and loss is staggering, and very raw. There is no attempt at mythological explanations to hide the pain, no dogma or sacrament or ceremony to get in the way. This is several thousand people screaming into the void that they exist and that existence hurts at times. And that ever with that pain, existence is still a rare gift to be treasured.

Comments

[anansi133]

This place is not a place of honor.

When I really let that one sink in, it's amazing how much energy and enthusiasm this civilization has expended on creating places with no honor.

That's a pretty harsh comparison for a burning temple, but then I don't think these activities are necessarily a source of pride either.

[eeyorerin]

A friend shared pictures from her daughter's fiance's funeral where he was buried in a plain unfinished wood coffin and at the end of the service, everyone wrote messages on it (including drawing pictures) in sharpie. It was really beautiful.

[inaurolillium.livejournal.com]

Wow. I find those pictures of last year's temple to be very moving and beautiful, and very much honoring change, transformation, and transition. I feel like the fact that it was built to be destroyed is much more integral to the design than this year's is.

[jes5199.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

they exist and that existence hurts at times

Yes.

[keystricken.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[ivy]

That's fascinating, about how to mark waste disposal sites. It does seem the responsible thing to do once you say that, but I never would have thought of it on my own, and oh shit. (I am not fascinated enough to read 300 technical pages on design, but still, cool.) Thanks for making me think today!

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

I'm so writing something on the Temple this year.

And as for religion, I feel basically the same way about it that you do. Neither of us need apologize for that, as long as we're not jerks about it.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

The sense of the scope of human suffering and loss is staggering, and very raw. There is no attempt at mythological explanations to hide the pain, no dogma or sacrament or ceremony to get in the way. This is several thousand people screaming into the void that they exist and that existence hurts at times. And that even with that pain, existence is still a rare gift to be treasured.

I've had a tab open to this post for days, specifically so that I could reread this part.

I don't have words...

[gfish.livejournal.com]

It's one of the things I most want to show you there.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

There is no attempt at mythological explanations to hide the pain, no dogma or sacrament or ceremony to get in the way.

I feel pretty strongly that the term "sacrament" is applicable to the practice described. I don't know if I'll ever make it to Burning Man, but I;m really looking forward to making the Festival of Sandcastles (http://orawnzva.livejournal.com/72041.html) happen some time this summer, if I can get my act together. Y'all should totally do one on your coast, too.