Lighting the Void

Alchemy, the medieval forrunner for chemistry, is also the name of Atlanta’s regional burn. My love for Alchemy has outlived all my other interests. I have loved attending Alchemy longer than any job I have ever had, longer than any relationship I have been in, and even through my longest residence anywhere.

From my very first taste in 2013, my passion for this event has been infectious. It is a gospel and fanaticism that I have encouraged others to engage in since my first experience eleven (11) years ago.

The ethos of a burn distinguishes it from festivals, concerts, and other communal celebrations. Nothing is for sale (decommodification) at a burn, and you are expected to bring what you need to thrive (radical self-reliance). Over 100+ camps bring art, music, and events, but attendees are encouraged to engage instead of simply being passive, casual consumers (participation). The culture within the burn can be described by these 10 Principles: decommodification, gifting, leave no trace, radical inclusion, radical self-reliance, communal effort, civic duty, radical self-expression, immediacy, and participation.

In 2013, at my very first burn, I entered Cherokee Farms and exited through a crucible of art and magic into a portal of revelry. Burner Beach, the theme camp I was invited to join, consisted of friends who shared a cross-cultural consciousness and a dedication to living life fully. In the first few hours of my arrival at camp, a neighboring camper got completely nude before setting up her tent. Witnessing this casual nudity was the beginning of my many awakenings. The world I encountered at Alchemy was playful, fun, free-spirited, and karmically fair. As a participant, I felt that what I brought into my heart created the pre-conditions for magic. Spontaneous, entertaining, and playful moments were counterbalanced with heart-full conversations about the world, community, and our collective concerns.

As I try to put my finger on why I keep coming back, I credit the ethos of the burn for creating the structure that encourages participants to be their best selves. Of the ten principles, my favorites include:

Radical self-expression

Many of us live deeply filtered day-to-day lives. An over-corporatized world has many constraints on our speech. Many people live in a curmudgeonly sense of squareness. Radical self-expression allows us to throw off artificial filters and take pride in our expression as a form of celebration. The joy of wearing fun costumes, cosplaying, and improvising is a call to reinvigorate a more creative way of moving about on Earth. I see this principle as an essential reminder to say your piece, be who you are, and exist as you are called to.

Radical inclusion

As a forever misfit, I have often felt like an outsider, unincluded, or awkward. A combination of social anxiety and personal insecurity previously played out while negotiating social boundaries. At Burns, however, participants bring an open-hearted, inclusive approach to strangers. Every one of us worked hard to arrive at the burn. Together, we are participating in magnifying our inner lights. This simple, beautiful humanity helps me come out of my shell. Quirks, nerdiness, and geekdoms all hang out in full view.

Communal Effort

A big fire, a giant tree harvest, and a big party require communal effort. The biggest things require many hands. Volunteers put on the entire burn. (Some minor exceptions include the operation of the porta potties and paid professional medical staff). By and large, though, from the board members to the event leads and even the cleaning and planning crews, these people spend their free time working to create the world of Alchemy.

When I returned to Atlanta in 2022 with the decision to place roots, I wanted to take steps towards deeper participation in creating the magic of Alchemy. The following fall, in 2023, with a team of other cyclists, BBBbikes camp first came to Alchemy. BBBbikes camp brings a bike share that is available to all burn participants. I was just months into healing after my jarring cycling accident. Seeing our bulky blue bikes rolling through the burn motivated me to keep providing this gift.

This year, in 2024, in addition to BBBbikes, I helped organize people in a shared village with the Visitors Center, another camp. I often confronted the countervailing tension between radical self-reliance and communal effort. A fellow camp mate wanted to bring a freezer camping. His gift of ice and coolness in the heat was also a feat of logistics. It was a unique problem that manifested itself as the perfect test of communal effort and radical self-reliance by working as a group, we were able to deliver this gift to our camp mates.

The curious and complex juxtapositions required in leadership work are also grounded in another favorite principle.

Civic Duty

As an activist, organizer, and occasional teacher, the call to civic duty already resonates. The structure that empowers openness, generosity, and goodwill takes a sense of civic duty to uphold. The leadership team embodies civic duty and a desire for continuous and dynamic growth within the organization. Each year the burn operates, organizers look at the event and use community surveys to reflect on how aspirational principles operate on the ground. This dedication is founded on a culture that acknowledges the limitations of our individual blind sights and looks for opportunities for growth. Each year, the burn better evolves to meet the desires of participants.

This year, I had a challenging opportunity to exercise my civic duty. Our event took place along land bordering the off-limits Chattahoochee River. Within the leadership support tent, I witnessed a neighboring camper suggest to an inexperienced lead that throwing a tray of withered food toward the Chattahoochee River, and past an orange fence would be OK. Casually tossing food in the direction of the river goes against the spirit of several principles: leave no trace, civic duty, and communal effort. The neighboring camper, apparently a many-time burner, condoned this action to a newer team member. The interchange between them happened too fast for me to object; I was shocked and mortified to see a tray of vegetables tossed into the ground. I felt disappointed to see someone using the privilege of their experience to exercise laziness and disrespect. For me, this act illustrated an essential teachable moment.

On their own, these principles seem like a good set of guidelines. Like all aspirations, they do not live in a vacuum. Some moments bring us to weigh the conflict and interactions between these principles. Like my high school sport, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, it is in the meeting of the values that we can flesh out our overall social or cultural goals. Balancing these helps us create a world where we practice living the best versions of ourselves.

We can be numb or unaware of our personal blind spots. As we burn, we can meet people and learn the lessons they have to give. Through our encounters, we begin to see how our choices impact others and the consequences of our lifestyles on Earth. Our actions can have consequences we do not anticipate. To some extent, we are blind to the consequences we have on others with the impressions we create on them. Here, civic duty and self-expression meet to require some affirmative action.

We all have room to grow, and as we grow in the community, we learn more and more about the nuances of these principles and how to apply them in our daily, default world lives. This constant room for dynamic growth acknowledges the need for grace as we metamorphose into kinder, gentler, and more aware souls.

Lighting the Void

This year, after a demanding run as a Theme Camp Organizer, shared village facilitator, and on-site responsibility as the lead for Education & Greeters, I found myself STILL at the fountainhead of energy.

What fuels this fountain of energy? As I put my fingers on the pulse and reassess the why, I believe it is because we have the option in our lives, post-burn, to carry elements of the burn ethos into the default world. The magic and joy people feel at the burn is a reminder to revisit again and again the intentional culture we can create together.

This year’s Alchemy theme, Lighting the Void, becomes a reality. When dedicated to carrying out a community vision, we can co-create a better world. Once burners leave the event, they can carry their renewed and bettered selves into the default world. Through many iterations, we slowly spread the power of Alchemy.