Theme and Story ’17

The Story of Oil through the theme of Transformation:

 

The Sun burns. Plants grow. Plants die and sink deep into the belly of the Earth. They are held, gestated, transformed into carbon. Oil is the hibernating energy of the Sun. Oil holds earth’s ancient memories.

The oil remains. Tectonic plates move. Epochs of change. Earth temperatures shifting. Glaciers grow and recede. Still and deep in the earth, the oil remains. Mountains rise and fall. Species are born and die. Plants migrate, animals migrate, storms upon the Earth’s surface, an endless dance of life. The oil waits, absorbs the power of time passing.

The hibernating energy of the Sun is released upon the Earth, with humans at the reigns. Oil transforms us into “superhumans” and suddenly we can do things we previously only dreamed of. We can fly. We can have conversations across thousands of miles. We are the rider at the head of The Chariot. We, as a species, are transformed. The power of oil unleashed upon the Earth causes exponentially increasing amounts of harm. A growing buzz of psychic dissonance emerges on the land.

Oil impacts wellness on all levels: Individual wellness, community wellness, societal wellness, and ecological wellness. Our immobilizing cultural dependency on oil tangles the delicate webs of power and agency that we are a part of and leaves us paralyzed. From the micro to the macro scale, humans search for pathways through the dissonance into responsibility and healing.

We must be present with where and when we are. As we acknowledge the lineage of long-dormant sun energy that has abruptly changed our world we remain present. We are called to participate in the unfolding story. What do we want to happen next?

 

While we seek to change our relationship to how we transform the world, we acknowledge the ways in which we are transformed by our own actions.

 

What is this force that so shapes all of our lives, that has allowed us to live in ways that used to be the stuff of fiction and fantasy, but that also continues to wreak so much havoc and devastation on the very fabric of life?

Oil is natural and is an important part of our world.

 

What are the latent and activated magical qualities of Oil? How do we interact with those magical forces of Oil – consciously, unconsciously, willingly, unwillingly?

Oil is a deeply embedded part of the Earth’s life cycle.

 

What are the spells we have unleashed upon the surface of the earth by bringing up and burning that which has been buried for so long? How does combustion transform epochs of stillness into a momentary burst of energy, and what are the repercussions of that?

Oil is not the enemy.

 

If we are dependent upon Oil in order to gather together and pray in the ways we do at camp, if we are dependent upon oil for camp to happen, how do we orient camp and our prayers to undo that dependency?

 

We wish to embody the knowledge that with great power comes great responsibility.