Burning Man didn’t always have themes. For the first 10 or so Burns, the theme was “Burn The Man”, recreating the Wicker Man effigy burn rituals of the Druids.
Cult movie The Wicker Man, 1973
These Wicker Man burns had been going on in San Francisco for some time before the first Burning Man on Baker Beach.
Snake Theater Beelzebub Burn, Sausalito 1979. Image: Bruce Forrester
Timothy O’Neill (Gnosis Magazine) Wicker Man Ocean Beach burns, 1984-85. Flyer is for related art gallery exhibition, via Timothy O’Neill
The Man looked a little different back in 1986
In 1995 Burning Man dipped a toe in the thematrical waters with “Good And Evil”, then doubled down on the Evil with 1996‘s “Helco: The Inferno”
The 1996 year of Hell was also the year that Burning Man had the first of what would unfortunately be many deaths to come during the annual radical ritual.
One of the big productions that year was a live opera by Argentinian artist Pepe Ozan.
It has never been disclosed what happened to the goat, but Paradox Pollack’s description makes it seem like it was quite a hassle for them having to keep it alive until the performance.
Demonized like a goat by entities, huh? Perhaps like the Kali Yuga? These people sure have a strange way of speaking and thinking, which happens to be Aleister Crowley’s way too…but I digress.
Paradox has sp(l)iffed up his social media image since pulling down the video with Derrick that can be glimpsed in the skull-infested screenshot above.
Suit or not, he’s still promoting Evil:
He was the Master of Ceremonies and Emissary Coreographer of the 1996 Burning Man occult sub-ritual.
the music, magnificently composed and played by Chris Cunningham, was sung by Lili Oldfield, Pat Bregant, Sean Steward and Todd Nelson. The representation of this legendary true story was incarnated by Emissaries Justin Miller as Empress Zoe and by Steffanos X as the High Priest of Hell. The Devil was enacted by the goat Sussy, and His wife by WarriorGirl. Master of Ceremonies was Emissary Choreographer Paradox Pollack. The Graces of Hell were represented by CC, Shari Greenfield, Martha Thomson and Susanne Couture. Deployment Secret Services were executed by Emissaries Sculptors Morgan Raimond, Al Honig, Denzil Meyers, and Leo Nash. Messenger Coordinator was Julieta Ozan.
Here’s Ozan talking about his operas and how he was using these elaborate rituals to gather a Satanic sub-community of about 250 people out of the broader Burning Man group (1996 population: 8000):
This particular opera featured devils, demons and insects chanting the lyrics “devils’ delight, fire tonight” while dancing around a 40-foot towered sculpture with gargoyle heads called the City of Dis, named after one of the levels of hell in Dante’s Inferno. [Source: John Law]
The Temple of Dis. Image: Burning Man Opera
This description of the Arrival of Empress Zöe is in the video itself:
“A tribal opera with a ballet of insects depicting the peculiar saga of a soul’s birth to death.
The hermaphrodite condition of Empress Zoe and her Lascivious Behavior in the Court has been revealed by Cardinal Petrocelli, one of her passive homosexual Lovers. Condemned by the Holy See to be drowned in the Bosphorous, the Empress manages to take to the waters the Light of the Casiksi Diamond which will assure her the favor of the Devils. Steffanos, the High Priest of Hell, is possessed by Desire at the sight of the Empress inciting the Jealousy of the Graces, who assist him in the Infinite Recreation of Fire.
Pretending to help in the production of the Dust of Darkness to spray the Empress out of Existence, the Graces plot the Destruction of their Rival, the Hideous Lil-llik to ascend in the Hierarchy of the Ninth Circle. Satan, embodied by a goat to please his Wife, seems amused by the events that threaten the very Balance of the Universe”
The wording has changed slightly from the original video to the official web site:
It is the year of ll58AD. The structure of power of the Fire Lingam Project has briefly shifted from Babylon to the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. The hermaphrodite condition of Empress Zoe has been revealed by Cardinal Petroccelly, one of her passive homosexual lovers. Condemned by the Holy See to be drowned in the Bosphorous, the Empress managed to take to the waters the Light of the Casiksi Diamond which assured her the favor of the Demons. Steffanos, the High Priest of Hell, possessed by desire at the site of the Empress, incites the jealousy of the Graces who assist him in the Infinite Recreation of Fire. Pretending to help in the production of the Dust of Darkness to spray the Empress out of existence, the Graces plot the destruction of their rival, the hideous Lil-llik to ascend in the Hierarchy of the Nine Circles. Satan, embodied in a goat to please His wife, is amused by the events that threaten the very Balance of the Universe. As Chaos erupted, the Mantra singing of 50 devotees and 1000 participating audience helped to save the Universe
The seemingly minor changes – Devils to Demons, Ninth Circle to Nine Circles – could be dismissed as irrelevant, if there were no significance to them. If demons are vices, then we all have demons – even atheists. Devils is explicitly Luciferian.
As for the Ninth Circle, this is the name of a Luciferian Pedo Cult linked to Jimmy Saville, the Jesuits, the Vatican, and many world leaders which has been operating for at least 300 years.
Saturnalia was an ancient Roman orgiastic festival that encouraged gift-giving and continual partying. The god Saturn is associated with black rock.
Of course, this is all just a big farce of pan-ic art and coincidences, they’re not crazy for doing it but I’m crazy for pointing any of it out…go about your day.
I am offering $1000 via PayPal to anyone the first person that can give me a copy of the 1996 Burning Man Helco Contract, called “Standard Short Form Contract for Purchase of Soul”. The contract is discussed and shown in this presentation around 1:57:00:
There are some interesting Helco photos in this FlickRiver set
Crimson Rose hails Satan (Flash Hopkins) while Larry Harvey explains the devil in the details to a reporter. Note the shadow black cross on the wall
I can’t quite make out clause 1 but the sections appear to be:
CONSIDERATION
DISCLAIMER
NO COOLING OFF PERIOD
TERM OF CONTRACT
WARRANTIES BY SELLER
OWNERSHIP AND LIEN RIGHTS
AGENCY
TAXES AND FEES
INDEMNITY
TIME OF ESSENCE
VENUE AND JURISDICTION
ENTIRE AGREEMENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING
ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
From the table with the skull on it (very Masonic) it seems like there is also some sort of certificate which was presented, in addition to a copy of the contract. It may well be that BMorg kept all the contracts and did not give the signers a copy. I have had more than one reader over the years tell me that they have a copy, but I have not yet been able to get an original document. I hope the reward will inspire someone to come forward with this important piece of Burner history.
the terrain was alien, the people were all different colors, there were huge and frightening creatures, and the name of the place – Black Rock City – doesn’t appear on any map at all.
We worked really hard on our vacation this year. So hard I’m amazed we all stayed friends through the vacation! We bought a rocket ship disguised as a bus and got it all gussied up for the trip. We got ourselves a big old tent and a giant scaffolding to make a tower with and packed ’em up. We nabbed lotsa couches and carpeting and loaded ’em on the roof rack to decorate with. And of course, we brought lots of t-shirts and contracts to buy people’s souls with.
Souls sure are cheap! We brought back 150 of ’em, each one purchased for a t-shirt, condom, and fortune cookie. Most of ’em we got pictures of in our book of souls, and all of ’em signed a contract as airtight as we could make it. Heck, if it weren’t for the dust storm, pretty naked girls, and other distractions, I’m sure we would have filled out all of the 300 contracts we took with us.
I will pay a bonus reward of $500 for this one, but I am really looking for the original 1996 Helco one. If you have either contract please contact us.
Did you get your tickets in the Individual Sale? Or did you miss out, like 60,000 other dejected Burners?
According to BMOrg, 80,000 Burners registered for the sale. It sold out in about 80 minutes.
I tried to log in from the email link, the moment that my network time-synched clock turned 12:00:00. It didn’t work, so I tried from profiles.burningman.org. Both finally worked, at 12:00:56. I was in, minute one! I thought maybe I had a chance.
The predicted queue was “more than an hour”. I hoped that only meant 61 minutes. Last year tickets sold out in about 40 minutes, so that wasn’t great news.
Next, “the ticket sale is paused”. Many Burners started to report getting the same message. It seems that Burning Man broke Ticketfly, at about 12:06.
They got it back up and running, then released the queue again.
If you're in the queue your estimated wait time fluctuates based on the speed of purchases ahead of you. Your place in line is not affected!
At that time, I was in line, with “more than an hour” as my wait. Then, it reduced – only 50 minutes. Anyone would think that they still had a chance, since the line was reducing.
this is what my 3 windows said, 1:20pm PST
this message on ePlaya was 1:24pm PST
Things improving. Still looks like a chance 1:32pm PST, 11 minutes after sold out Tweet
It was not until 15 minutes later, that the Ticketing system delivered the bad news officially:
Bad news! 1:35pm PST, 14 minutes after they actually sold out
Then, the screen changed. Suddenly, although I could not buy tickets or vehicle passes, I was being asked to make a $40 donation to the Burning Man Project. As many of those as I want. No thank you.
Through at last! 1:43pm PST
Assuming that everyone bought 2 tickets, means 20,000 people today got through this system successfully. And even 40% of them faced disappointment and challenges ahead, when they could not buy a vehicle pass. Burning Man said that there were more than double the number of registrations, as there were tickets. 80,000 people chasing 160,000 tickets, from a pool of 40,000 tickets.
At least 60,000 people missed out today, an entire Burning Man’s worth. Not only did we miss out on getting tickets, but we all wasted between 81 minutes (when @bmantickets announced they were sold out) and 96 minutes (when the queue message changed from waiting to sold out) of our valuable time.
The 2014 Black Rock City Census estimates the median Burner income at $51,000. This means that an hour of time for the average median Burner is worth $24.52 (based on a 40-hour work week). 96 minutes of time across 60,000 Burners adds up to a waste of $2,353,846 – in order for BMOrg to make $18,360,000, or $226,666 per minute.
96 minutes of 60,000 Burners’ time is the equivalent of 4000 days, or 11 years.
Just the 14 minutes between tickets selling out (1:21pm from Tweet) to the queue being updated (1:35pm for me), multiplied by the 60,000 people who waited in vain, is 840,000 minutes: 14,000 hours of Burner time were completely wasted, just in failing to shut down all the queues the moment that tickets were sold out.
It Creates So Much Negative Energy – Is That By Accident or Design?
There are many other events in the world that sell out quickly. Usually, that happens in just minutes. Burning Man is the only one with this incredibly convoluted system of Burner profiles and queuing. The system seems custom-made to create disappointment on a massive scale.
First, the $800 VIP tickets – which bring no benefits over regular tickets – remind many Burners that others have more money than them. Money to Burn. These used to be there as Christmas Gifts, and to enable lower income Burners to get tickets, but now they are released after the holidays are over and support far fewer low income Burners and art than they could. So disappointment is created around the holidays, not being able to Gift them at the main time of Gifting; and disappointment is created among the low income Burners, who have to beg for a ticket with essays and paperwork.
Next, the Directed Group Sale tells the vast majority of Burners that they’re nothing, not cool enough or “in” enough to be on the Guest List. And even people who are on the list, get disappointed when they can’t get tickets.
The process of registering for the sales before they start, creates a whole bunch of disappointed Burners who didn’t get the memo and logged in too late to register and are SOL.
Then the Individual Sale just created 3 disappointed Burners, for each one that is elated to get a ticket. It’s particularly frustrating because we all got there in the first minute, and before that did all the right things, jumped through all the right hoops, made the profiles and registered and made sure there was money in the bank and our credit cards were ready – and all of that was for nothing.
Many Burners who managed to get tickets today still missed out on getting a vehicle pass. There is now some confusion whether all 27,000 vehicle passes have been sold, or if there will be another 1250 in the OMG sale.
BMOrg’s whole approach to ticketing brings tens of thousands of people together at once. For an hour and a half they are waiting in hope, only for everyone to be devastated at the same moment. Only a select few are “lucky” enough that their connection got through at the right time. The luck trickles out over 80 minutes, but the vain hope lingers another 15 – then BOOM! Everyone gets the bad news at once. Sorry, you missed out – but hey, you can still donate to us!
WHY? Why make us go through this? Why make Burners suffer?
It’s positively Satanic.
Which would be easy to laugh off, if this was “just a festival” or “just a rave”. Something where Satanism had no place. Instead, Satanism has played a major role in Burning Man’s history from the get-go. Satanists take delight in the suffering of others, it is one of many elements in their religion.
It’s one thing to laugh at the thought that something so old fashioned-sounding as a soul might be acquired through an act of purchase. Many modern comedies have used this plot. However, it is quite another thing to be accosted by a person who earnestly offers to buy it.
Customers were offered contracts closely typed in nine-point font on legal-size sheets of paper. The font grew ever smaller as the text progressed. Entitled “Standard Short Form Contract For Purchase of Soul”, this legal handiwork appeared to cover every possible contingency. It was authored by an old friend of mine, Doug Holloway, an attorney. As a reward for parting with their souls, ‘sellers’ were allowed to ascend the steep stairs of a dark and sinister multi-tiered throne that projected a full three stories overhead. On a stage beneath its summit sat Satan, played by Flash. As part of our satiric scheme, Satan was understood to have lost his position in the midst of corporate reshuffling. No longer CEO of an underworld empire, he now served as a corporate spokesperson. He had become to Hell what Colonel Sanders is to chicken. Cheerfully bearing up in this role, Flash allowed each customer to sit on his lap. He invited them to whisper their most secret wishes and desires in his ear.
After receiving a bright red lollipop, they descended a second set of stairs on the opposite side of the platform. Near the base of these stairs, we stationed the Soul Sucker, a Rube-Godbergesque sculpture by Al Honig. It was purportedly designed to physically suck each soul from its human body (in reality, its seat vibrated) and deposit this commodity in a second and quite beautiful sculpture by Paul Windsor. Entitled The Stupa of Limbo, it was said to function as a kind of spiritual settling tank. (It was a very elegant piece, composed of opened books, lacquered and laid out in tiers surrounding a glass water tank. Later that year, it appeared in the desert.) One important fact that customers were never told was that, according to the terms of HELCO’s contract, the lollipop was their sole payment for their souls. We also left it up to them to realize that this sugared treat was saturated with cinnamon that would burn their tongues.
you still get the bright red lollipop/sugared treat…
Just like BMOrg’s “Minister of Propaganda” is supposedly an ironic title, and yet that’s exactly what they do…isn’t it ironic that Satanic elements played such a big part in the foundation of Burning Man, and particularly with the later creation of BMOrg. The unique systems they’ve designed for profiling, ticketing, and queueing fail to solve problems that have been solved many times over by the ticketing industry. Instead they have the side effect of creating mass suffering and disappointment.
It’s conceivable that this side effect is merely accidental, the result of poor design or a lack of empathy for the customer. There is no doubt that the other consequences of this system have been to deliver BMOrg tens of millions of dollars every year, allow them to keep pushing ticket prices up, and ensure there is the healthiest possible secondary market. Anyone gifted tickets, is gifted something that is worth a thousand dollars or more and easily tradeable. Insiders given half a dozen tickets and vehicle passes, therefore get a nice little bonus if they need some cash. The $800 pre-sale sets the after market price nicely.
keep an eye on the open market for them — they’ll be out there
Right now, on StubHub there are 380 tickets available, with the cheapest going for $1030. There are 112 vehicle passes, for $250 each. Burners who got tickets today but missed out on vehicle passes are basically forced to go to Stubhub and pay above face value for a vehicle pass. Either that, or carpool, Burner Express, or fly in.
For a system that we’re supposed to believe has been designed to prevent scalping – which isn’t a problem anyway – it sure is amazing how this system really seems to facilitate scalping.
Perhaps there is nothing sinister to any of this, it’s all just accident and coincidence. Maybe the wasting of 11 years of Burners’ time this year was necessary to enable 16,000 virgins to have a transformational experience. We are saving the world with Burning Man, leave no trace, the waste of 100,000 hours of Burner time is a small sacrifice to make in the name of (non-)profit. And if you don’t like it, start your own!
Next, is 60,000 disappointed Burners trying their luck with STEP (4000 tickets last year) and OMG (1000 tickets this year). Your odds are 1 in 12 – in other words, there is a 92% chance that you won’t get tickets in those sales. Good luck, Burners.
[Update 2/18/15 5:50pm]
I wrote about the ticketing system and the algorithms behind it last year: 60% Veterans.
It appears some Burners figured out a clever “hack” to circumvent the system.
It wasn’t even as complicated as that. Clicking the emailed ticket link several times would sometimes get to the real ticket ordering page. If you can jump straight to the ordering page by clicking the link they told you to click on, then I wouldn’t call it a cheat, just a really dumb issue with TicketFly. It sounds like some camps took advantage of this to get tickets before people who trusted the queue system (protip: don’t), which is distasteful.
Other Burners used Javascript hacks to get into the queue before everyone else.
One determined Burner, when told that tickets weren’t available, decided to try again and make a donation…which then worked.
fewer VPs were made available (12,000) in the Individual Sale than tickets (40,000) and some of you were able to purchase a ticket (or two) but not a VP. But the good news is that the ratio of purchases of VPs to tickets was actually really good today — 36,000 tickets were sold before the 12,000 VPs sold out.
If you didn’t get one, please know that you’ve still got options:
Vehicle Passes will be sold in the OMG Sale. In fact, there will be more VPs available than tickets. For those who have not purchased a VP from us yet, there will be an option to register to purchase just a VP — so if you didn’t get a VP in the Individual Sale, you’ll be able to register to purchase one in the OMG Sale.
A lot of folks bought a VP not knowing if they need it or not, and will be looking to offload theirs. Ask around, and keep an eye on the open market for them — they’ll be out there.
So there you have it, Burners. BMOrg are now encouraging you to participate in the “open market”.
Some Burners were not impressed.
You can’t take an art exhibit, a hexayurt, a sizable enough tent, a slushie maker, a shade structure, a bar, or booze on an bus.
Presumably this is why last year there was more taking and less gifting, more RVs, more PnP camps, bro hackers, sparkle ponies, and party children.
Inane.
RW
Oh yay, Those of us with tickets and no VP may have to wait until just DAYS before we go to know if we are going to have our own transportation, sleeping area, food, water, bathroom, for those with medical issues, and the ability to leave earlier than most do, due to work schedule. This just seems to get worse and worse every year. Soon all the planners and responsible burners will just give up and stop attending, and the playa will be left with the thieves and beggars, because that is all that are going to be interested in this type of situation.
This type of decision ensures that: 1) Burning Man gets less money; 2) scalpers get more money; 3) Burners have to pay more and/or go through more hassle to get there; and, 4) there will be no fewer vehicles at the Burn than last year. Brilliant.
[Update 2/18/15 6:50pm]
Burner Dave posted this screen shot to our Facebook page.
It appears that there is some kind of selection going on. Not all Burners are the same, according to this process. Some Burners were asked to make a $20 Donation, and others (like myself) were asked for $40. Was this based on number of prior burns? Country?
[Update 2/18/15 7:42pm]
Vivid Seats has tickets from $760, and plenty of ’em:
Stubhub has plenty, Vehicle Passes are skyrocketing:
There are hundreds on eBay as well, where tickets start at $1100 and car passes are now $350. An arbitrage opportunity, for any Burners chasing paper…
Almena got the lawyer of Hell’s Angels and Shrimp Boy (SF head of the Chinese Freemasons), Tony Serra – “the Hippie Atticus Finch”.
You can’t take an art exhibit, a hexayurt, a sizable enough tent, a slushie maker, a shade structure, a bar, or booze on an bus.
Presumably this is why last year there was more taking and less gifting, more RVs, more PnP camps, bro hackers, sparkle ponies, and party children.
Inane.
RW
Oh yay,
Those of us with tickets and no VP may have to wait until just DAYS before we go to know if we are going to have our own transportation, sleeping area, food, water, bathroom, for those with medical issues, and the ability to leave earlier than most do, due to work schedule.
This just seems to get worse and worse every year. Soon all the planners and responsible burners will just give up and stop attending, and the playa will be left with the thieves and beggars, because that is all that are going to be interested in this type of situation.