It was a bright and beautiful morning when I stretched out on my veranda and put more Medicine into Catalyst. The birds were chirping in the tree right next to me and the sun was just peaking over tops of the Brooklyn houses. So far 2014 was proving to be an exciting year for me, and I just got something in the mail that would make it even better.
Occupy Weed St
Since my involvement with the Occupy movement and my disillusionment with it’s chances of creating any real progress I’ve been watching the different characters that took part in that social melting pot and who continue to fly the flag of the movement.
The morning I saw an event posted that caught my eye. “Occupy Weed st” a new offshoot of the Occupy Wall st movement was going to have a public call to arms by city hall. As I was already smoking I felt it appropriate that I should participate and see what was going on.
When I arrived at city hall there was no one in sight. No signs, no disheveled looking protesters, barely any passersby in the early Saturday non-rush of city hall. After a few minutes of walking around a spotted a single guy with a cardboard sign that read “Occupy Weed st”. I guess this was it.
“Hey YOU! You’re here for the protest!” He said, recognizing me right away.
“Yes” I said, regretting not having an opportunity to play with him a bit.
“It’s this way. I’ve got one other person here. We’re waiting by city hall!”
I realized knew this guy, though I could not remember his name. I had seen him at the original Occupy encampment in Zuccotti park in 2011, which was not even 5 minutes walking away from where we were. I recalled I had ran into him again at one of the Gotham Dating seminars I attended.
He lead me past the gardens and around the historic white building of City Hall to the front entrance on Chambers st. A young Japanese woman named Koko was also there waiting idly by some police barricades.
“This is it?”
“Yeah, this is just the beginning. We’re starting a movement to legalize cannabis in the state of New York. Me and my girlfriend have been canvassing for people to call Governor Cuomo and mic check him.”
This sounded interesting. Since the beginning of 2012 I watched the occupy movement go through various stages of devolution and deterioration. Yet a quick conversation with Harrison showed some promise. He sounded excited and motivated and was quickly going through his lines about how the recent Compassionate Care act that was passed was gutted last minute preventing people from actually smoking marijuana and only being able to consume edibles and concentrates. This was already on top of the limited and expensive licensing process that basically enables only big corporate to profit off of it while everyone else continues to suffer the drug war.
His ideas weren’t bad, but they needed some polishing.
“You need a better sign” I said “maybe come up with a simple logo”
He explained how him and his girlfriend are broke activists and he’s still paying off student loans and have almost no money to invest in expensive signs.
“Just print the signs out and stick them on some white cardboard. It will look much nicer than this. What are you doing after this? I’m about to head over to the Anarchist Book Fair up by West 4th right now.”
The Anarchist Book Fair
As much as I hate getting political I do enjoy the Anarchist Book Fair, an annual event that organizes at Judson Memorial Church on the south side of Washington Sq Park.
Me and Koko got into an interesting conversation after I flirted a bit with a female cop who asked me nicely not to sit on top of the police barricades. Sometimes cops just have boring jobs they don’t like and don’t mind some fun and entertainment.
At the Book Fair I started handing out the Secret Key stickers. I had been waiting for weeks to get the big box of joy, I even felt a magical tingling when I found the big box downstairs and carried it up knowing what was in it.
My conversation with Koko quickly became much more interesting than what was happening at the Book Fair though. Koko was a young aspiring adult film actress who had just scored her first gig and was nervous about going into the business.
I also had obtained some Vision, and was ready to go on a quest. She was interested too. So me and Koko and another friend we ran into all headed out to find a secluded spot we could open the circle.
On the way out we run into none other than Harrison. “Yo! This is my Girlfriend Lorna!”
“Nice to meet you! Would you two be interested in joining me on a Vision Quest?”
“We don’t have any money.”
“That’s fine, we’re just gonna do it and head over to the Dance Parade in Tompkins sq Park. You should come and canvas there! There’s going to be lots of people.”
“Sure! We’ll join you there later!”
The 8th Annual Dance Parade and Festival
A Sacred Circle is opened when three or more people come together in a shared intent. The Vision is a Sacred Sacrament and catalyst of this experience, one that sometimes requires some guidance and experience. I was still new to this experience and was not yet ordained as a shaman of this practice, yet I already had a passion for introducing people to the Vision experience.
Around the corner of Washington Sq Park was a large plaza owned by NYU that had some tables and chairs for people to sit. Both of my friends had tripped before, but never with me, and never while giving out Secret Key stickers. This was going to be fun.
We slowly made our way to Tompkins Sq Park, the crowds in the street were colorful and cheerful, the perfect environment. The face of the East Village changed a lot since I first traversed the streets of New York, changed much more since before I was ever here.
The stickers were flying out of my hands, the people that paused to read them smiled at us and thanked us. The music became louder as we got closer.
There were bands playing, people in colorful and flamboyant costumes, a frog car was parked in one of the park’s intersections. People on stilts gave out flowers to passersby and a couple people with a familiar sign that read “Occupy Weed St” were standing near a tree.
“We need to smoke!” was the first thing I heard from them.
“Yes! But not here.” I said “too many cops. Follow me!”
We quickly headed east of the park and followed e 9th st.
“Do you know where you’re going?” they asked
“I have no idea!” I declared, as I turned right into the community garden. The path lead through a canopy to the back of the park where a young pregnant woman was tending a flower bed.
“Are you sure we’re ok smoking here?”
“Yes! As long as we don’t leave a mess.” I said looking at the pregnant woman, she looked back at me and smiled, clearly undisturbed by our presence or present occupation.
“Did you do the Vision?”
“Yes, I’m on it right now!” I said, giggling. The logic of the interconnections of everything around me was dancing to the music. The snake on my arm was twisting in a helix of science and mythology.
“A toke!” I said, lighting the sacrament “to serendipity.” I took Three Sacred Breaths.
“See, if you want to grab people’s attention you need to do something fun and public. Something like a public smoke out, something that anyone could join. Have something fun and interesting going on and everyone will want to join in.”
Free Convo
As evening broke up the festivities of the day we meandered back to Astor Pl for food and relaxation.
My friend Michael Scotto started Free Convo by bringing out a blow up couch to public places where anyone and everyone is welcome to sit down and enjoy a free conversation with someone.
Tonight he triple sized it with eight blow up couches set up next to the Astor Pl cube. Small plastic tables were set up down the middle on top of an AstroTurf rug. The LED lights attracted the intoxicated Saturday night crowd of the East Village to come and explore this unique happening.
An adorable blonde plopped down right next to me, she was a student learning to be a nurse and was very interested in my psychedelic experience and we started talking about different drugs and chemicals and their effect on the human body.
Coming down off a trip I looked around and wondered what more could I want for? Beautiful people with interesting conversation, plenty of food and drink to go around and the last few stickers were sitting in a pile on the table ready to find someone and pass them the information they contain, a code ready to unravel the matrix.
