ADVENTURES in the NETHERLANDS DEC 1999 / JAN 2000:
Including NU MILLENIUM TOWER of BABEL RITE
Thu, 16 Dec 1999
Aankomst
TOWER of BABEL NU MILLENIUM RITE
Dec 31st 1999- Jan 1st 2000
A couple of days before new year´s eve I met a
large
black goat, rubbing his great horns on the roof of
his
pen in a field in a grassy sidestreet of Ruigoord.
I went and scritched behind his hears. He was the
biggest goat I have had contact with, the tips of
his
horns almost as tall as me. Meeting him then seemed
like a message from Baphomet, the nu-aeon hermaphroditic Horned God/dess whose energy I had
been
invoking over the week leading to new year.
On the morning of the 31st everyone in the
Ruigoord
community was busy with the last preparations for
the
festival around the great Tower of Babel
they had
constructed out of wooden pallets. 
Right: Inside of the Tower looking up from below
The huge circus tent for the techno party after the
burning was being decorated, makeshift bars
installed
inside it etc. When I saw the big cloth and wood
mechanical butterfly/moth
that had unfolded from its cocoon on the Amsterdam
pre-party (28th) hung up in there, it seemed obvious
why the original big tent had shredded in the gale.
The high ceiling of the new one was covered with
stars, the perfect backdrop for the insect´s wings
which were painted one with the moon and one with
the
sun. It reminded me of the moth-form of Thoth,
bringing back Atum´s eyes (the sun and the moon).
Fueling myself with coffee and joints (´when in
Rome...´) I helped out with various jobs while
talking
to people about the 12 Tribes aspect I had brought
into the ritual lighting of the 12 Fires around the
Tower. We had found most of the people (or they had
found us) to represent these tribes or source
cultures
of humanity only in the last few days, and were
still
recruiting people as they arrived for the
festivities.
The first ritual fire was lit at 1pm local
Netherlands time, corresponding with the global
timezone which was celebrating the turning of the
millenium at midnight by their time. Thus the
cultural
group was Islanders - Pacific, Maori etc.
Most people were still busy with preparations for
the night, so only 4 people gathered for this
initial
ritual. The cultural representative appeared in
skins
with facepaint suggesting Maori mukka facial
tattoos.
As he lit the fire we stood around and did the
Bes-Kali mudramantra, it´s pose being akin to the
Tiki
postures of the Islanders with tongue out and arms
and
legs bent. As usual this mudra reduced me to a
primordial state. It seemed like we were lighting a
first fire at the dawn of time.
We dispersed to various other activities and met
again just before 2pm. A burning log was carried
ritually to the next site marked around the tower
and
the next fire lit, representing the Arctic peoples.
Cleo danced around in furs and leathers with a
reindeer-antler head-dress.
By this time people had
begun
to gather around the initial two fires to warm
themselves against the considerable cold, and
watched
our ceremony of carrying the flame to the third,
the Australian fire. Sarah (a fellow Australian, who has spent considerable time with Aboriginal tribes) danced painted in
ochre
while Tamara played didgeridoo. Others inc. myself
joined in with makeshift clapsticks chanting and
tribal dancing.
A strange character
with
winged staff twice as high as he called Bert was
planning to make a San Pedro and Ayahuasca brew for
the party, so we recruited him to perform this
ritual
with the lighting of the South American fire,
as these sacred plants come from that part of the
world and were used magickally by the shamans of
their
indigenous cultures. The energies around that fire seemed
particularly intense and attractive to me, and I
found
myself drawn back to that fire repeatedly throughout
the entire night. Appropriate as I am going to
Central
and South America very soon! 
After the 9pm fire was lit I climbed up the Tower
of
Babel with my camera. Security had already been said
up with a barrier on the bridge across the moat
between the Tower and the encircling fires and
camps.
I had to attain the necessary authorisation to
convince the guards to let me in.
As I spiralled around the dark narrow precarious
stairs around and up the tower, I teetered a bit,
and
realized how out there I was from the ritual
activity
all afternoon and the mounting energy of
anticipation.
As I neared the top, feeling quite giddy and
excited,
I looked down and around - what a beautiful sight,
the
fires encircling the moat encircling the tower, each
now with at least 20-30 people around them, warming
and conversing, playing music and communing, little
specks of vibrant life glowing in the dark from my
heightened perspective, in a spectacular solar
mandala
of life. 
Left: Middle Eastern Fire
The great horizontal clock was almost
complete, with the 9pm fire forming the
three-quarter
point. Midnight approached...
And beyond this circle and the flatlands were the
surrounding lights of the Amsterdam and harbours
across the bay, forming a larger circle which
branched
beyond in an intricate web of celebratory
activity...
I took a series of photos -two or three of the
fires
below in each shot- which should have joined together into
a
mandalic map from the central Tower of Babel,
traditionally the temple of the solar hero Marduk,
who
divided Tiamat (ordered Chaos) and thus established
our Babylonian 12:60 time-system.
(At left is the only of these photos worth presenting…)
I descended the Tower in time for the lighting of
the
10th fire (African), then kicked back for a while and prepared
for the 11th (11pm), for which I was the cultural
representative. Synchronized with the celebration of
new millenium in the timezone centred on London, I
represented the Celtic peoples (England, Ireland,
Scotland...) where my blood ancestry lies.
In costume and cloak I carried a burning log from
the
10th fire to the 2nd-last position in the circle. I
played some ancient Celtic violin, chanted and
danced.
By this stage there were thousands of people
everywhere, not just around the fires but walking
about excitedly, milling between them and thronging
around the moat. I heard the next day there were an
estimated 5 or 6 thousand present at midnight.
After I had done my acoustic voice and violin
thing
for a while the Rinky Dink pedal-powered PA and its
travelling band who had come from England for the
celebrations, pedalled over from the African fire
where they had been broadcasting some reggae, and
set
up around me. I plugged in and joined them for a
celtic folky jam thing, as their mates home in
England
hollered in midnight...
By the time the twelve o´clock fire was to be lit
it
was a barely noticeable activity, as there were now
people everywhere, filling all the space between the
fires as well as around them, and crowding around
the
moat in expectation. Nevertheless we carried the
fire
to the final position and closed the great circle.
There was no one particular cultural representative
as
the timezone was 12:oo midnight Meditteranean Europe
including Netherlands, ie Here and Now! So it was
apt
that the gathering was decentralized from the fire,
spreading across the whole scene...
I poured the last of the lamp oil on the 12th fire
and it blazed as the first fireworks went off. I had
not been expecting the amount of spectacle the
Balloon
Co. had quietly invested in this aspect of the
celebrations. From 12 til about 1am there were
fireworks galore, of a great variety, and exploding
all around us from every possible angle. As it got
later they were mostly coming from the Tower,
shooting
up from it into the stars and smaller ones crackling
brightly across its looming structure, drawing
everyone´s focus onto this axis mundi. People were
drumming and screaming and dancing. The energy was
very high.
As the fireworks continued the barrier was removed
so the guards could allow thru a special wide cart
which had been made with large wooden wheels. This
went in with crew and with some strain the large
ancient black stone carved with a spiral which had
been at the centre of the tower was hauled onto it
with ropes and carted out. It had been at the edge
of
the tower since the night before, when it had been
removed from the centre and the time capsules
beneath
dug up.
A while later in went the Dragon, fire spouting
from
its nostrils - Fritjof´s (the Mastermind behind the
whole Tower project) creation, a great painted sculpted
head
and white cloth body borne by 9 people beneath it in
the Chinese parade tradition. There was also a tail,
long strips of white cloth which 100 people were
supposed to carry up the Tower in the body´s wake.
This got hopelessly tangled in the partying throngs
however and was abandoned.
Nevertheless the Dragon looked spectacular as it
weaved in over the moat. The Rinky Dink crew and
their
bizzarre pedalled PA contraption followed them over
the bridge. I was on the bike, pedalling like mad.
We
circled around the Tower as the Dragon went up, and
I chanted the chakra tones through a microphone as the
great Serpent ascended, a note of the octave for
each
level of the Tower as the Serpent reached it.
Oddly, Tamara who was in the body of the dragon
said
it sounded to her like the chakra tones were coming
from the centre of the Tower, even though the small
speakers were facing outwards...
With the cheering and drumming of the masses, the
kundalini of the Thirteenth Tribe purged
civilization
in a DNA doublehelix up then down the Tower. As it
returned to earth 4 friends gathered around me and
shared the microphone, adding power to the final low
Base Chakra tone of manifestation.
Then out went Dragon and Rinky Dink PA-mobile, the
area was checked for any stragglers and the bridge
was
sealed so the Tower stood alone on its island.
Fireworks began to bristle and pop across its
surface
again.
I ran around to the 7pm South America fire and
recieved some San Pedro cactus brew from Bert as the
crowd surged to the banks of the moat. Bert stood up
on a mound and pounded furiosly on a wide flat
shaman´s drum. As the first faint flames began to
crackle inside the Tower I downed my bitter brew and
sat back in the sand to watch the inferno.
It was of course incredibly spectacular!
(My photos of the Tower actually burning were taken on someone else's camera, as I only had a crap disposable one. When I re-establish contact with them I will hopefully be able to eventually add these pictures to this page)
I felt elated as I and thousands of others watched
this looming symbol of humankind´s inherent
arrogance
and of miscommunications - the historical Tower of
Babel crumbled because people living on the higher
levels stopped communicating with those below them-
was destroyed in glorious flames!
And we were all united as one, the panglobal
mongrel
hybrid crosscultural diversity of the Thirteenth
Tribe, returning to the Dreamtime as Marduk´s Temple
toppled, and the stress and pressures of
anticipation
and preparation for the moment of midnight year 2000
Gregorian calendar went up in smoke.
What a huge fucking inferno. The heat it gave off
was intense. Once the blaze picked up people were
recoiling from the edge of the moat with roasted
faces.
The flames roared stronger on one side, and we
watched the structure crumble and topple piece by
piece quite slowly and gracefully. I knelt on the
sandy banks of the moat, caduceus-dancing with my
arms
(apparently I was on Dutch national news doing so),
following the flickering dance of the leaping
firesnakes.
As the blaze eventually simmered to a pile of
glowering embers, still with 4 blackened framework
pillars reaching up from their midst, the crowd
began
to disperse. Many headed for the big tent as the
bassy
thump of techno began to pound out under the hiss
crackle and pop of the last stray fireworks. Others
wandered aimlessly but elatedly or gathered around
the
fires. I moved widdershins around the great
clock-mandala, going back in timemit. 
I found Hanuman/ White
Ape still at the Asian fire he had so beautifully
lit
in Mongolian regalia (right), and smoked a joint with him.
Then continued back, into the Aboriginal Dreamtime
at
3 o´clock... Of course when I got back to the
beginning of the mandala I had returned to the end,
for time is truly a spiral not a circle.
The
mescalin
hadn´t seemed to have made any noticeable change to
my
state, perhaps too mild a dose, or just no way I
could
top my state from the previous events, only maintain
a
level...
When I got back to the 12 o´clock fire I went
across
the now-cleared bridge opposite it. There were
several
rings of people gathered around the huge circular
sprawl of embers and ruins, flames still flickering
here and there. I ran around and around and around
the
pyre on the inside of the rest of the crowd, also
spinning around like a planet in orbit so as not to
burn my face by exposing one side of it continuously
to the intense heat, gradually picking up speed
until
I was a cloaked blur of ecstatic emotion.
I eventually spun out from the crowd (some had
deck
chairs by the fire!) and took this momentum over to
the big TOP and had a good dance for a while,
releasing all that PMT (pre-millenial tension), then
came out and wandered aimlessly sdrawkcab and
forwards
through time and space some more, until the sun rose
and, feeling a bit tired and crusty, I crept away to
sleep in the back of a van.
I awoke just after dusk and crept out. A few remnant
camps glowed on the muddy puddle-dotted plains but
most had gone. I wandered about in the dark and
cold,
and headed over to the tower ruins at the centre of
the wastelands.
There were still patches of embers here and there
amidst the great circle of ashes but as it had> rained
lightly in the day most of it could now be walked on
with shoes. Another stray soul was rummaging through
the wreckage. I quietly awaited his departure then
began my final nu millenium rite.
From the edge of the moat I spiralled deosil into
the centre of the ruins. As I entered the charcoal
circle I scooped up embers with a twisted piece of
metal wreckage and scattered them in my wake,
forming
a glowing spiral mandala into the centre. There was
a
hole there where the spiral stone had been and the
time capsules had been dug up from beneath it. Over
this hole I laid two of the great charcoal poles
which
had been central beams of the Tower, forming a
Crossroads. Over the Crossroads I laid out a veve (voodoo invocation symbol) of
the Marassa (sacred twins in Voodoo) representing
the
aeonic double current of Horus (force and fire) and
Maat (truth and balance). This combination of
Marassa
and Crossroads glyphs, suggested by Louis Martinie,
was used in Metamorphic Ritual Theatre´s April ´99
A HREF="lab.htm"> Labyrinth installation and rituals to empower the
buried head of the final aeonic Minotaur with the
energies of Elegua and Baphomet, the hermaphroditic
union of the Twins.
Unable to find a fallen pole for the last line of
the huge veve, I went over to the last standing one
and gave it a gentle push. Down it went. While the
very base had remained buried, the flames had eaten
a
hole just above it, and this had formed a curvaceous
lipped cave of bright hot red embers, shaped just
like
a burning mouth or vagina. As I laid it down to
complete the oversized sigil, a final tongue of
flame
leapt out.
I murmured some soft words of prayer for the
encroaching PanDaemonAeon, offered a charged
sigil-paper from the 29th Dec to the fire, and
spiralled back out widdershins, following the fading
ember trail I had created on the way in as it
glimmered back into the darkness in the light
rain...
...and went in search of breakfast...
CODA:
On the 3rd of January 2000 I was refused entry thru
British customs and ended up in France and now Spain.
While initially frustrating, it now becomes apparent
that this was a result of the above working. I have
finally scored some Estrogen (female hormones to be used in the Baphometic process of becoming Hermaphroditic) in Barcelona and doubt I
would´ve been able to in my intended destination of London. I began taking it a few nights ago
with another intense Baphomet ritual. I should have
noticeable breasts in time for the global Svadisthana
Sabbat February full moon...
Blessed Bee!
Text and photographs copyright © 2000 Orryelle Defenestrate.
