Flicker the Bard
by on September 29, 2019
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In 2018 I had a pretty funky time on acid out at a renegade in Martinez, CA. Acid Totem represent!
So my buddy and I had been at a day rave on the coast and caught wind that a renegade was going down further north after dark. (For those outside of the rave community or who otherwise wouldnt know, a renegade is just a rave [often with camping] out in the woods. Like an underground but hippie style)
We head out pretty quick to prepare, and I remember being bummed about not scoping any LSD connects at the rave. I was getting that vibe I get most often when I know I'm going to trip, but I havent officially planned for it. The "there are psychs in your near future, young padawan" vibe lmao. So I kept my fingers crossed, and after a super light dinner, we were off to the rene spot.
We got there pretty fuckin early, so homeboy and I just chatted and smoked some tree, chatting about our plans. Soon enough, folks with sound and lights equipment started rolling up, and we hung out with set-up crew. Ran into some old friends, struck up convo with new ones, the usual. I subtly mentioned tripping a few times, and about an hour later, the wizard showed up. He had some classic white lightning. Cut off a massive square for me for 5$, truly a gift in this day and age- and area, bay dont usually come cheap. A friend I had made at the day rave that followed us to the renegade also bought some.
Now. I was young and stupid. So I popped the full bigass square under the assumption it was a single tab. Homeboy from the day rave knew better and had dealt with this wizard before, and I watched as he tore off what he explained was a single hit, and took it.
The moment I saw this, I felt the "Oh Fuck" moment hit me. Luckily I was surrounded by love. The setting was truly bueno and my mindset was golden despite the mild anxiety of the dose. But I told myself to just roll with it. LSD had never given me a bad time before, no reason to start now.
This acid was absolutely beautiful. The visuals were intense, but they weren't obstructive. I was having the most incredible ideas along with the usual "bringing up to speed" that I get from tripping (the usual realizations, all is one, microcosm macrocosm, my body is a tool my soul uses etc etc). Eventually I stumbled upon some lovely humans doing nitrous, and they plopped me down with em and handed me the canister. I took a fat, fat whippit and lay back.
The branches of the tree above out heads sent long reaching fractals into the sky. I had never seen visuals so tangible before. The fractals became like cracks in the sky, peeling away to reveal this awesome white rainbow spectrum. Now, two things happened that I can recall.
1.) In trips I've always zeroed in on fractals just to the right or left of the center. But this visual??? Sucked me right into the center of the mandala and absolutely blinded me with the raw power of it all. I wish I had words for what I saw there, because I still have the faintest memory of it. It was absolutely divine.
2.) I had the strongest sense of Deja vu I'd ever had. There was a phrase that played out in my head that I cant quite remember, but it was like a prophecy because they were words I had heard before. It went something like this?
"This wisdom has been passed down from monkey to monkey for generations, it is inscribed on stone, and in the deepest parts of us. It goes: Mankind has long had a fascination with staring up at the sky, pointing, screaming and falling on the ground laughing."
And that's exactly what I did. I saw the fractal, I felt my arm shoot up as if against my will, wildly pointing at the heavens, shouting and screaming (because I was desperate to convey what I was witnessing), before breaking out into the most fulfilling laughter (because I had found the ecstacy of understanding but knowing I'd never be able to communicate this- and even if I could, what would it do??? They didnt see it. They dont /know/.) And slowly, slowly coming down from it.
And in the midst of it, in the back of my head, I got this imagining of the other humans around me chuckling and grinning and saying "Oh, hes doing the thing."
I came back from that, well, the only word I really have for it is reborn.
The car ride home was hell, but once I was in room, freshly showered, I settled in for a night and morning of heavy CEV.
Any thoughts?
Topics: lsd, nitrous, renegades, raves