It was the morning of Jan. 2, 1992, and I had been sleeping in Lafayette Park, across from the White House in D.C., with two Rainbow friends, Mojo and Georgia. I had laid on the ground a blue plastic tarp, laid some blankets over it, then lain on one side and turned the other side over me - making a taco out of myself - and gone to sleep. At about 4:00 I had to get up and take a leak, so I was sliding out of my creation trying to disturb it as little as possible so that the blankets would still be warm when I got back in between them. I heard giggling, then Georgia's voice saying, "Do you mind if we call you Butterfly?" I asked why, and she said I looked like one coming out of its cocoon.

I thought about it for a few months, and decided - no, I didn't. It was appropriate. I always flit around from one thing to another at a gathering, never staying too long at one place (I remember somebody once saying, "Ya know, this is the first time I've seen you sitting down.") I like to wear bright colors like one. And in many ways the Rainbow has made me come out of my cocoon and start to fly about. Coupled with my Babylon name (which I had never disliked), it made a nice alliteration.

I had decided previously that I would only take a name that was given to me by someone else, after hearing some of the pretentious appellations that others have given themselves. This one met that criterion.

BB’s
Home
Page

Picture of Butterfly Bill in a tie-dye dress

I at the Rainbow Gathering in Utah,
July 1, 2003

Butterfly Bill’s
Rainbow Gathering stories

Posts I made to alt.gathering.rainbow:

The Cold Easy Gathering – my experiences at the 2004 California National Gathering (Read this first if you have never been to a Gathering; I explain some of the Rainbow lingo here.)

The Short and Sweet Gathering – the 2002 Michigan National Gathering

The Ad Astra per Aspera Gathering – the 2003 Utah National Gathering

The Seven Up Gathering – the 2005 West Virginia National Gathering

The Hard Walking Gathering – the 2006 Colorado National Gathering

The Muddy Trail Gathering – the 2007 Arkansas National Gathering

The Fallen Tree Gathering – the 2008 Wyoming National Gathering

The Sabbath Gathering – the 2009 New Mexico National Gathering

The Stairway to Heaven Gathering – the 2010 Pennsylvania National Gathering

The Virgin Gathering – my very first gathering, the 1987 North Carolina National. This story is the first chapter of my book, which tells of all my other gatherings until 2000.

Hospital Story – my treatment at a veteran's hospital for congestive heart failure in the fall of 2000, an event that affected my gathering for many years after

1998 Arizona Banking Report – how much money was collected by the Magic Hat and what it was spent on

2003 Utah Banking Report

2004 California Banking Report

The Ozark Thanksgiving Gathering, near Billy Creek – one of the two Thanksgiving Councils that happened in 2007

A Good Story – an incident while driving home from the Arizona Gathering

BB goes to a Peace Conspiracy event – the Peace Conspiracy, a group similar to the Rainbow Family in their culture and anarchistic organization, but different in the way they tolerate some behaviors that are taboo at Rainbow Gatherings.

I went to the Fall Fun Raiser – an attempt at a concert to raise funds for the Rainbow Guide

I went to the Fall Fund Raiser (not the Fun Raiser - that was last year) – the second year

Applegate Fall Fun Raiser, third year – the third and last year I went

I got to talk with Robbie last week – my friend Robbie Gordon's treatment by various cops when they tried to bust him for marijuana and they arrested everyone for not having a permit at a regional gathering in New Mexico in 2007.

Monthly Meeting at Shannon Farm – a place where consensus really worked: the monthly meeting at an intentional community I once lived in

Other Rainbow lore:

The Rainbow Guide Mini-Manual – as it appearted in the 1995 edition. It has been translated into German and French

The Canonical List of Rainbow Jokes – a collection of contributions from many alt.gathering.rainbow posters

Rainbow Chants – that you might hear by a campfire at a gathering

Wherever Two Are Gathered... – the beginnings of the Rainbow Family

The 7 Garbage Chakras – Swami Mommy's paradigm upon which the recycling stations are set up at Gatherings

How to make a Rainbow Guide – instructions for sorting and compiling Rainbow Guide entries with Microsoft Word & Excel

Rainbow Recollections: 1995 Missouri
Rainbow Recollections: 1998 Arizona – two Gathering reviews written by Guano

Permits and Forest Service regulations:

Title 36 Section 251 Subpart B – that deals with special uses of the National Forests, with the parts about permits

Title 36 Section 251 Subpart B précis – distilled down to the Rainbow relevant parts

Title 36 Section 261 Subpart B – that tells what is prohibited on National Forest land

2006 and 2007 Operating Plans – examples of operating plans that were worked out between the gatherers and the resource rangers of the Forest Service

2010 Operating Plan – the operating plan that was accepted in lieu of a permit in 2010

2010 US Forest Service FOIA Documents – what the FS Law Enforcement Officers say to each other about the Rainbows

A meeting in San Francisco – a collection of several threads that appeared on alt.gathering.rainbow about a meeting between some Rainbow gatherers and some high-level Forest Service officials (in 7 parts)

Other Rainbow sites:

welcomehome.org – the "unofficial" site, with links to many more

welcomehere.org – the best place for information on upcoming gatherings

alt.gathering.rainbow – the Usenet group (viewed on Google Groups)

Butterfly Bill's Facebook page

This page was last updated on September 20, 2011.