One Week Out of Time with the Butterfly Man
by Rose Liberte - Part 3/4

We spent the night in the moonlight bathing nude at Harbin Hot Springs, experiencing a "lotus birth" in the quiet of silent steaming pools beneath the quarter-moon. We met many interesting characters all butterflies. Belly dancers, singers, actors, musicians and poets, artists and artisans, young and old, all part of the butterfly network.

Here we were together in the San Francisco that birthed Haight-Ashbury's famous Summers of Love; in the San Francisco of Ferlenghetti, Allen Ginsberg and all the beat poets; of famous writers like Mark Twain; of ghosts of the 1800s gold rush. Here we were in the San Francisco of Danielle Steele; with the steep streets, wharf, Ghiradelli Chocolates and trolley cars; the hills and majestic Muir Woods where the Bohemians danced together; where the UN honored FDR's death, where Mount Tamelpais reigns.

For breakfast one morning Craig and his friend came by. Craig was a long term Earth First! Volunteer, and encouraged us to see all the redwood tree sits in northern California. Hundreds of dedicated environmentalists are still attempting to save the ancient redwoods by camping out in their branches, like Julia Butterfly. Radicals and environmental revolutionaries, elderly gardeners and dreamy meditators, scientists and socialists, conservatives and anarchists, scholars and laborers, members of the butterfly network came in every variety.

As soon as Alan would put out one "fire" another would start. The most glaring situation was the plan to pave a parking lot in Santa Cruz which would seriously impact the Butterflies and their nesting in Santa Cruz. "Paving paradise & putting up a parking lot." Butterflies are an indicator of the health and quality of life in our environment. If the butterflies as a species cannot continue to exist, how much longer will we?

"We'll boycott the businesses in Santa Cruz! They'll feel that at the Chamber of Commerce! I'll talk to the Mayor. I'll be at the city council meeting on Tuesday. I feel like chaining myself to a tree, if that's what it takes to protect the butterflies in Santa Cruz!" Alan declared to many of his supporters and butterfly advocates.

We watched the Abbie Hoffman movie "Steal this Movie" together and then meditated on the long lost videotape Alan had made of Abbie Hoffman live in 1982 at Leigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, after Abbie had gotten out of jail after his last arrest. The radical revolutionary views of Hoffman were similar to the fiery determination of Alan Moore. We watched the film with Allen Cohen and discussed making clearer copies of the video, transcribing it and contacting the Activist Foundation of Abbie Hoffman. "I carry the mantle of Abbie Hoffman" Alan declared to me later, as he had some mysterious synchronistic experiences around the life of Abbie Hoffman. I realized that Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were actually some of the greatest patriots of this century, like Patrick Henry crying "Give me Liberty, or Give Me Death" or John Paul Hale regretting that he had but one life to give for his country. These little understood radicals had a greater vision for America; an America freed from the war machine; freed from the need to enslave any man, even for the temporary purpose of perpetrating war, or for the synthetically encouraged materialistic greed continually promoted by corporations and the infrastructures of our society.

We saw the movie, The Craft, together, meditating on magic, thrilled by the butterfly scene in the movie. Alan envisions TV scripts and mass media influence promoting Butterflies and the Butterfly vision. We proposed making butterfly movies, possibly starring John Travolta, as he portrayed so well butterfly characters in his movies Phenomenon and Michael. We envisioned butterfly CD's, a Butterfly MTV video presentation, with butterfly scenes and CDs of butterfly music. Every day in every way promoting the transformational vision of Butterflies as the symbol of the New Rainbow Millennium of World Peace and Global Transformation.

We shared some very spiritual moments together as we stood in the massive Cathedral of St. Francis, and I lit votive candles for all my departed relatives, especially my father. The pungent incense filled us with a reverent silence. It was in a Cathedral of St. Francis in New York that Alan first connected with the Butterfly Vision. St. Francis that saint who was the fiery organizer of his times, leading the hippie revolution of that era, yet preaching to the birds, giving tender love to all of the animal kingdom. I realized that the spirit of St. Francis lives on in the tender heart of Alan Butterfly Moore.

Later we sang with the Gorilla Choir, a group of mystical chanting singers whose harmonies and instruments seemed to transcend dimensions. In our singing and drumming together (Alan plays a mean bongo drum) we rose higher and higher in frequency and intensities. We were gathered around lighted candles and the mystical vibrations of spiritual power flowed in through and around us in waves of love and peace, as we all undulated in harmonic frequencies together.

One night we went to the Groove Garden in Fairfax, a major event promoted by the Butterfly Network. We were the decorators, and Alan brought magnificent Butterfly kites, statues, artwork, a butterfly calendar, butterfly chimes, a butterfly batik.I had never seen so many representations of butterflies in so many shapes, colors and forms as I beheld at Alan's house. Some of the shops of San Francisco also have butterfly stained glass artifacts and giant butterfly kites on sale. The butterfly network could use even more Butterfly decorative articles for its promotions with more funding and donations.

The Groove Garden was a magnificent night for all, decorated with billowing parachutes and light shows, reminding me of a Moroccan Casbah like Rick's in Casablanca. Many butterflies in the network met and danced to the sonic beat at the Groove Garden, accelerating rapidly like a spaceship about to take off. At one point with the stomp of so many hundreds of feet on the wooden floor, I hoped we weren't causing an earthquake!

I was also introduced to Butterfly books, such as Norie Huddle's Butterfly, I, Monty; by Richard Bach's uncle, The Butterfly Boy, Tree Island by Linda Grover, and a wealth of Butterfly Gardener's information. I reviewed the news releases and press articles on the Butterfly Gardener's and the many awards and honors Alan Moore has been given by cities and counties and for his participation in the Earth Summit +5 at the United Nations in New York.

We later gazed at stars, the Big Dipper, Orion, looking for the lost butterfly constellation or Ariadne.

We walked through a grove of cherry blossom trees, confettied by blossoms falling on the ground. Bushes, trees and flowers bloomed as springtime poured over the hills and forests of El Cerrito, Berkeley, and other outlying areas.

Gathering eucalyptus nuts and leaves that sprinkled the ground, Alan demonstrated the combustibility of eucalyptus as it burst into flame from his lighter. Filled with oil, the leaves are highly combustible.

Next: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4