Is Soup Good (Spiritual) Food?
New York Times travel writer Rachel Levin talks about her experiences at the “Soup” gathering in northern California. This pagan-ish Deadhead retreat is apparently becoming the latest thing in exclusive (invite-only) intentional community experiments.
“What began in 1994 as a hippie-pagan outgrowth of the Grateful Dead tour has evolved into a family-friendly feel-good festival of eco-entrepreneurs and nonprofit executives, lawyers and doctors, Pilates teachers, politicos – and, at last count, 45 kids, happy to be dragged along to their parents’ party. Eighty-dollar passes are as hard to score as Willy Wonka’s golden tickets, and all proceeds are donated to a local charity. Last year, two recycled-paper tickets depicting smiley pink Buddhas arrived in the mail, inviting my boyfriend and me to “Lucky Soup 13.” As a buttoned-up Boston native, I’d always decided Soup was not my thing; but, for a second, I felt as if I’d won the lottery.”
Based off the story of “stone soup”, guests are required to bring organic vegetables for a communal soup-feast, and the multi-day event culminates with a ritual.
“THE true meat of every Soup is the Ritual. At Soup 13, it was a silent walk in the woods. After being blessed with burning sage, all 250 of us followed a belly-dancing Princeton grad, Pied Piper-style, along a winding path. A lovely stroll, but the point was lost on me.”
Outside the yearly event, participants and hangers-on communicate via a listserv and meet for a variety of social and activist-oriented events.
“Together, we’ve raised over $100,000 for non-profit beneficiaries and have held an annual event for 13 years, as well as trips to Peru to do volunteer community work, Democracy Soup trips to swing states and regular gatherings to keep people engaged. We’re currently planning an additional trip to El Salvador and an action/education group around climate change.”
In many ways it seems like a less extreme and more touchy-feely version of Burning Man and connected Burner events. But unlike Burning Man (and other Pagan-leaning and spiritually minded festivals), only the “right” people are invited to Soup. Is this the beginning of a new sort of spiritual movement, closed-off spiritual communities that try to foster a more “guided” attempt at building community? Only time will tell if “Soup” is good spiritual food.
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