The Unbroken Rainbow & the Pride Flag
One of my teachers in this lifetime is Thomas Balistrieri. Several years ago he shared with us a teaching from an aboriginal Australian elder from Wreck Bay Australia. The direct excerpt from his Substack blog is below, along with my reflections on its relationship to the LGBTQIA+ community.
A long time ago, the rainbow was a complete circle and lived where the water meets the land.
A group of people, good people like you and me, said to themselves, “Let’s go to where the rainbow lives, that place far from here where the water meets the land.” They traveled a long distance but finally reached their destination. There, in the distance, floating on the water in all her magnificence was the rainbow. And the people said, “Let’s walk out into the water and touch the rainbow.”
Just then a guardian came up over the rocks and said, ‘Please don’t step into the water. Because if you do, that step will create ripples in the water, and those ripples will go out and destroy the bottom of the rainbow forever. But, if you allow me to teach you The Ceremony of Life you will be able to step into the water, you will not create any ripples and you will be able to touch the rainbow. Nothing will be destroyed.
The people looked at the guardian with amazement. Some with doubt. They began to ask questions. The very same questions you might ask were you standing in that place in front of the guardian and the rainbow.
“What is this Ceremony of Life you are talking about?”
The guardian said, “It is learning about yourself. Coming to understand feminine and masculine tones. Loving yourself. Learning to be with others with compassion. Giving without expectation. Life lore and dead law and the caring of The Mother. Character. Integrity. Birth. Creativity. It is learning and practicing many things so that you understand your relationship to all things. Inter-connectivity.”
“How long will this take?”
The guardian said, “It will take as long as it takes for you to learn and understand. For some of you a few months. For some of you a lifetime.”
“Who are you to teach us this?”
The guardian said, “I had to learn the Ceremony of Life just like I’m asking you to learn it.”
“When can we begin?”
The guardian said, “Whenever you wish.”
The people had many more questions and moved away to speak among themselves but before they did the guardian said again, “Please don’t step into the water or you will destroy the rainbow. If you learn the Ceremony of Life you will be able to be in relationship with the water and the rainbow and all things. There will be no disturbance.” And the guardian disappeared back over the rocks.
The people watched the guardian disappear, returned to their discussion and said to themselves and one another, “We don’t have time to learn this ‘Ceremony of Life’ and all we want to do is touch the rainbow. So if we are really really really careful we can step into the water and we won’t make any ripples and we can walk out and touch the rainbow. But we all know, no matter how hard you try and no matter how careful you are, when you place your foot and your leg into water you create ripples … and those good people stepped into the water and created ripples and those ripples went out and destroyed the bottom of the rainbow … .
This teaching is one that I have held near and dear in the 6+ years since I was first introduced to it. And every time that I revisit it I find something else to reflect on. This time, I have been thinking about the relationship between the Unbroken Rainbow that Bobbi speaks of and the history of the Rainbow Pride Flag. The original design for the Rainbow Pride Flag was by Gilbert Baker. And each color represented something in relationship to the LGBTQIA+ movement.
Each of these things is intrinsic to the balance of being whole in this lifetime. And I am struck by the potentiality in the relationship between the Lore of the Unbroken Rainbow and the Pride flag. When we look at most religious traditions, we who fall outside of the cis-hetero norms are often not seen, held in reverence, or given any iconic or theological religious individuals in history that reflect our identities. Teachings betray our sense of self. Likeness in any form is limited.
And yet here in this indigenous lore of the Australian elders, we are provided with the image of this unbroken rainbow - this teaching of interconnection - as a reflection of who we are individually and in community. What is offered to these people in learning the Ceremony of Life -
“It is learning about yourself. Coming to understand feminine and masculine tones. Loving yourself. Learning to be with others with compassion. Giving without expectation. Life lore and dead law and the caring of The Mother. Character. Integrity. Birth. Creativity. It is learning and practicing many things so that you understand your relationship to all things. Inter-connectivity.” -
is what the LGBTQIA+ community has been ensconced in practicing for generations. We who sit at the intersectionalities that do not afford the privileges of the multitudes. We who have had to form chosen families to survive and to thrive. We who have walked away from churches and temples and mosques into the woods to find our place in this lifetime. We who have sat beside our friends dying from diseases that are stigmatized and have offered ourselves, our homes, our food, our arms for their passage out of this life. We who feel the disconnect so profoundly that we wonder how we can exist in this world, seeing and knowing so much pain and suffering. We who are not afraid to flaunt our wholeness in bright colors and multitudes of fabrics or in the fullness of our naked flesh. We have walked these lines of initiation and understanding of the Unbroken Rainbow Lore on so many levels in unrecognized and informal ways.
We who refuse to be broken . . . regardless of the ripples of violence and oppression. We who are the Unbroken Rainbow simply by being exactly who we are, without apology or hesitation, in our daily lives.