Journey Forth to Apollo - Summer 2018

[ed. - As noted below, June 27th marks the 4th anniversary of the Absolute's visitation. Just to be clear, the Absolute is Burton's term for the creator of the universe, of heaven and earth. "He" dropped in on Oregon House, just to confirm Burton and his flock are in good hands.

"Because of that visit, we have a very personal contact with Him now. With His visit, we have become the conscious family of the Absolute on earth. He came to us in the nursery to remind us that He loves us and that He is with us. Shakespeare said, "I am friends with you all and love you all" - the Fellowship of Friends. The visitation of the Absolute will always be one of our greatest moments. My crystallization was also important because, without it, we could not have been present to the Absolute. He would not have even bothered to visit us. But He knows that we are under great pressure because the darkest day in the history of humanity on this earth - hydrogen warfare - is approaching."

- Robert Earl Burton, Fifty Years with Angels, page 71

The Fellowship has long used an internal system of vouchers for the exchange of labor, goods, and services (including those of a sexual nature.) The "voucher" events listed below suggest the Fellowship continues this internal monetary practice, which has in the past violated, and may continue to violate Federal and State tax laws. A former Fellowship member states:

"There are 'voucher' meetings and 'non-voucher' meetings. A voucher is a piece of paper one can get in exchange for 8 hours of work, like dish washing or serving. There are also half-vouchers and quarter-vouchers. Two of the three meetings each week are voucher meetings, where one can pay fully in dollars, from about $35 to $100, depending on seated or standing, seat location, and senior or not; or one can pay mostly with vouchers plus $10 or so in cash. The non-voucher meeting is dollars only. There are tons of people who pay nothing, including all of the Galleria 'residents' and many visitors, especially from Russia."]

Wild, Wild, Wine Country

Renaissance Vineyard and Winery ephemera by Jenny Eagleton

[ed. - The title of the article is a reference to Wild, Wild Country, a recent TV series about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) and the founding, and eventual demise, of his Rajneeshpuram compound in Oregon. At the same time that Rajneeshpuram was coming under scrutiny, The Fellowship of Friends also found itself in the spotlight.]

Wild, Wild Wine Country (excerpt)
by Jenny Eagleton
May 30, 2018

Meanwhile, what’s left of the team at Renaissance is keen to sell off their old bottlings, which means there are deals aplenty for wine drinkers. You can pick up back vintage bottles of Renaissance at fantastically cheap prices, but the bottles can be variable, especially those oaky monsters from the Karl Werner years. Far better are his wife’s wines, beginning with the 1989 vintage, but it’s the wines from young Gideon Beinstock beginning in 1993 that should attract the most attention. At the moment, the winery is in the process of having many of their wines re-corked for stability, which is exciting for consumers.

These wines are special. They express not only the severe terroir of Yuba County, but something much more: an encapsulation of wine as a product of spiritual devotion, of the intertwining of religious truth seeking and winemaking. Here, the spiritual and the oenological combine in a way that feels similar to the Georgian monastery, or Nicolas Joly and his church of Biodynamics, but on Californian soils. An expression of the failures and excesses and glorious risks of a certain strange corner of the world at the apex of the 20th century. Wines of presence made all the more beautiful by their unusual backstory.

“These are the real cult California wines,” my host joked, and I laughed, but those are his words, not mine.

Read more at Sprudge.com

[ed. - For a related story, see: "Aaron and Cara Mockrish: Frenchtown Farms, Yuba County, California"]