About Blazing Swan

Blazing Swan is not just an Event.

We are also a community with a commitment to Principles.

Blazing Swan started with Burning Man’s 10 Principles.  Taken one by one these Principles are not absolute rules, and none of the 10 work in isolation from the others. We encourage you to think about how you can combine them,  and how you can integrate them into your lives –  your work, expression, sense of play, your relationships and your sense of yourself.

Blazing Swan has created an 11th Principle, Consent. Consent is different from the other 10 Principles. The Consent Principle stands alone.  It can not be modified or diminished by the operation of any of the other 10 Principles.  At our Events, Consent is not only a Principle, it is also a rule and an absolute requirement

These eleven principles are our guiding values. They are not rules, commands or requests and in some ways you may find that it seems as though they contradict each other. That is an intentional part of their design, you are free to interpret them and colour them with your own creative thought.

Yet, each principle does not stand alone, they collide, yet are integral to each other, and their integrated whole is infinitely greater than the sum of each individual one.

The principles do not dictate how we should act, rather they are a key. A key that is our Gift to you. A key that unlocks the possibility that lies latent within our ethos until you activate it and choose to share what you find with the world. The principles are not in order, you can choose a principle that inspires you the most and embrace that one first. We hope that through the journey you have with our community, the power and purpose of each principle will reveal itself to you.

We hope that they push you out of your comfort zone. We hope that they force you to reach out. Finally, we hope that through personal, authentic experiences they connect you with something larger than you are and help you understand, in the deepest sense and through your actions, who you really are.

Larry Harvey, author of the principles, writes on the Burning Man website, “William James suggested that the relevance of any idea should be gauged by answering a simple question. What real difference will it make if one believes it? How does that belief affect the way that we conduct our lives? Judged according to this standard, the principles have proven to be useful, durable and productive; they have enabled us to think and communicate, they have enabled us to act, and they have helped us to project our culture into the world. However, this could cease to happen unless we remain ready to constantly exercise and examine them.”