John O’Connor
Apogee Body Piercing
San Diego, CA
Over the past several years, the ONE Project has become incredibly personal to me and everyone at my shop. It is a time for us to retreat from the trappings of the everyday world in which we live; an annual journey back into the spiritual self and a time to reconnect to those people with whom we have shared ritual for many years. The ONE is where you throw away everything that has nagged at you throughout the year and recharge yourself with a fresh energy of strong will and peace. It is a time to BRING IT!!!
The ONE is particularly special to those of us who live in San Diego. In a big city, the piercing community can seem very small and we have used the ONE as a time to strengthen our bonds. Those of us who take part in ONE tend to get together more often throughout the year, and in turn have built ourselves a support group that transcends everyday cliques as well as geographic boundaries. Piercing is how we relate to each other. It is the catalyst through which most of us met, and continues to be the common ground that unites us.
My first ONE experience was a voyage into the unknown. I was not entirely comfortable; I did not know many people and had no idea what to expect. All of us from Apogee got involved right from the start: grinding a couple hundred hooks, autoclaving even more prep packs, and wrapping needles to transport up the mountain. I helped to put together the lodge which we would sweat in for almost four hours. That year brought many firsts for me. I had always practiced piercing ritual in more of an industrial environment. I found comfort standing barefoot in the dirt with a cool breeze passing across our circle. My experience of suspending from a tree as the sun set behind a mountain was a reawakening in my ritual life. Over the years, the full moon in August has become one of the few times I engage in this sort of activity.
Participation and sharing in group activities is a main focus on the mountain. The point is for us to unite through our activities such as fire walking, sweat lodges, re-bar bending, meditation, yoga, energy pulls, suspensions, and many other forms of respectful ritual. By uniting in respect we will leave the mountain with a new point of view on our community and the world. Reality is relative and we can shape our world to that which we desire. This is important to remember throughout our lives and the ONE project is a great annual tune-up. Closing the shop for a few days forces us to reflect on our own person and the group with which we are isolated when we are up on the land.
This past year had a great turn out. There were lots of old friends as well as many new faces but what was the most amazing was the complete dedication of time and will. Personally, I decided to focus more of my energy on the facilitation of rituals as well as my own participation. It was the first year I helped from the outside of the sweat lodge. On the final day, I ended up piercing almost thirty people for pulls and suspensions. With quite a bit of experience throwing hooks, I felt that it was my obligation to take on more of the responsibility in preparing others to partake in their own unique experience. It was a long and tiring journey but the energy was unparalleled by anything else imaginable.
Way up on the mountain, we laughed and cried together. We bled together and released our negativity back into the universe. We felt the movement of the earth (mandala anyone?). And most importantly, we learned that a hundred people with different interests and from different walks of life can take the time and make the effort to truly live as ONE.
