Reverend Ulmer

Recently performed a marriage ceremony for two close friends at Burning Man. This is what I wrote/presented. Thought it would be nice to share:



We’re born and very quickly we feel so separate from one another. From the earth. From the universe.

So we spend our lives searching. For what- sometimes we’re not sure, but the search goes on regardless. We come to Burning Man to continue the search, and here, if it’s a good year and our eyes are open, we find.

Find what though?

When we watch the man burn tomorrow perhaps we recognize ourselves, Standing up there, arms in the sky, feeling the power, the magnificence, the knowing of who we are and what we are. And instead of searching for, perhaps we can finally find…

Connection. Not just to other human beings but to our own skin, connection to the ground, to gravity, connection to the earth, the atmosphere, to others, to the sky, connection to the stars, to the universe, to beyond even that which we cannot grasp.

In this place, we can finally, with great relief, experience a collective, universal consciousness and truth- a connection to everyone and everything. The other 51 weeks of the year, you are you and I am me. But here, I am you and you are me. Most people never have this chance.

When two people get married, whether it be in Africa through a tribal ceremony or in India with an arranged marriage, the world comes yet another step closer to the truth, that we are all connected. Just like a butterfly beating its wings in Africa affects a child’s cry in Peru, A marriage at Burning Man effects the murmur of the whole world.

This connection doesn’t have to wait through a two-year courtship though, or even for the guy to get his act together and ask, it can happen in an instant. Imagine a world with everyone in love, where there is no fear or confusion. Imagine a world were you can even tell total strangers that you love them.


***(The following is a ceremony)
Look for a partner, best if it’s a stranger, now stand and look into each other eyes

First person say slowly, repeat after me: “I love you. I have always loved you. And I will never stop loving you.” (second person, same)

Pause for crying, hugs, happiness, celebration***


What you just did is what David and Kelli are doing today. Even after two years, they’re still strangers, even after 50 years, they’ll still be strangers, but they’re willing to love, always love, and never stop loving. Not just for themselves and their own lives but for all of you as well. To change the murmur in their lives, but to also to create something so much more for human kind.

Now take that energy and on the count of three I want you to send it, arms extended palms first with the word BANG to David and Kelli, and also past them out onto the playa, and beyond.

My hope is that the whole world will feel it.

Three, two, one