Haight-Ashbury permanently stoned

The Haight district in San Francisco is holy ground. The magic that was generated there in the sixties still ferments in its' streets.

Here LSD met the youth of America, and for a short time goddesses and wizards walked the streets. It was a fierce fire of initiation, some people soared, others burned. A few are still soaring on magical wings today. The world would be poorer in spirit without the courage of those pioneers, for the paths they blazed have become a part of everyone's lives.


I have visited the Haight only a few times. Once, in the mid 70's, I found a lonely street sign in a dull and pointless low rent area. When I returned in the 90's the hippys were back, with color, music and friendly faces. The place had a good feeling - nowhere as intense as in the day, but magic was afoot.

I walked the street enchanted, my intention of selling jewelry to the local shops forgotten. I even got turned on.


City work crews were patching the sidewalk that day, leaving small areas of fresh concrete - an inviting canvas for graffiti artists and poets who moved in as soon as the city workers moved on.

Clearly, here was my opportunity to make my mark on the Haight. But what to say? Every thought that came into my mind seemed unbelievably trivial compared to the setting. Finally I latched on to something, a Dylan quote perhaps. I wasn't very impressed with it but I wanted to be a part of the place.


I decided that the next section I saw would be mine, gathered my wits and bent down. Others had been there before me, but some open space remained.

As I surveyed the plot I noticed that the workers had left a small tip of concrete at one corner projecting a quarter inch above the surface. I pressed it down, leaving a smooth sidewalk for all those beautiful barefoot hippies,

And
I
Felt
The
Whole
Universe
Shift.



The most well known history of the Haight's glory years is "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. Two other excellent but lesser known books about the Haight street hippie era are "Storming Heaven - LSD and the American Dream" by Jay Stevens" and "Amazing Dope Tales & Haight Street Flashbacks" by Stephen Gaskin.



Hippietao.com is one view of the story of the hippies, the mud and the magic: Hippietao.com


The Eden Hashish Centre, located in Kathmandu, provided necessities to the hippies in the late '60s and early'70s. This store printed calendars announcing their wares, featuring some truly impressive Asian art, reprinted here: EdenHash.com


ShaktiNode.com is a directory of websites about spiritual energy - Shakti - which includes about everything. It is the counterpart of this blog. Touch the sky with quotes, commentary, and some great Australian Aborigine paintings. Shakti Node Directory


See handmade jewellery of Tibet and Nepal: AccentNepal.com - hosted by eBay stores (with fixed prices, not auctions), and also: JewelryTibet.com


Whycat.com is a wide ranging directory of the unusual. A lot of hippie websites are linked, and ancient mysteries, unconventional science, and a whole lot more are all mixed together for your exploration. WhyCat Directory