The Rainbow Serpent Festival and Psychedelic Spirituality

Record summary

Rainbow Serpent Festival in Victoria is an identifiable site for contemporary psychedelic spirituality, trance music, ecstatic dance, yoga, bodywork, shamanic language, sacred geometry, and alternative healing. It matters for comparison because transformation is presented through a hybrid of ritual aesthetics, altered states, entrepreneurship, and festival community. The event should be studied through specific programs, participant research, health guidance, and media coverage rather than generalized festival mythology. Its relationship to Indigenous symbolism and “shamanism” has also attracted questions about appropriation and authenticity.