The members of the Bolinas Cannabis Club, an organization dedicated to the healing power of weed, did not come to smoke. They came to perform an exorcism.
They came to drive away the dark spirit who had taken over the Waterhouse building and the adjacent property, which together formed a valued community hub that once housed a book exchange, a surf shop and the dearly departed post office.
“We’re casting out the negativity that squats in the burned-out hulk of a building,” said StuArt, known around town for his devotion to creative pursuits. “We’re offering light. What we’re trying to do here is raise the energy on a psychic level.”
Last Saturday, a dozen villagers banged drums, chanted and circled the bedeviled structure, hoping to cleanse its spirit. They stirred and toned a bronze temple gong to harmonize the proceedings. “The spirit is the dark entity, and it needs to be exorcised,” StuArt said. “It’s a projection of all our darkness and negativity.”
Since a fire gutted it in 2020, the Waterhouse building has sat boarded up as reconstruction is halted by a legal spat between the landlord and his contractor. The adjacent building was home to the Bolinas Post Office until it was evicted in February amid another dispute, this one over asbestos in the floor tiles. Only Don’s Liquors remains.
Above all else, the exorcists want their post office back. They are part of a grassroots effort to pressure the United States Postal Service to find a new location, sending cards and letters with artwork and poetry aimed at tugging the San Francisco district manager’s heartstrings.
A rally in town this Saturday is scheduled to start at noon. StuArt designed a red and white sign posted at the edge of town announcing the number of days Bolinas has been without a post office: 76 and counting. He said he organized the exorcism after an unknown voice called to him.
“Dress up,” it said. “Show up. Open up. You have help from unseen sources.”
On Saturday, StuArt donned the robes of Hunab Ku, an ancient Mayan glyph signifying the consciousness of the Milky Way. Amelia Straton, dressed like a forest nymph, channeled Durga, a Hindu goddess who unleashed her powers to vanquish the wicked and raise up the oppressed.
A man who called himself Ishmael wore an elf’s hat, a flowing brown robe and sandals. When the ceremony was over, he proclaimed the exorcism a success. “I think it worked,” he said. “I feel new energy.”