I was at the Gaia-Oasis Retreat in Tejakula, Bali. A fellow practitioner at Whatever Healing Space in Singapore recommended this place. The brochure said it was a paradise. This is the rainy season on Bali, so Nirvana turned out to be a bug-infested community on a rocky beach hosting one monsoon after another. The neighbor behind my bungalow was sawing down coconut trees day after day and I could hardly bear the buzz.
They were holding an Avatar workshop with a group of people from Germany.
“I do not like these workshops”, said a French girl. “They give one a false sense of power.” She was trying to market her own workshop, something she called the Joy of Life.
The only other American there was a fast talking ex-Brooklynite– the community yenta. Actually, he was a really nice guy. He revealed that one of his astrologers had told him to come here as the Persephone line in his astrocartography map ran through Tejakula. The fact that no human being has
ever seen the planet he calls Persephone did not seem to phase him in the least.
Despite the drawbacks of Gaia-Oasis, I had a memorable experience there. I learned a lesson in tolerance, although I certainly did not pass the test 100%. I have a lot more work to do on this matter.
The last night I spent on the porch of my bungalow with some companions I had met there sampling the Durian fruit. The outer shell of this exotic fruit
resembles a prickly coconut and the pulpy mass inside reminded me of an embryo. The taste and the odor of the fruit is not something I will soon forget, nor did it let me forget it. I woke up with both the next morning.
Durian does get you feeling kind of high and it is said to be an aphrodisiac as well.
“It is a transpersonal fruit”, said one of my companions. “When you eat it, you feel as if you were a god”.
2004 is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac. He is the problem-solver. He sits quietly in the background and figures it all out.
Mars and Pluto, the two power planets will be wrecking havoc in the US chart, especially early on in the year. The manifested results could well motivate the US government to alter its course and show its humane side, rather than impose its military-industrial complex on the world in the name of democracy.
If you are into the logic of astrological progressions where each succeeding day after the birth of an entity corresponds to each succeeding year (because the earth rotates on its axis in one day and revolves around the Sun in one year), then 2004 may see an about-face for the US. Throughout 2004, the progressed Moon will be contacting the Cancerian planets in the US natal chart (July 4, 1776)–happy planets such as the Sun, Venus and Jupiter. The Moon is the symbol of the nurturer, so perhaps that side of America will shine through. Then again, Saturn will be transiting over the US Sun Sign (13 degrees Cancer) in June, the time Bush and his committee promise to leave Iraq.
Will some higher force reprogram current events? Can the truth will itself out? The general public’s opinion throughout the world
toward American policies appears to differ greatly from the political manipulations generated by their governments. Most people know the politicians are lying to them, yet they do not expect it to be any other way. When you are fearful of losing what you have, it is easy to act the way an ostrich does and bury your head in the sand.
Perhaps the monkey can resolve the situation during his time at bat. He was the first animal to realize that he could ascend to a higher plane. I trust that I will this year and that I can continue to improve. I may still experience the same negative impulses emerge. What I aim for now is to consciously practice at dealing with them more gracefully. Perhaps that is all anyone has to do to experience a world that comes closer to paradise.