The Last three days here in Ubud, Bali have been amazing. This area is a
cultural hub for Indonesia. Everywhere I go are the most amazing temples and
shrines. You cannot go anywhere and not find art. Incredibly detailed
sculptures depicting God's, mythical creatures, terrorifying demons, and of
course nature. Many of the sculptures are ancient with tree's growing on them,
covered with moss and ferns. The building here resemble a fussion of Aztecian
art designs with destinctly asian roof structure.
I have started taking dance classes after seeing the amazing Balinese dances.
It is like watching living scultures the way the dancers move and the
incredibly detailed costumes and intricate eye and hand movements combined with
precise footwork. I am very inspired right now. I am working on manifesting
several full costumes so that I will be able to put together some performances
when I return. The live Gamalon music that is played with the dance is
entrancing, weaving a hypnotic spell that guides ones consciousness into the
realms of the local Gods and Godesses and Demon's. After one of the dance shows
I stuck around to meet some of the performers and to share what I do with the
mouth harp, staff and poi. They loved it, asking many questions. One of the
dancers, a 50+ year old stone carver named Kelinced whom had been dancing and
playing music
since he was 10, stood out as soon as we made eye contact I felt a kinship.
Since then he has been teaching me dance and I have been teaching him Yoga and
doing healing work on him. As it turns out, he is a bit of a celebrity in all
the local towns and is sometimes asked to clear curses and bad energy from
people. He is a magician when he carves, bringing a cement blocks to life. All
the carvers have serious rist and back problems from so much repetative
intensive work. I hope that the rist stretches that have helped me so much to
avoid injury will spread throughout the village. Kilenced has been
teaching me from his home which is located up in the mountains where thousands
of white egrets come to nest. They have been protected in that area since, way
back and therefore have no fear of people.
The people here do rituals and make
offerings to the various emobodiment of Shiva on a daily basis. One must
allways be mindfull while going about the days activities not to step on one of
the many banana leaf offering plates that contain rice, flowers and sometimes
coins. The people are extremely kind, excepting, humble and talented.
I don't think most people in the States realize just how affordable things are
in a place like Bali, I am staying at a very nice guest house/hotel with
beautiful art everywhere, an elaberate temple within the guest house, one of
the nicest swimming pools I have ever seen with a beautifully carved mermaid
goddess fountain with water streaming from her full breasts into the pool. Our
room is privately set next to a forested area where exotic birds come in to
roost every evening. The grounds are beautifully ladscaped full of exotic
plants and ponds. We are paying only $10 a night, we could have found a cheap
place for around $2 if we had wanted. It is overwhelming th amount of amazing
art, clothing, jewelry, textiles, carvings... that are for sale for a fraction
of there value in the states.
Right now an amazing thing is happening, around 30 amazing friends from the west
coast, musicians, healers, fire dancers and incredible artists have all gathered
here in Ubud. Some of the names you may reconize:
Sasha Butterfly, Nikila of Hamsa Lilla, Budah Monkey, Phoenix Rising(Issak and Jesica), Bobcat and Daisy, Phoebe, Abai of Kumbaka, the amazing vissionary artists, Luke Brown and Carey Thomas who's work you can see in my tribe profile. This just naming a few of the extrodinary people who are here or ariving shortly.

For the next two months we will be doing rituals and individuals are working
with local artisans to produce designs for various products that individuals wish tosell in the states. There is this wonderfull collective unity omongst us tohelp one another manifest our dreams, creativly suporting our inspirations. It is a really extrodinary thing that is happening here, to have so many close friends all gathered half way across the world at one of the worlds energy hot spots. If it is at all possible for you to come in the next two months, I highly recomend it, you will have an amazing experience.
Come join me and the other monkeys in Bali.
Loving you.
Forest