Nothing would have pleased me more than to have conceived of producing a magazine In Goa, when I first arrived on Calangute beach, in 1970 when the population of Anjuna was, in the season, what it is now in the monsoon and just have realized these dreams. But it was not that way. Rather, over the years of my acquaintance with 'Madame Anjuna', The STONED PIG Magazine has spontaneously grown from a black & white, four-page issue, with a head-block designed by a paid local artist through a whole year, two winter seasons and seven issues, to become at the end of the 75/6 season, a multicolor, glossy magazine reflecting ideas, opinions, and art of the Westerners laving in Goa, as well as providing an immense amount of highly useful and relevant information.

 

During the period of the tight-budget, free-speaking magazine's original conception, a five and-a half month respite, living in a hut, overlooking the Swat Valley, in the Himalayan territory of Pakhtoonistan, I had made an intensive study of the Tarot and related subjects, written some of my favorite self-composed poetry and a part of a still incomplete fantasy novel. I had also, conceived of a daughter, who was born during the summer break between the two volumes of the PIG, when we were living in Swayambhu, Nepal, exactly six months after the PIG's birth.

 

The original idea came out of a realization during 1974, whilst tripping on a full-moon night in late season that we freaks had been shitting on our own doorstep and were too stoned out - in the wrong way - to realize what we had done and were/are doing Tin cans purchased by freaks, from the fruit-juice vendors lay discarded half-buried in broken glass, used Tampax, shitty newspaper, broken ampoules, cigarette packs and the other waste products of a Stoned-out sub-culture of the modern western mixed-drug culture removed to a once deserted palm beach paradise.

 

I had learnt that it would cost very little and be an important service to the beaches of Goa and to our ecosystem in general to publish a broadsheet that gave simple instructions as to functioning in an environment such as we lived in, in a clear and healthy manner.

 

In the 73/4 season had been published by individual freaks two small pamphlets containing some relevant quotations and verse. One of these was called "Pigs and Palms" and the other, "A Stoned Reality''. From the synthesis of these two names I obtained the title of the broadsheet, "The STONED PIG'' a phantasy identification most of us   could make with little effort.

 

The idea grew. I wrote a detailed manifesto of the aims of the Pig in readable language and it constituted the first page of the first issue, which appeared in January 1975 Also published in that issue was the now-famous article by Eight-Fingered Eddie, which had already been distributed by him in various duplicated versions, for two years, untitled and to which I gave the title "Coming Down Again" after the Rolling Stones' song I had heard so many times on a   full moon in the early hours of the morning. A big advertisement for the Flea-Market at Eddie's Porch seemed to anticipate its growth to the immense size, it reached in 1976. Other articles were contributed by friends who took, or were nagged into taking, an interest.

 

It was not long before I received the appropriate response to the manifesto, designed to tempt enterprising writers and artists to help with the project. One morning, Eli came to visit me in my house in Chapora.  His copy of Vol. l no. 1 had enthused him greatly, as he was planning to publish a book which he was to write and had the idea of publishing it In installments, via the PIG.

 

So, Vol. 1 No. 2 grew to eight pages and contained a long article by Eli,   "On the Use of Psychedelic Substances '' At this time, Robyn also offered to help and began to contribute the first of a series of articles, "The Voice of the Heavens'', which ran throughout the season He also provided full astrological information for the month, according to Goa time.

 

In response to many requests, (I was using the pen- name "Tarot" Ray in those days), I began to write a series of short articles of my own. "Whole System Tarot", that also ran throughout the season and commenced in Vol. 1 No 2. Other writers, artists and humorists also contributed valuable material.

 

Eli was proving to be a most valuable help with proof-reading, writing, and arranging the magazine, and we kept up the same eight-page format for No 3. Prior to its publication, I had visited Vidal of Nomad Studios, who was, at that time living on Baga beach. He had suggested that he design a new front cover on the grounds of an intense distaste for the previous covers, a justifiable distaste. Thus one morning I looked on as he began his cartoon. I had other business in Baga then and, when I returned three hours later, the cartoon was finished.

 

The light-bulb on the Pig's head gave us the idea to call the issue a "Special Enlightened Pig lssue". The Anti-university of Goa and the Open Institute for Natural Knowledge were also postulated in print, the latter having our mascot's name for its initials - OINK. Eli contributed the first part of a long article on Contemplative Sexuality, Maithuna, the second part of which was never, in the end, written and I contributed the second part of my Whole System Tarot series.

 

Copies of No. 3 were issued on a bright February full-moon, during a most |spaced-out night, bearing Vidal's magnificent cartoon etched across the front cover.

 

About this time, I found it necessary to make a personal trip to Rishikesh, in North India and I was very pleased when Eli agreed to take my "Whole System Tarot" article and make his own "Pig", without need of my presence. When I returned to Goa, I was most surprised that, in spite of the closeness of new-moon, the magazine was nowhere near finished. The reason for this was that Ell had decided to expand the issue to twelve pages. So, although it came out late, Vol. 1 No 4 was, indeed, a progressive issue.

 

He gave it the title, “Special Double-Bind Issue'' which he had overprinted diagonally across Vidal's cartoon. He had used the issue to expound the double-bind theory of Gregory Bateson and it ran as a theme throughout the issue, connecting all articles to each other. The first (and only) report of the Open Institute for Natural Knowledge, the report of an encounter meeting on the use of antibiotics appeared also.

 

We had financed the fortnightly issues of the season by making them on credit and paying it off from contributions which we collected after distribution. With much hassles and problems we always managed - just -   but after the fourth issue, the season had ended and it was hard to find money. We had to leave the Pig in debt and I was invited to travel to Katmandu, where Eli and I planned the Games Centre, an open community building for knowledge exchange meetings, music, yoga and other games of life. I also planned a new magazine   on a more artistic and portly basis.

The Games Centre was open for three months during the summer of 1975 in Swayambhu, Nepal and I produced "East Trip", a poetry magazine, which, mainly for financial     reasons, ran only one issue.

 

My child was born and Eli flew to S. E. Asia to study acupuncture and soon   afterwards, when Leoni, my daughter, was only one month, our visas finally expired and we found it necessary to leave Nepal in the middle of one of the heaviest monsoons in recent history. We had nowhere else to go, so I brought my family to Goa and we proceeded, slowly, to get our trips together.

 

I was determined to start the Pig up again, bigger and better than ever, and, to finance it, I bound seventy if the remaining copies of the previous season's issues in a beautiful white and gold binder, under the  name "The Season of the Pig" exchanging them for financial support from Pig-lovers as the season began.

 

I was very fortunate to meet my old friend, Mahendranath Dadaji, who just happened to have some articles of his in his bag. When I read them, they seemed almost to have had the Pig in mind for circulation, for they were written in the language of the general Pig readership.

 

I published the most autobiographical of the essays he had with him in order to introduce him to the readership, In Vol. 2 No. 1, under the title "Tantrik Initiation", using the main title for the series, "The Occult World".

(ln that first issue the words "of Tantra'' were added to the main title, incorrectly as it turned out and they were dropped in the subsequent issues).

 

Many readers had suggested that it would be hard to find an artist who could follow up Vidal's   brilliant front cover but this "problem'' was solved by a chance introduction to Bruno, a professionally-trained artist well-known in Germany. He agreed to design a new front cover and his exploding palm-tree design still stands as one of the great favorites of Pig readers.

Billy contributed a lively article on Dance for Dance Sake. I began my editorial series Pig's Eye View, and there was also a page of poetry called Visions in Verse.

 

On that page also appeared a cartoon I had received from Colva at the end of the previous season. Two pages were devoted to a detachable bulletin, Live-ln, Goa in which I published useful information for those living here, even if only for a short time.

 

The second issue was timed for December full-moon when live electric music was to comment on Anjuna Beach and, though the quality of the picture was not perfect, the "Anjuna. Beach-Live'' issue bearing a photo of to. 74/5 season's music scene, at its wildest, appeared at dawn on that night.

 

Eli had returned just in time to contribute one of his most brilliant spontaneous essays, "Goa Yoga" which was published in conjunction with Snydly's article, "The Connection", under the joint heading - "Alternative Society."     On the same page also appeared a few words by Eli and Emma, his companion in his acupuncture studies in Malaysia on the treatment of Opiate Withdrawal by Acupuncture, the technique for which they had learned from the Acupuncturists of Penang. Dadaji continued his Occult World series, with the first part of Zen's Zenith of Zest and Steve offered a long transcendental poem. Anyone wondering which of the many Steves around the beaches this was will be disappointed when I explain that Steve was only a pen-name and he was not known as such here but wished to remain anonymous. In the Live-in, Goa Bulletin No. 2, I reprinted my original article on beach Scene Ecology from Vol. 1 No. 1 of the pig, as the season was just beginning and this was something that needed to be said, again at that point.

 

At this time, an   old friend of mine, Jyoti, a naturopathic doctor from Bangalore, whom I had known two seasons earlier in Anjuna, arrived for a short stay at his old haunt. Amongst other things, he is fluent in Sanskrit, so I asked him to contribute to Mantram, a planned booklet that was being conceived around the   "Illusion Destroying Mantrams", which Eli and Emma had written during their travels. Other writers also contributed and a beautiful presentation came about in the short break between issues in January.

 

The first few copies contained a free edition of the rough version of the Game Guide on Self Initiation, which Eli had produced in Katmandu in the summer, containing Eight-Fingered Eddie’s original essay, now re-titled “On Spontaneous Self-initiation and a revised version of Eli’s articles for the first season’s Pigs with some additions. A finalized version, provisionally entitled “Guide to the Game of Self Initiation' is in now preparation, whilst the rough version of the “Game Guide” is available in a new binding.

 

By the time Vol. 2 No. 3 was ready to go to press, the Pig had become very popular and we had enough material to produce a Bumper Birthday Issue of sixteen pages to celebrate our first anniversary. Bruno once again contributed a top quality front-cover design and Billy designed a superb back-cover as well as writing "Getting it Together'' for the Live-ln, Goa bulletin No. 3. Eli produced two essays, one on Psychotropic Drugs and one entitled "Who is them?'', which questioned our relationships with the local people and the visiting Indian tourists. Almost immediately he arrived,   Jyoti composed a critical essay "Frugal Pompousness"   using material intended for his future book, "The Naked Sons of the Barren Soil'' which will deal with life in Goa. I also asked him to contribute an article on

natural living, especially in relation to diet for the bulletin and the result was "The Tragedy of Nutrition" an extremely useful document for us all.

 

A "Letters to the Editor'' page was begun. Dadaji completed his "Zen's Zenith of Zest" article and Sunny, who also contributed to Mantram, offered his synopsis of our "Current Community Problems". My own article, "Whatever Happened to Huxley's Island", concerning our non-realization of earlier utopian dreams, especially in relation to family life, was accompanied

in a two-page spread by the poem I had written on the birth of my daughter and by a tribute to Mike, the previous season's bass guitarist, who died in Swayambhu, a few hours before my daughter was born. My article was illustrated by Yan who later designed the first ever Map of Anjuna.

 

The bulk of the work of the production of Vol. 2 No. 3 was undertaken during a five-day fruit-only diet which I had imposed upon myself on Jyoti's recommendation for health reasons. I slept in that period, very few hours, too, in order to meet the full-moon deadline. The first copies were distributed at dawn at the live music beach-party.

       

A further issue was planned but all forms of energy had been drained out of me by the combination of continuous work on Nos. 2 & 3 and the issue of Mantram, in between, and the strain and hazards of a stoned-out Xmas on the beach-scene, and it never came together.

 

With the termination of the Second Season of the Pig I had more time to devote myself to a further activity of Stoned Pig Publications, that of The Stoned Pig T-Shirt production and though I began very late in the season, the success of the enterprise was more than I could have hoped for. Beginning with four designs, Vidal's Stoned Pig cartoon, East Trip, the drawing designed by myself and drawn by Yvonne in Katmandu for my

magazine there, Billy's Vol, 2 No. 3, back page design, Freak-out. Freak-In, and a combination of Goan Crazy, a triangular drawing by Simon for Vol. 1 No. 2 and Maya, which appeared on the back page of Vol. 2 No. 2. The

latter two designs were soon dropped as they were not so popular on T-shirts, but three new designs were produced before the end of the season. One was a design which I entitled "Bom Shankar'' by Jean-Paul, originally

intended for a future issue of the magazine, another was a new design by Bruno based upon his exploding palm tree drawing (which could not be used as it had been made as a half-tone photo block) which I titled Shiva Shambo; the last, Yan's Map of Anjuna was also printed separately on card.

 

At least five hundred shirts were distributed before the end of the season and the only remaining enterprise, for The Stoned Pig Publications were the printing of this history, The Pig's Tale, the production of "The Second Season of the Pig", a seventy-copy limited edition   of Vol. 2, including the Pig's Tale and a sixty-copy limited edition of "The Year of the Pig'', an album combining every Stoned Pig Publication during the entire year of its existence, including Eli's rough version of the "Game Guide on Self-lnitiation'', Mantram, the three Live- In, Goa Bulletins, and all seven issues of The Stoned Pig Magazine, prefaced by this Pig's Tale.

 

What comes next depends upon a multitude of factors, but if the consciousness permits my return to Goa for a seventh season in late 1976, I will most likely undertake to produce a third Season of the Pig.