Nature Absorption Academy Headquarters on Öland

The Nature Absorption Academy Headquarters on Öland is both the secluded base of Atu Abanshamash Dumuzi’s school and the setting for Pirjo’s uneasy place in his world. For nearly four years, the school had been based on the Swedish island; its ordered quiet offered Pirjo a refuge from the jealousy and insignificance she felt when Atu turned his attention to women elsewhere, but it could not give her the intimacy she wanted from him.

Setting and Function

The headquarters occupied Öland, the elongated island off Sweden’s southeastern coast. Pirjo valued the peaceful landscape because, in her view, most things there were under control and events seemed to follow the wishes of Providence and the universe. Above all, the quiet left Atu’s soul undisturbed, a condition that meant everything to her.

That sense of order depended on distance from the academy’s wider recruiting work. When Atu travelled to centers in Barcelona, Venice, and London to attract new customers, he encountered women who were adrift and receptive to his claims as an oracle and healer. Pirjo experienced these encounters differently from the calm of Öland: away from the island, she felt trapped in loneliness, jealousy, and a sense of being unimportant.

Atu’s School and Pirjo’s Place

Pirjo was not merely a resident of the headquarters. Atu treated her as an extra hand and think tank, and she served as his diary writer, organizer, and coordinator. Her responsibilities gave her a practical role in running his work, but they did not answer her private longing to be regarded as one of the women who drew his desire.

She had followed Atu from the beginning, when his life was entirely different and he was known as Frank. By the time the school had spent years on Öland, she was his last remaining original disciple. Their long history, cooperation, and intimacy had not become the physical relationship she wanted: Atu had never made love to her. The headquarters therefore held two realities at once—Pirjo’s sustained closeness to his enterprise and the boundary he continued to place around their bodily intimacy.

Requests and the Arrival of Wanda

The headquarters also served as the point of contact for prospective students. Wanda Phinn wrote to the academy with a departure date, asked to be collected at the station in Kalmar, and said she hoped to take more courses than she had initially planned. She also proposed staying on as a volunteer to help spread Atu’s ideas and ideals. Wanda believed her earlier encounter with Atu had established a mutual desire and expected to resume their connection at the academy.

By September 2013, Pirjo had read Wanda’s latest message ten times. Though gut instinct had no place in the academy’s teachings, Pirjo felt her background made it impossible to dismiss. She interpreted Wanda’s plans as a refusal to accept Pirjo’s rejection of her application and as an attempt to enter and take over the world Pirjo shared with Atu. Pirjo also feared what might happen if Atu saw the message: his curiosity and libido, she believed, would be awakened. Because she was responsible for handling requests, she could control who was admitted. The headquarters’ quiet and order thus depended not only on its island setting but also on Pirjo’s gatekeeping, which turned Wanda’s proposed arrival into a threat she intended to prevent.