Equipment Lists
When you're about to set off on a journey around the world or who-knows-where-else, you need to get the right equipment. I feel like a Dungeons & Dragons character getting ready to set out on an adventure. In the role-playing game you usually need things like a backpack, a mirror, trail rations, iron spikes (pitons) & hammer, flint & steel, candles, tent, bedroll, a winter blanket, a traveler's outfit, and of course the ever useful standard 10' pole. If you have a riding horse or warhorse you might have some saddlebags to store everything in too!
In the modern world where you are biking across the country and possibly continents you need waterproof panniers to protect your high tech gear and an amazing bike. I've been working on outfitting my new Trek 7.3 hybrid road bike with all this stuff, always worried about the weight factor of everything. The first lesson I learned in my early twenties when hiking the Colorado Trail was the pain of over-encumbrance. 14,000 foot peaks are unmerciful on those who choose to carry too much stuff.
So the struggle here is between usefulness and light weight objects. Being an internet employed astrologer, I need a lap top, but my 17" Dell Inspiron is too heavy, so I'm hitting two birds with one stone by switching to MAC (at last!) and also getting an ultra light 13" Mac Book Pro. The problem is that they cost about $1950 if you want the 500 GB hard drive and 3 years of Apple Care plus I need to upgrade my Adobe Master Collection Software (over 15 amazing programs for creative design like Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Soundbooth, Premiere Pro, etc...
I have the Creative Suite 3, but need to upgrade to the CS5 version and cross platforms to the MAC version, which will set me back another $1200. I have been selling collectibles on Ebay but if I go out on a limb and buy the MAC and upgrade my software, I'm going to head down the road with very little gold left over in my pouch for things like food, shelter, etc. Donations and sponsorships are extremely welcome at Travelingmagi.com!
Today I was back at REI outfitting my cycling shorts and footwear. I decided I loved the feel of the Five-Finger Vibram shoes shown in the picture above. They fit your feet like gloves and you can exercise in them and they are superlight and take up less space than one running shoe! If you wear them with micro fiber socks they won't stink I hear so I bought three pairs of socks too!
I got the new 64 GB Wi-Fi I-pad and it is amazing! This device will change the future for sure, especially since it has come out under the auspices of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Pisces flowing into Aries. The new tech this year will shape the future of civilizations! So prepare yourself and get on board. Think of it as an affirmation of your desire to be included in the new emerging global village.
Unlike the Sixties, our generation is tuning in and dropping into the internet culture defining a new counter culture movement based on the fluid fast-changing cyber-scape of the glowing extra-dimensional world of the Internet. Back in 1997, I wrote in Celestial Renaissance, that the Internet was an emerging physical replica of the Inner-Net we all possess within us, and that by 2080, the whole human race would be trained to access their inner net through using the Internet.
I think it's happening faster than I originally thought. When I go into a coffee shop I see less Inter-action in the physical plane than I do on the inner dimensions of the internet, with electricity elementals flying all over the place to connect us. Now if we could increase the quality of these interactions and the depth of philosophical contemplation and meaningful inquiry we'll be jamming toward the Aquarian civilization outlined perfectly in The Aquarian Conspiracy and more recently in Aquarius Now: Radical Common Sense and Reclaiming Our Personal Sovereignty
What's Your Class?
The next part of fantasy game equipment selection involves getting the gear that applies to your Class or Profession. If you're a rogue you require thieves tools for picking locks and disarming traps. Fighters need proper armor and Wizards need spellbooks. What does a Celestial Characterologist require? First off, let's define what I am in RPG terminology. I give people life-changing evocative consultations about their character and the shape of their future while simultaneously inspiring them through words of wisdom and poetry.
So I'm kinda like a mix between a Sage and a Wizard/Seer mixed with a serious dose of Scholar/Bard. Obviously, I believe that astrology is not about predicting the future, but rather about creating and shaping the future by working with the archetypal textures of time that you can see emerging through transits and progressions. I incorporate a lot of wisdom traditions, proverbs, poetry etc, so there's an element of bardic lore involved in what I do which requires ample scholarly research and continual filling the well of my own inspiration. That's one reason I got the I-pad with the Kindle App and I-books, so I could carry a growing library of inspiration. I've already downloaded a thirteen hour inspirational collection of Alan Watts lectures called "You're It!" plus an amazing 6 hour piece about cultivating spiritual disciplines in everyday life by my favorite poet and Oh Captain My Captain, David Whyte. Can't wait to zone out on my two favorite philosophers while jamming across the wilds of Wyoming and Montana!
In addition I downloaded an enlightening reading of the Tao Te Ching, essential for my soul! And those are just my first few audio books! I also started downloading astrology books that I find inspirational by some of my favorite astrology authors, It looks like Liz Greene's publishers beat everyone to the punch with Kindle version of her books! I think I'll follow suite! Hillman's Planets in Play was one of my first I-books! Turns out the the Adobe Creative Suite CS5 is primed for the creation of e-books including the cool i-books where you can actually turn the digital pages. But the upgrade to MAC is $1200! Did I mention compassionate donations are accepted on my TravelingMagi.com website. LOL
The difference between me and the average D&D character is that I won't be needing any heavy weaponry like swords, maces, halberds, longbows nor any armor or shields. So that cuts down on encumbrance right there. I could see myself in platemail armor and a lance trying to pedal my bike! That would be hilarious! But this character isw following the way of the peaceful warrior, and so martial arts will have to do if I find myself in the proverbial dark alley...
What's Your Vision?
The next step in outfitting myself for this epic spiritual quest involves focusing on my vision. What do I want to accomplish? For instance, I'm not just traveling around to see the sites like a tourist. I feel a deep devotion to spreading inspiration through astrology, a servant of the archetypes. So I will be quite busy either talking to people wherever I go or working on creative projects like e-books, films, spiritual games, etc. That's one reason I need to be able to record charts and type books on a lap top. Most travel writers either have blogs or submit pieces to publications. I depend on the generosity of astrology clients and internet sales of products I design.
I see myself leaving sometime after the Jupiter conjunction to Uranus on June 8th, after I complete my adventure of gear compilation, which is taking longer than I thought it would. In the meantime, I'm practicing riding my bike (My bum already hurts!) downloading HD video for my next film, selling stuff on E-bay to make funds for the journey and equipment, and I just sent my kid off on a plane to be with his mom and other family for the summer.
I always well up with emotion when my kid goes away to his mom's. But I know we'll be rejoining each other in the fall somewhere cool and ready for semesters at sea! I woke up this morning and there was no parenting responsibility to attend to like making breakfast or driving him to school, which was at the same time a relief as well as a vast empty hole in my heart. I got to turn the rooster alarm on my Droid off for some sweet serene sleep!
We get used to being useful and important. We wear our responsibilities like clothes in our soul. And when they disappear like that we feel a nakedness, an aloneness that both soothes and hurts. It's even tougher not having any water sign planets in my chart and a Gemini Moon that needs to talk about emotions to feel them. So here I am talking to you dear readers about missing my beloved child.
I opened him a bank account at Wells Fargo so he could have his own Debit card and I created him a Pay Pal account on the day Urnaus went into Aries. With 6 planets in Capricorn he'll probably be a millionaire by the time it gets into Taurus in seven years! The kid is chomping at the bit to work a job at Noodles & Company here in Colorado. With Cancer Rising and a love of noodles and food in general he thinks it's wrong that he work there and receive free food and pay! He is amazed at the prospects. Those earth signs are weird like that! They can't wait to get on the workforce roster.
Anyway, I digress...time to go hunt me down a bluetooth wind canceling headset for the Droid cell phone!
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