The Call of the Olde World

Exactly a year ago today the plane touched down in Denver and I returned to Boulder seeking to begin work toward a new kind of learning institution patterned on the classical platonic academies of the Renaissance. Planting roots in Boulder with my roommate and spiritual brother on the path, Peter Roth, became a glorious alliance as we were both laboring over astrology books and able to have many enlightening discussions about our theories and research. Once back in my spiritual Mecca of Boulder, near the sacred mountain (aka.the Flatirons), I was overjoyed with bliss. Every morning, as I rode my bike Magellan to the gym two blocks away, I would gaze upon the Flatirons and feel HOME...in the truest sense of the word. However, I had set intentions to travel to Europe, and despite my forceful resolve to not even leave the Boulder County city limits...the Universe had some surprises in store. When I got settled, Arian decided not to return to California, as the board of directors voted to close down his alternative Waldorf-style Chico Green School...and he resigned himself to living in Boulder with me. At first he was disheartened, but I knew once he got in the flow of Boulder progressive culture, he'd be fine. Somehow, my old bike from college that I bought the same month I met Arian's mother, manifested in our lives (named Astronimonium, but 'Astron' for short)...Arian has been riding that bike around with me since he was 9 months old, as I was known in Key West for being the Island Astrologer with a baby on his back...I guess that's better than a monkey! Arian pressed me to direct my creative energy into our fantasy adventure role-playing game called Emergence RPG...and so I did. We worked together to playtest the system as I labored over the final chapters in the book, reaching the last two chapters before my creative focus demanded that I return to astrological and metaphysical writings. During Thanksgiving, an old friend from high school named "Sher-ee" got reconnected through Facebook, ah the wonders of technology. We both lamented the fact that we had never gotten the chance to truly explore love in high school, as we were both involved with other people. She offered me a trade for astrology charts for an airplane ticket to London, England, where I would visit her over Christmas while Arian was down in the Bayou hanging with his other family on Dauphin Island, Alabama. So for the first time in my life, I took off for Europe on an airplane and struck up a romance with an old friend who had become a dance/yoga/athletic life coach for many clients in London, one of the most expensive cities on earth. We had a wonderful week together...loaded with steamy passion, but it was her week off and so we had nothing else to do but play and explore the city. Things would not be the same when I returned in February. We took a karmic journey up to Oxford where I felt the inspirational soul power of two great influences in Percy Shelley and J.R.R Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien and C.S Lewis were part of a writing critique group called the Inklings who met once a week in a small Oxford pub to discuss their writings. I got to sit in their corner over a pile of chips (french fries)and a salad and feel the power of their presence. There were many pictures on the wall of them and copies of their Inklings charter along with a sign that declared that the conversations that had occurred in that corner transformed 20th Century literature! That was way cool. Excited to deepen the connection that we had established, and happy to explore Europe and England, I decided to return to Europe for seven weeks to see where things would go. She was so established in London that I felt like I would have to move there to be in her life. I think it really freaked her out to find that I was coming for seven whole weeks. But I did not intend to be a burden on her, as I wanted to take a week trip here and there to go to Rome, Stonehenge, etc. Was this a test to see how committed I was to becoming Kelly of Boulder? As it turned out, I didn't like London much, mainly because I despise the black holes that are our natural modern conglomeration of populations called cities. That many people in one place is just unnatural. Although I enjoyed riding the big double decker red busses all over combined with the London Underground subway system. As fate would have it, the relationship didn't work out and I felt like I could never fit into her busy London life, and the cold walls of alienation went up between us. When I feel unwelcome in someone's life or home, I have a tendency to leave immediately. I've got too much self-respect to stay in a place where your heart is suffering just by being there. Disheartened and excited, I bought a ticket out to explore Stonehenge and visit my ancestors site near Somerset, England. Before the journey, my mom turned me onto Ancestry.com where I traced the family history back through time to around 1000 AD. True to my South Node in Leo and Pluto in the 9th, I am descended from Irish and Scottish nobility as well as a Quaker immigrant named Joseph Phipps, who helped William Penn set up the Pennsylvania colony after being religiously persecuted in England. It was a grand moment standing there before Stonehenge feeling the power of the ancients who erected the monument over 5,000 years ago, around 3,000 BC. After visiting Stonehenge, I got back to London and knew it was time to go. I could smell fear of the relationship and issues around men stemming back to childhood and I didn't feel welcomed at all, so I packed up my stuff in a backpack and made for the train station with the intention of heading to Rome through Paris. As the train descended into the "Chunnel" connecting England to France, I knew I was off on an adventure of a lifetime. I had 6 weeks to explore and see what Europe had to offer. Even though my funds were low, I hoped fo abundance as I set foot in Paris, France with no French speaking skills determined to wade through tiny foreign streets to find the Eiffel Tower and Amelie's cafe....I'll tell that part of the story in the next post!