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!

Return of a Magi

There and Back Again - A Magi's Tale

Yesterday I arrive in Boulder with the intention of moving into a cool new apartment with one of my spiritual brothers named Peter Roth on JUne 18th. Peter is a fellow astrologer, but is also adept at other arts like Chi gung and computer software design...but mostly he is just funny! I met Peter at an astrology conference in Atlanta back in 1998...and we have both visited each other on the West and East Coasts...but now we are meeting in the middle for some cosmic creativity.

A year ago on Father's day I left Boulder on a bike...and now I've returned. It feels quite amazing to be here with new eyes, open-broken heart, wounded arm (from being hit by a car), and ready to start from the emotional ground of being to simply be. Part of me wants to buy seaweed and roast it with sesame oil, sea salt and cayenne pepper and just focus on creative projects. Another part of me wants to build an astrological-friendly university, an academy of the ages.

Freed from my exile and painful, lonely imprisonment in Chico, CA where my son fell in love with the Chico Green School, I return to where the journey began, where my heart has always been for over three decades. My father picked me up at the airport and was glad to see that I was in better shape than he thought since getting hit by a car on my bike three weeks ago.

At an intersection in Chico the light turned green and a car honked loudly at me as I was wading through the stopped traffic. So I turned to look to see if the light had really turned green, and before I could look back my front tire coasted into the next lane where a car was suddenly bearing down on me at 25 miles per hour!

I squeezed the breaks hard but it was too late. The car struck the front of my bike and my left thigh collided with the mirror as I lowered my shoulder and took on the momentum of the car. Taking on a car with your shoulder is tough and hurts badly! It's a lot harder than facing one guy on a football field. Imagine being hit by five 300-pound offensive linemen at once, and you can imagine the pain that exploded through my shoulder that day. I went flying off the bike twirling through the air in circles and, due to my agile reflexes, landed on all fours like a cat in the next lane, scraping my palms in the process. My life's work on my computer went flying too, but was okay.

The guy says he didn't see me. I came out of nowhere. I get it. I wasn't interested in suing him or anything, just glad to be alive. If it was anybody's fault, it was the rude lady who honked and scared the you know what out of me. But I'm not interested in assigning blame. Like I said, just happy to be alive, although my creative plans for my last month in Chico were derailed.

After the accident, the ambulance crew wanted to take me to the hospital but I refused. I just wanted them to make sure nothing internal was badly damaged. It wasn't. Just a ton of pain! And the cop wanted to call me a cab, but I told him I just wanted to walk alone with Magellan (who of course rolled all wobbly because the forks were bent), and so I wandered across the street to Trader Joes, bought some seaweed snacks, clif bars, and ice cold root beers and checked myself into the Movie theater across the street to sit through Pirates of the Caribbean to take my mind of the sharp pain pounding in my shoulder like ten headaches. I placed the cold cans of root beer down my shirt on my shoulder and upper arm to help quell the pain. I knew I was going to need a lot of ice later. So much for my gym plans that day. Actually for two weeks!

The funny thing about it is that I was on my way to fax and notarize an apartment rental agreement back to Boulder to escape Chico and commit to becoming "Kelly of Boulder." I almost inadvertently became "Dead Kelly of Chico" instead. But my body is too stubborn to die for now. The ironic part is that during my 3200 mile trek, I never even came close to being hit by a car. But as soon as a settle in a town, BAM! The universe challenges me with this humbling experience. It makes you appreciate each moment and to get serious about what you're about. It would have been a bad joke for the Universe to take me out when there is still work yet to be done by this Renaissance being.

So there I was on my Saturn-Descendant line (a tough astrological place to be because it's so damn lonely and harsh), during my Saturn dasa (a long 18 year period in Vedic astrology where you establish mastery in your focus). Normally I'm not one to sulk, infused with so much confidence. But sometimes you need a dose of Saturnian harshness to make you stronger and bring you wisdom. "The deeper the sorrow is carved into your being, the more Joy you can contain," says poet Gibran. My sorrow for this world is like the Grand Canyon at this point with all the instituted confusion and suffering. All I can do at this point is BE...and love what I love and live as an example of heroic courage and inspiration.

My spiritual brother David Alexander English picked me up and took me to the airport. David has Capricorn Rising and is the embodiment of the Wise Elder archetype. It takes a Saturn figure to break a Saturnian connection. As if to emphasize the grip Chico had on my soul, we ran out of gas on the way to the airport! David's Volkswagen Van, which has spiritual words like Consciousness and COmpassion painted on the sides, has a broken gas gauge. We mistimed our gas stop by a few miles! While he called Triple-A, I told Arian to follow me. My intuition said that the farm house that we just passed had someone who could help. After wading through a pack of dogs diplomatically, I got a rice farmer to come out on his porch and asked him for help. He had use fueled and ready to go in about ten minutes. We would still make our flights on time...whew!

I slept in my old high school room last night in the furnished basement at my Dad's and Step-mom's place just outside Boulder. Arian and I parted ways at the Sacramento airport after David came through Chico on his way to the Rainbow Gathering in Washington State. It was fitting because only his Capricorn Rising, Saturn Governed earthy self was enough to break the intense gravity-field that was Chico. Don't get me wrong. Its a pleasant little college town, but it's not for me to live there. My son wants to continue going to school there, but that's his choice. I don't want to stand in the way of his destiny. I realized that that meant not seeing him for at least a year. Life flows on. He will thrive. Part of me feels like I've graduated parenthood with the arrival of Arian's mature self. He's already arranged for a full scholarship in Chico staying with an amazing woman named CJ and her genius son William, who is Arian's classmate. They will be fine companions on the path ahead, developing their mutual gifts. Thanks CJ for taking in my kid! I enjoyed playing board games with them.

So my first day in Boulder, I have a tradition of climbing the Chattaqua trail up tot he base of the Flatirons. Since my new spiritual brother Logan had just come out of an eleven day silence retreat in the mountains southwest of Boulder, we decided to meet up and I got to meet his good friend Peter. We both have good friends named Peter. For more on how I met Logan on the Winter Solstice Full Lunar Eclipse, check out the post where I spent the twelve days of x-mas in San Francisco.

Logan is an amazing being and a great spiritual healer. His friend Peter was an alchemist himself. We had chais together at Trident and then walked up Boulder Creek Bike Path by the river. It was serene and mystical as we talked abut life the universe and the path. Then Peter drove us up to the Flatirons base trail and we huffed and puffed and hiked up the sloping trail, the same one I trained to run up during football in college. I aim to master this fine art again in Boulder. We sat in meditation on a great rock together and insights surged into our fields of consciousness. I had the vision of coming to the rock there every Thursday, the day of Thor, also known as Jupiter's Day, so that will be my SUnday...my holy day to march up the mountain to sit with the muse of solid rock during this Saturn Dasa.

After we went out for amazing salads and met peter's wife and two kids (which both reminded me of Arian), they dropped me off at the location of Peter and I's new place. I wanted to just walk around and get an inner "feel" for the hood. I found that the doors to the Glenlake apartments were open after saying goodbye to Logan and Peter, and so I walked in looking for apartment 220, our new pad that we plan on making into a cafe-like den of cosmic creativity! I found the apartment at the end of a narrow hall and heard music playing beyond the door. Somebody still lived there until next Saturnday. I was delighted to see that our place was close by the swimming pool outside. I stood before the door and invoked the blessings of the spirit holding my hands before me palm outward aiming at the door.

It would have been funny if whoever lived there opened the door to see this big centaur beaming Reikan at them, divine inspiration. After that I went over to a nearby cafe and was not impressed. Peter says there's a better one around. But I checked our relocated charts and found tht perfect time to move in for both our charts was at 6:24 PM on Saturday when Sag was rising to activate my Jupiter-Neptune and Peter's Venus...it's a most dynamic moment indeed! We need to break the plane of the threshold and be "born" into our new place at that moment! I laughed at the thought of us hugging and leaping through the doorway together!

So then I remembered that there was gym a block away called 24-hour fitness and that they had a steam room. In my new incarnation, I'm going to strive to awaken each day at 5 AM, drink tea, and head straight to the gym for a dynamic workout. Then I plan on being at my favorite writing spot (there may be many), by 9 AM...and work till I get hungry for dinner around 6 PM, head home, and be in bed by 9 PM. My acupuncturist says that each hour of sleep before Midnight is worth two after due to the powerful descent toward the Yin turning point. In other words, Midnight is like a New Moon and also begins the liver cleanse process. This way, I stay attuned to the life-giving Sun like on my bike trip, and also stay healthy and vital to be a pure lens for spirit.

So I walk into the gym and the young attendant there asked me to fill out a form for my 7-day free trial membership. And then she asked me to add my birthday, and I said jokingly, "I'm an Aquarius. What are you?" We got talking about astrology and she loves it. Next thing you know we are busting out my laptop to give her a mini free inspiring reading right there on the spot. Then her manager came out and he wanted one too! We were there for four hours interpreting charts for them and for another gym member who walked by and wanted hers. It was a glorious descent of the spirit right there at the front desk of gym. I told them of my intentions of teaching astrology and starting a new kind of educational academy in Boulder. They were all psyched and promised to spread the word about my vision and work. Afterward, the lady member and I went to work out. It felt bizarre working out at Midnight, and I didn't really get home till 3 AM! This made for a perfect moon entering my 12th house of sleep and dreams phase, because I got to sleep in at my dad's till 11 AM. Since there was no bus service to Lafayette ten miles out at 3 AM, the kind lady offered me a ride home!

The next morning I woke up and headed back to the bus stop. I saw a UPS truck go by and yearned for my bike Magellan to arrive! My right arm was tired of lugging around a loaded pannier and I preferred to ride my bike than bus any day. SO Logan was departing today, and I met him at Trident cafe, and we went out back into their garden and we took some atomic gold alchemical stuff he called Osrim or something. It looked like sperm. It was invented by Egyptians and was crafted from a gold atom. SO after getting properly drugged up, we went out ito to Boulder to raise some Heaven!

Logan was hungry so we hunted down some Thai food near Pearl Street Mall and checked the bus schedule for his departure to the airport. Recently, Logan had been thrown a curve ball by the universe, when he met an enlightened woman named Juliet in Santa Cruz. I met here briefly before leaving Chico, and she seemed very wise and powerful, and gorgeous to boot. Logan was in love, and he wanted me to do a Synastry chart between them. So I did. It was so powerful that in the middle of the reading when I told him that Juliet was the incarnation of Kali with her Moon conjunct PLuto in Scorpio (which Logan has a need for in his chart), that we looked at each other and mutually felt the spirit of life come over us. It started with me as I looked down at the chill bumps spreading over my right arm...and then they spread over my back and down the left arm and all the way down to my toes. I had never experienced a full body goose bump episode before, and when Logan saw me extend my goose-bump laden ams out, he began having the same experience, and tears welled up in my eyes and then his. It was as if the Goddess had appeared to bless my words..and both of us sat there laughing and crying intensely. It was such a magical threshold experience, and I feel so blessed to have been touched by the divine in his presence. He was indeed one of a few spiritual brothers who I can count on one hand's fingers.

After that, we took him over to the bus stop and I saw him off on his divine journey. Then I walked up Pearl Street and decided to have some tea at the Dashube Tea House....ordering a chai of course plus some brewed black tea called Russian Caravan. You could taste the spice carried by that Caravan across the silk road! After an hour or two of writing and opening my heart o spirit, I realized what needed to be done to teach in Boulder. I didn't need a building and a rich investor. My body was the building and nature was the classroom. I would begin teaching those who yearned to lean and just watch the miraculous wave grow in strength. I had a vision of inviting my five spiritual brothers and five spiritual sisters to Boulder to teach a week-long workshop on awakening and astrology. That would be awesome! My friend Hadley could design us a cool website. We could have a great time together teaching....

I would bring it up at the gathering of astrologers at the Astrology Salon next Sunday. A local Boulder astrologer named Melody invited several of us to join together with the Moon in Aquarius next Sunday the 19th, a day after Peter and I move into our new place, and exactly the same day I left (Father's Day) on my epic bike trip a year ago.

After having tea I decided it was time to seek out a cafe with Internet to write this. I ran into Carrie the Knitter who I knew from Asheville,a nd she directed me to her new hangout called OZO on Pearl Street, and gave me a card for a free drink! Of course I ordered a Bahkti Chai. But before going in, I remembered that my musical genius friend with amazing pipes named Lea, who had followed my blog and whom I met before when I was in Boulder, was playing music at Saxy's cafe around the corner. So I walked in and she was sitting there with her back to the door and I slowly walked around her, and she slowly raised her head, and then her face exploded with surprise and she jumped up and hugged me deeply. She and her other musician friend named Steve were writng their set list. I just wanted to say a quick hello and tell her I was back, for good! She was happy and I loved to see her glowing magical Leo-Pisec face.

So here I am back in Boulder...ready to devote myself to the great work of inspiration during a time when the world as we know it is collapsing and the dawn of the Global Renaissance of 2020 and beyond is in sight...nine short years. I think I can build an amazing academy in nine years. Anyone out there who is inspired has an open invitation to help in any way they can! Let's rebirth this world with the pure enlightenment of consciousness by teaching people to become whole, to find their unique archetypal synthesis so they can give the gift of their authenticity to the world!

The Inward Journey

The Inward Fire

There is a fire brewing within that we are afraid to unleash.
For we know its surge of creative power will wreck our lives.

But bleak is the landscape of the life ignorant of this burning well of desire.
I want to explore all those dark, unattainable places of the soul
that require a journey of a lifetime just to ripen.

In those secret fathomless depths, await the original seed images of my being,
thirsting for germination as the inward tide of consciousness stirs them to life.

When those seeds sprout, and the gods walk the earth again,
I will then be content with the march of time, surrendering to the rich merging with eternal presences at last.

* * * * *

Hello Faithful Cyber-Companions! It has been a while since I've posted much because I've just been chillin' in Chico, CA and bouncing around the Bay Area and Santa Cruz working on writing projects. When you live in a fixed location life becomes routine. I don't know if I like that or not. When you are traveling, you have some routines that don't change too, like waking up and riding your bike. But the scenery is always changing and that alone is a deep comfort to this soul. But sometimes we can get addicted to change for the sake of change. And sometimes we are called to take the journey inward so we can accomplish things in the inner planes of the mind. As you know, I've been working on my magnum opus astrological masterpiece that I call the Tao of Astrology. It will be finished this year, hopefully by fall, but not if I keep traveling.

Whilst working on the book, the muse has taken me on many side-treks for research that have been highly illuminating. Recently, whilst researching the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction cycle, I got so caught up in comparing historical events to their alignment every 20 years that I spent the better part of 3 months fully engaged in study, and the conclusions came together in my first ever e-book called Elemental Wave Chronicles - The Jupiter-Saturn Cycle. You can order your own copy here!

What I learned is that history unfolds in these 8 dynamic Elemental Waves, both hybrid and pure, that together define an 800-year Elemental Epoch. During Fire Wave conjunction periods, there are Scientific Revolutions, massive land expansions, and charismatic new leaders and civilizations that arise like America. During Earth Waves there are population explosions, advances in production and trade, and Industrial Revolutions like the one we are emerging from right now in this hybrid Earth-Air 40-year period from 1981-2020, when the cycle goes to pure Air Sign meetings.

During the approximate 200-year Air Sign Waves there are Renaissances characterized by intellectual revitalization inspired by philosophy and science that fuel social, political and economic transformations. This is why the world is becoming more mental right now! We are entering a Renaissance period like never before, because this time it has the chance of going global, and that's an exciting piece of news. In the past, astrology always flourishes under these Air Sign Waves, like when the Hellenistic Greeks arose to create horoscopic astrology used for individuals around 220 BCE. During that time, when the ages were about to shift between Aries and Pisces Alexander united Greece with India and crafted a super-highway of intercultural exchange centered in Alexandria where the Great Library was built. This time is coming again starting in 2020 and we already have our World Wide Web super-freeway in place, born during the Libra Chronicle between 1981 and 2000!

During my research, I realized that the people who contributed great works of writing and teachings were always known by the place they worked in like Plato of Athens, Archimedes of Syracuse, Ptolomy of Alexandria, etc. I started wondering who I was as an emergent Renaissance man of this amazing period and realized that my favorite city in the world was Boulder, Colorado. I don't call it my Mecca for nothing! And then I realized that my best friend and fellow astrologer/computer software designer/Chi Gung healer Peter longed to live there too and suddenly I had this longing to get myself planted in Boulder where I could begin building the Great Pyramid of information that is coursing through my being with all these book and film projects that aim to inspire people to live their true paths of individuation and to rebirth astrology.

One night, while the New Moon in Aries conjunct Jupiter was in my 4th House of Hearth and Family, I had a dream that there was a teaching/healing center in Boulder and that the building was based on the Zodiac. I woke up at 3 AM with this vision burning inside me and wondered if the Universe wanted me to build it! But my intuition urged me to do a Google search...so I typed in Boulder CO, astrology, house....and several seconds later I'm staring at image of a house used for workshops called the StarHouse about 5 miles up Sunshine Canyon near Boulder!

I was like Wow! SO I clicked over to Orbitz and bought a flight home in an instant! I'm leaving an hour after Arian returns to his mom's for the summer on June 11th to go become Kelly of Boulder! I'll be shipping Magellan back. I thought about riding through the deserts of Nevada and Utah and was like "no thanks!" Does this mean my outer journeys will cease? For now, the journey is going inward. I told myself I wouldn't go on my European trek with a backpack until I completed my Great Work. It might take some time. So now, I'm just open to travel if money and time permit, but I'm radically altering my focus from the wandering locational-independent lifestyle. Do I feel bad about it? There is a little sadness, but not really, because the inward journeys are becoming so rich that no outer journey can even compare. The books and projects I'm working on are becoming entire nations and wildernesses that my inner fiery explorer is charting for humanity.

What will happen to this Traveling Magi blog? It will continue as a vivid story of what I am exploring in the inner landscape. My kid has fallen in love with Chico and the Chico Green School, and mostly wants to return here. Since I'm not very taken with the place after my first 6 month settling spree comes to a close, we'll see what happens next. He enjoys Boulder as well, so I asked him to go home to his mom's for the summer and think about having a semester out in Boulder again. If when he turns 16, and he still wants to continue at Chico Green School, the principle said she would take him in because he is "the exemplar of the kind of student they want representing their school." I love the school too. It's like a Harry Potter school of the future for amazing creative kids. Arian's history teacher asked me to come in and do a lecture last week on my new e-book about the Jupiter-Saturn cycle and the kids loved it!

So if any of my friends and allies want to come to Boulder to help me create an Academy devoted to teaching metaphysics, astrology, creative arts, and healing arts, by all means join Peter and I in Boulder. We can get an amazing community house right downtown by Pearl Street and hike the Flatirons together! Peter is there now searching for us a cool place to live. It's kind of fitting that the outward journey is taking me back to where I began this quest to rethink my life. As I turned 40, a deeper conviction has set in, into my gut and in my heart, about what I'm about and how I want to spend the rest of this life teaching and inspiring people to contribute to the emerging Global Renaissance. In studying history, I noticed that during Air Waves, when Renaissance characters would emerge like Albertus Magnus, Imhotep, and King David, that they were always masters at multiple disciplines, polymaths of their times. Some of them had mastered 12 fields ranging from invention and architecture to music and mathematics. How are you developing your polymath potential?

As I contemplated the fields that impassioned me I saw the 12 Signs of the Zodiac as a template for these fields and began asking myself how I expressed each of these in my own life. Starting with Aries I realized I was a warrior-athlete, then a Vegan Chef-Naturalist, a Writer/Publisher, a Counselor-Father, an Independent Filmmaker, a Guide/Mentor/Technician, an artist of language as a multilingual lover of communication through fantasy novels and visionary poetry, an alchemist/researcher/psychologist, an enthusiastic Teacher/Philosopher/Speaker, an executive/consultant and CEO of Divine Inspiration, a pioneering Astrologer/Metaphysician/Mathematician, and a spiritual Mystic of the Unified Field. That's a lot of fields to be mastering in one individual, but I can say in full honesty that I'm passionate about every one of those fields!

So the main reason I'm canceling my wandering travels, to return to Boulder, is to focus all this potential into a beam of laser-like clarity where the great works can emerge. I'm still going to be a minimalist in terms of owning things. After living on a bike for four months I realized what I truly needed, and it's not much. Arian is excited about digging out the HD TV and hooking up a new X-box (I have to admit the new Madden football game looks way cool!) In fact, after five or six month in Chico, I've come to despise the way our dark sides emerge along with inharmonious habits when we live indoors. For instance, it's easy to get involved with writing and stay up all night when there is abundant electricity and indoor lighting. As a result, my lifestyle design project in Boulder is going to involve maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm waking up with the sun and spending time in nature, jogging up to the base of the Flatirons and eating healthy produce. So I'm excited about mastering my tendencies when living in one place and hope to inspire you to do the same so we can all become high quality expressions of our Visionary Selves!

I will still write about travels in this blog when they happen, and I have set such a powerful intention for wandering through Europe that it will most likely happen in another strange way. So stay tuned. But for now I'm preparing the middle chapters of the Tao of Astrology and focusing my consciousness on what kind of ideal teaching and writing lifestyle I want to craft in Boulder. Traveling Magi will become the blog where I present new ideas as they emerge and tell you about new projects. It seems fitting that the journey will end where it began. I think I'll add The Traveling Magi as another novel project indeed!

For those who truly want to help this Renaissance being in the journey, please subscribe to my Divine Inspiration Newsletter. Think of it as an investment and a kindness for $5 per month, basically the price of a Soy Chai, which I drink a lot of at coffee shops while writing! When I released my new e-book, my subscribers were the first to see it and got their copy free. Not only that, many of them helped me edit it into refined form with their email comments. So if you want to be part of my creative team and take me out for a chai tea once per month, I hope you will join.

When my plane touches down in Denver on June 11th, I mean to launch a silent revolution of consciousness with the construction of this pyramid of wisdom that I'm going to oversee. It's so exciting to be alive right now! What are you waiting for? The world needs the Renaissance version of you...

A Tsunami with Your Chai?

My new friend Jason (who reminds me of my own brother Jason - both born in 1973) tugged on my shoulder and woke me up.

"Kelly, we've got to go! There's been a massive earthquake in Japan and a tsunami is coming this way. We've got to get up to higher ground."

It's not the best way to be woken up in the morning. Suddenly you're laying there in that warm slumbery coziness of pre-dawn wondering if you're going to die unless you get a move on. The memorized comfy self wants to just boil some water and make a mug of steaming chai with soy vanilla creamer, but the universe wants to toss in a tsunami! And part of you is wondering if you are ready to die. And part of you wants to die, thinks it's the key to space travel, but you've realized that you already did that to get here, so you figure you'll hang around and see why you came here despite the needless suffering around, including earthquakes.

Maybe the planet is waking up and letting us have it at last? Maybe we deserve to suffer for paving over woodlands and ecosystems with skyscrapers and gravel and death. Maybe I'll jus tlie here and withstand a tsunami...

"How much time do I have?" I asked. He smiled and said, "It strikes at 8 AM, but we should get going."

"Good!" I said. "Then I have time for a shower at least."

So I took a nice hot long shower as he packed up supplies in his truck. Who knows? We might be on the mountain for a while. When we rode up out of Santa Cruz, we came to the top of a beautiful scenic mountain top overlooking the city and the ocean in the distance. We ate some Clif bars and talked about pyramid power and earth energy fields. We sat there on the apex for a while just talking interlaced with moments of silence, waiting for our impending doom.

Then we went back to the truck to see many other vehicles pouring into the parking lots to escape the disaster. I noticed Jason had tons of frisbee golf discs and there was a 27 hole frisbee golf course right there. "We should play!" I said. And so we did. We played a friendly game of frisbee golf while waiting for our impending doom. So nice to relax when possible certain death is coming your way. I wondered if I could be this relaxed if kidnappers held a gun to my head. I was pretty certain I could be, but you never know. When you see through this world's empty endless cycle of craving and suffering, you kind of start to look forward to death. Like old people on their last leg who just want to take one final breath and say goodbye. There body's are tired and ready to let go. What's wrong with me then? My body is strong and fit, despite a few adventurous scars. My heart is the part of me that's weary of this world.

I see homeless people struggling on the streets to stay warm and fed and people with homes struggling beneath mountains of bills and useless possessions that distract them form their true gifts. The planet Uranus just entered Aries, I thought. The planet of revolution and change has once again returned to the first degree of the Zodiac. Astrologers think this must be a volatile time indeed in the sign of the warrior. I wondered? What happened the last time uranus was in Aries in the Roaring Twenties? The birth of television and atomic energy...Hmmm.

Two weeks later I completed this article about it called Pioneering a Revolution: Enjoy!

Wintering in California

“Within each of us a universe awaits exploration.” That’s how I’m opening my new astrology book called The Tao of Astrology. And it’s finally unfolding after all these years out here in cold wet rainy California. After securing a nice place to stay for Arian and myself in Chico CA, Arian flew home to spend Christmas with his mom, and his other family on Dauphin Isle, Alabama. So I decided to hop on the bus Gus and head down to spend 12 days of Christmas in San Francisco as the Traveling Magi.

Before I left on my bike journey last under the Summer Solstice, while still in the preparation stage of leaving everything you know behind, I met a lady online named Alicia Lin, a Chinese lady from San Fran who was both into video game designer recruitment and astrology. We instantly became friends and I told her that I would love to visit if I ever made it to the big city. In addition, a friend of mine named Adam Apollo also lived just north of San Francisco in the Marin County region...and I arranged to stay the night at his place and have Thai food with him and his love Ka, who is the most amazing artist I’ve ever encountered. Adam is the most innovative web designer and visionary I know.

Getting to Adam’s place in Fairfax was harder than it looked. I took the bus down to Sacramento and then over to San Francisco, arriving while the light still shined. Wandering around downtown in the financial district was disorienting with all those huge yawning, looming buildings everywhere creating a maze of modern living that most rats would have a hard time of. So I just walked around trying to figure out which bus went north across the Golden Gate bridge. After the sun had gone down, I still didn’t have a clue, and Alicia was busy for one more night so I couldn’t stay with her as she had friends in town already couchsurfing there. I managed to find her apartment building just in case I became stranded and then I went to talk to the bus people.

Eventually I learned the number of the bus I needed to take, and Adam was expecting me soon, but I didn’t know where to catch said bus. So I just walked around in circles with my vibram five-finger shoes and sore feet from carrying a heavy backpack. Then I saw it! A bus with the right number was coming right for me and so I flagged it down and chased it to the next stop. Next thing you know I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge in the dark fog and rain headed to a place I’ve never been to meet an old friend and Jedi trainer.

Adam and I had been roommates back in Asheville between 2002 and 2005 or so. He was in college then and I enjoyed hanging out with the 20-something crowd in my early 30’s. Turns out that he ended up getting into a relationship with a lady named Ka, who was born about 7 days before Christina, my last wife...and I had done her chart before. It was great when she picked me up at the bus drop-off and I finally got to put a face to a chart! We drove over to her place where Adam was waiting. It was so good to “hug his neck” again as they say in the Deep South. We spent the night sharing stories of our journeys of awakening over the last decade and it was truly magnificent. I showed him some of the new ideas in Tao of Astrology and blew his mind, and he showed me the magic he was doing on the web and blew mine! Then he invited me and my friend ALicia to the Winter Solstice party they were having in a few days. The next morning I interpreted some astrology charts for Adam’s other roommates over at his place. They live in these giant beautiful intricate 2 million dollar houses on mountains overlooking the lush Marin county region. What a way to wake up in the morning with such amazing views. I felt like we were back in Asheville NC with all the rain again.

After riding the bus back down to San Francisco I finally got to meet Alicia Lin and we went out for Thai food and she began telling me that she had all these amazing people she would love to connect me to. Alicia is Libra rising with a Libra moon...so Miss Connections...you could call her a human Rollodex! If you need to connect with someone in the Bay Area or in the world, she has a magical way of making it happen.

We went back to her gorgeous apartment overlooking the Bay Area Bridge and Alcatraz and she invited me to stay on her couch or in her bed. It wasn’t a sexual thing. I mean, it could have been. But we were not attracted to each other in that way..so we just slept in the same room but with no romantic fondling. Unless you think conversation is romantic, which I do. We talked about everything, but mainly astrology and barely had time to sleep between roaming the city and meeting people. I think I must have met over fifty influential people while there, and did about seven charts per day on my I-pad....mini sessions that gave people a taste of what I do: Give people valuable insights into their integrated character and the qualities of time they are experiencing, along with some poetic inspirational spiritual advice to help people on their journeys.

Alicia was relentless in her goal of introducing me to the movers and shakers of San Francisco’s creative scene. After reading Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums in my tent on my I-pad months before, it was an honor to visit the City Lights bookstore where Ginsberg and company used to convene. I could feel their spirits there, still whispering in echoes off the old walls in the downstairs area. I also found a great book by Jung which opened write to a cool quote for my astrology book. Yahoo!

On our way to the Winter Solstice party, Alicia arranged a quick visit with Noah Falstein, a pioneer of the video game industry who has been doing video games since the beginning back in 1980! I showed him my manuscript in progress on the astrologically-inspired character generation aspect of my new RPG and he was quite impressed. He said, “Most people come to me with ideas scrawled on napkins, and you look like you’re ready to go to press.” His basic advice was that I do something to make the system I’ve designed go viral, since I didn’t come with funding. Maybe a new RPG would use my system as the engine of a game if I could do that. I told him that a character creation app for the I-pad would be something that would be great for writers and gamers, and he agreed. It was great to sit with a fellow creative game designer either way.

When we got to the party I got out of Alicia’s car and met a guy getting out of his car named Logan Griffin, an amazing healer and metaphysician. And we gazed at the stars together and talked like we already knew each other. I think we spent a good hour or two at the beginning of the party staring into each other’s eyes and talking astrology and metaphysics. We were both highly impressed with each other and glad to know one another. Later when I returned to Chico we did an astrology session just before he went out to Hawaii to do a workshop on healing. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be standing next to Jesus, this was as about as close as I imagined it could be. At least the long-blonde haired blue-eyed version. If you need any healing whatsoever, look him up on my Facebook friends. Wow! Is all I can say about the quality of this human being and it was a deep honor to do his chart!

Then as the evening progressed, I ran into my soul mate..LOL I met the happy wandering soul of Australia in one named Monica Day...and what a happy day she was indeed. We were not soul mates in the usual sense of lovers and all that greasy merging with bodies and stuff, just in the wandering vagabonding smiling spreading love sense! If you could imagine us at the center of a party full of metaphysical practitioners sitting on these two cushions like a king and queen of joy while I read her chart. She later had a full-on two hour session at Om Shan Tea in the Mission, but this was just an introduction and it blew her mind. She ended up staying with Alicia and I a few nights later. If there was ever an embodiment of joy on the planet in female form it was Monica Day. Her smile was medicine for the soul...and the darkness she has faced and overcome and loved has led her to a special kind of enlightenment that has opened her to a calling in the healing arts as well. The world needs them!

After leaving Australia she did a stint in England for 8 years before she awakened to the life of a global traveler. It was fun to meet another one! The globe is getting smaller and more intimate and people are realizing that if they can find a way to work from home, then they can actually embrace a mobile version of home and ultimate freedom to blend travel and work. I think meeting Monica was a milestone in human relationships for me. I was totally attracted to her, and yet we didn’t need to go there. It was like we were spiritual brother and sister..no physical bonding required...and it was bizarre. We laughed and we roamed the city with Alicia meeting her Rollodex...ending up at a gathering of Couchsurfer.com people one night, having vegan food the next, and having sacred tea at Om Shan Tea in the mission the next night. I can’t even name all the cool places we went and people we met: everyone from managers of multi-million dollar companies to billionaire geniuses starving for true love to masters of the I-ching.

Everybody seemed so highly accomplished in their fields, but no one seemed vitally happy without a reason, except Monica of course. She was a saint of happiness and joy. Everyone was so driven by their projects, their lives, their desire for authentic human contact. I even ran into a guy who helped develop the Authentic Man Program, which helps men find their core presence in life. Great program and great people running it. I later attended a party at a house on the hill in Berkeley and met one of the core founders named Bryan Bayer. We had a great time at the party that night and I told Alicia I wasn’t doing any charts at all. My voice was hurting and I wanted to just relax. But after meeting a fellow traveler and cooking together in the kitchen, I couldn’t help but unleash my full arsenal and bestow the people with the Magi gift...I mean, it was a Christmas party after all! If you look on Facebook you’ll notice the pics of me in the corner in a black shirt doing about seven charts! LOL Sometimes the gift just comes through spontaneously whether I like it or not. We are all called to serve with out gifts. In the end great spiritual healing happened that night!

One night at Om Shan Tea I met a mystic named Peter who happened to be born on my birthday. We had a tremendous talk about the I-Ching and Taoism and astrology and I need to get back down there to just bask in his presence. I told him about my spiritual brother Peter in Colorado who just translated the I-Ching directly. If you ever go to the Mission check out Om Shan Tea and look for a wise man in the corner with a long beard...that’s Peter. I was overjoyed to add another spiritual brother named Peter to my collection of unique companions on earth.

The next day I returned to Om Shan Tea to meet a guy I’ve been meaning to meet since I began my journey in Colorado. Early in my prep to develop this traveling lifestyle, back when I was reading the Four Hour Work Week and Vagabonding, I came a cross a series of websites of people devoted to this idea of Locational Independence, mostly bloggers traveling the world making a living online writing e-books and such. One of them had created a blog called Far Beyond the Stars, which was right up my alley as a stargazer, and his name was Everett Bogue. Everett had skyrocketed to blogging infamy in the last year with his e-books on minimalism, creating movements, and minimalistic businesses...when I met him he was working on Augmented Humanity. Later that month he completed the work and I downloaded the PDF on my I-pad to read about the nest stage of human evolution from an authentic visionary of our time.

And he agreed to meet me in the Mission at Om Shan Tea. I kept emailing him from the road as I trekked through Canada and down the coast saying that one day I would meet him in San Francisco if he was still there. Turns out he was planning on relocating the next day after I met him. He had been gaining enlightenment though yogic practices at Yoga to the People, but he had never had his astrology chart done before. So after months of being inspired by his blog, I gifted him with a full on session and blew his mind with cosmic insight into his chart and the emerging seasons of the soul right there in public at Om Shan Tea, with Peter listening from the corner. Afterward, we went to yoga class to let the insight filter in. All I’ll reveal about our session was that this guy was onto something amazing and would surpass George Lucas if he kept at it...LOL

After my meeting with my new cybernetic-yogi friend who in person reminded me of Wolverine from the X-men, I continued my journey by learning to ride the BART, that is, the Bay Area Rapid Transit. I had never been on a subway before, so the idea of going down a dark stairwell into the earth to be shuttled between locations reminded me of Mercury’s descent into the Underworld leading the spirits of the dead to their final meeting with Hades. And some of the people I saw on the subway reminded me of the spirits of the dead. But I overcame my fear and learned to ride the Bart over to Berkeley. After reading Way of the Peaceful Warrior, a book that changes lives, I had to visit the place of Dan Millman’s enlightenment. It was almost surreal to be walking around in the rain to see roads from the novel like University and Shattuck. I was happy to simply be, and remembered the scene when, after winning a national gymnastics championship, Dan felt totally empty. After nine years of vagabonding he had finally woke up with an open broken heart ready to serve the world. Now I can relate for sure!

While sitting at Berkeley Espresso one of my all time top astrologers instant messaged me on Facebook and told me that even though he was editing his new film “To Dream of Falling Upwards” and quite busy, that he would love to meet at last. He lived ten blocks away from where I was sitting! His name was Antero Alli and he inspired me to become an astrologer along with Steven Forrest and Dane Rudhyar. So I ran through the rain to meet him for an hour, and after knocking on his door, he opened it and invited me into a warm living room like chamber with a fireplace burning away for hot tea. I felt like I was being invited to sit at the table with a king, and was honored indeed. His astrology book Astrologik is still one of my faves! That’s one thing travel affords, the ability to meet all the most amazing people who have inspired your journey. Suddenly there they are right in front of you having tea and sharing stories.

Our hour long conversation easily ran over to an hour and a half as we journeyed between astrology, filmmaking and the spiritual path. Besides being a great honor to meet one of my astrological heroes turned filmmaker, it was also great to hear his wisdom about the path of life in general. After a great bear hug, I was sent back out into the rain to continue my amazing journey. At one point in our conversation, Antero looked at me with that wry smile and asked, “But who do you think you are?” As if I was supposed to proclaim I was some sort of messiah or something, LOL. Which I responded to by saying, “Just an ordinary guy with some extraordinary insight.” And it seemed that he was pleased to know I wasn’t totally delusional. LOL

Once I had ridden the Bart once, I was way hooked. I wanted to Bart all over the place and explore everything. We should have a World Bart where we could just get on and off at various countries exploring astro-cartography at will! I tried to connect with my astrologer colleague Rebecca in Oakland but she was unavailable. Instead I ended up back in the Mission staying with fellow alchemist/astrologer Caleb Grayson. One of his roommates had served me tea at Om Shan Tea and I was impressed with her minimalism as an actress. I stayed at his pad that night and he made us a feast in honor of my coming. We stayed up late talking about life the universe and everything, my favorite subject by far.

The next morning I walked through the mission with my backpack and my blistered feet to find the Bart again. I was addicted to the subway. Those Vibram five-finger shoes are great except when you are carrying a huge loaded pack up and down hilly cement streets. My feet were hurting so bad that I almost bought a new pair of shoes. But the Bart was my saving grace. When I got on the Bart everyone seemed so bored, so modern and jaded and wired into their cellular devices. I was glad that my Droid had died. Whereas I had my head on a swivel looking around at all the sights and just being in awe of moving that fast underground and overland. I mean, we were riding through a tunnel dug under the bay shooting forward at high speed, riding the wave between the surface and the subterranean realms.

Alicia gave me a key to her place so I could come and go. I only used the apartment-complex gym one day while I was there. Travel definitely interrupts your health routine! It's best to find a way to devote yourself to movement and sweat with no need for a gym. The cool part was that I could come and go at will and always had a safe warm place to crash in the big city. Thanks Alicia! One night during the Full Moon, Alicia drove Monica and I up to the top of the hill overlooking San Francisco where you could see the entire city and it was a sight to behold! Twelve days sped by in what seemed like a blur of meeting a hundred interesting people and tasting ten different Thai restaurants. My favorite quickly became the Green Papaya in Berkeley! A vegetarian Thai restaurant surpassing Arayas in Seattle, now that’s an achievement, except they had no all you can eat buffet. If I ever did decide to settle into an ordinary existence I could see myself living in Berkeley for Fall and Winter and Boulder in Spring and Summer.

All in all, my trip to San Francisco was grand and awakening. The jewel city of enlightenment and creativity on the west coast was a fun place to galavant around and meet many amazing folks If I was stuck on a desert isle with all the people I had met, I’m sure we would be able to form a great community and village. In the months to come leading to the Spring Equinox, I went back to San Fran to celebrate International Astrology Day at a Unity Church downtown. Steven Forrest and other astrologer friends showed up and I even got to see Alicia Lin again. This was the week after the Earthquake hit Japan and Uranus entered Aries to shock and rock the world again, beginning a new 84 year cycle through the Zodiac. In my next blog post I’ll recount my visit to Santa Cruz and my return to San Francisco under the Spring Equinox. I began this journey under the Summer Solstice in Colorado, enjoyed the Fall Equinox in Seattle, the Winter Solstice in San Francisco, and then the Fall Equinox back in San Fran with Chico, the land of almond orchards in between. Where will I be come next summer Solstice? Will my astrology book finally be finished? We shall see indeed!

Chico Adventures

As you know, Arian and I have chosen Chico CA as our first settling spot on the globe we know as Earth. Chico has been a unique respite from living on bikes and in the tent for us. After our arrival in this little gem of a college town (Population 80K) Arian was immediately accepted into the Chico Green School, an alternative public charter high school where they buy the kids I-pads and focus on creative individuality alongside the almighty curriculum. Arian of course already had an I-pad but that didn't stop him from getting another one for school work. They told him that if he graduated the school he could keep the I-pad. Arian was ecstatic and threw himself into his new world of teenage friends and wise teachers. How many 14 year olds have two of the latest groundbreaking technological innovations of the era?

The kid deserved them after riding his bike 1200 miles to get to Chico and also rides his bike every morning four miles through rain, cold mist, and icy temperatures each morning to school and back. In the morning he scarfs down a bagel laden with soy butter (Earth's Balance) and downs a small pot of steaming chai mixed with soy vanilla creamer. In school he has met lots of other interesting and talented kids and he realized they were like him - cultural creatives that don't fit into the mainstream - he had found his cosmic tribe of fellow geekdom! They were unique and different like him, each in their own ways. He also bonded instantly with all his teachers as they were all amazing creative types and scholars too. Especially his arts/science/music teacher. She was a master of the violin on the side and she began teaching Arian to play. He was hooked hard and begged me to use my power of manifestation to conjure up a violin for x-mas.

Instead, I told him he had his won power of manifestation and abundance within and could visualize anything he wanted in the higher realms and it would appear down here with a little dedication and a lot of elbow grease. In this case, I suggested that he put some muscular motion into writing a proposal for Craigslist and hope that someone would answer the call of a budding musician thirsting for an instrument to call his own. In our role-playing game terms, we figured his character was taking a devotion in Performance Arts skill during the adolescent phase of development, increasing his bardic repertoire to include the stringed instruments.

I also posted his plea to help an instrument-starved teenage mutant ninja performer on Facebook, hoping that someone out there had an old violin sitting on a dusty closet shelf somewhere. Within days a college engineering student dropped by the cafe and delivered a violin into Arian's keeping for a mere $30 bucks. He was overjoyed! Then an astrology client of mine in the Northeast chimed in saying that she would be honored to help Arian become a great musician and for a trade of a few future astrology readings, she would send her ultra-expensive Stradivaris-replica violin for Arian at Christmas. She had it looked at and tuned by a local Luthier and one day while we were sitting at the Empire Train Coffee shop, I was in the middle of a conversation with a lady about metaphysics and astrology, when Arian said excitedly, "Dad! I gotta go! Btetsky just messaged me on Facebook. The violin is here!" It's a wonder he didn't wreck his bike on the way home.

Turns out the violin's bridge and sound post needed to be installed by a veteran Luthier - violin repairman, and my friend who we were staying with helped Arian get online and locate one in town. The next day Arian rode to school with two violins strapped to his back in their cases and two I-pads in his waterproof panniers. The kid was doing all right in Western materialistic terms, true to his Capricornian nature. After school, he rode his bike south fo town to hunt down the Luthier and the guy only charged him $5 bucks to set everything straight and get that fiddle into perfect playing shape. The first song he learned how to play was called the Swallowtail Jig, (he likes to call it the Swashbuckler's retreat), followed by a Christmas performance with his fellow school musicians at the Banes & Noble bookstore. Arian played Joy to the World with his fellow female violinist.

Later that week he brought hoe his report card showing that he had straight A's, and had already worked his way up to the top of the class. He's motivated about learning and the teachers love that. How could they not give him an A after he shows up an hour early for school to work on violin and stays after school sometimes till 7 PM to finish his homework, socialize, and play more violin! Turns out the teachers let him drink hot tea with them on their breaks and in the classroom. He had me buy him packs of Awake and Chai tea for school! When most schools close, the children are clawing at the doors to be released into the world, a hectic tide of screaming children running for buses and cars. Not Arian. He just takes a deep breath, plops another tea bag into his microwaved hot water, enjoys another banana he saved from lunch, and settles into his chair to let the real learning begin. He ate a record nine bananas at lunch one day. He has informed me that there is no way he's leaving Chico, despite my stubborn commitment to locational independence. He says I can travel during the summer when he is at his mom's and during Winter break I could go down to San Fran and connect with people then to go visit on the weekends. Besides, he says, there are plenty of people to teach astrology to right here in Chico. The kid does have a point. But I mean to circumnavigate the globe like Magellan (even though he died in the process)!

I was torn inside because I had gotten used to seeing something new each day - new scenic vistas, new horizons, new towns, new people. After the first four weeks in Chico, I was already hungering for the open road. But it was freezing cold at night, so I appreciated deeply the opportunity to sit at warm coffee houses working on my astrological magnum opus. Everyday I was working on it for hours on end. I began getting a nice steady stream of astrology orders online again too, so money and food for the kid were back on the menu. I was relieved that I could pay my supposed friend Brett $400 per month to live in his cold garage with its icy cement floor. I did manage to manifest some cool furniture form locals. A random stranger I told about our living conditions said, "Wow, he's not much of a friend is he? Charging you to stay in his garage?" I guess he was doing the best he could given his situation.

After major life changes and struggle with his ex-wife and being forced to relocate to Chico from beautiful Hawaii to be close to his kid, I could understand his harsh judgement of my free-wheeling uncommitted lifestyle. he sounded perturbed by my notions of riding around the globe wandering where the spirit lead me to go to inspire people with astrology. He let me know in no uncertain terms that he was "setting up a HOME for his son, and that is I came there, he expected immediate financial contribution." So I acquiesced, despite feelings of betrayal, and paid the man his cold garage fee. Camping in the cold in November proved too much for Arian and I, so we threw in the towel while heading south to San Fran and took the detour to Chico for some winter retreat R&R. We rolled into town with 12 bucks to our names! I told my friend that if I didn't make money that week online, that we'd hit the road, no harm done - just a brief visit. We would enjoy some time together and that would be that. Arian and I would continue south.

As luck would have it (I prefer attunement to the cosmic tides), the online astrology orders poured in! I was able to pay him every week on Saturday. He was already complaining that I rolled into town on a Friday and tht he expected to be paid every Friday on time. We compromised on Saturday. I was already remembering why I detested living with him. He was so anal about the most minute details with his Virgo Moon. So the day before Arian flew home for x-mas to be with his other family, I put out a call to the universe for better living conditions. Even though I was paying Brett his blood money, he decided in the last week that I was unworthy of even speaking too. I guess his practice in mediation skills froze up. I don't know what I did, and I didn't hang around to find out after I tried to talk to him peacefully for the third time, and he just walked on by ignoring me. I got the hint. It was time to leave. I felt terrible inside. This was supposedly my best friend next to Christina, the wife back in NC. huh?

So there I was at the end of a 3200 mile bike ride of exhilarating freedom and liberation, and the two people who I considered my best friends in the world, male and female, had both given up on me, had both turned against me. It wasn't a delightful emotional storm inside at all. I guess the new person I was becoming was too small for the old life I had left behind. If Brett would have ridden his bike 3200 miles to my house back in NC and showed up with a shivering kid and 1 bucks in his pocket I would have let him stay for at least 6 months. You know help a friend get his life together. If Christina would have argued against my friend staying our marriage would have been in serious jeopardy. But I guess I'm fiercely loyal to my cosmic friends that way.

If they couldn't accept the ME I was slowly becoming I guess they wouldn't have a role to play in my path forward. Some people get very shaken when one leaves everything behind. I guess the lifestyle I'm pursuing does look irresponsible and unrealistic from the earthy practical perspective. But after tasting the freedom I've experienced, I'd rather sleep with the homeless people under a bridge than be a slave to the conformity of this insane society we've erected. Besides, if I was going to foreign countries it might be nice to be homeless as long as I had funds to buy food and it was warm. I don't wan to go to interesting far away places and stare at the white walls of comfort anyway. Homelessness in a foreign land began to look appealing to me. It would force you to explore more. The only thing I could see that was bad would be the possibility of someone stealing my technology while I slept.

So there I was the next morning ready to depart. I told Arian to take everything he was interested in keeping to school with him. We were not coming back. I didn't know where we would stay our possible last night in Chico, but I had some leads. I was determined to finish my journey to San Fran, even if I had to go the last frozen leg by bus. After Arian left for school with his bike loaded down and the rendezvous coordinates in his memory, I slowly packed up my stuff with tears in my eyes. Brett was in the room across the hall sleeping, still refusing to speak to me at all. So I opened up the garage door, and got on my bike looking down the cement platform that lead to the driveway and the street behind. I certainly wouldn't miss the noisy college kids screaming at 2 AM every night. I tossed the key to the garage on the table, lamenting the fact that I had to leave such a beautiful table, chair, and fold-out sofa behind. I had just manifested them and they were serene. But a person with attachments to large material possessions is possessed by them in kind. My vow was to own only what I could carry with me, despite the storage locker with all my books back in Colorado. When I got the chance they'd be given away, donated, or stored at a friend's house. But who were my real friends in this world. The two people that I loved the most, the two people that I had trusted with my deepest heart had both turned a cold shoulder to who I was. I felt like I could never trust anyone again. And at the same time I knew I had to trust everyone with an open yet broken heart. With tears streaking down my face, I gave my bike Magellan a kick, and we rolled on to freedom.

It was cold and raining out and my panniers were loaded down like never before. Seven weeks of living in normal society and I had already accumulated more stuff than I could carry. What a disaster! I rode through the rain disheartened and overwhelmed by the immensity of the world and the pressure of my visions and dreams. The world needed me to pull it together, needed me to thrive and harness the creative genius that had been stored in the fibers of my being. The next day, we would be heading into a new adventure. I told Arian that I didn't know if I wanted him to come back. He might have to stay at his mom's next semester. I was lost at sea in my fears. I pulled into a local coffee shop to write this all down on paper...it's taken me this long to post it... But it was an important part of the story. I guess the betrayal of friendship can also mean that you are moving into a new reality that they can't visit in their limited perspective. If I've learned one thing in this life as an Aquarian it is to be true to yourself and your individuality no mater what systems of conformity are pressuring you to fit in.

I checked my email and noticed a message from a cyclist who I had met outside a bike store named Jenn, a chico native. Turns out that her and her husband Todd, who was a Green Builder, had a room for rent in their exquisite house. It had it's own private entrance, bathroom, and furnished bedroom with a bed, a desk and a chair. And it was close by the Chico Sports club where I worked out and Arian's school! They'd be willing to reduce the rent from the normal $500 to $333 for astrology trade starting January 1st, and I could stay for free until then. A ray of hope pierced my faltering heart. Thank you universe. Arian would be overjoyed that we didn't have to spend our last night in Chico out in the cold camping in the wilderness. 333 was a magical number to me symbolizing the Grand Trine. It had made itself known in me brazenly back in 2007 when I was filming Return of the Magi.

After riding through the rain to Todd and Jenn's place near a beautiful almond orchard, I was amazed by the design of their house. The room was perfect! It was like moving from the desperate sticks to a luxury hotel and for a cheaper price. Todd was a fellow Sag rising renaissance man who had served in the Peace Corps in Africa and wanted to discuss me building a website to help fund the education of the children of the family he had stayed with in Kenya. I told him I'd be overjoyed to do it when I returned form San Fran on January 1st. The site is called KenyanEducationFund.ORG and you can sign up for 10 bucks a month to help this family of Kenya's go to school and make their lives better. Jenn works at the university as a research grant writer. They are both cyclists and avid environmentalists who appreciate Arian' and I's lifestyle of minimalism and cycling. It's nice to have friends who enjoy you again! But it's also a cruelty of this fixed world that people you love turn against you when you change. But I was inspired again. Two total strangers took us in in our great time of need. Maybe it was time to just clear the decks of old friendships so new ones could come in. The next morning Arian got a ride to the airport form one of his school friends to fly to the Gulf Coast home of his mother on Dauphin Isle Alabama. I got on the Greyhound with a single backpack headed for a 12 day adventure in San Francisco.

Arian was happy that his would continue on with his friendships and his studies at Chico Green School, and my traveling spirit was happy to finally be seeing some new scenery from the bus window. It was a cold and rainy day but I sat on the right side of the bus peering out the window at the rain soaking the shoulder of the road and imagined riding all those miles in rain and heat and spiritual adventure with my thoughts. At that moment I was happy to be in the bus for a change. Magellan and all of our gear was safe in Chico. I would meet Arian at the Sacramento Airport in 13 days... This Magi had 12 days of Christmas in San Francisco... I hoped to bring light to this vibrant cultural center! In my next post I'll tell you the story of what adventures transpired!

Destination Chico!

Confusion Hill

We woke up in the Recreation Room of Confusion Hill and were quite confused. The nice old lady woke us up and said the owner would be coming by and that we needed to get up so he wouldn't be angered. Sounded like a monster of an owner. But we appreciated the workers allowing us to "camp" in their Rec-room and so we quickly packed up our gear and bolted down a sunny road. The rain had faded and as it turns out, it was a record breaking rain that dropped more inches in those two days than any other recorded time in history and we were glad to have had a warm fun place to hole up!

We got an email that morning from a lady named Jessie in Laytonville (who I had contacted via Couchsurfing.com), down the road about 30 miles that we could come and stay with them out on their farmland about two miles from town. So we rode excitedly for Laytonville and when we got there Arian wanted a large hot pile of fries and I had a veggie burger. It was a cool little town with a couple of cafes, a well stocked market, and enough nick knack shops to keep it interesting. And it was marijuana harvest season! So there were hippies with dread locks roaming the streets in search of work. They tend to stand outside until a secret grower comes by and offer them a job harvesting the buds that people smoke to get high. I've never smoked anything like that (although people always ask me what I'm on during my exciting spastic moments) but it was interesting to see an entire supposedly illegal profession operating there. I personally think they should legalize this weed and tax it enough to pa down the national debt, but hey, that's me. People tend to abuse things more when it's against the rules just to prove they can.

So we got nourished and then we rode on out to Jessie's place where her companion Ian and two other friends dwelled on a lot of land. The dirt road leading onto the property was long and winding and then it declined at an incredible angle. They had laid rocks on the road so cars could keep their grips, but our bikes were having trouble. We didn't know if it was the right place at first because it was way out there, but seemed right from the directions. Luckily we met two other couch surfers who were both artistic folk. They had already found jobs in the area. They kindly guided us down to the little homestead and it was like entering the Rainbow Gathering. They had this cool little house hooked to a camper and lots of fields for growing crops. Ian and the others were working on a Chicken Run for the 8 chickens that were wandering around. They welcomed us wholeheartedly and told us to make ourselves at home. We unpacked our wet grimy tent and let it dry out in the last embers of the setting sun. Then the temperature dropped and night fell and we all found ourselves inside around a toasty fire talking and sharing stories and art forms. At least three of our new friends played instruments, two guitars and a mandolin, and so Arian broke out his clarinet and joined in. I proceeded to tell my new friends about there astrology charts and think I ended up doing about five 30-minute freebie sessions that blew their minds. One of the artist guys was amazed because his mind was very scientific and yet astrology grabbed him and opened his eyes to new forms of knowing. One of there roomies was Chinese and her name was Christina, which I thought was bizarre. She was from Santa Cruz, as most of them were (Jessie's family owned the land), and she spoke lots of languages. She was extremely intelligent and fascinating and continued to make us chai and almond wine while telling great stories. I never got to look at her chart, unfortunately, but it was a great night of feasting and drinking chai! Turns out that Ian and Jessie had stumbled upon a Macaroni and no cheese recipe too and made us an excellent dinner. We even had seconds! Arian was happy sitting by the fire interacting with 20-something year old progressive, artistic folks and playing his music with a full belly. The kid worships food!

Eventually we all bedded down and the other two travelers graciously offered us the fold out couch and so we slept on a cushioned surface again with warm comforters and pillows. Real pillows! We were living in luxury again! The next morning we slept in, even though I knew we needed to go like 95 miles to get to the Blue Lake area south of Laytonville near Ukiah, but it was too cozy. Everyone else got up and went to town as Jessie worked at the local health food store and today was the day that the rare bookmobile came o town. They had all placed orders for faraway books from libraries online and the bookmobile delivered them once per two weeks.

So Arian and I headed out eventually and made our way back up the treacherous rocky road. I felt like we were forgetting something, and asked Arian to double check, but he said he had everything. I didn't want to have to come back down this crazy driveway. And just when you thought the driveway was ending it would start up another slippery slope. Eventually we did reach the top and were both winded. Then we turned onto the dirt road and I realized that my rain pants were not on me! I had slid out of them and folded them up and placed them on a nearby table! I had paid $70 bucks for those pants at REI so I wasn't about to leave them, especially with the skies threatening rain again. So I left Arian there by the fence where we leaned our bikes and jogged back down the hill. It was strange to be jogging again. My entire leg musculature had been transformed and it felt really weird to run! I wanted to pedal! So there I was running down the rocky, muddy dirt road in the most awkward way possible feeling like a stick figure whose legs didn't work right anymore, when the best thing happened. The joke was on me.

While Arian was waiting at the fence four of the others came driving back form town and they asked him what happened to your dad? Arian said, "He forgot his pants!" And they all busted out laughing, I heard later. Then they caught up to me running along in my tight little padded black biker shorts and offered me a ride back to the farm. I accepted wholeheartedly!

After I retrieved my pants, we went back to town and stocked up on some food and found our way south at last passing through Willits CA where highway 20 began that would take us east and back up to Chico. The day was sunny and the rain didn't come so we rode fast and hard down many amazing mountain passes. We stopped in Willits to see if any couchsurfers were available in Ukiah but no one had responded. Ukiah was five miles out of our way anyway, so it was just as well. But now we would need to search for camping sites out in nature along the big lake where the 20 skirted across the valley passing the Blue Lakes and then the larger Clear Lake. It was a long way to a town called Lucerne and I didn't think we would make it, so I was prepared to do some stealth camping. We did pass a few campgrounds but they were all closed for the season with large bars across the entrance, so we continue on our trek as the sun begin to set. Then we came to the largest pass and looked on with disbelief at the ominous slope. Arian asked me if he could hitch-cycle, our new term for riding along and sticking out our thumbs. I told him sure, but only when he saw open-bed trucks.

No one seemed to want to pick us up though and we trekked on and upward straining and struggling with gravity and our loads. It was getting late and dark and cold and we needed to stop. But just as we were about to cres the top of this pass, a large white truck came back from the direction we were traveling and the guy asked us if we really wanted a ride over the hill, at which point let out an enthusiastic "YES!" We pulled our bikes across the road to a parking area where he had stopped and he helped us load them up. He took us about 20 miles to a town called Upper Lake, where he dropped us off at a truck stop where he though we could camp. He was going south from there and we were going east, so we thanked him and bid him farewell, and stumbled into the warm truck-stop desperate for a place to set up camp. The wind had started howling through the valley and the chill factor was intense. My shivers started to return.

We met the owner of the Three Brothers truck stop who was a Muslim Indian guy. He and his wife were working the register when Arian and I rolled in. We asked him if we could camp in their grass outside or somewhere. The guy was really gracious and quite intelligent. It turns out he spoke Indian (Urloo), Spanish, English, and German. They had several kids and one was Arian's age and played basketball. He took compassion on us and told us we cold camp out back where the truckers sleep all the way in the corner so the trucks coming in wouldn't see us. We bought some food and thanked them profusely and went out to stake out a tent site. It turns out were were exactly in the corner of a giant shadowy parking lot bordered by thick bushes. As we set up our tent the wind intensified and we were both shivering cold. It was going to be a cold night with the wind coming off the lake and the temperature plummeting. We got into our little T-3 Quarterdome tent and that took the wind chill factor off but it was still cold sleeping in a tent on the hard blacktop with the cold ness escalating. At least we had our thermarest mats! Arian wrapped his jacket tightly around his feet to keep them from freezing all night. I breathed heavily down into my sleeping bag to create a toasty environment. We heard diesels going by right outside but luckily our tent had strong reflectors and they couldn't get to us anyway in the corner unless they came right at us. I imagined a diesel plowing into us and quickly erased that thought, praying for protection. That was when we heard the wild coyotes begin howling and the dogs barking in the distance. It was going to be an interesting night!

I woke up at four in the morning and Arian was sitting straight up on top of feet. He was shivering and cold and said his feet were frozen so he had to sit on them to keep them warm. So I quickly told him to come over to my side of the tent and get into my sleeping bag with me. He was still in his bag, but we tucked him down into my toasty bag and I rubbed my warm feet against his to transfer my heat. With Sagittarius rising, my body is always warm and throwing off enthusiasm and heat. With Cancer rising, Arian is a like a wet lake and gets cold easy. We got him good and warm even though we couldn't get the zipper on my sleeping bag all the way up, so I had to sleep in the most uncomfortable position ever just to barely keep myself covered, but at least the kid was warm and sleeping well again. It would only be a few more hours before morning and we would make a bee-line for the store and brew hot tea and hang out with the friendly Indian Muslim.

Turns out that when we got inside, there he was talking Spanish to all the liquor delivery guys counting stacks of alcohol and goofing around. It was col to witness a bright spirit such as his bringing camaraderie among many races in his little truck stop. I told Arian it was bizarre to see an Indian hanging with Mexicans and said that Indian was kinda like the Mexico of Asia with the same kind of tropical climate and such devotion to family and religion, etc. Arian thought that was cool and said maybe China was the America of Asia because they had invented so many things like paper, and gunpowder, and compasses, and clocks and thst maybe Russia was the Canada of Asia, and so forth. When you get this kid's mind churning, he just goes off like a rocket swirling in his brilliance. So we talked with our Indian friend for about an hour over several rounds of hot tea and several trips to the bathroom. Eventually we downed a couple of Monsters and took off down the road. it was sunny again but chilly and we had 120 miles to get to Chico, and facing the hardest part early for 40 miles of steep hills! I knew we wouldn't make it but I hoped to get over the mountain pass and down into the central valley where they grow lots of fruit. Maybe it would be warmer down there?

We rode hard all day, mostly up impossible looking slops until finally we gave in and started hitch-cycling again where we hold out our thumbs as we ride hoping for a pick-up truck to take compassion on us. At this point I just wanted to get to Chico, reunite with my good friend Brett and get working on books and possibly get Arian into the Chico Green School, an alternative High School where they buy the kids I-pads to replace text books. Arian already had an I-pad, but he wold gladly have another for educational purposes. But I was open to getting him into regular high school too in such a cool college town. I had made a deal with his mom that if I got him into school, he could stay with me as we planned for the whole school year, which Arian really wanted to do, and then he would go down there in the summer. Brett had a six year old son named Jatin, so Arian was excited to have another kid to hang with and play toys. Arian is like Christopher Robbins on Winnie the Pooh, the caretaker of all the young kids. He has such a great imagination and love of play and a gentle nurturing demeanor. I couldn't have had a more perfect child. He is very respectful and polite and creative and I love him dearly.

So we fought the mountain passes all day long and it was about 4:30 and the sun was sinking and I began to worry about camping in the cold again like the night before. Maybe we would zip our bags together like his mom and I used to do in our twenties backpacking through Australia and down the Colorado Trail? I began searching for suitable campsites off the road in secret looking places. I was feeling tired and weak and my spirit was broken. Then we found ourselves on the side of this steep incline and a religious person wrote a chalk message on the shoulder that said, "And the Meek shall gain Strength!" Arian and I joked around that we felt pretty bottom-of-the-barrel meek at that moment. He said maybe that was a sign we were going to get a ride all the way to Chico. I hoped so. We had made a pact that morning that we were going to get up early and make it 120 miles no matter what, even if we had to ride through the dark. He wanted this pact more than me. I was perfectly prepared to camp, but he just wanted to get there badly. So just as we crossed the last high pass and were gazing down into the valley with at least 25 miles to go to get to Williams along I-5, a white truck stopped and a 59 year old guy named Mark asked us if we wanted a ride!

We were overjoyed. He told us he would take us to Williams or Colusa and we could catch the flat roads to Chico from there going north. We talked and shared many stories about our adventure and he said he had always wanted to backpack across Nevada and go down the loneliest road from hot springs to hot springs located on government land. That was col, so I encouraged him to go for it, telling him about all the elder cyclists I met in Wyoming. He phoned his son Kirk, who lived in Chico and asked him if he wanted to have dinner. He was looking for an excuse to go to Chico to visit his son. Luckily his son was there and said yes! We were going to be dropped off in downtown Chico right next to a tree outside Starbucks along Broadway st. After we thanked him, and he sped away to see his son, I turned to see Arian standing with his hand on the tree and he said, "Dad, this is the first tree we landed in Chico by, and will remember it when we ride by." I gave him a high five and then went into Starbucks to phone Brett.

Brett had just rented and moved into a new house near the college two days ago and he offered us the finished garage for $100 a week. Turns out that he was still job searching and was needing help too. So we all came together to help each other! It was great seeing each other again after five years. Brett has the same kind of dry wit and sense of zany humor that Arian and I do. We had been roommates with him in Boone NC when Arian was 4 and lived in the pantry. We had been roomies in Asheville when Arian was 6 and lived in a fort in the attic. And now we would get to be roommates in Chico CA for a time while Arian was about 15 with his son Jatin at 6. Everything runs in cycles. Arian hit it off great with Jatin and in a matter of hours they were building forts and star wars legos and engaging their imaginations in play, which a lot of adults have forgotten how to do.

The next day I decided that getting Arian into school was the priority and also the litmus test of whether or not we belonged here. I had $12 bucks in my Pay Pal debit account and Brett wanted $100 a week. So obviously I couldn't give him anything until I got my next astrology chart order. I was feeling so lost and uncertain about life. The only thing I was perfectly Buddha-minded about was my love for Arian and when I was writing. Everything else was quite nebulous. I had been on the road for a long long time and made my peace with the Scorpionic rebirth lunar progression. I still had nine months to go before the enthusiastic flames of Sagittarius kicked in. But we went down to the school and got lost on our ay there. So we went and hacked into a coffee shop's wifi and phoned them and got the exact directions. When we found the alternative high school it was lunch time and there were all these brainy, interesting kids hanging out behind a high fence in a playground area. It was definitely alternative and Arian liked it. Two strange girls greeted us at he gate and invited us to the office. We told them about ur epic journey by bike and they were amazed. The word about us spread like wildfire throughout the playground and we were invited into the office to sit down with a lady named Susan. She introduced us to the staff and the Director had indeed received my email from Oregon. He was excited to have us and he was a cyclist himself! I smiled at Arian and he smiled back. He had found his tribe!

Normally they make you fill out all these forms and then bring them back and then they set you up with an extensive interview and then they might accept you. But after an hour of hanging out with various staff members who kept floating through the office and telling them our story and about Arian, Susan scrapped the whole process, and just declared that this was such an unusual and interesting turn of events that they would admit him right now! We decided to wait till the next day because we still had some exploring to do on our bikes and Arian was hungry. He deserved the best chips, hummus, and salsa twelve bucks could buy after completing an epic trip like that. I had ridden 3128 miles and he had gone 1128 miles, according to my bike distance computer. That didn't count the hitch-cycling miles. Turns out that the school was having a Halloween Day of the Dead festival/party on Friday, the next day. Arian said he wanted to go and begin making friends. The Director wanted me to come by next week and share the story of our journey with the kids and I agreed.

Shortly thereafter, we got a donation for $20 bucks from one of our loyal readers and we went and bought some groceries to get us started. The school signed Arian up for free lunches, due to our economic situation. I feel good about being in a progressive town, ready to complete my epic magi opus work on astrology and the RPG game with Arian. I'm feeling unstable with no finances so we ask our friends and family to help us out if possible through our donation button here. If we can't afford to live here, I guess it's back down the cold lonely road for us. But we are really happy to be here and it seems like things are flowing toward us staying for a time. We'll see what happens. As always, people can order charts at my website Divine Inspiration Astrology Help us help the world with our projects!

If we continue to stay here and hole up for the winter, I will continue the blog and start to ell the stories of synchonistic encounters we have her in Chico. The town feels like Boulder to both of us, all hip and progressive and big enough to have a lot of cool stuff going on but small enough to be really welcoming and warm. And there are trees everywhere! I'm ready to write like I've never written before! Woo hoo!