About
Arthur

Arthur’s Story

I was born and raised in Illinois, in a quiet stack of suburbs just north of Chicago. I was an introspective kid, bored with my safe surroundings. From a very early age, I explored nearby forest preserves. It was thrilling to discover something old but new, like a long-buried junkyard or a hidden island.

My desire for adventure and belonging would later take me into the city and eventually around the country — road tripping, hitchhiking, hopping trains, even camping out in abandoned buildings. I met friends and partners, joined clubs and activist groups, bounced from job to job, house to house, city to city. I met my ex-wife by chance through my bike club friends, and quickly followed her north to Minnesota. Without knowing it, she would lead me to a whole new way of experiencing reality, and completely change the course of my life.

At the same time, I started a gender transition that similarly revolutionized my sense of self. As a queer transgender man, I’ve always viewed life from the margins. Growing up out of sync with the culture at large forced me to choose — try to fit in, or find my own path. Whether positive or negative, my experience made space for me to reexamine concepts of gender, sexuality, race, class, and many other social categories. I deeply appreciate the value of this exploration, and how the learning process continues to unfold and deepen.

Feeling like a “stranger in a strange land” eventually led me to philosophy and spirituality in an attempt to understand what we’re all doing here. My friend introduced me to the book Be Here Now by Ram Dass seemingly at the perfect time. The book, Ram Dass’ lectures, and especially the stories of his community of spiritual misfits cracked my heart open. I longed to find out whether this sort of mysticism still existed in the world, and prayed for help to find it.

As part of our honeymoon, my ex and I were able to visit Ram Dass at his home on Maui and thank him for his beautiful work in the world. Now that he’s passed, his distillation of his guru’s teachings are still with me. Over and over again, he reinforced a message of love, service, and remembrance of the divine. Looking back, I believe that his message was the point, rather than a starting point.

When another friend moved to Oregon to study with a new spiritual teacher, I hemmed and hawed for a few years until I was certain I wanted to take her introductory course. I resonated deeply with the teachings, and wanted to learn more. After a series of doors closed and opened, I spent the next decade moving with that same teacher and community to Maine, California, and eventually back to Oregon.

In that 10 year span, I studied the tantric traditions of Kashmir Shaivism and Dzogchen Buddhism, engaged in spiritual practices like yoga, mantra, yantra painting, and began my studies of Jyotiṣa (aka Vedic Astrology). I also began playing the harmonium and sang kīrtan, call-and-response devotional music which invokes the divine through the names of deities.

In that community, I learned a lot about relating to a group of people on a similar path. We navigated service work, collaborative living, friendships, support, conflict, gossip, hierarchy, kindness, abuse, love, restriction, compulsion, and freedom.

Despite any internal or external messiness, I tried to hold that original message of open-heartedness and service as a beacon. I hope that this message comes through in my astrology work above all else — love, service, and remembrance of the living wisdom in this universe that is so generously willing to guide us.

For more information on my background in Vedic astrology, see My Astrology Background below.