European Sojourn

A peripatetic tour, and a quest for purpose

Ibiza

I am in Budapest today, after a tropical week in sun-drenched Ibiza playing the United Planet (UP) Game, where participants are meant to embody their future selves in the “regenerative society” of the near-future. We reflect back on how we helped make the rapid, global shift to a thriving, “protopian” world.

I struggle with Ibiza, where many of my friends have relocated — I also feel seduced, drawn in, by its magic, beauty, and glamor. There are at least three distinct Ibizas: There is the Ibiza of massive clubs, techno music, and overpriced mainstream tourism, mainly clustered around the city, which I have never explored. On the other side of the island, there is the Ibiza I know: Gorgeous villas, aquamarine pools, healers and hippies, wealthy people constructing idiosyncratic utopias, a huge focus on shamanism (among other esoteric practices such as tantra and Tibetan buddhism), experimental social events, ecstatic dance and primal movement, permaculture and regenerative farming. The last Ibiza is that of the local people indigenous to the island who have their own culture and history, which I don’t know much about.

After sitting still in New York City for almost half a year, I find myself on a peripatetic tour of Europe this summer. I was invited to speak at Mapping Revelations, a wonderful event held at a 16th Century chateau in Bordeaux, France, a month ago, as well as an equally fabulous event in Tuscany, Future Horizon, at the Villa Medici, a summer home for the illustrious family who supported Leonardo da Vinci, among others.

Future Horizon

These mini-festivals grew out of Burning Man camps, bringing together innovators, artists, digital nomads, successful entrepreneurs. Partying without purpose is no longer satisfying for people traversing these elite worlds. The gatherings include talks, workshops, gourmet dinners, shibari performances, Breathwork, and so on. One focus of many of them is looking at scalable projects that can address aspects of the ecological emergency. Such curated micro-festivals are a new art form, a type of “social sculpture” for making deep connections in a short span of time. I feel grateful to be invited.

Mapping Relevation

In between Mapping Relevations and Future Horizon, I went to Turkey to participate in a week-long neo-Tantra workshop offered by the International School of Temple Arts. The lead facilitators included Bruce Lyon, who runs Highden, an esoteric research center in New Zealand and has a superb wizardly presence, and my friend Jasmeen Hana, who lives in Egypt, next to an Isis temple on an island in the Nile, and also runs her own online and off-line mystery school.

With Jasmeen, Bruce, and Rory in Istanbul

During Level Two — which focuses on death/rebirth — I realized I needed to integrate the original ISTA teachings better. I decided to take ISTA Level One again, here in Hungary. I am looking forward to it, even though I feel socially over-saturated. After Hungary, I will go to England for Medicine Festival, where I will speak, and then finally scoot back to New York.

In the last month, I have met so many extraordinary people in so many different contexts and circumstances. I am overwhelmed. Before coming to Europe, I felt a bit introverted, living like a turtle in my East Village shell. I am exaggerating for effect, but it is true that many of my close friends left New York City as a result of the pandemic. Now I find myself with a vast array of new near-friends and possible collaborators spread across the world.

If I am honest, in this period of my life I feel like I am floating in the void of the unknown.