“Artus”
“Artus was a slim young man with soft brown hair that fell below his shoulders. His smile beamed pure kindness to all whom it graced. He lived high up in the tower of the dorm, where I imagined him working as a sort of modern Hermes Trismegistus, a 20th-century alchemist performing wonderful spiritual experiments in his lofty spire.Artus would draw comparisons between the lyrics of Grateful Dead songs and Eastern spiritual wisdom, explaining to us how the “still water” referenced in the song “Ripple” was Pure Consciousness, which served as the foundation for everything in the universe, according to the Upanishads. As we listened to “Sitting on Top of the World,” he talked about the hawk that sat atop the tree of life in Norse mythology, serving to connect the world of humans with the heavens of the gods. I felt a special connection to this young seeker of the truth.”