Franco Santoro's Blog: Astroshamanism, page 22

Zodiac Trance

Each zodiac sign describes a particular state of consciousness or trance that can be expressed through a wide range of levels, such as dreams, meditation, erotic trance, alteration of consciousness, mystical experience, etc.

According to the prominence of certain signs, planets and houses in our map, we tend to experience particular states of consciousness both in ordinary awareness and altered states. We also move from one state of trance to another according to transits and other astrological developments.

The people with whom we interact in our lives also move in different trance states, which may or may not correspond to ours.

To understand the meaning of our relationships with others, we first need to find out what are our dominant states of zodiac trance and in what state of trance you are in any given moment of your life.

Each trance state generates a separate reality with its own scripts, which absorbs yourself and every person you meet.

Once you are able to recognize the zodiac state of trance you are in, then you can become aware of the zodiac trance state of others, without forcefully adapting them to your own or making them adapt to theirs …

Stop It!

In the third dimension, in physical reality, you can be in a certain place and with certain people at a given time.

In the fourth dimension, in the astral and emotional reality, there are both the place and the physical persons of the present, and all the places and people of your past and future, not to mention all the equivalents in parallel universes.

If you are a hypersensitive and multidimensional person, when you are in one place and with one or more people in the present, you will feel the influence of other places and people, of the past and future. This can cause major confusion, agitation and emotional inflation, especially in coincidence with full moons or other energy factors.

Sometimes, the only way out is to firmly say “Stop it! Leave me in peace” and thenwithdraw into a sheltered space of silence and peace.

Point the Light

Surely throughout your life you have had some experiences of Light filled with power, beauty, peace and love. These experiences have happened to you and to many other people, and not only to saints, shamans and spiritual teachers. The only difference is that “saints, shamans and spiritual masters” remember, and value these experiences, whereas most people easily forget or disregard them.
So the first thing to do, and to continue doing, once you decide to move with determination along the spiritual path, rather than rushing to seek spiritual teachers, teachings and books, is to remember …
Remember the luminous experiences you have already had, starting from childhood. Give the value, acknowledge them, because no one else can do it for you. These are the ways in which the Light has revealed itself to you in the most intimate and direct way possible. No matter how far you go to seek the Light, or how much effort and time you spend, you will always encounter the same Light that you have already met.
Then, when you recover an old memory, or the next blessed occasion when you have another encounter with the Light, create a gap in your mind and firmly indicate what you saw with your pointing finger, so that you can never forget it. And the Light itself will be surprised!

Image: The Appearance, by Gustave Moreau

Light & Darkness

What is one of the signs that indicates that we are in the Light?
When we experience a temporary suspension of our doubts, uncertainties, fears and the perception of separation.
This is a state of pure consciousness, devoid of physical, mental and emotional conditioning. This experience does not need to last too long, it can also take a few seconds, in which we experience unconditional ecstasy, love, peace.
This is enough to leave traces in our consciousness to which we can choose to return at other times through evocation and remembrance. This is what allows communication with Light to be at work. This is the way in which we continue to communicate with Light in the absence of a direct experience.
Communication with Darkness occurs in a similar way. It is a temporary suspension of our ecstasy, unity, love and unconditional peace. This experience does not need to last too long, it can also take a few seconds, in which we experience pain, fear, hatred, misery, confusion and conflict. This is enough to leave traces to which we can choose to return at other times through evocation and remembrance. This is what allows communication with Darkness to be at work. This is the way in which we continue to communicate with Darkness in the absence of a direct experience.

In the end your experience of Light and Darkness is based on evocation and remembrance, on your patterns of communication, which you can change according to what you choose to promote in your life.

Sides of the Brain

For many individuals it is easy to have multidimensional experiences of unity and ecstasy. In most cases these experiences come and go, often abruptly, and there is no space to understand how and why they happen or don’t happen.

As human beings we are split in three cerebral parts. Only two of them are openly experienced: the left side of the brain (male polarity) and the right side (female polarity).

Since these three parts are split, they operare disharmoniusly, producing devastating effects on the human consciousness.

However, from a strategic perspective, the main problem abides with the left part of the brain. Just as the right side is capable of experiencing unity, the left side does not manage to conceive unity, since it is programmed to promote separation.

The left side of the brain processes every aspect of reality according to a dualistic and conflicting perspective. Although it may rationally at its higher level aim at harmonising polarity and promoting peace, this goal is unattainable since it develops within a context based on separation and conflict.

The third polarity is the only one that can move beyond the conflict of the other two. This polarity is denied by the left side of the brain, while it is perceive by the right side of the brain, which however does not acknowledge it and confuse it with the left side.

As long as we don’t manage to conceive unity and multidimensionality with the left part of the brain, the right side will keep being trapped within the conditioning of the left side, which is contrary to unity. The human mind will continue to be split, no matter how many experiences of unity we have.

Here it is not about intellectually elaborating the idea of unity with the left side of the brain, which many individuals can easily do. It is about releasing from the left side of the brain each elements of separation. As long as separating elements are active, dualism and conflict will continue.

The right side of the brain is visionary, imaginative, emotional, erotic, energetic. It has direct access to the multidimensional reality. Yet, as long as this access is managed by a left side based on separation, it will only promote separation.

Once the left side of the brain begins to conceive unity and multidimensionality, integration of the united two sides with the third polarity can start. The third side emerges and this reactivates our original multidimensional identity. The leap between separation and unity takes place.

I am aware that many of you are doing their best to retrieve their original multidimensional identity.

I am also aware that there is a consciousness deviatory mechanism operating in the left side of the brain. We need to understand how it works and how to release it before we can expect anything relevant developing in our consciousness.

And in the above regard I have a lot of hope and trust.

Mapping a multidimensional world

In ordinary dictionaries the term trance is described as “a hypnotic, cataleptic or ecstatic state”, “any mental state in which a person is unaware or detached from the environment, as in contemplation or daydreaming”, “a state of ecstasy or mystic absorption so intense as to cause a temporary loss of consciousness” or “the condition of being so lost in solitary thought as to be unaware of one’s surroundings”. Trance states far from being out of the ordinary experiences are regular features in consensus reality. The unawareness and loss of consciousness involved here is that of our multidimensional nature.

The sign of Gemini and the planet Mercury rule the realm of language and communication, which exemplifies one of the most relevant trance inducing elements in consensus reality. It is mainly through the use of language that our separated reality is continuously installed and preserved in our minds. Human languages shape reality, capriciously selecting or excluding what belongs to such a reality. Major trance states are produced through all types of ordinary communication among people, and also radio, television, phones, magazines, books, e-mails, advertising, etc. This is what generates the most relevant trance states experienced by human beings.

Yet, unlike shamanic trance, consensus trance does not produce ecstasy, bliss, power, expanded awareness or other uplifting experiences. Its purpose is to set up the illusion of separation, perpetuating fragmentation and disconnection from our multidimensional nature. Shamanism is founded upon the acknowledgement and investigation of the web of life. This involves the availability to release trances based on separation. These trances produce fear, anger, misery and all the grievances typical of our human separated reality.

Current human languages are the major vehicles for the preservation of our separated reality. At the same time, such languages, when employed with an intent based on unity and healing, may also produce the opposite effect. Certain people are more skilled in creating trance states through language. They may do it on purpose or totally unconsciously. This is the case particularly for people with non-ordinary traits (see Astroshamanism Book One).

Mercury is the planetary energy related to communication, and today I would like to deal with one of its important features in shamanic healing. This is the function of documenting what occurs during shamanic state of consciousness and multidimensional experiences. Documenting implies reporting or recording a multidimensional or non-ordinary experience, through writing, drawing, sculpting or any other physical representation, which can be visible and accessible in our ordinary visible world.

I regard documenting as a most significant practice for it allows multidimensional awareness to become accessible in our separated reality. When non-ordinary experiences are documented they become real in the ordinary world, and even if some people deny, ridicule or scorn them, well, they have managed to get through the gateway of manifestation and incarnate in our world. This is an exceptional event, which is the result of a major labour and endeavour.

Very few people manage to manifest tools for multidimensional awareness on this planet. Hence when this is the case, it is an exceptional event. It is thanks to such materializations that human beings have been able to expand their awareness and move beyond the boundaries of their separated reality. Yet this is possible only when the multidimensional succeeds in getting a physical form, which is the only form that human beings can unconditionally accept as real.

Our separated reality acknowledges only what possesses a physical form. When something is given form it is real. If it is not given form it is not real. When things happen and are not given physical shape, they are, as I can strategically put it, created only in the fourth dimension (emotional realm), fifth dimension (mental realm) or sixth dimension (spiritual realm). In the best scenario they continue to survive in the memory of those who have experienced them, yet since they are not visible in the third dimension (physical realm) they may be easily forgotten and are bound to vanish when the people who hold their awareness die.

All our consensus reality is the result of people who decided to give it form. This is the way in which lineages are transmitted. When a lineage does not receive a form, it does not exist anymore in the physical world, although it may continue to exist in other dimensions. Most multidimensional and shamanic lineages have been totally lost on our planet, with their documentation being destroyed or never manifested. For few lineages some documentation has been preserved and, although it is mainly cryptic, it continues to hold the bridge between our separated reality and the multidimensional realm.

In these times of apparent planetary transformation, various people on Earth may potentially become the vehicle for manifesting multidimensional awareness and retrieving lost documentation. This is the process astroshamanism and other healing arts aim to encourage.

Something with a form is not necessarily real. Conversations among people, newspapers, television, books, etc are full of details regarding things that happened or are happening, yet this does not automatically mean that these things truly happened or are happening. Some people take the initiative to describe such things, and the general assumption is that they are real. Yet they could also be sheer inventions, fantasies or hallucinations. The point is that, when something is documented, and receives official acceptance in consensus reality, no matter whether it is true or not, it becomes real. I may argue here that there are ways to ascertain whether something has happened or not. Yet I also realise that most people are so busy and do not have time to verify this. Hence they take for granted consensus reality and do not bother to question it.

Giving form to multidimensional elements is vital and this simply implies documenting what happens to you when you experience something out of the ordinary. Whatever happens to us, especially things which appear to be momentous, amazing, ecstatic, stunning, etc. have already happened on many other occasions. They create wonder when they occur because the mind realises that this has happened before. Yet, since there is no documented reference regarding the experience, this causes amazement. These experiences, when they happen, also trigger all the other moments when they occurred in the past. Everything comes out of the blue, and since there is no documented reference, it easily creates a state of confusion, shock and weirdness that can hardly be sustained in consensus reality, unless it is given a definite form. If this is not the case, it will dissipate again and be lost.

Taking note of shamanic experiences first of all makes sure that the memory remains. Our memory, besides being limited, is subject to constant manipulation and disturbance from the consensus reality. In my life, like many of us, I have had so many amazing experiences. Yet I realise that no matter how powerful these experiences are when they happen, after a while I completely forget about them. I may feel extremely ecstatic and transpersonal one day, then the following day I forget everything and I am only aware of my little self. Already 40 years ago I had astounding experiences which clearly proved the existence of other dimensions, of unity, ecstasy, etc. Yet, during these last 40 years I have forgotten about it thousands of times.

Yet things began to change when I started documenting such experiences. Although I continue to forget, there is now something that allows me to remember. There is a documentation that attests to my ecstatic experience, and even if I do not appear to have that experience now, my memory can be reawakened, together with the ecstatic experience. This can help me, and can also help other people, for these experiences are not my personal experiences. They are collective experiences. They are part of a lost planetary lineage, which can only be reborn through each one of us.

On earth, in terms of planetary healing, the work to do, as I see it, is to map the multidimensional world, to leave records regarding our ecstatic experiences, for ourselves, others and the next generations to come. I regard it as part of our responsibility as human beings to leave documentation about what we treasure in life, what we feel is good, powerful, loving, ecstatic, etc.

Mankind may plunge into obscurity, losing all memories of its inheritance and forgetting its true nature. This has happened on many occasions. There were times when mankind reached a high level of consciousness, and then fell into darkness. There are many legendary and mythical accounts of this process, which is also documented in some of our consensus historical records, for example with the Middle Ages.

The preceding ages were abundant with maps and documents of ecstatic and multidimensional experiences. Then such documents were destroyed, lost or only accessed by a limited minority of people. For centuries most human beings were not aware of what had been documented before, which was therefore not real. Then some information was retrieved and part of the memory reawakened. This may happen again and leaving documents is a planetary service for mankind.

Ancient civilisations have left documents so distant from our current understanding and languages that they can only be accessed at a vibratory level. These are artefacts, tools, sites, monuments and mystery glyphs conveying the vibratory awareness of multidimensional realms. The missing pieces of this knowledge abide in the multidimensional realm, and it is through our endeavour in documenting our multidimensional experiences that they can be restored to our planet.

This is again an invitation to map our multidimensional world, to openly document and share, to join forces in a new multidimensional manifestation process. The purpose of all astroshamanic events and workshops is to encourage the above.

The above article contains excerpts from a talk Franco gave during the Foundation Training in Astroshamanism held in Scotland at the Findhorn Foundation in 2007. The recording was transcribed by C. Huebsch

© 2009 Franco Santoro, Cluny Hill College, Forres IV36 2RD, Scotland,

Shapeshifting Thoughts

Throughout human history many spiritual healing tools have been used. Astrologically there is a tool for each zodiac sign, which applies to all human beings regardless of what their sun sign is. Here Gemini plays a major role, for it is the keeper of the circulation and shapeshifting of thoughts, information and all types of communication or mental activities.

Words and thoughts cause substantial effects in the environment and generate most of our human experiences, and the way we perceive them. Communication is an ongoing process, regardless of whether you are absorbed in your own thoughts or Iexpress them with others. And yet, although there seems to be a large variety of communication, in the end there are simply two categories, one based on separation and the other on unity. We are communicating at all times, and in every second of our lives, we have the opportunity to choose between these two.

As human beings we are affected by the ego mind, which constantly promotes separation, employing a huge assortment of devices aimed at sidetracking our perception. As a result it is inevitable that we will experience negative thoughts or emotions, and all types of grievance. Yet the problem is not experiencing grievances, the issue is what we do with them.

Since we live in a consensus reality based on separation, we are bound to come across harmful emotions and thoughts. Getting rid of them completely is beyond doubt a forlorn enterprise. Yet we have the capacity to be aware of those thoughts, while tenaciously being engaged with the healing network of life. This entails employing practical ways to transform infected thoughts and emotions instead of dumping them on others or ourselves. In this way although we still experience grievances, we do not get stuck with them, nor do we forward them to others. On the contrary we convert grievances into healing thoughts and distribute them through the web of life.

The challenge of Gemini is to steadily transmute toxic thoughts and emotions into blessings, up to the original toxic thought, which is also the gateway into the ultimate blessing.

Preparing yourself

Your identity, your state of consciousness, your perception of reality, as well as everything that is familiar to you, on which you base your security is
PROVISIONAL
and it is with absolute certainty destined to change, without warning.

What you consider to be your identity and reality is a dream. From one moment to the next you can wake up. Then only a faint memory or probably nothing will remain of what you dreamed.

You know this very well. You witness it every time you fall asleep and dream. When you sleep dreams become your reality and you forget the reality in which you are awake.

There will be a time when the reality in which you are awake will vanish just like a dream and you will end up somewhere else.

You know this very well.

What are you doing to prepare for that moment?

You can decide to think about it later or only when you find yourself in that moment.
This is what most people do

But if life is actually a preparation for that moment, it follows that the best thing you can do in life is to train yourself so that you can be in good shape when the moment comes.
The good shape I am referring to here is not related to your physical health, your financial situation, your career or social relationships.
The moment your dream vanishes, the above will be of little use to you.

What will be useful instead is the experience of having already moved in other states of consciousness, of having explored other realities, of having a cartography of the soul.

So, as long as you are here in this reality, while rightly doing everything you can to be comfortable with it, it is most advisable that you spend some time expanding your consciousness, exploring alternative realities, finding out who you are beyond your ordinary identity.

But be careful, don’t do it out of fear!

Don’t let yourself be blackmailed by belief systems that require you to make sacrifices in the present and give up the joys of life in order to deserve access to a better reality. The more you make your ordinary life happy, exciting, fun, the more you can make it elsewhere.

Explore other realities and the unknown primarily because you love to do so, because it is fun, and makes you happy and inspires, excites the whole of your being.

Astroshamanic Onomastics

Astroshamanic Onomatics is the exploration of the names and processes of naming people, places and things from a multidimensional perspective for the purposes of holistic and spiritual healing. By means of astroshamanic onomastics it is possible to go back to the original vibration of the names, releasing the separation components and eventually identifying alternative names aligned with a multidimensional perception of reality. A session of this type works similarly to a traditional astroshamanic session with the difference that in this case the emphasis is on names, words and above all on their sounds.

The Beast Within

To proceed along the spiritual and multidimensional path you need to come to terms with the beast that dwells within you, the repressed part of your soul furiously screaming inside. We have strayed so far from this part that we cannot hear it anymore, except at certain moments, as for example during full moons.

We can feel the beast either internally, through a sudden rage we experience, or externally through the anger of people we meet.

From an energetic point of view there is no difference between the anger we feel and the anger we see in others. Internal or external, as long as anger causes fear, condemnation, guilt or even more anger, we are always dealing with our anger.

Therefore in the presence of anger, it is useless to waste time to understand to whom it belongs. What matters is finding a way to manage it, transforming it in a luminous way.

In most cases, anger is the result of a deep frustration due to something that we fail to express. It is often our chronic reticence and procrastination that causes it, the fact that we make promises to ourselves and to others, and then we forget or let ourselves be distracted by something else. So, it is necessary to remember our intentions, the last moment in which we have experienced clarity.

Anger is an accumulation of energy that we have not expressed towards what matters to us in life, and which risks exploding if we do not act accordingly.

In certain times of the year energy builds up reaching a climax. If there is clarity it is an ideal time to act, take bold initiatives, and do what is right. Here we can choose to stay in a temporary security space, where we take time or pretend nothing is happening, or risk and take a brave step towards new resolutions. Simply taking one small step can be already most significant. The question at this stage is: “Is there anything I can do to honor what I want?”

The key here is not to reflect and ponder in order to receive an answer, which we have probably received many times. It is perhaps a question of transforming the feelings we already have into an act, even accepting that the act itself will provide the answer …