Franco Santoro's Blog: Astroshamanism, page 41

Shining your Vision in the World, Findhorn

10 June 2017, Sunshine Room, Findhorn, 2:30-6 pm, with Franco Santoro

This short workshop is for those who intend to explore their unique potentials and talents, to provide benefits to themselves and the whole environment. Drawing from his shamanic approach, Franco will share pragmatic and righteous ways of setting intentions, releasing disturbing patterns and converting them in fertilizing energy to support highest potentials.

This event is a basic pragmatic journey of experiential discernment aimed at addressing your true calling and gaining clarity on how you can best express yourselves in the world.

Based on the recognition of the intimate connection between individual and collective processes, this short workshop is designed to provide tools which participants can continue to use individually.

Franco will hold a one-week workshop with the Findhorn Foundation on the topic:

28 October – 3 November 2017, Findhorn (Scotland), Unveiling your Hidden Talents: An Astroshamanic Journey into Manifestation,

The workshop starts at 2:30 pm and ends at 6 pm.

By donation: suggested £ 25 (conc. £ 20), further reductions are possible on request.

If possible send an e-mail to provordo@gmail.com for booking, otherwise just turn up!

For information: provordo@gmail.com

The events take place at:

Sunshine Room, East Whins House (EWH), 505 East Whins, The Park, Findhorn, IV36 3TH

For information on astroshamanism see http://astroshamanism.org/

“What if the bits that we find harder to accept in ourselves end up being our best qualities and gifts?

We may be so frightened by true light and life, so full of shame and prejudices about our authentic treasures that we bury them away, displaying instead our worst bits to the world, paradoxically believing that they are the best.

Many of us strain to express what is dead in their life, while repressing what is alive, serving a world obsessed with conventional appearances and missing the brightness of their inner Sun.

Yet, no matter how we try to conceal it, this light regularly returns and shines upon us. It glows upon all the crucial cross-roads on our path. It encourages us to let go of our decayed scripts and roles, of what is dead and long to take its course. It shines upon the blooming parts we are truly meant to play and dance in the theatre of life.”

(Franco Santoro)

Road signs

Shamanism is at the same time the most difficult and easiest art to teach. To be honest shamanism is impossible to teach because there is absolutely nothing to learn. It is rather about unlearning, letting go of what you have learned and, most of all, letting go of teachers, masters, spiritual leaders, including shamans themselves.

“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” 仏に逢えば仏を殺せ

This is a Zen koan that you have probably read many times. It is attributed to Zen Master Linji (died in 866 CE) and was used as the title of a best-seller book by Sheldon B. Kopp published in 1975.

This koan is also used by Saiyūki, a manga by Kazuya Minekura:

“Hold nothing! If you meet Buddha, kill Buddha. If you meet the patriarchs, kill the patriarchs. Free of all, bound by nothing, you live your life simply as it is.”

This is a Zen koan, so there is no point in explaining it, otherwise is not a koan anymore.

A kōan is a paradoxical dialogue, question, statement, or riddle devoid of solution, used in Zen practice to test the student’s progress and create a gap in their logical reasoning aimed at provoking enlightenment.

What follows is not an explanation of the koan, but rather a forlorn and unexplainable explanation.

Killing the Buddha means going beyond the illusion of the teacher, the shaman, the guru, the master, but also of the twin flame, the faithful partner, the devoted parent. It means to retrieve everything we have projected on others and take full responsibility for what we perceive within and without ourselves.

Everything and everyone we perceive outside is the projection of something that exists within or in parts of ourselves that we have lost or denied. The only possibility for those parts to be recognized is through what exists in the outer world.

Killing the Buddha on the road means first recognizing it, identifying it as a Buddha, that is, an external projection of what exists within us, a sign indicating the road, but which is not the road, then it is about leaving it and continuing the journey.

Perhaps it has happened to you various times. You drive or walk to a far away place and then you get lost. Along the way you meet many signs pointing to different places, yet no mention about the place you want to go. Then you finally see a road sign with the name of the place you want to reach. What a relief! But this is only a sign, and there are still many miles to go. Hence you do not stop there, you continue your journey.

If you want to reach that place you have to go there. The point is that from a shamanic perspective in this world you will never find the place you want to go because this is just a world of signs. Signs are useful to the extent that you are able to use them to reach your destination, they are not your destination.

Teachers, masters, shamans, gurus and partners, lovers, parents are provisional figures whose purpose is to indicate the way. They do not have the power to give you what you want or lead you to where you want. What happens, however, is that we regularly get attached to these figures. We get stuck in front of signs, without moving anymore, without changing anything in our lives. And then at some point our initial joy, love and excitement for them turns into hate, anger, disappointment simply because we do not get what we want. We realize that the sign was just a sign, and feel deceived.

But the sign has always been a sign and this was clear from the beginning.

So if you meet a sign, be aware of it, and grateful for it has the quality to show you the way. Then continue your journey, don’t stop there. Yes, of course, if you are tired you can rest there for a while. Yet do not settle there, go ahead, and remember that you are in transit. As you continue the journey you may find other signs, indicating the same direction. Continue to move on until you reach the destination, which perhaps may end up being the place you have always been.

 

Purification

Purification, abstention and restraint can be the result of moral obligations, obedience to religious customs or self-punishment. They can also be choices simply based upon one’s direct experience, which proves that certain attitudes and behaviours keep causing pain and misery. In this case these attitudes are released only in order to experience happiness and peace, rather than as an act of sacrifice or renunciation. Amongst all the possible forms of abstention and release, letting go of the temptation to hold grievances towards ourselves and others is probably the most powerful. This involves releasing the tendency to attack others or defend ourselves in any way, including being envious, jealous and competitive. Again here the purpose is not becoming a holy or wise person. It is merely to be happy.

New Moon in Gemini

The New Moon in Gemini takes place on 25 May 2017 at 19:44 GMT in 4° Gemini 47′.

This New Moon supports rightful communication, allowing our authentic and deepest thoughts and truths to be part of the way we express ourselves and walk our talk.

This can be an ideal time to acknowledge your unique perspective, the way you authentically function in life. Once you are aware of this, you can also understand the perspective of others, communicating effectively.

This New Moon is also ideal to consider new areas of learning, communication and partnership.

It may be ideal to take some time off during the New Moon in Gemini, being on your own or in relaxed states of consciousness, in a quiet environment either indoor or outdoor.

This is the right moment to consider relevant questions in our life, such as:

What can I express and communicate in this period of my life, for my benefit and that of the whole?

What do I need to learn in order to promote my potential?

With whom can I engage to support this process?

After you have asked these questions, immediately jot down whatever comes to your mind no matter whether it makes sense or not. Then hide what you have written for two weeks and disclose it on the next Full Moon.

What you have written will probably make more sense around the Full Moon, and on that occasion you may have the opportunity to act it out substantially.

This lunation in Gemini this year marks the start of the Ramadan with the first glimpse of the Crescent Moon (around 26 May, depending on the place), the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and time of fasting from dawn to sunset.

Franco Santoro

Happy

Have you ever tried to be happy, I mean very happy, for no reason at all? Or even better, to be happy, very happy, despite the fact that you have many reasons to be unhappy?


 


Try it!


 


It does not cost you anything, you can do it at any time and in all possible circumstances. In other words it is eternal happiness.

Function

Your main function consists in learning to use the dark, hateful and painful circumstances of your life as compost to fertilize luminous, loving and joyful circumstances.

The light, love and joy you and other experience in life depend upon this function.

This means that if you experience dark, hateful or painful situations in life, they are not anomalies, they are not incidents, they are an inevitable development of this world.

If you spend most of your time complaining about dark, hateful and painful situations, blaming yourself or others, this means that you have not understood your function. It also means that when you do experience luminous, loving and joyful situations, you are merely picking up the fruits of the labour of those who apply their function, without giving anything in return. These fruits, sooner or later, will run out unless their seeds receive compost.

There are many things you can learn in life. All that you learn will be utterly useless if you dont learn to apply your primary function, which involves using the dark, hateful and painful circumstances of your life as compost to fertilize luminous, loving and joyful circumstances.

If you don’t understand or agree with the above, please do not bother too much, because it may not be true.

If you do understand this function, yet you find it very difficult to apply it, don’t get discouraged. This is not an easy task and we are all here to learn, and this works much better if we help each others.

Once you understand what is your primary function all you need to do is keep on training yourself till you are good at it, joining forces with other friends on the path.

 

Gorse

Remember! Your present circumstances are bound to change. If you base your happiness on the present circumstances of your life, then your happiness is totally provisional. If you base your unhappiness of the present circumstances of your life, then also your unhappiness is completely provisional.

When the circumstances of your life make you happy your responsibility is to find the matrix of that happiness, which allows you to be happy also when the circumstances of your life make you unhappy.

 

Franco Santoro

 

Exalted Earth

According to classical astrology Venus rules the sign of Taurus, as well as Libra. At an esoteric level Taurus is ruled by the alleged planet Vulcan, which is supposed to be situated between Mercury and the Sun.

Vulcan, or Hephaestus, was the husband of Venus (Aphrodite) and a shaman god specialised in creating sacred tools of metal and gems for the Olympian gods. His workshops were underground in places such as Lemnos and Mount Etna.

Vulcan is considered by many esoteric astrologers to be the most powerful planet of the solar system, which may explain why it has yet to be discovered. It is associated with the power at the core of the Sun that connects our central star with the centre of the universe. It is also connected with certain non-ordinary features of our planet, which include sacred sites, power points, magnetic grids, Provisional Territorial Units, underground civilisations and centres.

From an astroshamanic perspective Taurus is associated with planet Earth. Earth is seldom considered astrologically, for it corresponds to the point of the observer. In order to spot the Earth on the chart, one has to take a heliocentric perspective and, in this instance, this planet is directly opposite the Sun.

Astroshamanically the position of the Earth gives information about the way in which the intent can be expressed or grounded on this planet and also provides indications on what the Earth is asking you to do or be. Yet, in this context, it is important to point out what it is truly meant by Earth, which is not the ordinary notion of our planet.

The general human understanding of the world merely relates to its surface, whereas from a shamanic perspective there are three worlds. Besides the world of the surface of this planet, which represents the ordinary separated setting where we perceive ourselves living, there are two other worlds.

With these worlds we have never truly established any connection, apart from some sporadic unofficial attempts by shamans and alike. One of these worlds is the one strategically existing inside the Earth (Lower World), whereas the other is the unseen world that strategically abides around the surface of the Earth, which is also the linking agent with extraterrestrial worlds or parallel Earths.

There is an ordinary geography of the Earth, which is concerned with the capricious formulation of our physical and administrative consensus reality, and there is a non-ordinary, or multidimensional geography, which includes the parts of the Earth from which consensus reality has separated itself.

Hence when we use the term Earth, it is important to be aware that there is a separated Earth and a multidimensional Earth. Perception changes dramatically according to which Earth we refer to.

Events and issues which are considered as catastrophic and excruciating from a separated Earth perspective are often major blessings in a multidimensional context.

The consensus reality Earth, which in astroshamanism we call Human Arbitrary Configuration (HAC), is a microreality based on separation from a wider multidimensional Earth reality.

The level of hallucination prevailing in ordinary Earth hampers the awareness of alternative realities. However, these realities are always present and at work.

Although most human beings have always remained confined in consensus reality, some special people in different ages and cultures have had contacts with the multidimensional Earth.

As from 2012 human beings may have become increasingly aware of alternative configurations existing on and within the Earth. In the next years some folks may face opportunities to release the captivity of the human separated paradigm and expand beyond our geography of isolation. This is part of a healing process of physical restructuring, which is promoted by the connection between our separated identity and the Core Multidimensional Identity.

This process is aimed at bringing about a consciousness which will be progressively less dependent on ordinary people, features and dynamics, while stimulating the emergence of a vaster healing reality and network. In order to support this development some people may embrace new activities and enterprises, finally responding to their authentic calling.

© Franco Santoro, Findhorn Foundation Cluny Hill, Forres IV36 2RD, UK,

Summer Trainings in North Tuscany

Summer Trainings in North Tuscany (Italy)

1-2; 3-6 July 2017, Merizzo (Massa), Astroshamanic Healing & Soul Retrieval, training with Franco Santoro, click here for details.

8-9; 10-13 July 2017, Merizzo (Massa), Astroshamanic Theatre, Dance & Touch, training with Franco Santoro, click here for details.

29 July – 3 August 2017, Merizzo (Massa), Training in Soul Retrieval & Multidimensional Sensuality, with Franco Santoro, click here.

12-16 August 2017, Merizzo (Massa), Shining your vision in the world, with Franco Santoro, click here.

New Moon in Taurus

This New Moon in Taurus takes place at 12:16 GMT on 26 April 2017  and in 6° Taurus 27′.

On a New Moon we may experience a glowing sense of melancholy. We can discern the caring company of healing spirits and also the challenge to accept their presence. This is the anxiety of experiencing the luminous side, knowing that it will draw the dark side.

Experiencing darkness is part of the process of bringing light, as long as this does not lead to polarity and conflict with either darkness or light. Once we bring light into the darkness, then there is no darkness anymore.

This reveals a totally new landscape, where fear, terror and other grievances are transmuted into love, joy and ultimately unity. Once the relationship with Spirit moves beyond the nurturing and initiatory level, it inescapably involves the unveiling of the dark side.

Darkness is the other side of Light. This is what we find when the honeymoon is over. Just like the night follows the day, darkness comes after light.

Since on a New Moon the Sun and the Moon are both in conjunction, there is potential to experience idyllic moments of unity. On such occasions we may feel the presence of Light so strongly, yet there may also be so much sadness, despair and fear.

Where does it come from? Why do we feel so miserable? What have we done? What has been done to us?

The answer we may receive is that this is part of the healing work. It implies becoming aware that these gloomy feelings are the dark side of Spirit. This is the part that, once accepted, can lead to the authentic experience of unity. It comes to us whenever we have blissful luminous experiences. It arrives in the form of fear and other grievances. It brings death and rebirth. Yet this death is not opposed to life. It is the denied side of life, the secret lover that in our bravest dreams we crave to reunite with.

If we create an antagonism with the dark side, we can have some temporary relief, yet we miss the lesson of the cycle. The incorporation of the dark side is the foundation of true healing. It is quite a huge leap, for when we confront with the dark side we perceive ourself isolated from the consensus reality based on the denial of the dark side itself.

The consensus reality provides a provisional relief and sense of unity. Yet there is an expiry date. Although it can be denied and postponed, the confrontation with the dark side is inevitable.

From the spiritual perspective, we are in a hallucination based on polarity. Here everything appears confrontational and predatory. This is the obvious result of separation. We perceive ourself as separated and therefore we need to defend our separated bit. We defend ourself from whatever can threat the fragmented identity that we believe to be. We protect ourself from other people, environmental conditions, natural phenomena, weather, etc.

This is a forlorn war, since in the end our fragmented bit will succumb. Holistic healing involves acknowledging, retrieving and incorporating the fragmented parts, which are basically those that our separated self is at war with or terrified of.

During the New Moon there is a temporary crisis in the motivation to fight the polarity war. Since the Sun and Moon are united, the reality based on separation temporarily falls apart. For the fragmented identity it is a most dramatic event and death, whereas from the astroshamanic healing perspective it is the gateway to ecstasy.

On a New Moon the game of separation suffers an inexorable crisis. The two polarities are at one. If we have started the previous cycle with a healing Intent, this is the moment when we gather all the pieces we have retrieved and put them together. The separated parts die and are reborn into a unified part. The perception of such an event changes according to separation or unity. This is what causes such contradictory feelings. It is also a solitary process, death and rebirth. This is a paradox for, although this is happening to everyone, we seem to be the only one who dies.

Please be aware that you are not alone. Death and life blend themselves on a New Moon. The secret is unveiled. Here we face the opportunity to start a new cycle based on healing. Here we can release the temptation to fight another war. Let’s join forces on this New Moon.

Let’s allow our individual grievances to be collective grievances. Let’s give our consent for our dark side to meet all the other dark sides. Let’s allow this collective dark side to meet its luminous counterpart and become one.

Let’s employ whatever we experience on this New Moon as fertiliser for a healing Intent. This will initiate a new cycle of the Moon based on retrieval.

After the New Moon the two polarities will separate again. Yet this departure is aimed at retrieving the fragmented pieces. Consequently, after a whole cycle, on the next New Moon they will incorporate and become one.

This is an invitation for you to join this enterprise. What we invite us to do is to collectively share our experiences of the dark and the luminous side. This is something that could occur at every New Moon, as well as at every Full Moon.

The first stage of healing and retrieval of unity, as we see it, is connecting personal experience/history to collective experience/history.

The second stage is connecting collective experience/history to spiritual experience/history.

One by one, and together, we can decide to take this first crucial step. Let’s come together and unify our solitary release paths on this New Moon!

Let’s be united both in our misery and bliss. Let’s prepare and adorn the wedding chamber for the ecstatic encounter of the two polarities. “I am a part of you, you are a part of me.” Let’s ground this awareness in our hearts and throats.

© Franco Santoro

Image: “Dantis Amore” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, born on a New Moon in Taurus.