Franco Santoro's Blog: Astroshamanism, page 63

Recapitulation

Recapitulation is an ancient healing practice aimed at retrieving and releasing energy. The assumption is that past events block vital energy until they are finally sorted out and released. When this is not the case the past keeps being held in the emotional body and we lose the connection with whom we truly are. We merely become the condensation of unrefined fragmented memories, which are constantly recycled, reactivated and condensed in the present. As human beings we tend to invest enormous energies in these memories until, just like in a computer, the memory space is used up, and our lives crash, hang or freeze.

Releasing the past may not be an easy task. Many people regularly focus on their memories and justify whatever they do and the way they feel based on their past. They say things such as, “My father abused me”, “My partner left me”, “I lost my child” or “I was fired”, and use them to validate why their life does not work. As they focus on those things they feed those negative past experiences, which then keep being recycled in the present, preventing new experiences to emerge.

Other people take a totally different stance. Being aware of how the past limits their freedom they elect to wipe it out with an instant spring clean. They start a thorough enterprise of deletion of whatever refers to the past, people, places, situations, belongings, etc. The relationship with my girlfriend is over! Ok, let’s burn all her photos, letters, presents, also deleting e-mails, text messages, and so on, until I can say, often by quoting lines from a New Age book, that I have finally cleaned up my past and now I am liberated. And from that moment all will be really different!

Well, this is a universe of immense possibilities, and this can truly be the case if I can move radically beyond the syntax of this separated reality. Since the past, as we perceive it is an illusion, deleting it can be as easy as erasing files from a computer. The moment I wake up from the dream, it will be all gone. And yet, unless I have mastered the art of not falling asleep again, the past will eventually seep though, exactly in the same way, and the only difference will be the actors and the settings.

Releasing the past is not necessarily deleting the past. Far from being erased the past is first of all in vital need of being truly acknowledged and honoured, then healed and, if it truly does not serve, released. Release is not throwing the past in the bin and then relying on the local authority to get rid of it. Release is liberation, allowing the past to flow in the present, undoing fear and supporting luminous elements, so that this can provide blessings for the present and future.

Release is forgiveness, and as A Course in Miracles puts it, “To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on your selection” (ACIM, T354). The problem is not in the past, it is getting stuck there, being frozen in the past. And this happens when we consider only the past, as well as when we deny it.

I can pretend that my ex girl-friend never existed, and remove all the evidence of her presence. This may be temporarily effective if I can’t cope with the situation, yet if there are unresolved issues with that girlfriend they will return in one way or the other until I choose to truly release. And if I don’t release those issues during my life, well, those issues may be carried over in my “next life” or be taken up by the following generations.

I stress these two options because I believe that the major obstacle in releasing the past is not the nature of the past itself but the way we perceive it. I can regard myself as a separated individual having to deal with personal problems throughout my life, and even in past and future lives, or I can acknowledge myself as part of the collective, a planetary larger being, which includes all mankind, past, present and future.

In shamanism there is the notion of “deleting personal history”, yet this is not the past, it is the illusory past created by our separated minds. Hence here the deletion applies to the ego involvement with the past and its separated reality. The perception of separation from others and the world is the human arbitrary configuration that needs to be dropped in order to experience our true identity and move into a much wider reality.

And this is not a spring clean; it is an ongoing and enduring process, which gradually allows the emergence of the collective past, a realm where all minds are joined. Here personal thoughts, being separated, do not exist or are mere hallucinations. Shamans, more or less universally, receive most of their guidance from that realm and work intensively with ancestors. They experience past, present and future as a time continuum through which they travel in order to gain knowledge and pursue their shamanic intentions.

For many native traditions all life is based upon this time continuum, with ancestors representing the major reference in cults and social practices. Any type of conflicts developing in the present is acknowledged in relation with the past. And the past is explored as the matrix level, the realm of templates, or archetypes, that can unveil the tools to heal any conflict for the benefit of present and future generations.

Upcoming workshop on recapitulation:

New Year Astroshamanic Healing Retreat, 27 December 2015 – 1 January 2016 (click here)

© Franco Santoro

15 November

“In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom”

(J.G. Ballard, born on 15 November 1930, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Virgo, British author)

14 November

“Everything great that ever happened in this world happened first in somebody’s imagination.”

(Astrid Lindgren, born on 14 November 1907, with Sun in Scorpio and Moon in Pisces, author of Pippi Longstocking)

13 November

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign.”

(Robert Louis Stevenson, born on 13 November 1850, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Pisces, Ascendant in Aquarius, Scottish writer)

 

 

 

 

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”

Saint Augustine of Hippo, born on 13 November 354, with Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Aries and Ascendant in Gemini, North African theologian (click here for details).

 

“When you realize that you are an eternal being, you will laugh at things that used to give you anxiety attacks.”

“Awakening is the process of overcoming your false self and discovering your True Self. It begins when you decide to grab the tiger by the tail and ends with the tiger tenderly licking the sweat off your brow and face.”

(Stephen Baxter, born on 13 November 1957, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Leo, English hard science fiction author.)

12 November

“When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.”

“Once someone dreams a dream, it can’t just drop out of existence. But if the dreamer can’t remember it, what becomes of it? It lives on in Fantastica, deep under earth. There are forgotten dreams stored in many layers. The deeper one digs, the closer they are. All Fantastica rests on a foundation of forgotten dreams.”

“You wish for something, you’ve wanted it for years, and you’re sure you want it, as long as you know you can’t have it. But if all at once it looks as though your wish might come true, you suddenly find yourself wishing you had never wished for any such thing.”

(Michael Ende, born on 12 November 1929, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Pisces, Ascendant in Gemini, German writer)

 

 

“Women who love themselves are threatening; but men who love real women, more so.”

“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”

“Sadly, the signals that allow men and women to find the partners who most please them are scrambled by the sexual insecurity initiated by beauty thinking. A woman who is self-conscious can’t relax to let her sensuality come into play. If she is hungry she will be tense. If she is “done up” she will be on the alert for her reflection in his eyes. If she is ashamed of her body, its movement will be stilled. If she does not feel entitled to claim attention, she will not demand that airspace to shine in. If his field of vision has been boxed in by “beauty”, a box continually shrinking, he simply will not see her, his real love, standing right before him.”

“Today a woman must ignore her reflection in the eyes of her lover, since he might admire her, and seek it in the gaze of the God of Beauty, in whose perception she is never complete.”

“To live in a culture in which women are routinely naked where men aren’t is to learn inequality in little ways all day long. So even if we agree that sexual imagery is in fact a language, it is clearly one that is already heavily edited to protect men’s sexual–and hence social–confidence while undermining that of women.”

(Naomi Wolf, born on 12 November 1962, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Gemini. In The Beauty Myth she posits that “beauty” as a normative value is entirely socially constructed and a primary element of our obsessive trance in consensus reality)

 

 

11 November

“To Laugh is to Dream,

To Dream is to be Free,

To Laugh is to take Revenge,

To Laugh is to possess everything

we lack in reality”

(René Clair, born 11 November 1898, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Libra, Ascendant in Pisces, French director)

“Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”

(Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. born on 11 November 1922, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Leo, Ascendant in Sagittarius, American writer)

10 November

“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.”

(Neil Gaiman, born on 10 November 1960, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Leo, Ascendant in Gemini, English writer)

“Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.”

“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”

New Moon in Scorpio

The New Moon in Scorpio on 11 November 2015, at 17:47 GMT at 19°, is a precious opportunity to feel and acknowledge our deepest fears and shadows, allowing them to lead us to a truly authentic renewal of our soul.

A New Moon in Scorpio is a climax of darkness and intensity, a peak of fermentation and composting, so that whatever is initiated during this time can receive the maximum level of fertilisation.

If we are open to release control and attachment to our limited perspective of life, accepting the awareness of death and shadow emotions, this New Moon can draw from ancient fertile roots, strengthening the foundations for the manifestation of unexpected possibilities and most luminous developments.

The days preceding any New Moon traditionally involve a confrontation with release and death of the old cycle, as well as the shape-shifting into another cycle. Since the New Moon is in Scorpio, coupled with an eclipse, the elements of death and transformation reach their deepest climax.

The New Moon is generally regarded an ideal time to explore our connection with Spirit, or All That Is. This also involves inquiring about the way we relate with It, finding out if our connection has become impaired and, if this is the case, how and why.

On a New Moon some of us may experience a glowing sense of melancholy. At the same time, it may be common to discern the caring company of healing spirits, together with the challenge of accepting their presence. This may bring 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 into polarity and conflict with either darkness or light. Once light is brought into the darkness, then there is no more darkness.

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 Spirit. This is what I regularly find out 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 I may feel the presence of Spirit so strongly, yet there may also be so much sadness, despair and fear.

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

The answer I receive from Spirit is that this is part of the healing work. It implies becoming aware that gloomy feelings are the dark side of Spirit. This is the part that, once accepted, can lead me into the authentic experience of unity. It comes to me whenever I 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 my bravest dreams I crave to reunite with.

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

Consensus reality provides a provisional relief and sense of unity. I am grateful for its compassionate support. Yet there is an expiry date. Although it can be denied and postponed, the confrontation with the dark side is inevitable.

From a multidimensional perspective, I perceive myself as being in a hallucination based on polarity. Here everything appears confrontational and predatory. This is the obvious result of separation. I perceive myself as separated and therefore I need to defend my separated bit. I defend myself from whatever can threat the fragmented identity that I believe to be. I protect myself from other people, environmental conditions, illnesses and any apparent adversity.

This is a forlorn war, since in the end my fragmented bit will succumb. Holistic healing involves acknowledging, retrieving and incorporating the fragmented parts, which are basically those that my 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 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, I 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 I face the opportunity to start a new cycle based on healing. Here I can release the temptation to fight another war.

Let’s join forces from this New Moon onwards!

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 healing Intentions.

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.”

During this lunation cycle, I am holding a series of workshops specifically designed for Scorpio and Winter themes:

14-15; 16-18 November 2015, Merizzo (Massa, Italy), Scorpio Intensive: Beyond Sex and Death, with Franco Santoro, click here for details.

21-22 November 2015, Poggiardo (Lecce), Astroshamanism: Basic Workshop, with Franco Santoro.

5-6 December 2015, Merizzo (Massa, Italy), Initiation to the Spirit Guide, with Franco Santoro.

12 December 2015, Findhorn (Scotland), Light shines in Darkness: Towards the Winter Solstice, with Franco Santoro.

19-20 December 2015, Merizzo (Massa), Astroshamanic Touch Solstice Intensive, con Franco Santoro, click here for details, (it is possible to stay one or three days more for deepening).

27 December 2015 – 1 January 2016, Merizzo (Massa, Italy), New Year Astroshamanic Healing Retreat, with Franco Santoro, click here for details.

9-10 January 2016, Merizzo (Massa), The Great Jump: manifest your multidimensional potentials, with Franco Santoro.

30 January – 5 February 2016, Findhorn (Scotland), The Light of Your Hidden Treasures: Manifesting your true talents & intentions, with Franco Santoro, click here for details.

9 November

“The gifts we are given are not simply, and perhaps not primarily, for ourselves. They are simply not for our personal selves. The gifts are for our larger self, for the role we have in the larger community of things. That, to my mind, is the reason for the gifts we are given. That is why nature diversifies.”

(Thomas Berry, born on 9 November 1914, Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Cancer, American theologian and deep ecologist)

8 November

“There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.”

(Bram Stoker, born 8 November 1847, Sun and Moon in Scorpio, Irish novelist, author of Dracula)