PAN International 71
PAN Provisional Astroshamanic News
International Edition,
Editorial Director:
© 2007
Alice Bailey defines Virgo as the opposite pole of spirit, the Mary who gives birth to the child Christ, the cosmic mother, representing the negative pole to positive spirit and with the function “to shield, nurture and finally reveal the hidden spiritual reality”, blending spirit and matter into perfect unity. Here our core multidimensional identity emerges through the opening of the unconditionally loving heart and the spontaneous calling to serve on the physical plane. The quest of Virgo is to unveil and implement her sacred work in alignment with the cycles and the web of life.
There are several forthcoming unprecedented events in the astroshamanic arena. To start with I am holding the first Astroshamanic Basic Workshop in Finland, at Inkoo from 1 to 2 September, followed by the Foundation Training in Astroshamanic Trance Dance from 8 to 14 September at Findhorn. Then there will be the long awaited Sacred Relationships Intensive: Restoring the Fragmented Heart in Ostra (
Blessings, Franco
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." Albert Einstein
Restoring the Fragmented Heart: The Way of Sacred Relationships – Part One: Scared and Sacred Relationships
The theme of sacred relationships is an inevitable source of interest, especially in these times of transition, when many human beings on the path are exploring their multidimensional nature and moving beyond the identification with conventional sex roles. Perhaps the most relevant realisation in this respect is the emergence of ancient truths regarding the healing dynamics of relationship and the noticeable easier access to knowledge, which has indeed always been available throughout the history of mankind. Here I suggest dismissing an evolutionary perspective in human life and acknowledging its cyclical repetition, the fact that perceptions of innovations are merely the result of a memory loss. It is only through the full retrieval of such a memory that I can truly release the attachment to separation, joining past, present and future into a continuous healing flow.
The notion that the original human being had a multidimensional nature, incorporating male, female and a mysterious third polarity (the Third Party) is found in most ancient traditions and mythologies. This is described by terms such as androgynous (from the Greek andros, “man”, and gynos “woman”) and hermaphrodite (from the Greek god Hermaphroditus, embodying the sexual features of both his-her parents, Aphrodite and Hermes, together with the capacity of keeping them together, i.e. the Third Party). The original human being was generally depicted has having most powerful qualities. For example, in the Symposium, a controversial dialogue by Plato upon the nature of love, the author narrates an ancient myth about the first human beings through the speech of a character (Aristophanes). It is one of my favourites and I include some excerpts below:
The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, of which the name survives but nothing else. Once it was a distinct kind, with a bodily shape and a name of its own, constituted by the union of the male and the female: but now only the word 'androgynous' is preserved, and that as a term of reproach.
In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and the same number of feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.
Now the sexes were three, and such as I have described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and moved round and round because they resembled their parents.
These humans had such extraordinary qualities and intelligence that the gods became envious and fearful. Hence they decided to cut the human spherical body in two halves and get rid of the Third Party (“the union of the two” or “man-woman” bit). Since then, the two separated parts have been trying to join up. “And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.”
With the term sacred relationship I identify the integration of the three original sexes, the male and female polarities through the Third Party (man-woman sex, “the union of the two”, or Void) in alignment with the Web of Life[ii] and with the complete experiential recognition of another as a part of who I am, whom I incorporate in the wholeness of what and who we all are. Sacred relationships entail a radical transmutation and expansion of our limited self, a drastic release of our separated personality, an initiatory death and rebirth into a novel collective identity. They require dismembering the layers we have erected around our heart and consciousness to preserve the forlorn setting of a provisional separated reality, becoming the womb through which true perception of the wholeness of reality can be reborn in this world.
Sacred relationships are not based on the amount of time spent with a partner or on the level of physical or emotional intimacy. They are founded on a deep commitment and willingness to perceive the invisible healing link of love (the Third Party) with another, the determination to sustain it beyond the illusive limitations of time and space, out of the enduring experiential recognition that the other is a part of one’s multidimensional self.
Sacred relationships orchestrate the unfolding of the deepest mysteries in life. Every relationship, no matter how trivial, possessive, ordinary, destructive or addictive appears to be, contains the bud of sacred relationship. Whenever any relationship is created, an astounding process develops, which entails the potential emergence and manifestation of a new universe. Initially the rapport involves the outer layers, then, as the partners come closer, more inner layers start to be engaged, until both may become consciously aware of the Third Party (“the union between the two”) and begin to actively engage with it, paving the way for the male, female and third polarity to finally merge. When the three polarities merge, it is called a sacred relationship. This generates a quantum shift, a radical opening through which the mystery is unveiled and the original nature of existence discloses its authentic essence, which is unconditional love, the Holy Trinity, the creative exemplification of oneness with the Web of Life.
All other types of relationship merely involve the external layers and disregard or fear the core. They are rapports based on the perception and preservation of separation and duality, which are the essential paradigm of the current Human Arbitrary Configuration (HAC). They involve the unconscious perception of others as irreconcilable missing pieces of our fragmented soul and split projections of our multidimensional nature.
There are two types of relationships: scared and sacred. Scared relationships do not allow any of the individuals involved to truly meet, because their greatest source of fear is the Third Party, the very linking and meeting agent. Only the Third Party can bring awareness to our true nature, releasing the dream of separation and disclosing the veritable energy of love. This is because the Third Party is the sole Gateway to our Core Multidimensional Identity. It is this awareness that our identity based on separation rejects, in order to preserve a fragmented reality, which is ultimately the cause of any sufferance and pain. Hence scared relationships are sustained by the fear to unveil who we truly are, which means that whoever is involved in such relationships acts as a bogus fragmented perception of who we are, and not as our true self. The survival of this bogus identity is based on the denial of the Core Multidimensional Identity, since when the latter is unveiled bogus identities annihilate. Given that the extermination of this identity will occur sooner or later, and inevitably with physical death, all scared relationships are obviously based on fear.
Sacred relationships are not rapports with one partner. They are all-inclusive triad relationships, encompassing whatever and whoever exists in the realm of male and female polarity, together with the Third Party, the linking agent between the two polarities, the Gateway to the Core Multidimensional Identity. The openness to relate with the Core generates the frequency to connect with other Core selves, who are ultimately expressions of the same Core. Since in the Human Arbitrary Configuration, the Core Multidimensional Identity is an out of bound zone, scared relationships strive to provide a surrogate form of that Core through the connection with another person. The focus is the other person and all life becomes a race for getting someone to play the role of the Core, a desperate search for the other half or soul mate. When most people talk about love they usually refer to this kind of relationship.
In human languages the term love has a most abundant and contradictory amount of meanings. In the ancient Greek language four different words for “love” were generally employed: eros (sexual desire), philia (love and affection between friends), storge (related to the love between parents and children) and agape (unconditional love or the love of God). Whereas the first three types of love are based on some form of reciprocity or conditions, and pertain to the category of scared relationships, agape is impartial, unconditional and devoid of any obligation. Agape is also the term used in the New Testament’s commandment of “love thy neighbour”. In the realm of scared relationships love is mainly meant as eros, especially in the expression “falling in love”, which describes the most ecstatic experience for most human beings.
Astroshamanically eros is ruled by Mars and Aries, the primal driving force of separated reality, the propelling power of desire, the bona fide horny bit, the restless urge to act, move, hunt for and merge with the multidimensional realms. When we fall in love, a significant part of our Core Multidimensional Identity is activated through the projection made on a physical partner, with the intent of making it a part of us. Astroshamanically it is the fourth-dimensional body, the emotional field and water element that is turned on, and projected upon the physical form of another As a result, when we are close to that person, either physically or emotionally, we reach a peak in bliss and feel complete. Unfortunately we may believe that the physical other is the one who completes us and that this completion takes place only when we continue to experience the bliss of eros and falling in love with him or her. Indeed eros, just as Aries is the first sign of the zodiac. It is merely the starting point of a long process for completion, the gateway into the awareness of the Third Party. This is also exemplified by the first stage of the Basic Ritual of the Sacred Cone, which activates the sphere of the primal intent and desire.
The next stage involves a disintegration of the eros function and may appear as a process of “falling out of love”. This occurs when shadow parts of our multidimensional nature are projected on the other, while the previous erotic bits fade away. Here we realise that the preceding loving projection is not the other, and this may cause disappointment, frustration, anger, fear and perhaps the conclusion of the scared relationship. Yet, this is indeed the most powerful stage of the relationship, which can allow us to take a giant stride in the retrieval process and create the foundations for its anagrammatic transmutation from scared to sacred. If we choose to accept the other for what he or she shows us, we identify the parts of our multidimensional self that are striving to be acknowledged and integrated. Recognizing, honouring and loving whatever we see in the other, implies recognising, honouring and loving ourselves. Our outer interaction with the other reflects the inner multidimensional dynamics of our healing soul. When we accept to engage and be in love with all aspects of another, including the shadow sides, then the Third Party emerges and the way to sacred relationships firmly unveils. This phase is exemplified by the second stage of the Basic Ritual of the Sacred Cone, which is the sphere of release, composting and sacred transmutation, while the third stage of the ritual, embodies the mystery activation of the Third Party, the filling of the Void, the Gateway to our Core Multidimensional Identity.
Astrology depicts both the scared relationships of our fragmented self and the sacred relationships of our multidimensional nature. In itself astrology provides a complete mapping of the Web of Life and a delineation of the undivided self, where all sexes abide together and the inner joins the outer, undisturbed by the hallucination of separation. When astrology is employed shamanically it plays a most decisive role in identifying and retrieving fragmented parts, successfully facilitating their integration into the unity to which they belong.
Astrologically, the position of Venus and the Descendant in a man’s chart tends to show the aspects of the feminine archetype that can trigger his eros or be projected onto an external partner. This figure can appear through a large variety of expressions ranging from the highest to the lowest feminine aspects. In Jungian terms this is the anima, the sum of all the unconscious feminine qualities that a male possesses. For a man the position of Mars portrays the archetypes he identifies with or aims to own so as to trigger the eros principle in another and draw fragmented parts of his soul.
In a woman the position of Venus generally represents the particular feminine archetype she identifies with or aspires to in order to activate the eros principle in another and attract missing male parts of her souls. For a woman it is the position of her Mars, together with her Descendant, that may show the aspects of the masculine archetype that can turn her eros on or be projected onto outer partners. This figure again manifests through many forms ranging from the highest to the lowest male aspects. In Jungian terms it is the animus, the sum of all the unconscious male qualities that a woman possesses.
Although the Descendant, Mars and Venus astrologically embody the anima or animus there are also other relevant elements that identify the female or male polarities in both scared and sacred relationships. As we saw above, in the quote from Plato’s Symposium, there were originally three sexes “because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, [the Third Party] which is made up of sun and earth”. In this respect the Sun constitutes the male polarity, the Ascendant, which stands for the Earth, represents the female polarity, and the Moon stands for the Third Party. From a more strategic and experiential perspective each of these three astrological references can play any of the three sexes. The Astroshamanic Trinity System (
Astroshamanic work in the realm of relationships involves the retrieval of all the features projected on outer partners and the development of a state in which they are fully integrated and acknowledged through the conscious participation of the Third Party, no matter with whom we are in an external relationship or whether we are in such a relationship at all.
The forthcoming workshop Sacred Relationships Intensive: Restoring the Fragmented Heart in Ostra (
Ostra (
All those we meet in our life are projected parts of the wholeness from which we have separated ourselves, and every single relationship is a path to that wholeness. The purpose of sacred relationships is releasing the illusion of separation and retrieving our original unity. Finding fulfilment through intimate love associations is the greatest desire of most human beings, yet this search is also one of the main causes of conflicts and pain. In this workshop we explore the realm of relationships from a shamanic and multidimensional perspective, releasing blocks to our capacity to love and reawakening our true ecstatic nature. We will track and restore separated parts of our soul, identifying the underlying issues that hamper relationships and promoting healing, fulfilment and blessings. When the power of sacred relationships is strong it can bring incredible healing and manifest miraculous effects in our life and the whole environment. The aim of this workshop is to support and implement your birthright to establish intimate relationships aligned with your authentic soul purpose, embracing both the sexual and celibate path. The workshop takes place near the medieval
The workshop is in English and Italian. Income related price: Euro 495 or £ 323 (payable by participants with low income); Euro 545 or £ 354 (participants with medium income); Euro 595 or £ 386 (participants with higher income). Please book at your earliest convenience with a non-refundable deposit of Euro 75 or £ 50. The cost includes full board, accommodation in double rooms with bathroom, and tuition for five days. For information contact: Letizia Mocheggiani +39 0731206687 or 3489231998 or zone25@tele2.it or franco@astroshamanism.org.
Deeper Meanings in Harry Potter by Dr. Geo Athena Trevarthen
Dr. Geo Athena Trevarthen’s background gives her unusual insight into the Harry Potter novels. Raised in a Scottish and Irish hereditary shamanic tradition, she was awarded an MSc Magna Cum Laude from the
It’s easy to say that Harry Potter is a commercial phenomenon, but that’s a bit of a cheap answer. There are many other books and films and tv shows out there seeking, and failing, to be such a mega-hit. Many start out with infinitely more hype than Harry. (A 500 copy print run.) Why Harry?
I’ve proposed a few papers and roundtable discussions to the upcoming Accio Harry Potter conference at
First, and most simply, the Harry Potter phenomenon has a lot to teach us, even before we get to the books. The phenomenon itself tells us much about what our culture lacks. The books say a lot about how to fill our cultural and personal voids.
A central principal of both prayer and magic is to declare a void, based on the idea that nature abhors a vacuum. To declare a desperate need invokes a force to fill it. Western culture has been declaring its void ever more loudly from at least the eighteenth century forward. Voids of myth, magic and meaning, voids of wholeness, companionship and comfort, voids of loyalty, connection, tribe and totem, lost parents, lost children, lost time, lost lives, loss, loss, loss.
And along comes Harry. As a blues song says, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child." From his first great loss to his ten years of loveless exile in meaning poor, goods rich, suburbia, Harry is the very archetype of loss and modern alienation. Even after his initial rescue, he cyclically returns to "the desert of the real" at the Dursley’s. However, despite (or because of) all his setbacks, Harry finds everything we often lack: love, courage and a sense of full participation in reality. This comes from his parents’ transcendent love, his friends’ tangible love, his own efforts and a magical world-view that implicitly acknowledges the wholeness of life. All these things bring Harry enough comfort and meaning to carry on, to play the seeker in the game he’s been given.
We’ve all got to play the game we’re given, and I think that some of what sustains Harry can sustain us too. We can bring a deeper sense of the magic and meaning we find in the novels into our own lives.
The Harry Potter novels unite mythic themes from the past with diverse literary genres of the present and aspirations for right action in the future. They contain a vast array of symbols and situations that echo some found in alchemy, mystical Christianity, shamanism and magic. Many people have commented on the variety we find in the Harry Potter books, but they are more than a grab bag of genres and symbols, bound by an engaging narrative. When we look at their deeper layers of meaning, we find a modern mythos where the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. When J.K. Rowling used the symbols and mythic themes that she did in the books she couldn’t help but invoke the wide range of meanings they have traditionally held. The symbol of the Quidditch ‘seeker,’ pursuing the winged, golden orb to the game’s end, is just one of the most obvious symbols and themes we can look at. It is a role taken by Harry and others in the novels, and a role figuratively taken by the reader.
The Harry Potter books function as myths for many of us. They tell us something about the world, they give us models for behavior, they comfort us and bear repeated re-readings, and their focus seems to shift with our own perspective and stage of life, revealing other layers of meaning.
For example, the four Hogwarts houses, associated with the four elements, also ‘map’ well on to the four traditional magical precepts: to know (Ravenclaw, air), to will (Slytherin, water), to dare (Gryffindor, fire), and to keep silent, (Hufflepuff, earth.). The patronus relates to everything from the shamanic totem animal to the Holy Guardian Angel of Western ceremonial magick.
The numerous fan debates about the series’ potential and actual end calls us to reflect on what truly makes a ‘good ending’ in art or life. This discussion returns us to where the books began, to the mystery of attaining the philosopher’s stone, a goal that’s easier than you’d think, but still challenges many precepts of modern western culture. We look at the novels’ challenge to action in the world, where we each make the choice between "what is easy and what is right."
The Harry Potter books are rich with themes that reward deeper reading. One of these is the theme of sacrifice. Those of you who’ve known me for a while will remember the many times I’ve discussed the sacrificial posture, and it was fantastic to see such a perfect manifestation of its magical potency at the end of the series.
The archaeologist Richard Bradley describes how offering gives, but sacrifice alters. Some of what has been believed to make sacrifice effective in traditional cultures also comes into play in Harry Potter. For example, James Potter’s sacrifice failed to protect Harry in the way that Lily’s did because she could have stood aside. Various indigenous and ancient spiritual traditions would say that by making a conscious sacrifice Lily adopted the ‘sacrificial posture,’ an internal state which withholds nothing from the Sacred, and therefore, allows the maximum spiritual power to flow through the individual.
Power brings prestige. Anne Ross has shown that the torc, the ancient Celtic necklace in the form of an open ring, may relate symbolically to the sacrificial noose’s symbolism, meaning that those with high status in Celtic culture may also have been potential sacrificial victims. The symbol of great power was also the symbol of great sacrifice. Like the winning team in the Meso-American ball game, those sacrificed left the field as the winning stroke of their lives. This relates to Harry and to others in the books who make great personal sacrifices.
In many cultures sacrifice is a way of mastering loss by consciously offering what may be taken, a posture Harry first wholeheartedly adopts in book six that also comes up in ancient Irish tradition. I believe that the annual ‘sacrifices’ to Cromm Cruaich at Samhain were actually simply consciously offering what had already been lost throughout the year. We all suffer loss, but if we consciously accept parts of it as necessary parts of the entire creation process, then we become participants rather than pawns. If my Great Grandfather lost a wallet or broke a leg, he’d say, "an offering to the Gods of Shipwreck’ who, like You Know Who, must not be named lest they be invoked. By offering the lesser thing, you empowered yourself, by empowering yourself you made a greater loss less likely.
Sacrifice in Harry Potter resonates with Christian tradition as well as Pagan (obviously) and the sacrificial posture can apply to the usually less dramatic sacrifices and psychological states of daily life. On a small scale the posture of sacrifice, of non-resistance, allows us to ‘let go and let God’ in our daily lives. On a large scale, it’s the quality of Christ’s sacrifice, or the quality of God incarnate in all creation described in many Animist and Panentheist traditions. In these traditions Spirit or Deity is both immanent and transcendant, and so, experiences all we do, an ultimate form of sacrifice. The power of sacrifice doesn’t just manifest when we make large or small sacrifices for loved ones, but when people instinctively puts their lives on the line to rescue strangers. The power of sacrifice is deeply related to love, as it ultimately admits no boundaries between self and other.
There are a wealth of other useful questions we can examine in relation to Harry Potter. Is Harry a consumer, cultural or spiritual phenomenon? Is the desirability of the books, DVDs and trinkets at odds with any anti-consumer messages in the novels? Do they encourage us to find deeper values or entice us up the rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in shallow ways? (That is, once we are fed and clothed, we seek such things as personal fulfillment and transcendent experience. This has come to be used by advertisers to sell us transcendence, joy in a jar or omnipotence in a car.)
The novels also stimulate questions about the nature of reality and our approaches to it. For example, does the fact that so many are drawn to Harry Potter mean that people are happier living in a magical relationship with the universe? Is this a regression to infancy or a more mature, ecologically minded approach? Are scholars and theologians like Buber, Berman and others right, that we’re happier in an "I - Thou" relationship to the universe? Should we espouse more ‘realistic’ views, and whose reality is it anyway—Dawkins’, Zukav’s, the Dalai Lama’s? Are the fruits of various world-views the most objective measure of reality at which we can arrive, and can the Harry Potter novels give us any idea how to get to a philosophy that bears good fruits?
Anyway, these are just a few of the ideas careering round my head at the moment as I work on my book. I hope you’ve found them interesting! Till next time, Le Beannachdan, With Blessings, Geo
The
This appears as a most difficult sign to find movies about. Traditionally Virgo shuns the screen limelight and there are not many films associated with this sign. Virgo themes such as work, service, healing, purification, cleansing do not seem to be major features in the movie industry. What follows is a provisional list of movies with Virgo elements. A most relevant one for me is The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, whose soundtrack, featuring the song I Will Always Love You is the second best selling soundtrack of all time.
Each title in the following list is preceded by the name of the director. By clicking on the title you can get online details on the movie. More titles are welcomed.
C.DeMille, The Story of Doctor Wassell. J.Ivory, The Remains of the Day. R.Haines, The Doctor. R.Joffe, City of Joy. W.Lang, The Desk Set. J.Losey, The Servant. M.Jackson, The Bodyguard. J. Madden, Her Majesty Mrs. Brown. P.Marshall, The Awakening. J.McTiernan, Medicine Man. M.Nichols, Working Girl. O.Preminger, The Moon is Blue. E.Rohmer, The Green Ray. R.Stevenson, Mary Poppins. F.Zinnemann, The Nun’s Story. W.Wenders, Paris, Texas. R.Benton, Kramer Vs Kramer. K.Smith, Clerks. R.Nelson, Lilies of the Field L.McCarey, The Bells of St Mary’s. I.Lupino, The Trouble with Angels. F.Darabond, The Shawshank Redemption. A.Holland, The Secret Garden.. F.Noyce, The Bone Collector. B.Beresford, Driving Miss Daisy. A.Penn, The Miracle Worker.
There follows a list of actors and directors with relevant traits in Virgo. Their names are followed by the binary (Sun and Moon Sector position) or triad (Sun, Moon and Ascendant) reference. When the term stellium is indicated it means that three or more planets and astrological factors are in Virgo. By clicking on the name of the actor you can get complete online details.
Sean Connery (6.6.10; st.); Michelle Williams (6.6;st); Mark Harmon (6.6.8;st); Tom Felton (6.6;st.); Keanu Reeves (6.4.6;st); Shirley Maclaine (2.6.6); Virna Lisi (8.6.6); Peter Sellers (6.2.6); Richard Gere (6.9); Hugh Grant (6.2); Greta Garbo (6.2.3); Sophia Loren (6.11.10;st); Raquel Welch (6.8.9;st); Ingrid Bergman (6.1.5;st); Jacqueline Bisset (6.5;st); Barbara Bach (6.10.5;st); Mariangela Melato (6.5.6;st)
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