PAN International 73
PAN Provisional Astroshamanic News
International Edition,
Editorial Director:
© 2007
The obscure days of the outer Scorpio sky provide abundant blessings and opportunities for unveiling the inner luminosity of our being, uncovering hidden secrets, especially on what we truly are beyond the identification with physical bodies. Here Scorpio often comes as the Grim Reaper, dissolving the hallucinations of ordinary reality and pointing at the inevitable date of expiry of all bodily illusions. The awareness of death, which is what Scorpio tenaciously holds, is paradoxically the most pragmatic reality check and the ultimate sense of all life. As AFS Bogus puts it, “only the Intent that in the face of death does not sneak away, is a veracious one”. Death is “the central dream from which all illusions stem” (ACIM, M27:1.1), and Scorpio’s immersion into its mystery, far from being a sinister life-denying development, is definitely the crucial stride for truly understanding and mastering life itself. “The shaman in you lives daily with the sense of death, while the rest of you fights the depressing thought that life will soon be over. I think it is as the shamans say: Only the sense of imminent death shakes you loose from your momentary attachments and fears, from your interest in the programs you have set up. And so the sorcerer welcomes death as the end to a lifestyle that has long since run out of steam. The shaman finds transformation and ecstasy - not tragedy or failure - in death”.[i]
Scorpio possesses the outstanding capacity of emphasising what keep us in darkness and hide the awareness of our true multidimensional nature, so that it can be released, allowing us to see who we truly are and what life is really about. Grievances, fears, despair and all kind of unpleasant thoughts or emotions show what is not there and hide from us what we would see if we acknowledged our authentic luminous identity. In order to see, we need to lay grievances aside, practicing forgiveness as the supreme act of letting go of our separated perception with all its blocks to veritable sight, and recognizing the uncontaminated vision that lies beyond. Scorpio teaches that just as darkness appears to reach its peak in life, light can shine it all away, if we firmly choose to connect with our multidimensional self and the web of life.
The escape from darkness involves two stages: First, the recognition that darkness cannot hide. This step usually entails fear. Second, the recognition that there is nothing you want to hide even if you could. This step brings escape from fear. When you have become willing to hide nothing, you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand peace and joy. (ACIM, T11)
The autumnal and winter seasons are abundant with healing workshops and courses aimed at bringing awareness on our true nature and releasing the obscurity of consciousness. In November I hold two Basic Workshops - in
January 2008 features The Way of the North in Edinburgh (12-13 January 2008), the first directional workshop of the One Year Basic Course in Astroshamanism and Experiential Astrology with healing work on the energy of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, and from 26 to 27 January 2008, Multidimensional Portal of the Senses in Jesi (Ancona, Italy), the basic workshop of the newly born One Year Course in Astroshamanic Healing Touch, in Italian and English (see details below).
In
For detailed information on these events, please see the calendar below or contact info@astroshamanism.org.
The Wave by Franco Santoro
Tidal waves and floods are common features in dreams. They often cause concern among people on the path, since it is easy to refer them to imminent catastrophic events. Psychologically and esoterically water stands for the emotional realm. On a personal level floods and tsunamis may suggest a time of emotional upheaval, overwhelming feelings and radical cleansing. They may also indicate a rite of passage, initiation or multidimensional baptism or rebirth. Everything is swept away and released so as to give space to a new course of life. Water is associated with the fourth dimension and the emotional body. From a limited third dimensional perception it is seen as water, yet from a multidimensional perspective water manifests as the fluidity of free time circulation, i.e. the fourth dimension of time. Tidal waters and flood confront us with the denial of time space, which in the third dimension is perceived as linear. From a third dimensional perspective a flood is a disaster, while from a multidimensional perception it is part of the web of life. While there can be places where floods occur, there are also other places in time where it is dry. The ego separated reality (HAC) is imprisoned in a blocked sphere of time, which causes terror and fear. There is no way out of this terror, unless one moves beyond it. Fear of death is inevitable for whoever identifies solely with third dimensional reality. And this is also an inevitable fear since death of the physical body is inevitable. Yet fear of death or pain, once it is thoroughly explored, may also be the gateway into the fourth dimension and the understanding of our authentic nature. The Wave is a warning that transformation is what each one here in HAC is meant to face sooner or later. This warning is not new, since it has been received from the beginning of separation, with people continuing to die and suffer ever since. It is just the HAC mind that stubbornly refuses to accept this. Its separation from the sense of reality is such that it continues to regard death has a terrible event, an out of bound zone, to disregard, deny or forget about as much as possible. And it is this denial that continues to create massive shocks and pain, whenever death or simply the fear of death inevitably arrives. With death the ego dream comes to its end, although it may be recycled again with the dream of reincarnation, which is the ego dejected version of immortal life. Dreams cannot continue forever and a general awakening is only a matter of time. Yet we can decide to wake up earlier if we wish to avoid further terror and pain.
“Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment in physical sight. The alternating investment in the two levels of perception is usually experienced as conflict, which can become very acute. But the outcome is as certain as God.” (ACIM, T22)
When the Wave comes, remember not to become emotional with fears, terror and concern. The Wave is a riding horse of freedom. We can master the Wave if we connect with the fiftth dimension, which is the mental realm and air. The emotional and watery Wave of fear dissolves by connecting with the multidimensional mind. The HAC ego mind is based on separation and denial, and if we use that mind, when the emotional Wave comes, the inevitable result is terror and fear.
According to HAC perception a physical wave may come or not, while at a non-HAC level the wave comes all the time, which is what human beings in HAC do not see. Hence it does not really make much difference. A healer first of all, as I see it, needs to bring awareness to what is not seen and denied. Death, again happens all the time, yet it is hidden. In certain times in history it becomes visible for everybody, especially when there are huge natural disasters and catastrophe or wars. Yet the greatest disasters in human history pale in comparison to natural death. Natural death takes an average of 52 million lives every year. While you were reading this e-mail, 144 people just died on this planet. Hence the wave in an ongoing development, it is just that we do not want to see it. Forgiveness is letting go of our block to sight, out of the realisation that they do not serve us anymore. The Wave confronts us with the choice between misperception and salvation, pain and happiness, dream and reality.
The Hidden Mechanics of the Ego by Franco Santoro
In the following article I provide a basic description of the inner mechanics of the ego, which also apply to the core functioning of our separated reality or Human Arbitrary Configuration. For this purpose I will use references from A Course in Miracles[iii] which I regard as a most efficient contemporary adaptation of the teachings of ancient mystery religions and Gnosticism.
The ego system runs around three key-concepts: sin (or separation), guilt and fear. Sin is defined as lack of love (T11). As, according to A Course in Miracles, only love is real, sin is not a negative action that requires punishment, but an error or hallucination to correct or undo. Sin is briefly the belief of being separate from God and the Web of Life. The New Testament term for sin in Greek is hamartia, which is used in the sport of archery and simply means “missing the mark”. In this early Christian context, sin in itself, rather than referring to the absolute idea of an evil deed, is associated with a mistake, a failure to hit and express our Core Multidimensional Identity (CMI). Here the source of all troubles is not some form of supreme malevolence. It is basically ignorance, lack of wisdom and perception of separation or duality.
The inevitable consequence of sin is guilt: a sense of inner unworthiness due to something wrong you did or something right you did not do. Guilt is not only limited to recent episodes in life. It includes all past emotions, thoughts and experiences. It also comprises all the past of ancestors, mankind, the planet and the universe. It is a sense of strong discomfort that makes us feel wrong and inadequate. A typical trait of guilt is that, once we feel and believe it, as a result we convince ourselves that sooner or later punishment will follow. Who commits a crime is either arrested or lives with the fear of being arrested. In the same way, once we experience guilt, we unconsciously feel deserving of punishment. The threat of this punishment is the origin of all kinds of fear. In brief, if I believe in sin, i.e. that I am separate from God, I move directly from sin to guilt, and from guilt to punishment, to arrive then to fear. As I believe I have sinned against God and have separated from Him, I fear that He is going to punish me for what I suppose I have done to Him.
The cycle of sin, guilt and fear, once in motion, creates a continuous repetition, a sort of vortex from which the ego gets its vital nourishment. It seems as if there is no way out from this tragic situation. Its fear and misery are unbearable and, in order to release them, I need help. The point is that, until I am taken by this vortex, it is not possible to ask God for help. According to the ego system, God is actually the one from whom I need to defend myself. The ego sees God as an enemy and fosters the idea that He is going to punish me for what I have done. In order to find some relief, as long as I am in the vortex, the only way is to open up to the ego. Its availability to rescue me is soon very clear. As a matter of fact, such availability stems from just one need, i.e. preserving the existence of the ego.
The ego is that part of the mind which believes in separation. Therefore the basic work of the ego consists of doing all that is needed to preserve the separation and its cycle of sin, guilt and fear as real. The survival of the ego depends upon this belief. As long as I believe in guilt, the ego can continue to play its games, and all the help that is going to come from within its system will always contribute to support the same guilt from which I wish to be released.
Repression is the first type of aid that the ego offers. It is about taking all the grievances, pushing them down into the unconscious, and then pretending that they are not there. It is the most popular solution, although it usually doesn’t last for long. One part of me, even if I am not aware, knows very well that the problem is still there. It is like throwing all the rubbish in the house into a hidden room. For a while it works. Then the rubbish increases more and more, and begins to squash against the door of the room. Its smell starts to move outward and then invades the whole house. The same process happens with the guilt which is repressed. To avoid this type of problem the ego provides a more sophisticated solution: projection. This is a mechanism whereby I project unwanted parts of my being into the environment about me. Here it involves taking all the guilt I have inside and throwing it on to somebody else. In this way, the guilt which I do not want to see in myself, I will see in them, him or her. It is like tossing rubbish into the house of a neighbour, and then accusing him of being filthy and stinking. The fact is that projection operates so quickly and secretly that I am really not aware that the waste I see in my neighbour’s place is indeed mine. Somebody else becomes responsible for the misery, the suffering, the pain that exist in my life. It does not matter who that somebody is. What counts, for the ego, is to find somebody or something on which to unload what I have inside.
Projection is the most effective method that the ego employs to get rid of guilt. Unfortunately, it is also the best way to keep and exalt it. It is an ego’s trick to make me feel different from others and to reinforce my belief in separation. Indeed, when I accuse somebody else of being the cause of my pain, at a certain level, I am aware that I am just running away from the responsibility for the guilt that I feel within. Through this dynamic I contribute to a vicious circle of guilt and attack. The more I feel guilty, the stronger the need to deny my guilt and to project it on to somebody else. The more I attack that somebody, the stronger my guilt will be, as I intimately know that my attack is not justified, and that I am only attacking myself.
A very subtle form of projection is called the special love relationship. This is a relationship that, although it seems quite different from the previous one, is only the other side of the coin. We have seen how human beings, according to the ego system, cannot ask God for help. This situation creates a state of incompleteness and determines the need to find somebody special with whom to feel good. It is an agreement in which if somebody does something for me, then I love him or her and, as a form of exchange, I can do something for him or her. This is what is usually considered to be love: a relationship bound to support the vicious circle of guilt. On one hand, the relationship satisfies my needs and this makes me feel good. On the other, it increases my dependence on the partner and the fear of losing him or her. In the end this awakens the memory of the guilt that unconsciously caused the birth of the relationship itself. As it is the guilt which frightens me more than anything else, and my partner triggers it again in me, then I am going to attack and hate him or her as well. Due to guilt, all special relationships have fear in them. That is why they change so often. When there is fear in a relationship, there is no space for love and what is left is only guilt.
To sum up, the ego, after having generated the cycle sin - guilt - fear, provides first aids such as repression and projection. These tools actually reinforce the pain that they pretend to heal.
The answer to the vicious circle of the ego is forgiveness, which in the context of A Course in Miracles has a different definition from its conventional meaning. I will explore the mechanics of forgiveness in the next issue.
One Year Basic Course in Astroshamanic Healing Touch
Jesi (
Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. Illness is some form of external searching. Health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the conditions proceeding from lack of love in others (ACIM, T18)
Astrology and shamanism both demonstrate that we are all part of a vast multi-dimensional universe, that our physical body is merely the smaller scale duplication of a vaster body, from which human beings appear to have separated themselves. This first One-Year Course in Astroshamanic Healing Touch is devoted to the exploration of our multidimensional body and the retrieval of its fragmented parts. Astroshamanic Touch is an energetic bodywork application of astroshamanism meant as a tool for bridging the physical with our multidimensional nature. By operating with other human beings, you melt and become a gateway, channelling healing energy and directing it towards honourable intentions. Astroshamanic Touch provides the energetic combination for awareness to get away from conditionings and grievances, reawakening the original purpose and claiming our multi-dimensional status. In these workshops we will discover ways of employing physical contact and sexual energy to foster expanded states of consciousness, retrieve soul parts, reawaken healing talents and integrate them in everyday life. Through healing practices derived from shamanism, experiential astrology, the Celtic and Mediterranean traditions, the teachings of A Course in Miracles and other spiritual paths, we will receive visions and insights to deepen the work. We will also explore the multidimensional features of our relationships, sharing ways to release intense feelings, promoting forgiveness, transformation and unconditional love.
The Course consists of five week-end workshops. Each workshop deals with a particular aspect of astroshamanic healing touch as applied to the elements and the astrological wheel. The first introductory workshop takes place in Jesi, from 26 to
For those who are part of, or decide to join, the Astroshamanic Practitioner Training (
For information contact: Letizia Mocheggiani +39 0731206687 or 3489231998 or letizia@astroshamanism.org or info@astroshamanism.org.
The Ritual of the Sacred Cone, a story by
Once, in a small corner of a large city, three children played. They lived a life full of joy and adventure. Each day they met and explored their world. They journeyed through forest and mountain, crossed canyons and raging rivers. They visited enchanted gardens, picked flowers of vivid colours, built castles out of wood and stone and earth. It was the hottest summer of their lives and the world shimmered and the sleepy insects reflected petrol colours of blue and green. Ladybirds landed on their hands and soft warm dogs sat at their feet.
Two of the children were brothers, twins and had welcomed the third to join them. But soon the third child soon noticed that one of the brothers had a gentler way and that in his eyes she saw pieces of sky. Together they travelled deeper into the forest where the second brother could not, would not, follow. The second brother grew angry and jealous and started to destroy everything. He stamped on the sleepy insects and jumped into the middle of the rivers, denying their very existence.
Soon the trees and hills started to fade from sight and they sometimes found themselves standing on hard, broken streets amidst dog shit and flies. Something had to be done, so the third child took the hand of the gentler brother and led him away to hide in the forest. But the cries of the other brother could be heard far and wide and the first brother felt the pain in his own heart. Then the Custodians of the Memory of the Agreed Order arrived and decreed that the brothers should return to the old way and to the old streets and that the third should be cast out as she was different from them and had caused the pain.
She waited for the first brother, the gentle one, to protest. But he did not. Instead he cried and said nothing and would only come to the forest with her in secret, always looking out for the others, afraid of being caught. Gradually he came less and less and the third child was left alone, feeling confused and betrayed and full of grief. The forest became dark and still. She hugged her knees in the darkness, trying to protect the bloody wound where her heart had been.
Now the coldness of night poured into her soul, poisoning the core. Grief and terror seized her, twisting her body into patterns of disease. She started to fall and fall as through there were no top or bottom to the world. Space stretched out in all directions and she was alone, separated from all that was, had been or could be.
A howl rises up; a longing for home. For peace and love and forgiveness. Bear comes. Growling, prowling through the dark, smelling of earth and blood and wild dark things. She cries deep sobs and buries herself in the warm, damp fur and in the centre of the forest a luminous spiral starts to turn. Gradually, she opens her eyes and breathes deeply, down through her body, down through the darkness, down through earth and stone and fire. As the ground trembles beneath her, she raises her eyes skywards, throws back her head and roars. She roars at the stars, at the moon, at the gods who have betrayed her. She roars at the earth who has abandoned her. She roars for herself and she roars for the others, for every hope lost, every dream squashed. She roars until she is no more, until all she is, is roar and all there is, is roar. And surrenders in the hurricane of chaos and noise.
And then, stillness. Nothing. And the deepest silence and clarity in the midst of this no-thing-ness. And she stays there a while, although really there is no there and there is no she, only a growing everywhere and everything. And later, in a more fragmented place, she feels the paw of the bear who has always been there. And before her a shining angel whose light fills her body, melting the pain in her heart and holding her in warmth and bliss. And she knows the concrete streets are a bad dream and that she has never been alone, never been betrayed, never been abandoned. And she rests against the bear, snuggling up and allowing it to hold her close. And sighs as the darkness fills her soul.
Astroshamanic Mail
Dave -
What a week with the joyful Franco and fellow trance dancers!! An immensely enjoyable week of intimacy and gentle release. Thank you to all who were an essential part of this workshop - all of you are fondly remembered and continue to resonate on the drum-skin of my heart.
I don't know what to say really - forgiving myself, transforming agony into ecstasy, flirting, dieing, breathing, smiling, laughing, crying, drumming, dancing, dancing, dancing, sleeping, eating, fasting, walking, resting, reading, talking, chanting, blessing, releasing, connecting, expanding, growing, remembering, learning, sharing, observing.
This work is good for me and all that I am. What else can I say. Something is brewing and the potent solution is one of multidimensional proportions. Death is not what I THOUGHT it was / is.
Now, the dance continues. Through the everyday places and spaces, the 3D fields and the love that it shields, right to the heart where the spark makes a start, to the sinews and cells where our unity dwells.
Trance Dance, I love you
When right is the time.
Forgiveness is flowing
When heart and soul rhyme.
Thank you for the miracle of the body and the opportunity it provides for multidimensional movement.
Love, Dave Mountjoy
Micaela -
Any assistance and support you can give me (energetic or otherwise) is welcomed.
For this first Friday I am planning a re-cap of what we learned during the work-shop, as we have one member in this practice group who did not participate but who is eager to join. I am planning to invite the group to journey with an intent realted to "why they wish to explore this practice", what are they expecting, what are they willing to give and to receive.
I will stay tuned....hugs and take care....Micaela. Click here for details on the astroshamanic Finnish group.
Letizia -
When the people arrived I did not expect to share such a deep experience.
We were 14, a big group! 7 from
The last day of the retreat I cried for I didn’t want to lose these parts of my soul.
And now I am alone, but in my heart I have a big love, I can see my “international” friends within me, every night I go into the multidimensional space where I can see this new group.
With love I think about them and our beautiful experience. Thanks for your light, you are in my heart every day. Blessing, Letizia
[i] Arnold Mindell, The Shaman’s Body: A New Shamanism for Transforming Health, Relationships, and the Community, Harper, San Francisco, 1993, p. 157.
[ii] All times in PAN are given in
[iii] References are given in brackets. T stands for the Text of a A Course in Miracles, while W for the Workbook.
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