On 15 December 2012, following several years of reflection, Franco Santoro returned in full communion with the Catholic faith. As a result he decided to definitely leave the Findhorn Community, where he had lived and worked since 1999, as well as any association with New Age spiritualities, including astroshamanism and the spiritual disciplines he developed and taught since 1976. Trainings, workshops and events on astroshamanism continue to be held worldwide by Letizia Mocchegiani, Celia McKenna, the Provordo Jesi and other qualified associates. This page is now directed by Compagnia dell'Ordine Provvisorio.

Please find below the text of the letter Franco Santoro wrote to the Findhorn community after his leaving ceremony.  

Dear Friends, I say farewell and I thank you all very deeply for the blessing of being in your loving company since 1999. I wish you to know that your presence has been of immense value for me, no matter how long we have known each other and regardless of our interaction, whether we had significant sharing and activities together or all we exchanged was just a silent smile.

You can rest assured that I have deep love and respect for each one of you. I acknowledge you as beloved brothers and sisters, and will keep remembering you with the grace and beauty I have genuinely seen in you. Though only God knows where, when and how, I have no doubt we will meet again, perhaps even soon, and that this meeting will be most joyful and luminous.

Please also receive my gratitude for having accepted me in the community, being patient and compassionate about my defects and allowing me ample freedom to explore and implement my life journey. I wish you to know that I have learned a lot and gained most precious gifts by seeing your
authentic examples of love, care and service. 

Following seven years of reflection, inner visions and repeated experiential confirmations, five months ago I fully reverted to the Catholic faith. Crucial in this respect were also events in my private life, leading me to contrition, total admission of powerlessness, unconditional surrender to God’s will and the resolve to thoroughly atone for my past.

After spending 40 years, and my entire adulthood, exploring and implementing alternative paths, including those I invented myself, at the peak of my dark nights, I realised that the only alternative left was the one I had always rebelled against: the spiritual tradition of my childhood.

Embracing this tradition involves a gigantic leap and, though I have no clue about what it will pragmatically entail, I can rely on the deep sense of trust and serenity that comes from genuinely following my heart and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my only devoted presence 
throughout all my life.

When I first came to Findhorn I was confronted with another huge leap. The first year of my staying was full of uncertainty and I could only rely on my prayers and trust. The experience of what happened later blessed me with most precious gifts, both in the form of loving epiphanies and sacred wounds, which have impeccably fortified my current decision.

All I truly want is to direct my intentions and actions purely to the service, reverence and praise of God, including activities of charity towards other human beings. This goes together with releasing grievances, which I am aware will take the rest of my life and more. I am joyfully embracing a voluntary anticipated purgatory, which may help me to get a discount for my atonement after death. I wish to stress the term joyfully, since I am aware that some of you may find my words rather hard. The greatest joy I can conceive is to give myself up to God, accepting responsibility for my conduct and submitting to His laws, for my own salvation and the world’s.

All I genuinely feel for everyone I have met in the community is deep gratitude and love. This includes also the very few with whom I had grievances and painful experiences. These I bless and cherish unconditionally for allowing me to see and admit my full responsibility and faults, while I also deeply apologise for any harm caused and focus on providing the necessary compensation. A lot of gratitude I express also to those who provided support and appreciation in times of turmoil and sorrow, especially when I lost sight of all the good things that our Lord managed to do through my work despite my limitations.

I have resolved to commit to one year of discernment based on chastity, poverty, service and obedience as a prelude to whatever will be God's will for me afterwards. For the time being I am blessed with the invitation to stay in a Catholic discernment centre in Rome, while in summer I have been asked to help in a one-month pilgrimage on the Way of Santiago.

Thank you again so much for your loving company. I will remember you all in my prayer, and I ask you to pray for me.

God bless, Franco

Who is God to us? How do you understand That? 
Do we feel embarrassed or disturbed to use, hear or read this word? 
How does the God of our early religious education or our prejudices relate to our current experience of God? 
Is this a loving or a judging God? 
What are the related blessings and wounds? 
Whether we accept, oppose or deny God, we are still in a relationship with God, and this relationship inevitably affects our choices in life. In the end, regardless of the choices, what counts is the quality of our experience in life. Hence how is our life?
Believing or not believing in God, loving or hating God, requires an act of faith and trust. Are your faith and trust rewarded?
If the term "God" causes grievances it is surely legitimate to use another word, yet unless I do something to heal those grievances, and the ideas I associate with them, grievances will be recycled into whatever other term I use.

These are some of the themes we will address in the Holistic Awareness and Astroshamanism Basic Week, 2-9 March 2013, at the Findhorn Foundation (Scotland)
see: http://www.findhorn.org/programmes/213/#.UQfcbh26fE0

This week can be extended in a longer training, comprising another week
9-13 March 2013, Astroshamanism Advanced Week
http://www.findhorn.org/programmes/214/#.UQfcoh26fE0
or a full month:
2-30 March 2013, Astroshamanism, Month-long intensive
http://www.findhorn.org/programmes/457/#.UQfc2B26fE0

The training aims at exploring our connection with God from a shamanic and holistic perspective, bridging the gap between direct experience and religious conditionings, including anti-religious beliefs. The training is a wide-ranging journey, encompassing a tapestry of spiritual practices mainly from the Christian tradition, integrated with the structure of astroshamanism.

Whether we consider or ignore them, the Judo-Christian traditions shape the matrix of our contemporary culture. The training is ideal for those wishing to heal, restore or deepen the relationship wit God, facing and releasing deep unresolved grievances with their spiritual roots, while also opening up to their blessings and ecstatic mysteries.

I believe that this training can offer support and clarity also regarding your healing and creative potential, providing opportunities to ground it in everyday life, both for your benefit and as part of your service to the environment.

The training is also an ideal opportunity to get to the root of critical issues, healing blocks and energy loops, so that you can step with power into a brighter and more fulfilling experience of life.

For more information see: http://www.astroshamans.com/2012/10/march-2013-foundation-training-in.html

Please feel free to contact me at provordo@yahoo.co.uk if you have questions or wish to know more.

Godspeed,

Franco

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies." (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Bodies are not private properties, they are parts of the whole. The Holy Spirit represents the linking agent of all separated parts. Is our aim in life to prove that we can be independent and powerful, that we can create our own reality? Or is it rather to accept our powerlessness and hopelessness as human individuals, finally resolving to return to the Reality we have separated from?

21 December 2012

WINTER SOLSTICE: Multidimensional Birth

source

On the Winter Solstice the Sun reaches the lowest point in the northern hemisphere and the apex of darkness, while in the southern hemisphere it is the other way around. This portrays the mystery of the interaction of Darkness and Light, and their simultaneous coexistence.

This Winter Solstice, 21 December 2012, is particularly special for it coincides with the climax of the 2012 Phenomenon, comprising a wide range of apocalyptic beliefs envisaging a state of emergency with cataclysmic or transformative events leading to the so called end of time.

21 December 2012, as I see it, is a celebration of the end of time, rather than the end of time itself. A celebration is a symbolic event aimed at bringing public awareness about something, which in this case is the provisional state of our existence, how we are always in constant transition from the known to the unknown, the death of the old and the birth of the new.   

As far as I can remember, the awareness of the above has existed since I was a child, and I believe that this has been the case for many people of my or any other generation. The end of time has always happened for billions of people with their death, just has the beginning of time has taken place with their birth. This Solstice is special merely because it has the strategic quality of drawing public attention to what has always been, and is likely to continue to be.

My hope is that 21 December 2012 can be a positive educational device leading to a significant shift of consciousness. How this will come about is part of the mystery and in this respect I can only refer to my direct experience. 

When I look at my life, I realise that shifts in consciousness are usually the result of things getting so bad that I have no choice but to admit total defeat. The paradox is that this defeat, if I accept it and move on, can become the gateway of a total victory. Darkness, with all its pain, when addressed properly, is meant to give way to the Light and all its luminous elements of renewal, just as the mother’s labour lead to birth. 

Sufferance becomes unbearable only when I lack the awareness of this birthing process, being isolated in Darkness, perceiving it as something wrong and shameful that has to be hidden. When I realise that Darkness comes to serve the Light, and allow it to do so for some time, then Light inevitably returns, and I experience great peace and joy. All is well again. This has happened many times. What has also happened is that I get lost in the celebration of the Light and I forget about the Darkness. So that when the Darkness returns this is still most painful.

On the eve of this Solstice, as I navigate in the midst of Darkness, I know that Light is close and will come. Yet, my promise is not to forget the Darkness, once the Light comes. I will thank the Darkness for bringing the Light. I will express my gratitude to those who navigate through Darkness for they allow me to remember where I come from and where I will return.

The shift of consciousness I envisage for this Solstice is the awareness of both Light and Darkness, birth and labour. I hope that this event will shed more Light on our Darkness, with the awareness that our human dramas are part of a multidimensional gestation process.

A human foetus retrieves and assimilates the components that allow its physical body to become whole and fit to merge into the outer reality. Similarly our human separated reality may serve the purpose of a wider pregnancy, which involves retrieving and integrating the fragmented pieces of our souls, finally giving birth to a holistic collective self.

Our separated identities may be the components of an unborn multidimensional creature, gestating in a wider uterus, which is our human reality, and waiting to be born. This creature is the result of a circle of interconnectedness encompassing a web of individuals. It is the manifestation of Christ consciousness.

This is my dream, and what I trust and hope.

Happy Winter Solstice! (Franco S.)

© Franco Santoro, Findhorn Foundation Cluny Hill, Forres IV36 2RD, UK, info@astroshamanism.org

Click here for our calendar of holistic and astroshamanic events.

For individual consultations with Franco Santoro and Associates click here 

For further information on astroshamanism see:
http://www.facebook.com/Astroshamanism
http://www.astroshamans.com/
or contact info@astroshamanism.org  

For books on astroshamanism see below:

If this is feasible for you, please support our blog with a donation. Every donation of any amount is most welcomed. Also very small contributions are most appreciated

New Moon in Sagittarius (13 December 2012)

The New Moon will be at 8:41 GMT on 13 December 2012, in 21° Sagittarius 45’.

New Moons are traditionally a time of rebirth, the opportunity to release the old and start a brand new cycle aligned with the vibration of the lunation sign, which in this case is Sagittarius.

Sagittarius, as I experience it, invites truth and honesty regarding  our motivation in life, and also challenges to commit and take direct action.

Here the Archer teaches to expand the horizons and dart into new territories, rising above the limitations of outdated belief systems and gaining wisdom from direct exposure to experience, which implies letting go of obsolete defence mechanisms. 

Obsolete defence mechanisms are ideas and habitual patterns generally based on fear and inherited from the past, which may no longer apply to our current life and soul’s purpose.

I regard the New Moon in Sagittarius as the best time for composting outmoded believes and emotional patterns, using their energy to reach out for our authentic intentions.

Sagittarius is associated with adventure, optimism, trust, faith, expansion and risk-taking, and these are all qualities, combined with some basic caution, that can inspire giant strides in the inner voyage.

A decisive question on a Sagittarius New Moon is: 

What do I truly and honestly seek in life?

Other questions may be: 

What belief systems do I need to let go of? 

What kind of believes and fears keep me blocked, unable to expand and venture through the web of life? 

Am I willing to release them? 

Am I available to ask for support to God, my guides, teachers, helpers, friends investing in trust and confidence?

Am I open to take a decisive step regarding my Intent, to be adventurous and risk, or do I rather prefer to wait and continue to get what I have got now?

Astroshamanic Seal for this New Moon
click here for more details

In the sky of the northern hemisphere Sagittarius is the darkest New Moon of the year, the climax of obscurity. This darkness carries a maximum potential for rebirth and transformation, all the nutritional fertilising elements of a perfect manure. It only needs a seed, an Intention, a focus point.

This is an ideal time for stirring up one’s best dreams and aspirations. It is a sacred stage of composting. 

It may stink a bit, yet it is only a matter of holding one’s nose during the operations, having a bit of patience and taking it easy, being aware that this will be later copiously paid off.

This lunation cycle will end with the next New Moon in Capricorn on 11 January 2013, at 19:43 GMT. 

From a strategic perspective I find it very useful to spend this lunation period with work on recapitulation, making an inventory of our life, in preparation for setting targets for the year ahead, and for what is truly real in the present, the New and Now.

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 fragmented memories, 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.

The 12 Days of Christmas (from 26 December to 6 January) are traditionally used for this purpose. Click here for details. Beyond 2012, the New Year Spiritual Healing Retreat, I hold with Astrid Gude at Findhorn Foundation Cluny Hill, is also aimed at recapitulating the past and paving the way for the New and Now. Click here for details.

In pursuing such targets it is ideal that they are based on the essence of the experience we intend to manifest, without being attached to involve specific people or situations.

A honourable intention, as I see it, refers to my own soul’s journey and does not interfere with the journey of other people and the best course of action for the web of life., in other words, God's will.

This means that if I intend to get a job in an organisation called X, here the intent is the experience of working in an organisation having a nature similar to X. 

In pursuing this goal, I may consider X to be the elected one, yet only if I am respectful of X’s own intentions, which may not necessarily be the same as mine. 

X could be an inspirational element in my quest for a job, a gateway which in the end leads me to the essence of the experience, which is the real target. 

If I insist on the gateway, I will not be able to meet what awaits beyond the gateway. On the contrary when I accept to move on, I tap into the web of life and  gratefully acknowledge whoever and whatever I meet in life as part of a luminous itinerary to wholeness and love.

After transiting and mastering the path of darkness, Sagittarius is challenged to find a target upon which to direct its powerful energies. 

Part of the challenge here is between objectives based upon second-hand beliefs, or conditionings, and those founded upon direct experience and our deepest truth.

The flight of the Sagittarius’s arrow illustrates the emergence from the darkness of the underworld and the greyness of the ordinary world, into the realms of inconceivable light that exist beyond. 

Yet, this journey is intimately based on the luminous appreciation of all aspects of life, low and high, so that as we transit through the earthy landscape all that is found is thoroughly enjoyed and celebrated.

The degree of the New Moon, or Lunation point, as applied to your natal chart, may indicate an area of life that will operate as Intent and driving force during the next cycle. In this New Moon it is 21° Sagittarius 45’.

Blessings, Franco S.

© Franco Santoro, Findhorn Foundation Cluny Hill, Forres IV36 2RD, UK, info@astroshamanism.org

Click here for our calendar of holistic and astroshamanic events.

For individual consultations with Franco Santoro and Associates click here 

For further information on astroshamanism see:
http://www.facebook.com/Astroshamanism
http://www.astroshamans.com/
or contact info@astroshamanism.org  

For books on astroshamanism see below:

If this is feasible for you, please support our blog with a donation. Every donation of any amount is most welcomed. Also very small contributions are most appreciated