And so Damanhur is the first of the spiritual centres that I have visited on my journey, where I found a connection and kindred spirits living authentically in community, embracing kindness and gentleness and believing that everything is possible.
"Damanhur is an internationally renowned center for spiritual research. Situated in Valchiusella Valley, in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy, Damanhur is a Federation of Communities and Regions with over 800 citizens, a social and political structure, a Constitution, 40 economic activities, its own currency, schools and a daily paper." They have a "university that attracts philosophical and spiritual students of all ages from all over the world. They describe themselves as the result of the practical application of a spiritual philosophy in harmony with the environment and our Planet."
Damanhur was founded by Oberto Airaudi (1950 -) in 1975. It is "the largest communal group in the ancient wisdom-magical tradition." It may well be the largest spiritual communal group in the world.
Airaudi and his supporters purchased property in the Italian Alps, in a region of Piedmont less than 30 miles north of the city of Turin. Two dozen pioneers organized the initial settlement. It was named Damanhur after an Egyptian city, located 100 miles "northwest of Cairo in the middle of the western Delta. It was once the site of the city of Tmn-Hor, dedicated to Horus." The group grew to include 200 "citizens" in 1985, 450 by 1998, and exceeded 800 by early in 2000. In addition, there are hundreds of associated members who donate to the community and attend some of its functions. Member satisfaction appears to be high; very few citizens leave the community."
So I spend 3 nights at Damanhur and each moment was filled with so much and I am sharing this based on my experience this magic place. What I am constantly learning is until one actually visits or sees something for oneself, we cannot judge what it is and often we don't do things because of people's projections and mis-guided information.
The first morning I joined a group of French Canadian people doing a workshop on the Markaba (the flower of life) for a walk in the woods and to experience the music of the plants. We drove about 15 minutes from the Damjl (welcome centre) and the guest building that I was staying in. There are many different communities forming the Damanhur community and locally within a 20km radius around the area, each community focused on different projects, all connected and in line with the vision and dream of Damanhur and the whole community is run in a democratic, sharing and open way. Its like the ideal we all aspire to - in perfect action.
Back to the woods - they have many hectares (can't remember the exact amount) of woodlands and forests that they are rehabilitating, re-energising and working with the nature spirits to bring it back to its natural form. Trees are temples that ground the earth energy and reach for the sun energy and the whole Damanhur philosophy is about light and sun energy (yellow being a very important colour for them hence their flag is yellow). There are many stone circles and labyrinths within the woods, offering sacred spaces for healing, gratitude, connection and experiencing the coming together of the the plant, animal and humans. Everything they are doing in honouring of the earth, the trees, the plants and connecting with the nature spirits and the animals. Its tangible and there are so many nature spirits within the woods where we walked - alive with abundant life.
Next we visited a tree-house community who have undertaken a project to build their community in the trees - and they are researching aspects of living amongst the trees and how it differs with living on the earth. I have photos of the houses but they asked us not to publish these and I am respecting their request but there are some photos that I feel I can show you. This was amazing to experience and to walk on the walkways among the trees as all their dwellings and communal areas link with walkways. There are approx. 20 people living there and a baby has been born - their research has shown a marked difference in dreaming.
The last part of our tour was a demonstration of the music of plants. I cannot put into words the absolute profound experience and resonance this music creates. All over Damanhur there are plants - beautiful, lush, happy plants, all growing in their glory. So we all sit in a gathering space at the end of the walkways amongst the trees, and our guide (I can't remember her name - as I said the names are sometimes long and very different to what I am used to) does a little talk, attaches a mechanism to the plant, and suddenly this unbelievable music starts to come from the plant. I will attach a video to my facebook page Adventure with Nidhi.
I had a wonderful organic healthy lunch at Damanhur Crea - this building and centre was originally Olivetti and they have utilised this space as a living organism of work and co-existence as if it was a space ship - each enterprise that happens in here feeds and enhances each other from food, to art, to healing, to business and all inline with Olivetti's values of human resources coming first. And then back to Damjl where I spend the afternoon exploring the different labyrinths and circles. The whole central area of Damji honours the elements and there is an Open Temple where all beliefs are honoured and respected. All the statues that line every part of the gardens and grounds of Damanhur have been made by Damanhurians as offerings and tokens to the elements and of themselves and there are so many magical and amazing creatures everywhere.
Travelling and physically carrying my bags has had taken its toll on my body and I have been having lots of pain in my a achilles tendon and needed body work so much - and of course at Damanhur there are wonderful healers who do massage, prana-healing and well-being treatments and I booked a session for 7 that evening. My session was amazing and I learned about Selfic tools that heal - I felt like I really released and rejuvenated from this.
And then the most amazing experience - as it was full moon, The Rite of the Oracle of Damanhur was being held. This takes place every month at full moon, in the Open Temple and is a culmination of profound and attentive ritual work, carried out by the members of the Way of the Oracle throughout the previous lunar month. This ritual is open to visitors of Damanhur. The Damanhurian Oracle is a group of divine forces, including all the Oracles of ancient times integrated with new forces of the 3rd millennium. We all entered and took our seats - there were 2 fires burning and many Damanhurians, in different coloured robes busy with various activities. We entered to the sound of amazing drumming (there were 5 or 6 drummers playing various drums and percussion instruments) and then once all present, the Priestesses introduced the ritual - in Italian and English and read the following prayer :
"May the millennium ritual of the Oracle, source of joy, light and inspiration give us the ability to receive insight. May it reinforce the sacred bond, that links the divine forces to humankind unfolding, through the spiritual channel f this precious divine presence"
And then the drumming started - and the dancers of the Way of the Oracle traced with their movements prayers and propitiations accompanied the ritual, and each Damanhurian performed their role or activity to contribute to this ritual. And the drumming continued for nearly 2 hours, and it was absolutely amazing - sitting outside in a sacred temple, experiencing the fires, the dancing, the ritual, the moon rising and this unbelievable drumming rhythm .
The ending prayer :
"It is a spiritual nourishment, to have shared the sacred ritual of the Oracle. May everybody bring to the world the force of love of this precious divine presence."
That night I slept in a cocoon of peace and bliss - the massage and the drumming and the days experience filled my cup so much and felt a completion and a belonging to something so much greater and it was amazing.
The next day - Monday - they had arranged for me to visit the Temples of Humankind, something that Damanhur is well known for and I was really excited. In the morning I was given a special tour of Damanhur community by a wonderful woman, Gazza, who explained to me much of how Damanhur works and answered my questions. I commented on the kindness and peace that I had felt while visiting and that exactly is the essence of this community. Everyone there is there because they choose to be, the all contribute and work for the vision and dream of Damanhur and all their work, projects, plans and visions are for the greater good of humanity and for a future of living in harmony. On their website they say :
"Damanhur is a collective dream transformed into reality thanks to the creative power of positive thought."
and its so beautiful. I learned so much from this experience about how having a vision and working for the greater good, to contribute to something bigger than the individual and that sustains beyond the lifetime of each individual is how community works. Damanhur Works ! and its beautiful to witness and to see it in action.
And then my final experience of Damanhur was visiting the temples. For me the visit was far too short and to take it all in, in such a short period of time is impossible. The temples are under the ground and all the history of how they started in on the website together with many photos, virtual tours, and much information so I am not going to go too much into it. My experience is hard to express in words, the creative outpouring of such beauty and symbolism, the essence of each Hall and how it represents the elements, humanity, ancient traditions and wisdom, the richness of sound, of going so deep into the earth and experiencing being part of something so profound was an experience I will never forget. The pictures that I am inserting are not mine - we were not permitted to photograph - so they are from the internet, but I urge you to go to the link, and experience Damanhur - its something that is such an amazing expression of EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
http://www.damanhur.org
Be blessed - thank you - until next time - Om Shanti Om
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