Where do I begin? Lets see. I consider myself to be a seeker. Looking for the truth, and willing to go to any lengths to find it. I have always been this way. Searching for a connection to the divine. This trip through Italy is showing me so many different things about myself, my roots, the nature of the humanity, and my own personal spiritual walk. A few weeks ago in Venice I was overcome with a longing to meet Italians that are consciously aware of their spiritual path. I wanted to meet other seekers. As with any intention, mine was answered, this time quite promptly. I was riding on the back of the vapporetto, the boat bus, and I noticed that the people that I was sitting next to were from Northern California. They had certain energy and way of dressing and caring themselves that is found in California from Santa Cruz up to the border of Oregon. I wasn’t particularly moved to speak to them at first, but them something in my heart told me that they could help me. I chatted them up, talking about the fun facts that I had learned about Venice since my arrival. The women were wearing lovely copper jewelry that looked like it had been hand crafted. I commented on how lovely I thought it was, and they got this glimmer in their eye like, ”Should we tell her?” They decided to share with me the last part of their trip to the community of Damanhur in the foothills of the mountains near Torino. It sounded very cool. A spiritual community in Italy? I was shocked, and asked more questions. Kylea, one of the two women, mentioned that she thought that they had a live/work arrangement, where you could work in exchange for room and board. Awesome!! And thus began my journey to Damanhur.
I did my best to research the community before I headed up there. I read their website and found out about there various projects and read parts of their constitution. It all seemed wonderful. They even have a school of meditation. Perfect. Right?
Well, it didn’t turn out quite as I had expected. I signed up for the live/work arrangement. It meant that I would have to pay 85euro to stay for a couple of nights at the welcome center, and get a tour of the temple of humankind and the other various temples on site. Then, I would begin the live/work part. For 6hours of work a day I would get room and board. Coming from California, I am pretty familiar with this type of exchange. A lot of meditation centers/retreat centers have a live/ work element to help poor seekers partake in whatever the center has to offer. I have had several friends who have done live/ work and it always sounds wonderful. They have done jobs that usually involve cleaning and beautifying the center in some way. Being of service it whatever way they can. In exchange they get to use the facilities for free and partake in meditation studies and practice. To be perfectly honest, that is what I thought would happen at Damanhur. Boy was I wrong. I was told to arrive at 5pm on Friday so I could meet the founder of Damanhur, an Italian gentleman that goes by the name Falco. I was told upon arrival that this wouldn’t be happening and that I was to hang out in my room or in the one building that is the Welcome Center, that pretty much closes down at 8:30pm, until 11am the following morning when my tour would begin. That was it. Okay, I thought, I’m a big girl I can entertain myself till then. Maybe tomorrow they would fill me in on what exactly they had planned for me. I was full of excitement at this point. Open-minded giddiness. What is this place? At 11am I met at the meeting spot and the girl in the office asked me if I wanted to go on the tour at 11. I said “Sure, isn’t that what I was doing all along?” needless to say, the poor girls in the front office were so overworked that they had no idea if they were coming or going.
Since my arrival I had been chatting to as many Damanhurians and visitors as possible to get a vibe on the place. I had begun to learn small tidbits of information here and there. It wasn’t until the tour that I begun to get really interested in what was really going on. I would ask questions to the Damanhurians about there sacred language, and meditation practice, and I would get answers like, “ Falco says that we aren’t evolved enough yet for that” or “ We aren’t allowed to talk about our mediation practice with people outside of the school of meditation.” What’s the big secret I kept thinking to myself? Why can’t they just tell me the truth? “Where did the sacred language come from?” I ask. “Falco channeled it”
“Oh”
The temples of humankind were visually amazing. Countless rooms of vibrant paintings, stained glass, and mosaics. Art is a major part of what makes Damanhur so special. Art is seen as a way of connecting with the divine, something that I can fully understand and relate to. In fact there were many things that they were doing that I could get behind 100%. I just couldn’t shake this feeling that these beautiful people that I was meeting weren’t thinking for themselves all the time. That they were under the spell of this man Falco, from the future by the way, who had them all working to build a spiritual army.
After the tour I walked out of the temple buzzing. I was vibrating on a totally different frequency then when I entered. There was something very powerful happening in that place. But what? No one could say.
I headed back to the Welcome center and got my checkup from the doctor so I could go to the nucleo free and clear. Nucleo’s are families of Damanhurians that are scattered all over the valley. They have an average of 16-20 people per nucleo of all ages and backgrounds. It turned out that there wasn’t any room at any of the nucleo’s for me. Or almost no room.
One family didn’t have a room, but they did have a camper. The camper was a bit moldy, but it was an option. And there didn’t seem to be any other options. The woman who I met was so lovely that I decide to go for it.
Who knows it could be fun! Camping, its only a week right??
I went off into the hills with this beautiful pregnant woman Capra. Capra means goat. Everyone at Damanhur gets a new name. An animal name and a plant name. It’s supposed to be fun/nny. What would my name be?
Anyways when I arrived at the Nucleo, 25 mins from town by car, a lovely Californian woman by the name Mirabi, was waiting for Capra. Mirabi moved to Damanhur a couple of years ago and lives near the community but isn’t a part of it. She is however, friends with the family I’m staying with, and comes every Sunday to clean with them and eat lunch. It was so great to meet someone who I could relate to, and we had an instant connection. The family was beautiful. So many lovely people. I really enjoyed getting to chat with the ones who spoke English. They were all committed 150% to the dream that is Damanhur. That first day I worked for four hours by myself clearing giant weeds from the laundry drying area. I was dirty and tired at the end. Would this be the rest of my week?
The next day I cleared out the weeds in the raspberry bushes and ended up with a rash. I then tried to do my next assignment of cleaning the sacred water, but wasn’t able to get near the water because the mosquitoes were so thick I could hardly see.
That night I slept in the camper and woke up with a million mosquito bites. My inner princess was starting to revolt to my open-minded approach to all of this new style of living. I kept her quiet by accepting an invitation from Mirabi for dinner and a slumber party at her house.
It wasn’t until the next day when I was checking my email at the welcome center that I realized how miserable I was. People kept asking me how I was and I found myself lying thru my teeth. “I’m great. It’s lovely. Grazie. Bellisima” Bullshit. I was miserable. Mirabi’s friend sat down next to me and asked how I was, and it was then that I burst into tears and got honest that I had no desire to go back to the nucleo. It wasn’t at all what I had expected. I wouldn’t be doing anything with the Damanhurians, no meditating, no information, other than the vague answers to my questions, all I would be doing for the next few days would be working outside, sleeping outside, and getting eaten to death by mosquitoes and raspberry bushes. Mirabi had a solution. I would stay with her and finish my live/work at her house. It was perfect!!! I could do what I’m good at cleaning and cooking, and most important, talking. Mirabi and I had so much to talk about and in the end I can say that I did get the spiritual retreat that I was looking for. I learned about Sufism, and read an amazing book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The book mirrored a lot of my journey and helped me get quiet and find different ways to pray and meditate. We went for walks, and had a fire for the solstice and burned all of the things we wanted to let go of in the fire.
As I was leaving Damanhur I gave hugs and love to some of the beautiful people I met and said a prayer that they will be okay. Happy that I could leave and enjoy my life as a seeker on a path that is individual, where I can be apart of community, and go home when I want. I also found out that as much as I love the beauty of the country, I am a city girl thru and thru. I figured it out when I arrived in Milan and sat on the subway and felt at peace, calm, and safe. Strange but true. We all find serenity in different places, for some it’s a raspberry bush, for me it’s a seat on the subway during rush hour.
