Astroshamanic Introductory Workshops, Manifesting Honourable Intentions: Planetary Healing from Inside Out, Cluny Hill College, Ball Room, Sunday, 30 January 2005, with Franco Santoro

Preliminary note: The information provided in this course is presented to stimulate the participants’ awareness and is not intended to replace their direct experience. This course does not constitute the statement of absolute truths, but of limited points of view, parts of a larger vision, or of strategic messages intended to question prejudices and fixed ideas. Please be aware that the author may not currently agree with the information presented in this course. We are against any form of astrological divination, fortune-telling or worship of the stars. We advocate using astrology solely to understand the workings of the human psyche and to measure the divisions of time. All our services, including articles, consultations, courses, and workshops are offered for spiritual and soul-searching purposes, and not to provide healing or treatment of any physical or psychological condition.

(traduzione in italiano a fondo pagina)

The intent astroshamanically indicates the distilled expression of my purpose in life, or in a specific situation in space or time, as it is understandable within the separate reality of the ego. The definition of the intent creates a field of energy that allows me to take total responsibility and to attract the forces that are needed. The intent serves the purpose of creating a focus. What counts is the focus, rather than its characteristics. The intent can be long term and requiring ages to manifest, and it can also be short term, with the potential of finding manifestation in a few minutes. The Intent determines a focal point that allows me to concentrate all the available energy. An intention is honourable when it supports, and aligns with, a vaster reality. The assumption here is that my Intent does not exist except as a part of the whole. An intention is honourable when I take complete responsibility for it and invite the participation of a wider configuration. Taking responsibility entails responding to and interacting with a vaster reality. When I do take responsibility, I automatically sustain a global reality since such a reality is based upon being responsible. This means that from the shamanic perspective even if I make the conscious choice to be separate, with an Intent that seems to be just my own, apparently having nothing to do with global consciousness or altruistic aims, if I take responsibility for this attitude, I still align with the larger context.

The shamanic perspective implies the awareness that choice is always possible. Here it does not matter what I choose if I am aware that there is a choice. The multidimensional realm, just like our consensus reality, is based on transactions. Once all parties are aware of the implications of the contract and choose to comply with them the transactions is honoured. Problems arise when I am not aware of the aim and the conditions of the contract, that is when I do not know what I have asked for and what I have agreed to give in exchange. This causes confusion, misunderstanding and loss of credibility at a multidimensional level, which also reflects in the ordinary reality. This situation may also be acceptable, if I know what I am doing, that is when it is part of my choice. I can decide to have a contradictory or confused intent. It is my choice to have it and this is perfectly legitimate.

What is not acceptable in a global context is being unconscious about my choices. I am providing a very short introduction here about aids and obstacles in manifesting honourable intentions. A major obstacle in pursuing such intentions is the fact that the belief system that appears to dominate the consensus reality is based on contradictory and unconscious shifts between unity and separation. This belief system is also founded on avoiding responsibility and being a victim. This means that whenever I do take responsibility, on one hand I achieve clarity and honour as regards my intent, on the other I will clash with a belief system that denies the existence of such a responsibility. As a result, the part of me that identifies with the consensus reality may suffer or disconnect with such a reality, bringing about a state of crisis at that level. In the process of clarifying my Intent I need to be aware of two parts operating in me. They both have intentions; yet one avoids responsibility, while the other takes it. These two parts interact constantly. The only way out is to find an agreement between them. This is the art of manifesting honourable intentions.

You can start exploring this right now.

Close our eyes. Connect with whatever in your life is meaningful and has provided joy, satisfaction, something that you really like and that satisfies you at a higher level. It can also be something that happened in the past. It can be an aspiration of the future or a current aspect of your life. It can be something abstract, an idea, a feeling. Take one minute to fully acknowledge it. As you keep your eyes closed, empower the imagination to create your intent at this level. Carry on for five minutes. Then I invite you to open your eyes and look around, noticing what happens as you extend your intent in the outer reality. Consciously create a bridge between your imagination and the outer reality. As you continue to indulge with the intent, consider how to apply it in your everyday reality. In this process you are not dealing with any limitation. The limits are simply defined by how far you can stretch your imagination. Whatever you can imagine is acceptable here. What I invite you to do is to see how this intent could express itself in your environment. I am referring to the physical place where you are right now, which can be your room or a place outside. Consider how you could express a short-term manifestation of your intent in a few moments. It could be anything you decide to do for this purpose. It may be as simple as changing your postures or taking a few deep breaths. Take your time to identify the appropriate course of action. First prepare yourself. Then, when you are ready, do what is necessary. What counts is that you do something tangible, whose manifestation is indisputably proved. Take two or three minutes to express yourself. When you have completed, fully acknowledge what you did. Also be aware of how you feel and whatever comes to your mind no matter what it is. Look around you as you continue to be aware. Then find a way to define with a few words something about your intent. These words need to be meaningful for you. Acknowledge them and get ready to move in the second stage. This is indeed the stage that allows you to honour your Intent. Here there is also the risk of discrediting it.

In the second stage you find yourself at a crossroad between two opposite belief systems. In the first stage both belief systems still coexist. Manifesting an intention is tolerable for both systems, in the ordinary reality as well as in the multi-dimensional realm. If what I intend to manifest is legal nobody in the ordinary reality will raise any objection. The fact of having an intention has nothing to do with the belief system that I refer to. I can have an intention based on the belief on separation. I can also have an intent founded on the belief on unity. In the second stage the coexistence of both belief systems is not possible anymore. This is the point where they take different roads, the crossing point.

The second stage is crucial for it represents the underlying mechanics of manifestation. A way of uncovering the elements of this mechanics is to notice whatever right in this moment is causing tension, fear, concern, grievance, and anything you do not like. There is a very close connection between your primary intent and the grievance. They are part of the same form. Whenever you activate the intent, also the disturbance is activated. This can be perceived as happening simultaneously. For example, just as I make the statement “I intend to express myself through art”, I hear “No, you cannot do it!” This simultaneous presence can also take some time to reach my awareness. Please take some time to consider what in your life represents the major source of trouble, what causes stress, fear, and even terror. Identify an issue that it keeps causing grievance no matter how you face it. Simply acknowledge what it is, without judging. Be aware of what it is. Close your eyes as you do this so that you can give space to your imagination. Open yourself to the area of grievance. Consider what keeps messing up your intent. You have this luminous Intent of yours, and there comes that specific issue which disrupt everything. Please take time to be aware of the underlying intent of the grievance. When does the grievance develop? What do you want before the disturbance develops? What are you looking for? Consider the space you are in before the grievance starts. What is your intent then? Acknowledge it no matter what it is. It does not matter what it is, since all you need to do here is to acknowledge it. Be aware of this Intent. Then, once you have acknowledged it fully, open your eyes and look around you. Allow what you have imagined expanding outward. Proceed as you did before. Shortly you are invited to express this secondary intent. Imagine what you could do, and when you are ready, do it! It can be anything, if it fully allows expression of your intent before grievances develop. Once you have acknowledged your secondary intent, find some words to define it as you did before. See how you feel about the words you employ.

An intention is honourable when it integrates the primary and the secondary intent. It is like the locomotive of a train and the carriage. They are both part of the same train, yet their perspective is different. They are running on the same track, yet they are two distinct parts of the train that could also be separated. I invite you now to integrate both your intents through a shamanic practice. This practice involves the connection with a part that clearly defines my adherence to the belief system of unity. I call this part the Spirit Guide, or Core Multidimensional Self. Upon connecting with the Spirit Guide I align myself with my core multidimensional identity. Here I need to be aware that there are two belief systems at work: separation and unity. According to the belief system based on separation I am alone, and my results do not have any effect on others, just as their results do not have any effect on me. This leads to relate with others in terms of competition and comparison. She is intelligent and I am not. He has more than me. Here I need to get everything on my own, and what others get does not benefit me, on the contrary it deprives me of something for there is not enough for everybody. The belief on unity implies simply acknowledging what my role is in the global context. Here what others do does relate with the same reality I belong. There is no competition for we are all operating for the same global intent, and my only concern is to find out what my function is in this context. As I play my role, others will do the same, and we will all contribute to the same intent, receiving common benefits. There are two different belief systems. They exist simultaneously in this consensus reality. Yet, once I face the second stage, I need to make a choice. In the ordinary reality intents are acceptable if they do not threaten the consensus environment. There are certain intents which are highly promoted since they support the preservation of consensus reality. The characteristic of such intents is that they possess basic incongruities or routine crashes aimed at preventing the expansion into other dimensions. In the second stage I face these mishaps. What emerges in the second stage is an intent which may be incompatible with the ordinary reality or related belief system. As a result, I may face major disturbances, coming to terms with my multi-dimensional role as opposed to the conditioned roles I have inherited from the conventional reality. The disturbance identifies an area where I am disturbed either because I am doing something that does not fit with my true role or because I am not total in something that corresponds to my role. Purposefully using a shamanic practice allows me to support the awareness of my multidimensional role. I can uncover this awareness through constantly clashing with the disturbance until I eventually learn its lesson, or by deliberately inviting such awareness in my life through a shamanic practice. In this practice you are invited to ask about your intent in this life as you perceive it. It is essential that you ask for this since the higher multi-dimensional level of consciousness cannot intervene unless you make a direct invitation. What you need to identify here is a tangible expression of your intent and not an abstract idea. This is something that involves a specific activity or action: for example, dancing, singing, teaching, climbing, etc. It also needs to be something that you like and enjoy. As you connect with your intent there are various possibilities. If you resonate with the experience of the Spirit Guide, one option is to specifically ask for his/her/its support in clarifying your Intent. Here it is extremely important that you bear in mind that the Spirit Guides cannot do anything for you unless you explicitly and honestly invite to. This is because they belong to a multidimensional environment, and they cannot interfere with the separate reality you have chosen to inhabit. They are honouring your power of choice even if you are perhaps not aware that you have made a choice, for in this case your lack awareness is also the result of a choice. It is like choosing to watch a television programme. As you watch a movie on channel one, there is also a programme on channel two and channel three. Yet, it is your choice to watch the movie on channel one, and channel two cannot interfere with your choice unless you deliberately decide to change channel. In case for some reasons, you do not feel connected with the traditional idea of the Spirit Guide, you can align with a more tangible and experiential definition of the same concept. This involves connect with whatever in your life has proved to be good and of which you have had a pragmatic experience. It can be something happened in the past, which you feel positive about or a pleasant aspiration of your future. Inevitably this positive experience has to do with something you have experienced. Even if you do not seem to remember it as taking place in your past, and you see it rather as a desire for the future, the fact that you can envisage it proves that you have already had an experience. You cannot conceive what you have not had an experience about. As you focus on this intent, you are invited to be honest and consider only what is truly good for you no matter what others think of it or what the general ideas regarding good are.

After the practice, be aware of what you have received. If you are not totally convinced that you can manage to achieve that, simply pretend that you can. Be like an actor. Imagine a situation where you are acknowledged in the best role you play in the vast reality. You are playing your part and all are playing theirs. This fully supports both your higher and lower Intent. Stay in the belief system that you are part of a vaster reality. Later you will explore the opposite belief system. Now stay with unity.

This awareness implies that there is something that you need to do to comply with your function and play your part. At the same time there is also something that does not concern you, which you need to release for it is not your business. This involves doing something and abstaining from doing something else. For the moment only stay with your part. Shortly you are going to give a tangible expression regarding your role. After having worked shamanically, now you can ritually express what happened in your journey with your body. As you play your part, you trust that others are doing the same. You are going to perform something that expresses your role. Do it! Once you have concluded, sense a feeling of accomplishment, and acknowledge your work. Acknowledging that you have played your part is essential. It requires trust for you may enter the conflict between two belief systems. According to unity, I have done my part and I am not concerned whether others are playing theirs for I trust that this is the case. The fact that we are all united in unquestionable. According to the belief in separation I may doubt that others have played their part. I may also feel that what others do has nothing to do with me or be confused regarding what I have done. I invite us to become aware about what happens at this stage in your thoughts and emotions. Pay particular attention to whatever creates disturbance in relation to your Intent. Open to something that you would do right now out of fear, doubt, mistrust. Be aware of what that could be. In the context of shamanic transactions, the disturbance is very important. I invite to stay with it. Shortly you can express what it, but not in a human context, though in a ritual one. You release the disturbance in the multidimensional realm in a way that does not affect other human beings. For example, if I feel full of anger towards my colleagues, instead of screaming at them, I withdraw in my room and celebrate a ritual where, after having activated the sacred space and connected with my Intent, I express my anger. This can happen silently or through movement, dance and even screaming or beating a pillow. In this case I operate in a ritual context, offering the disturbance to Spirit. The difference here is that I arm working in another reality. This is the sacrifice. I give it away to Spirit not to human beings. Now I invite you to practice this type of release. Here you direct towards the centre, and it does not affect others. Go totally in the expression of your energy and direct it towards the centre. Consider what you express from the perspective of a wider context. This is the most important part of the work. Remember that what you do is related to a collective process. This is your contribution to the collective. As I drum, continue your expression being aware that you are doing it for the benefit of the collective. I abstain from expressing it horizontally and direct it vertically to spirit. You know you are doing it for the collective.

What we have done so far involves two different frequencies: one is the horizontal and refers to my acknowledged and visible role in the ordinary reality, what I share with other human beings, which involves being or doing something that everybody can see or will see. The other is associated with the vertical reality, which is not necessarily acknowledged. Here what I do does not relate with the human beings around me. My actions do not affect the human environment in a visible way. I could go mad, and nobody would notice it. What I do is not the concern of human beings for it addresses another reality. There are two different levels of reality and in shamanic transactions I need to be aware of which is which. Confusing levels manifests undesired results.

In order not to affect other people when I am dealing with the vertical it is important that my external behaviour does not unveil what I am truly doing. For example, I could sit in the sanctuary in a silent meditation...