The largest Community in Europe E-Book

Coboldo Melo

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 71

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Damanhur is one of the most structured communities in the world and its story contains so many initiatives and events that we should need a much bigger volume than this to tell them all. For that reason, in these pages we have condensed the following phases: the conception of the community project (1969 – 1979), its physical creation and subsequent consolidation (1980 – 1992), the period of rapid expansion (1993 – 2000), and the further growth that still continues, uninterrupted.

Leseprobe

DAMANHUR CON TE Series

THE LARGEST COMMUNITY IN EUROPE

Coboldo Melo (Roberto Sparagio)

Translation: Beira (Tiziana Redoni) and David Sutcliffe

First English Edition DEVODAMA srl, Vidracco (TO), Italy

ISBN 978-88-99652-42-5

COPYRIGHT 2018© MIL Associazione di Promozione Sociale.

The current volume was created by the Associazione di Promozione Sociale MIL as part of the activities and functions of the statute.

All rights reserved. No part of this work can be reproduced in any form without the express written authorization of the publisher, except for brief texts to be used in reviews.

Printed March 2018

Coboldo Melo (Roberto Sparagio), journalist, was an assistant to Falco Tarassaco for the course Nuova socialità (New Society) and How to Build a Successful Community. He is responsible for the ongoing development of the Damanhur Community School program for Damanhur Welcome & University.

THE LARGEST COMMUNITY IN EUROPE

DAMANHUR’S STORY YEAR BY YEAR

Photograph of the people in the Open Temple at Damjl, in the foreground the flags of the Damanhurian official Bodies and of the communities.

Where dreams are built

Damanhur is one of the most structured communities in the world and its story contains so many initiatives and events that we should need a much bigger volume than this to tell them all. For that reason, in this little book we have condensed four major phases: the period of conception of ideas, which coincides with the decade from 1969 to 1979 and in fact represents the incubation period of the community project; followed by its physical creation during the period from 1980 to 1992, with the direct effort of the founders who went on to consolidate the Community; this was followed by the period of rapid expansion which began around 1993 and continued uninterrupted until the year 2000 and achieved considerable international fame for the Community; then later growth, in some respects more carefully thought-out than in the preceding period, having its focal point in 2012.

Falco Tarassaco (Oberto Airaudi), the original founder of Damanhur and its spiritual guide, left his physical body in June 2013 and from then onward Damanhurians have engaged in a series of transformations based on their experience and the drive coming from international relations: today the Federation of Communities is a more open arena than ever, quick to compare, full of discussions and projects.

In its forty years of life, Damanhur has consistently developed original organizational patterns as compared with the other community experiences that unfurled during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the third Millennium. The story of this adventure begins with Falco and the initial founders primarily focused on opening the building site of dreams upon which the Community would be built. However, it would be helpful to go back, first of all, to a less well-known period before that, in which the individual experiences of certain spiritual seekers matured and enabled them to come together. These people were prepared to follow a young man of scarcely eighteen who until just a few years earlier cultivated, in solitude, such original passions as Selfica, which was not one of the subjects normally discussed at that time in Turin’s intellectual circles.

As Falco himself wrote shortly afterwards, his first eighteen years of reading, meetings and continual experimentation, helped him awaken memories of other lives and piece together knowledge that he would then easily speak about in the first public presentations and in the meetings reserved for his friends. With the rediscovery of these complex notions, he already had a clear idea what the primary objective of his life was, so much so that a year earlier, aged 17, he had been recognized by the courts in Turin as having attained the age of majority which at that time, in Italy, never happened before one’s twenty-first birthday. Immediately afterwards, he also gained economic independence and began associating with people of standing who were open minded, capable of accommodating and integrating several topics of research—not least the creation of a community for living in, devoted to the study, experimentation and daily use of esoteric knowledge.

Oberto Airaudi, Falco Tarassaco, in a photograph taken in the late Seventies, at the end of a Past-Lives course.

In the esoteric salons of Turin

Oberto Airaudi, who several years later was to take the name Falco, was at that time a restless young man—yet totally uninvolved in the teenage protests typical of those years—who in his own way broke with the Savoy tradition1 and, with studied discretion, devoted himself to discussions of astrology, herbs, alternative medicine, reincarnation, alchemy, radiesthesia, spiritism, telekinesis and the paranormal. He alternated with Benedetto Lavagna in the public lectures given in the hall next to the Chiesa Valdese in Turin’s Corso Principe Oddone, close to the historic center of Turin. He soon attracts the attention of the public with his experiments in hypnotism and telekinesis and even more with the original way he links seemingly distant topics; he is just as quick to draw considerable criticism for insisting on divulging information that had always been considered the exclusive prerogative of a very small number of seekers.

In 1970, Falco brings together the first group of people interested in the idea of building a village, while in Turin’s esoteric circles discussion of the characteristics of the Age of Aquarius and the future changes that would affect the entire planet was becoming increasingly lively. At that time Turin was the city of magic par excellence and was going through profound economic and social change—brought about by industrial development—which inevitably had its effect on the rather quiet and restrained customs of a very staid metropolis.

Student protest had only just arrived from France and would soon lead groups of political extremists to choose the path of armed struggle against a state accused of being in thrall to substantial international interests. Far from the clashes on the street, those who frequented esoteric circles were instead focused on the theme of the Age of Aquarius and were passionate followers of notable experts, including Ettore Paniè, the wizard of herbs, Salvatore “Sother” Turtula, the chromotherapist of undisputed experience, Benedetto Lavagna, the renowned and universally respected medium Libia Martinengo, and the brilliant and unrivalled psychic Gustavo Roll2.

Only twenty years of age, Falco moved with ease in the Turin circles and he was soon considered a promising young man destined to go far thanks to his originality, even though people might prefer discussions on classical esotericism or, at most, revival of certain popular traditions.

A few years later, Falco publicly argued, with considerable conviction, that there was only one way to truly engage with esotericism and that was to practice it daily, all the more so in the Age of Aquarius, which all considered of vital importance for humankind. Following the simplest of possible lines of development, Falco claimed that a live community was needed to experiment and disseminate experiences that should not be confined to esoteric circles. For many, these were disturbing statements and Falco was accordingly viewed as a dangerous speaker who imparted knowledge to people who were not prepared for it. Only a few expressed feelings of admiration for him and sought his friendship, supporting his visionary goals with a mixture of curiosity and affection. He was a brilliant presenter and an invariably provocative humorist, who never missed an opportunity to talk of the future—and to back up his theories, he went so far as to create a network of schools and groups engaged on so-called paranormal research.

The turning point came on July 5, 1975, with the opening of the first Centro Horus (the Horus Center for Parapsychology) in Fiano, not far from Turin, duly registered by act of notary.

This was a place for members to meet together, rather than for people simply curious about a particular lecture, or wanting to take books out of the library, which had been set up thanks to donations of the associates. Here Falco started writing, doing layouts and printing the monthly newsletter Notiziario Horus using an old copying machine. Benedetto Lavagna, Salvatore Turtula and other members contributed to the magazine with their articles month after month. In the first part of the public evening meetings, people talked on their favorite subjects, while in the second part Falco conducted his experiments, including demonstrations of his paranormal abilities.

These meetings went on for some time, until Falco decided not to continue feeding curiosity he considered pointless since, he explained, the demonstrations had no value unless followed up by a decision to further explore the nature of such phenomena.