Special time.
Turns out we arrived at a pretty special time in Damanhur. The first Monday was their ‘Oracle’ ceremony, and on Saturday was a ceremony of the union for the community, and Sunday was the birthday of the founder which they celebrate as the birthday of the community.
As everything was in Italian, we didn’t really get a full experience of what was going on, and actually ended up being quite bored. But it was nice to see some of their culture alive in ceremony. Also Rachael’s dad John’s 60th birthday was on the same day as the founder’s & we’re getting married on the same day as the start of their new year, 1st Sept. Spoooooky!
Temples of Humankind
These are epic. The temples are hand dug out of the moutain, over 16 years of continuous around-the-clock labour in complete secrecy. Finally when the authorities found it, after several attempts, they came out with tears in their eyes declaring they had to find a way to protect it from being destroyed! You can read more about it here http://www.thetemples.org/en
We visited the temple twice, once on a tour and again as a meditation. The artwork is simply incredible. In most rooms every surface is covered with detailed images that tell the story of each room. I’m not usually one for art but this stuff really got through to me. The history of humans, personal development, weird magical chambers, secret passages – it was all too much. Probably a place you should get to know over a few weeks, not hours.
Structure
3 years ago Damanhur’s founder and spiritual leader, Falco, passed away. We’re told he was a magical man, who had very profound wisdom and vision. Considering what he left behind, it’s not hard to believe. The community took guidance from him when he was alive, though were not totally dependant. Now, in his stead, of visionary leader, are 3 of his closest people, which he prepared for the role before passing.
On a slightly more practical level, are the 3 King/Queen Guides. They are elected and serve for 3 years, after an initial review 6 months into the role. Damanhur are constantly changing, and currently the King Guides are experimenting with sharing responsibility for some aspects of community life together, and taking on other aspects alone.
They also have 6 Sages, or wise people to ensure Damanhur develops with initial mission and constitution. Finance is manged by groups. Damanhur is registered as a non-profit association, as the Italian government has no structure for communities.There’s also a group for what work people can do.
They also have a ‘College of Justice’ which is a group who help settle disputes and make sure decisions are made in line with the constitution. Finally, Captains, are in charge of/represent each nucleo.
Money
People work for the organisation and get paid in accordance with Italian law, in some cases better than normal, in some cases not. Not everyone is paid the same. Many people work outside the community in ‘normal jobs’. Many people work in their super business/shopping centre called Crea.
Everyone pays a minimum donation to Damanhur, depending on your situation. Around 200 euro per month. This money goes to maintenance and development. Also everyone volunteers. I’m not sure how many hours a week, but in this everyone is equal, and there’s a great sense of community in the work done. They have their own currency called Credito.
Nucleos.
Damanhur is split up into 25 or so households, which they call ‘nucleos’. Most of these are within a 30 minute drive of the central one ‘Damjl’ (which we stayed at in a great double ensuite room). So its less of an ecovillage and more as they describe ‘a Federation of communities’. Most nucleos have a distinct function within Damanhur or a focus of daily life, for example, Damjl is has a hospitality focus, another is researching alternative building methods, another for the teens.
Each nucleo has 20-30 people, and they split living costs, share workloads, and have conflicts just like a family. Something we really enjoyed about nucleo life is that each person studies themselves and identifies specific behaviors or attributes that they need to improve, and everyone helps each other with this improvement. Surely a recipe for tantrums and conflict, but it’s a nice idea. We didn’t really get a good view into this, and by far Tamera shows much more support for the individual, in our experience.
