Creative challenge for the new Befana

I’d like to tell you about my first day, January 6, 2016, as the official (not the apprentice anymore) Befana of the Damanhur Way of the Oracle.

The trials have already started rolling in! I received a package from Zela and Nilo, two Damanhur children ages 8 and 1 year old, with a letter and two stockings to be filled. Before reading the letter, I thought, “I’ll take the stockings to Tentaty – our food coop – get some chocolates and candies to fill them, and it’s done.”

Then, I read the letter:

Dear “young” Befana, I don’t want sweets. etc., but if you have them, I want some “serious” jewelry. And Nilo wants something technological. I love you, Zela + Nilo. kisses and good luck

I went by Orocrea, the Damanhur goldsmith and jewelry artist workshop, feeling a little worried as I was looking at the jewelry and strategizing about potential loans I could take out in order to buy gold and gemstone pendants and an iPad… Then, after a phone call speaking with the wisdom of Capra, the children’s mother, I understood that I needed to use a different kind of logic to fulfill this challenge that the kids had launched to me on my first day as Befana.

I went home. In my bedroom, pacing back and forth, I looked at one of the beams and saw a necklace hanging there, one made from deep purple seeds… and I understood what to do.

The Befana wrote this story:

Once upon a time, there was an Indonesian princess who loved her islands. She walked along the beach collecting seashells, swam in the ocean with fish of a thousand different colors and played with dolphins who spoke with her. In the jungle, she climbed up the trees with the monkeys, and she put bright, colorful flowers in her hair.

One day a messenger from far, far away delivered a letter to the princess. Within the letter was a map to find another island, one on the other side of the planet. This island was just as rich as hers, but the treasures were hidden inside the earth. She knew that this was her future, that she would go to that faraway island to help the people of that place dig in the earth and find the treasures.

There was a prince who loved the princess, and when he heard that she was about to leave for a long journey to a faraway place, he gifted her with a necklace of seeds. Each one of these seeds contained a magic potion in the center, to help realize the most important dreams.

The princess reached the island, and with the power of the necklace around her neck, she helped many people to achieve their dreams.

I, the Befana, met this princess on that island, and she gave me the necklace. She asked me to pass it on to someone who has a very big family with many dreams. This necklace I give to you, Zela. So, by wearing necklace and hugging people, you too can help your family dream big and manifest their most cherished dreams.

So, I would say it is a very serious necklace!

Then, for Nilo, the Befana put her personal nutcracker inside his stocking. You can’t get more technological than that…

It was 2 in the morning, and I finally went to sleep, satisfied by these first magical actions by the Befana.

I gift you with the capacity to always see the magic in life.

Quaglia Cocco, the Befana