What do you do as a New Life participant?
Dressed in colorful, flowing garments, Wapiti is a typical Damanhurian whirlwind, arranging and organizing a plethora of New Life events. We have a very full program here, with something going on nearly every day. Not that we have to do everything all of the time, but participation is encouraged. 
If you aren’t busy, you aren’t getting the full Damanhurian experience.
Two days a week, we work together on outdoor projects. I’ve already spent time raking leaves and painting stones in the Sacred Woods. There are numerous stone circuits and spirals all throughout the forest, set beneath trees and across open lawns. We paint the stones blue, red, yellow, or a combination of all three. We work for about seven hours altogether, breaking in the middle for lunch at the nearest nucleo.
We also have the opportunity to attend “serata,” on
Thursday evenings – meetings with Falco, Damanhur’s main founder. The serata is open to the entire community. On stage in the large conference room at Damanhur Crea, Falco talks about what he’s currently thinking about, such as his ideas of evolution and how they apply to the community and to the world at large. Members of the audience can ask him questions or challenge him. For those of us who don’t understand Italian, we wear translation headsets.
There’s another serata on Friday nights specifically for New Lifers and guests. Falco sits before us, and he appears laid-back, friendly and witty. This meeting is our opportunity to a
sk him whatever questions we might have. One of the presiding topics these days is about speeding up, making faster decisions, and moving forward.
“Whenever we have been successful in Damanhur, it’s because we are moving faster than everyone else around us,” says Falco.
“What’s wrong with walking,” someone asks.
“Walking is great,” he answers, “but not when everyone else is speeding by you in a car.”
We are also invited to attend weekly serata with the King Guides, the leaders who help direct and focus projects in the community. There are always three of them at once and, yes, they do include women. Every six months, the citizens of Damanhur elect new King Guides, which keeps leadership refreshed and evolutionary. One example of the current serata topics addressed by the King Guides is how Damanhur might become more self-sufficient in agriculture and energy.
On Saturday afternoons, we go to Ognidove nucleo for two hour classes on Damanhurian philosophy, metaphysics and art. Sitting on chairs and couches in the upstairs room while sky and leaf-light streams in through the large windows, we learn about topics such as mediation, Pranatherapy and healing, Selfica, tarot, color therapy, Atlantis, and Sacred Dance. On nicer days, we have class outside beneath the trees, where we have a view of the field and the multicolored stone spirals.
We also have the opportunity to attend Italian classes each week, usually outside in the sunshine, which I am very grateful for (both the lessons and the sunshine). Not speaking Italian is one of my biggest challenges in Damanhur. So the lessons help.
Out of all the New Life events, though, my very favorite are the weekly guided nucleo tours. We visit one region at a time, and each region is typically composed of three neighboring nucleos. Someone from each nucleo explains what they are doing and trying to accomplish. Over the weeks, I begin to sense how each nucleo is a like a personality in and of itself, a gathering of resonant consciousnesses that shape its vision and activities within the context of the Federation at large.
by Ann Marie Molnar naiade3@gmail.com
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