Every year at the end of May there are celebrations of one of the most heartfelt occasions of the Damanhurians, the spiritual birthday of the People. It is a feast that has occurred for many years now, on May 29th. This date is the anniversary of the birth of Falco Tarassaco who, not loving to be celebrated in person, suggested that his birthday be the date of the collective birthday, to celebrate the importance of the community and spiritual essence that unites all Damanhurians.
The celebrations have the character of meeting and sharing with a large banquet or rather, several banquets in the communities since today eating all together would be difficult from a practical point of view! Then various celebrations at Damjl, dedicated to a ritual phase and to offerings to the elements; Water, Air, Fire, Earth, and finally the Manticas (readings) for the year, entrusted to the Sages.
Together with the Damanhurians there are as always friends and guests, who are part of the spiritual People or who are intrigued by them.
A collective party
Falco loved very much the warmth and affection that develops on these occasions but did not like to feel at the center of the party. Furthermore, he believed that his mission had value based on the great human group that had embraced it and the realizations that came from it. For this, on the date of his birthday, which the Damanhurians strongly wanted to celebrate, he was simply the catalyst for a collective celebration.
Falco was a shy man, who liked to mix with people rather than be the center of attention. In Damanhur he conducted many meetings, both reserved for citizens and open to guests, and he enjoyed doing so because he loved to tell people about his dream and to show everyone the possibility of realizing their own. Falco believed a lot in what he felt was his mission: the creation of a society based on the encounter between material and spiritual, to come into contact with the Divine within oneself, and he committed himself to testify to this also through public commitments. But he enjoyed very much, for example, when he could sit among the chairs of a lecture of one of his pupils, or to walk along with a group visiting Damanhur, and to recognize the common history in the words of the Damanhurian guide, even if only for a few meters of course, because then he was immediately identified!
The curious anecdotes
There are many anecdotes in which a visitor had asked him where the bathroom was or the Somachandra bar. These anecdotes were obviously told by the visitors, amazed to discover that the gentleman with the peaked cap walking next to them, with no showy clothes or a succession of assistants, was the founder of Damanhur, while for Falco it seemed completely normal.
The beauty and charm of the figure of Falco, for which those who knew him feel a deep gratitude, reside largely in his ability to exercise his charisma through this extreme simplicity. Falco smiled, got angry, taught, and discussed things without giving weight to the role he held for us. He knew well that he was the spiritual guide, the founder, the first point of reference for all, but his commitment was to be simply a primus inter pares, without adopting the attitudes that perhaps many would have expected.
Esprimersi nella semplicità
È anche attraverso questo modo d’essere che ci ha insegnato il rispetto per se stessi, per gli altri, per gli incarichi di responsabilità intesi come servizio. Il suo insegnamento, come racconta il libro Falco Tarassaco The dream, the message, è quello della semplicità che diventa a poco a poco complessa, ricca, articolata, proprio perché è semplice e non cerca di sembrare importante ma solo di essere vera.
Celebrando il Compleanno spirituale di Damanhur ci ricordiamo di tutto questo: il valore della semplicità, e come la semplicità possa dare una forza straordinaria. Anche questo è parte del sogno di Falco.
Express yourself in simplicity
It is also through this way of being that has taught us respect for ourselves, for others, and for positions of responsibility understood as a service. His teaching, as told in the book Falco Tarassaco The dream, the message, is that of simplicity that becomes little by little very complex, rich, and articulated, precisely because it is simple and does not try to seem important but only to be true.
Celebrating Damanhur’s Spiritual Birthday, we remember all this: the value of simplicity, and how simplicity can give extraordinary strength. This is also part of Falco’s dream.
