Damanhur - Exploring alternative, intentional spiritual communities.

[Dover]

Unique, beautiful, strange, surreal....but seems somehow very much at home in Italy. If you have knowledge of any other alternative spiritual communities around the world please share. It seems to me that much of the alternative spiritualism has been in response to our disconnect from nature as well as a desire to discover a more intimate and direct relationship to 'the divine' without need of a middle man.




Green Intentional Communities Article
http://serreal.ning.com/group/greencommunities/forum/topics/damanhur-an-united-nations


History of the Temples and Creating a Community

On a mountaintop outside of Turin, Italy, in 1978, spiritual leader Oberto Airaudi (a.k.a. Falco) had a vision of sacred temples built inside of the mountain -- and the digging commenced. The Temples of Humankind were a secret from even the closest neighbors for the next twenty years as artists, artisans and builders excavated and created the equivalent of a five-story subterranean building. The community that has grown around this underground network of halls and corridors has its own system of government, its own currency with minted coins, its own school and stores. The people named their community, Damanhur, a word channeled by spiritual leader, Airaudi, from ancient Atlantean, meaning "City of Light". Today, temples filled with superbly painted murals, soaring sculptural columns, meticulous mosaic floors, and giant stained glass domes, are the context for this intentional community that celebrates universal world spirituality drawn from all sacred traditions. Secret Doors, the Blue Temple, the Hall of Water, the Hall of the Earth, the Hall of Metals, the Hall of Spheres, the Hall of Mirrors, and a Labyrinth are revealed in this guided photographic tour. This volume represents the astonishing art and architecture created by devoted members of the communal village of Damanhur. Merging ancient mystic customs and principles with contemporary consciousness and philosophy, this tiny utopia has manifested an eco-conscious, self-sustaining society. Damanhur’s temples are its most exquisite gift to the world.

Book: http://shop.cosm.org/damanhurtemplesofhumankind-120pages.aspx


Home page
http://www.thetemples.org/

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA9Zy1FyRms

ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/popup?id=4210038

[onager]

1. That word "Damanhur" is actually Egyptian.

The people named their community, Damanhur, a word channeled by spiritual leader, Airaudi, from ancient Atlantean, meaning "City of Light".

:rofl:

I'm channeling a word for this spiritual leader.

Something is coming to me that vaguely resembles the Old Indo-Mayan-Egypto-Aryan-Nordic term "Aeshol."

Sorry, you seem like a nice sincere person. But I have a very low tolerance for this sort of mumbo-jumbo. It would be helpful if anyone could prove Atlantis actually existed, let alone that it had a language capable of being studied.

Damanhur, with many alternate spellings, is one of the very few Egyptian cities that has retained its ancient Egyptian name. It means "City of Horus."

I know that because I lived in Egypt for 4 years, and passed thru Damanhur twice a day on my way to work, from Alexandria.

It's right here:

http://www.touregypt.net/Damanhur.htm

[trotsky]

3. It is so freaking great having you around, onager.

:rofl:

[Cleobulus]

2. I find it interesting that a group so concerned with being separated from nature...

buries their temples in the most sanitized conditions imaginable. Ironic is the word I'm thinking of.