by Daniel Giamario, founder of the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School
In addition to a counseling practice, and the webinars and tele-classes for the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School, keeping me involved with the evolution and organic growth of the Shamanic Astrology paradigm, my primary passion has been in the exploration of the ancient pre-horoscopic origins of Shamanic Astrology. These explorations are two things in parallel: I love researching a time and place, and then going to these various places to see if I can feel the truth of what I have read.
In exploring the origins of Shamanic Astrology, certain issues keep weaving back and forth that are summarized the question: “Who are we and what happened?”. The history we have been taught as our has almost entirely been an indoctrination resulting from the aberrant synthesis of monotheism, hierarchical patriarchy, and patrilineal family structures.
All these ways of being and believing are relatively recent in our human history. The themes and avenues of inquiry that keep emerging include the following topics that I intend to explore in forthcoming articles:
THE GENESIS OF HOMO SAPIENS
What is the origin of our current version of human being? What happened on this planet 160,000 – 200,000 years ago that was the genesis of the DNA we now carry? Are we cross-breeds with Denisovans or Neanderthals? Is there any truth to Anunnaki genetic tampering? And who are the Anunnaki anyway? Is there anything of value to having any particular bloodline? And how does the precious metal gold fit into the story?
HIGH ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
Was there high civilization before the time our mainstream education and the scientific establishment believes? When and where was it? Antarctica? South America? South Africa? Sundaland? Central Asia? And what was it that happened around 13,000 years ago that significantly changed the Earth and her inhabitants? And what and where are Atlantis and Lemuria?
GLOBAL SPIRITUAL WAYS OF LIFE
Was there an original global spiritual tradition and way of life? In Shamanic Astrology, we always begin with the foundational principle from Hermes Thoth Trismegistus: “As Above, So Below, As Within, So Without”. Evidence is mounting that there existed an ancient global spiritual tradition honoring the Earth and Sky, that saw human beings as part of creation, not separate from it, and certainly not having dominion over the creation.
The Egyptian religion (not limited to Egypt), was intent on bringing Heaven to Earth, to mirror the cosmology of the sky with the human creation of cities, megalithic monuments, kivas, and other ceremonial structures. Remnants of these ways survive among indigenous peoples, and within what is known as the Neolithic Revival.
GYLANY VS. CLASS, CLASS-CASTE & HIERARCHY
Is there anything actually important or intrinsically real to class, caste, and hierarchy? On one hand, there is evidence for a gylanic culture of cooperation and collaboration between men and women prior to our mainstream “history”, with far less warfare than what we have been led to believe. And yet, there is also much evidence of a long history that included a division of human societies into 4 or 5 classes or castes, with 2 different ruling elites, sometimes the priests/Brahmans/philosopher-kings, and sometimes the warriors. Were these divisions part of the aberration and the problem? Or is there something more essential here?
MEGALITHS: STARS AND STONES
It seems I have megalithomania! Megalithic means “big stones”, and all over the world are the remains of these incredible great stone creations. Hence, my interest over the years in Callanish in Scotland. Over the years, I have experienced the megaliths (stone circles, stone rows, chambered cairns, long barrows, earthworks, etc) of Ireland, Scotland, England, Peru, Bolivia, Cambodia, South Africa, South Asia, Hawaii, and the South Pacific. Recently, places in Turkey and Armenia are also calling to me. So, what is up with these big stones with their cosmological alignments and ceremonial applications?
RENAISSANCE OF THE SACRED FEMININE
The 2013 SAMS conference as well as sacred journeys in collaboration with Anyaa McAndrew and Nita Gage have emphasized the ancient and essential importance of the Feminine and the Mother Goddess, and an entirely different view of the Feminine from the beliefs of patriarchy. I have yet to see any advantage whatsoever to patrilineal family structure.
However, there certainly is no need to further articulate the damage that hierarchical patriarchy has inflicted on the planet and her peoples, for I know I would simply be preaching to the choir. Clearly it is essential at this time to reconnect with divine feminine energy and wisdom as a way of assisting in creating a new world, based on gylanic principles of collaboration and cooperation between men and women as allies and equals.
REVISIONING ASTROLOGY
Shamanic Astrology is more than individual personal horoscopes and includes many thousands of years of pre-horoscopic night sky and cosmological awareness of ancient peoples around the world. Around the time of the last Uranus/Neptune/Pluto stellium (500-600 BCE), individual or personal reality emerged as something new, an evolutionary development different from the tribal, clan, and group consciousness that was pretty universal before that.
The innovation of the “horoscope”, originally meaning just the Ascendant, was certainly an evolutionary leap. But there is a downside to this “evolution”. As a result, the connection to the wholeness of the tribe, clan, and community began to be lost. The astrological and philosophical emphasis on the individual, the “person”, has become extreme.
Ironically, my mentor, Dane Rudhyar, was the creator of so-called “person-centered” Humanistic Astrology. He then, presaged this problem in his master work, the Planetarization of Consciousness, where he proposed a higher and more comprehensive synthesis. He envisioned a dialectic where the thesis is clan or tribe, the antithesis being the individual person, and then a synthesis being the planetarization of consciousness. Shamanic Astrology desires to help make this synthesis real.
UPCOMING TRIPS and COURSES RELATED TO THE ORIGINS and ESSENCE of SHAMANIC ASTROLOGY
Aug.5-12,2015 AVEBURY and STONEHENGE
The Renaissance of the Sacred Feminine Team: Daniel, Anyaa McAndrew, and Nita Gage, will be facilitating a journey to Wiltshire, England to experience Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill, and the West Kennet Long Barrow at the height of Crop Circle season. This workshop will count towards Shamanic Astrology certification as an advanced Cosmology course or as a graduation course. See full details here: http://www.fullmoonsanctuary.org/Avebury-2015.htm
Sept.20-23, 2015 Nevada Petroglyph Site
After nearly a decade, the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School will return to a special site in Nevada near the White Mountains for a Cosmology/Night Sky intensive at the time of Fall Equinox. This location is a vast hierophany, an ancient sacred site with hundreds of petroglyphs including Solstice and Equinox alignments and even the outer Lunar Standstill.
I found this place on a Vision Quest back in 1998. At one time, the school had many classes here. There was even a prerequisite to experience this site for certification, because it is a Living Mystery School that can still be experienced. It is our privilege to take a group there once again. This class will count towards certification on the Cosmology/Night Sky track. See full details and pictures here:
RESOURCES
For anyone interested in researching the subjects of this article, I recommend the following authors and resources:
Robert Bauval, Andrew Collins, Graham Hancock, Peter Knight, Michael Tellinger,Edo Nyland, Stephen Oppenheimer, Prof. Santos, Christopher Knight, Alan Butler, Robert Temple, Dane Rudhyar, Riane Eisler, C.P.R.May, John Moriarty, Jack Roberts, and many others. I have described these authors and their books in previous articles, that can still be located at these links:
Aloha Daniel,
I loved this article and look forward to reading more as you answer the questions you posed. I want to know what you have discovered so far. I feel so grateful that you have explored these questions and are continuing to explore them, and that you have some insights.
Sending you much love and can’t wait for your next article!
Joan
Hi DANIELJI!! I love what you wrote…write! Everything that comes out of your head and heart is ‘meat’ to my soul. I am so blessed tohave been your friend/sister/ally for…over 30 years!?????? May it ever be so. I love you brother! hope to meet your angel, Lynn, one day. Merkaba Whitefeather Moon
Aloha Daniel!
A wonderful synopsis of where you’ve been and where you’re going. It’s a honor to share a small part of the journey with you. Thank you for being my teacher for these many years! I am happy I found the principles of Shamanic Astrology early in my astrological education. It started me on a path I’ve kept to until this day! Blessings to you and yours.
There will be more chapters of this article in the coming months, a chapter for each topic shown above.
Thank you,