Spiritual director and counsellor, facilitator, rector of the Institutum Provisorium, Findhorn Foundation RP and workshop focaliser, former New Age workshop leader and creator of astroshamanism, reverted to Catholicism.
Since 1976 Franco has worked with thousands of individuals from every country and cultural background, offering support and inspiration in their search for direction, reconciliation, liberation and peace.
In his life, Franco has gone through various phases of spiritual research, increasingly privileging the relationship with Judeo-Christian spirituality. For some years he has no longer been in tune with the practices that have most publicly characterized him in his past and has implemented a systematic reconversion to the Roman Catholic Church.
The main feature of his work is given by its explicit provisionality. The practices and ideas used have a purely strategic function, which hopes to encourage a direct experience of the mysteries of the reality in which we live, or believe we live.
Motivated by a multicultural, interspiritual and pluralistic approach to inner quest, which includes the exploration of expanded states of consciousness, his work draws from various traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islamism, Sufism, Gnosticism, and experiences of militancy in both official religions and alternative forms of spirituality, such as A Course in Miracles, Osho (of which he was press agent from 1989 to 1992, with the name of Swami Bodhi Satpathi) and the Findhorn Foundation in Northern Scotland, where he lived from 1999 to 2019.
Although Franco has received inner guidance to help others through writings, seminars and sessions, he describes himself as a spiritual seeker and pupil, and not at all as a spiritual teacher or authority. Consequently, he invites exercising caution about his views, always giving priority to one’s own inner source of inspiration and direct experience, or to officially acknowledged religious authorities.
His writings and courses include a wide variety of experiences, some of which are foreign or incompatible with the author’s current religious beliefs. As a result, he does not necessarily endorse his previous ideas. Franco at times uses astrology in his work, yet solely to determine the divisions of time and as a strategic map of the psyche, excluding any form of divination and prediction of the future. His work also radically excludes any association with occultism, magic, the use of psychotropic substances, and any shamanic or esoteric practice incompatible with Judeo-Christian traditions.
Swami Bodhi Satpathi, 1988
He is the author of Astroshamanism: A Journey Into the Inner Universe; Astroshamanism: The Voyage Through the Zodiac and other nine books, a series of sound healing CDs, more than 1000 articles published online on a large variety of blogs and websites, and other tools for inner growth and transformation.
As from 1988 Franco Santoro has run more than 2000 workshops, in Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, Spain and the Middle East. At the Findhorn Foundation in Northern Scotland he has held more than 200 one-week residential workshops.
Franco has double nationality (British and Italian) and currently lives in Lunigiana, Northern Tuscany, Italy, where he runs the Institutum Provisorium. Interspirituality and Multilingualism are a typical feature of his work, since he believes it helps to move beyond the conditioning caused by a single ordinary language and culture. His courses are held both in English and Italian, while French, Spanish, German and Russian are also frequently employed.
“None of those who are in heaven and on earth know the invisible, except God” (Koran, 27:65)
(sessions can be held in English, Italian, Spanish, German, French and Russian)
For a list of Franco’s workshops please click here.
For further information please contact us.
See Franco in Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/Astroshamanism
https://www.facebook.com/Santoro.uk
Click here to contact Franco by e-mail.
Bibliography (some of these works may not align with Franco’s current path)
Astroshamanism: A Journey into the Inner Universe, Findhorn Press, 2003
Astroshamanism: The Voyage through the Zodiac, Findhorn Press, 2003
Iniziazione all’Astrosciamanesimo: la via astrologica alla Guida Interiore, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2000
Concisa Epitome del Compendio dell’Epica del Sacro Cono, Edizioni Più, 2012
Astrosciamanesimo: Un viaggio nell’universo interiore, Amazon Kindle, 2013
Il Bigino astrosciamanico, Provisional Institute, 2019
Restaurare il cuore frammentato: relazioni multidimensionali e recupero dell’anima, Institutum Provisorium, 2020.
Pronto soccorso multidimensionale: emergenze spirituali, mondi paralleli e identità alternative, Institutum Provisorium, 2020.
La realtà superna: immaginazione, desideri e sogni, Institutum Provisorium, 2020.
Il Tocco Superno: La via della sensualità multidimensionale, Institutum Provisorium, 2020.
Astrosciamanesimo: La via dell’universo interiore, Institutum Provisorium, 2021.
Astrosciamanesimo: Il viaggio nel Sacro Cerchio, Institutum Provisorium, 2020.
On Franco Santoro see: MaryCatherine Burgess, A New Paradigm of Spirituality and Religion: Contemporary Shamanic Practice in Scotland (Continuum Advances in Religious Studies), with anthropological research by University of Edinburgh.
Other works:
Astroshamanic Binary Tarot (a complete deck of 163 cards).
Guidebook to the Operative Training in Astroshamanism, three volumes.
A Provisional Guide Book to the First Level of the Operative Training in Astroshamanism, Sacred Cone Press, 2001
“Astrosciamanesimo: viaggio nell’universo interiore” in Paola Giovetti (ed.), L’Uomo e il Mistero/10, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2002
“La guarigione astrosciamanica” in Paola Giovetti (ed.), L’Uomo e il Mistero/13, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2005
“La danza e il suono nelle pratiche di guarigione sciamanica” in Paola Giovetti (ed.), L’Uomo e il Mistero/14, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2006
“I canti astrosciamanici” in Linguaggio Astrale, Anno XIV, N.4, Centro Italiano di Astrologia, 2002
“Il mondo dell’alto” in Linguaggio Astrale, Anno XIV, N.5, Centro Italiano di Astrologia, 2002
Provisoria, Forlorn Press, 1984
(ed.) ProvOrdo Etnai Sagdhanatabe, Anaghaseva, 1988
Franco at Findhorn Foundation Cluny Hill, 2005
CD Recordings
Drumming for the Astroshamanic Voyage, 2002 (CD and tape)
The Breath of Emuria: Astroshamanic Healing Trance Dance, (with Shaun Foyle), 2004 (CD)
Mediterranean Shamanic Drumming, 2005 (CD)
Italian Tambourine and Jew’s Harp for the Astroshamanic Trance, 2005 (CD)
Astroshamanic Basic Ritual, (with Max Mattoni), 2009 (CD)
Zodiac Navigator, (with Max Mattoni), 2012 (CD)
Virtual books
PAN (Provisional Astroshamanic News) eZine of the Sacred Cone Circle, 2005-2009
Facebook Pages
http://www.facebook.com/Astroshamanism; https://www.facebook.com/Santoro.uk; http://www.facebook.com/Astrosciamanesimo
Favourite books
See: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/126929.Franco_Santoro