Prem Letizia

Ma Prem Letizia (Maria Letizia Renzulli) was born in Naples, Italy, in 1956 and graduated in Psychology from the University of Rome. She became a Psychologist and Psychotherapist, and at the start of her career in 1978 she worked in institutions, like in Psychiatric Hospitals, Addiction Services, and at the University.

In the mid-seventies she met Osho, and after an initial long stay at the ashram in Pune, she returned to Naples and, on Osho’s direct instruction, set up the first Sannyas Centre in Naples which she ran for a a year or two.

When the Master moved to Oregon, Letizia decided to follow him and to participate in the counsellor course in anticipation of a future exclusively around Osho. This led to the decision to take a sabbatical from all institutional employments in Italy, and to live in Osho’s Commune.

When in 1989, Osho returned to Pune, Letizia decided to completely resign from her jobs in Italy and move to the Commune, where she remained from 1989 to 1999.

Her personal spiritual journey in the ashram took her to lead groups and trainings, working as a therapist and focussing on the integration of psychotherapy, psycho-body therapies and meditation.

Her experience in Craniosacral, Rebalancing, Healing Arts, etc. was enriched by her personal training of Chua Ka that she conducted until she left the Commune in 1999. After returning to Italy she decided to again pick up her profession as a psychotherapist, which she continued until recently.

Letizia’s contact with the world of Osho never ceased and she organised many groups and meditation meetings in the West.

Still in Pune, Letizia had come across the Runes, to which she gave a new meaning, that of Zen Runes, using them as a divinatory and meditation tool in line with the path of meditation and love for our Master. She then wrote a series of books about the Zen Runes which are available online. She also used the runes in her work as a psychotherapist.

Letizia has always kept her sannyasin friendships and relationships alive – be they even spread all over the world – and actively participated in the No-Mind Osho Centre in Naples.

Bio by her long-time friend Dhyan Chetana

Fellow traveler

by Bhadrena

Letizia was a fellow traveler. We spent much time together in Pune, where a long time ago she was a student, practitioner, assistant, colleague in Craniosacral Balancing.

She was also reading the runes for everybody that wanted her expertise and I still have some of her self-made runes, she gave us. I will cherish them even more now.

In the last years we only connected from afar, through Facebook or mutual friends. She continued to train herself in different modalities. Some we shared, like Somatic Experiencing and often found common ground.

It is through friends that I heard of her illness. Since she was not able to speak after the last operation, we only wrote a few times.

I was surprised – and maybe just a little bit relieved for her – when I heard today about her passing.

I will miss her and the Italian connection we shared over decades. May she be liberated from all earthly suffering and transition easily.

What to say?

by Shakura

Letizia beloved, what to say? I have no words. I guess you are fine now, free, light, in the light. But I have a heavy heart, so many memories, you are still so present here at home. I look at the staircase and it seems to me that at any moment I could see you coming down from your room. I can’t believe you left, I assumed you’d be back again next summer. This damn habit of taking things for granted…

I met you in Healing Arts, and we immediately became friends, sisters. How much we laughed talking about Maruzzella, a name coined by you, do you remember? And when I came to your beautiful home in Ischia, where you hosted me and my boyfriend with warmth, grace and generosity?

Then we lost sight of each other a bit, but when I saw you again in Miasto in summer 2019, it was as if we had never left each other. How much fun we had in those days! With you it was easy to laugh.

And this summer… I didn’t tell you, but every now and then I became worried about your health, but then I put it aside, and enjoyed your presence – you always sociable, friendly, the days flew by, you were part of the house, as if you had always lived here. I was a bit busy and tired, we didn’t socialize that much… Sorry… I feel you so present again!

Thank you, Letizia, thank you, sister. I will take out your Runes. I will play with them and will think of you. Goodbye, dear, beautiful, sweet Letizia.

You will always be in my heart.

Remembering Letizia

by Tanmayo

Radiance is what I remember. That beautiful radiant smile and presence. It was my first ever training in the commune, I was still new… had just done the basic four meditation groups allowed to Indians back then. When I jumped into Chua Ka, the self massage training, my father had quipped that it seemed about right. No husband, no boyfriend, so self massage it is! Letizia couldn’t stop laughing when I shared this.

In many ways, Letizia’s training was the space when things started to open up for me, revealing areas I needed to work on for myself. Before this there had been just catharsis and the high of celebration.

I remember that there was some dreamwork we had to draw about and it was the first time I saw my pattern of always being the outsider. It was a heart-rending breakthrough but Letizia held the space well, gently leading me to just sit with it, not rush for answers. They would come when I was ready.

This training was my introduction to bodywork and Letizia was a patient teacher… we worked intensely with one side of the body and then just balanced the other to bring about healing… and amazingly, the other side relaxed deeply too without actually having worked on it. It actually grew in length, or so it felt, to match the relaxed muscles of the first side.

Using crystal balls of various sizes for body points that one could not reach taught me about living in the solution. And of course, we touched esoteric realms with the magic of the runes.

In hindsight I’m glad that my initial training was with Letizia; it was a gently-guided nudge onto a path of body-mind-emotion exploration which made my meditation more grounded in the body. Later, other trainings brought much harsher and more righteous teachers, but gentleness has always gone deepest for me.

So, in much love and gratitude to Letizia and Osho for laying this loving foundation ❤️

Stubbornly dreamy

by Dhyan Elena

I first met Letizia at the smoking temple in Pune; we were chatting, laughing and smoking. I came to know her after she had asked me to be her assistant in the self-massage group, Chua Ka. This started a friendship that has never ended. Although we lived far apart, we always kept in touch and saw each other whenever we could. We spent very beautiful days in her home with its large terrace overlooking the sea of Ischia, watching the stars, imbibing the fragrance of her roses, exchanging our ideas – which often differed, me stubbornly pragmatic and she equally stubbornly dreamy. She was a very welcoming and generous person, proudly Neapolitan and inextricably linked to the Master. She accompanied, supported and guided me through many crucial moments of my life in Pune and in Italy. I will miss her very much, I hope she is happy in the magic she always surrounded herself with.

Thank you for everything, Letizia.

Queen of the Runes

by Upadhi

I heard the news this morning. What can I say? I am deeply touched by her leaving. She has dedicated her life to awakening and has lived for a long time in Pune, where we shared a flat for a while. Very welcoming to everyone, ready to ‘be there’. A sensitive soul, she enjoyed and ‘talked to nature’. She was the queen of the Runes to which she devoted herself with constancy and passion. I say goodbye to her, remembering her open smile and at the same time with a touch of nostalgia.

Two days later:

This morning I woke up early with memories:
Letizia and I at Yogi Park, in the flat we were sharing with other friends,
the continuous
coming and going from the rooms, the chats,
the meditations, the readings,
the Italian dinners together.
And then later on, Ischia, the sun, the water,
her house facing the sea, and the continuous coming and going of friends.
We spent many years sharing, then life took other ways,
as it sometimes does and the connection was less “tight”.
And still we spent the last end of the year without covid in Naples
and she took me and my friends around town,
showing with pride the beauty of the city and telling us its secret stories.
Friend to my heart, generous and so so strongly alive,
I remain with your laughter,
your sweet and shy smile,
your endless capacity to revive sisterhood.

On the Road

by Raso

Quanta strada assieme, Prem Letizia, quante risate, quante sessioni condivise, quanti scambi d’energia. Amo ricordare i tuoi colori turchesi, i tuoi occhiali esagerati, i fiori giganteschi del tuo giardino, la tua dolce cadenza del Sud, le tue colorate chincaglierie indiane, i tuoi gioielli dal sapore antico, le tue rune che ho visto nascere e crescere nelle sessioni che ci scambiavamo, con le divinità nordiche che ti ispiravano e le divinita’ femminili che ti accompagnavano sulla via della sorellanza.

Amo ricordare i tuoi occhi con dentro il mare, i mesi assieme in Sanai con il craniosacrale, ma anche il Rebalancing, il Visceral Approach, sui tavoli da massaggio delle Healing Arts a Puna, con l’odore degli oli Ayurvedici, le nostre furiose litigate in Meera Nagar, il tuo limoncello profumato, la strada assieme in diversi continenti, sempre con Osho nella meditazione, nella magia della sorellanza disegnando emozioni. I mesi trascorsi assieme al sole di Goa, quando tu vivevi nel Beach Nest e io a pochi passi nel giardino con i cocchi e la sera ci aspettavamo da Shanu o da Donna Florina per vedere il tramonto. Solo due anni fa, quando la tua voce era già cambiata o l’estate scorsa sotto la quercia di Miasto, quando era diventata ancora più roca.

Cara Letizia, compagna di viaggio, che il tuo presente passaggio sia pieno di consapevolezza, di luce e…! Non so. Il resto devo scoprirlo. Siimi da guida.

So far we have travelled together, Prem Letizia, so many laughs, so many shared sessions, so many exchanges of energy. I love to remember your turquoise colours, your exaggerated glasses, the gigantic flowers in your garden, your sweet Southern cadence, your colourful Indian trinkets, your jewellery of ancient flavour, your runes that I saw being born and grow in the sessions we exchanged, with the Nordic deities that inspired you and the female deities that accompanied you on the path of sisterhood.

I love to remember your eyes with the sea inside, the months together in Sanai with Craniosacral, but also Rebalancing, Visceral Approach. I remember our sessions on the massage tables at Healing Arts in Pune, with the scent of Ayurvedic oils, our furious fights in Meera Nagar, your fragrant limoncello (the lemon liqueur from your beloved Ischia), the road we shared together on different continents, always with Osho in our meditation, in the magic of sisterhood drawing emotions. The months spent together under the Goan sun when you lived in the Beach Nest and I just a few steps away in the garden with the coconut trees. The sunsets we watched together in front of the ocean at Shanu or Donna Florina’s shack. Just two years ago, when your voice had already changed, or last summer under the oak tree in Miasto, when it had become even more hoarse.

Dear Letizia, travel companion, may your present passage be full of awareness, light and…! I don’t know. The rest I will have to find out. Be my guide.

Raso

Obits in the Press

Il Dispari (in Italian): Dopo anni di apprezzata permanenza ad Ischia è scomparsa ieri la psicologa Letizia Renzulli

More Tributes

Letizia… Flower… Water… Food… India… Travel… Osho…
May you dance on your way to your new life in each of the forms of your Dancing Runes.
These are words from me describing Letizia in all her ways of being.
Frannie Santo

Sorellina
Leti amore, ti amo e amerò sempre
Stai calda nel mio cuore
Per te una foto del nostro giardino di Praiano
In questo momento mi sento vicina per te in una danza del cuore con Udgiti e Chetana amiche sorelle
Sundari

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