Hetepu (Peace) Family,
Greetings. Greetings. It’s good to be here.
The other day I was watching a program on National Geographic and they were talking about healing or what they called Strange Healings, which was non-Western approaches to healing. One of the healing practices they featured was the practices of a shaman from the Andes. This particular shaman had diagnosed his patient by using a guinea pig. A similar practice exist in Africa using a goat. In remote parts of Asia they use a sheep or chicken. Anyway, the shaman from the Andes whom they call Maestro (Master) after diagnosing the ailments correctly, offered the guinea to the earth and prepared another offering to remove the spirits that brought the illness from the patient. Then, he chased the spirits away with a series of ritual actions.It was an interesting segment but then they brought on Western trained anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists who talked about that the reason the shaman was successful, was because of a placebo effect.
“Really???” I asked. “How sad.”
How sad I said because it is really a shame that Westerners can’t see beyond their arrogance. Now, I am not totally against Western education and thinking, but you need to know its limitations, which is based totally upon the physical senses. It is the failure recognize that there is something beyond the physical that prevents Westerners from making any serious grounds spiritually. It is because the people in the Andes can see beyond the physical and identify with the spiritual that allows them to see the sacredness of all things like the coca leaves, which they chew daily. That Westerners have abused, misused and are addicted to.
Now, I am not promoting drugs use but I am trying to get you to see that it is our Western thinking that prevents us from seeing the wholeness of God. It is our Western training that makes us arrogantly believe that because we don’t understand a thing. Means that it is not real or effective. This also is what makes us search for God through someone else eyes rather it be through an Arab’s, Chinese or East Indian’s perspective. The problem with this of course, is that the spirituality of these peoples reflects their divinity through their own eyes and not of foreigners. This means that when you take this same Western or non-holistic perspective and try to learn about someone else spirituality that is foreign to you. It is not going to work either, because there is a safe guard preventing people from abusing and misusing it for mundane and profane purposes.
It is this same safe guard during the Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 70s, that prevented people like The Beatles, Jim Morrison and the Doors, and everyone else during that period from truly climbing higher spiritually, and. Instead led many of them to abusing substances, social disorder and the committing all sorts of heinous acts despite their original natural and peaceful intentions.
It is the same safe guard that made the Great I AM tell Moses to inform the Children of Israel not to gaze upon Him at Mt Sinai because they would perish. What is this safe guard? It is culture. Culture and spirituality are uniquely tied or joined at the hip and if you don’t have one. It is hard to get the other. In fact, culture is what spirituality different from religion.
What’s the difference you ask between spirituality and religion? Real quick, religion is based solely upon beliefs whereas spirituality is based upon experience. A person can change their beliefs like changing their clothes but you can’t change or deny your experience. This is why spirituality in most non-Western cultures is closely tied to initiations, where you either received the initiation or not.Religion is something you practice. Spirituality is what you are. Have you ever asked a person who they are and answer they are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.? This is a religious individual, because their beliefs are dictating who they are and will be. A true spiritual minded individual tells you his or her name based with conviction based upon their experience.
It is this lack of holistic thinking that makes people jump around and try other faiths. I know because I did it as well. Fortunately, my padrino (godfather) and I met and helped me to see life from a different perspective. Of course, it didn’t come quickly. I had to go through a bit of ordeal as you all know, but this ordeal was my trial by fire or leading to my burning bush initiation. It was because of my initiation I began to see the Kamitic tradition differently. Like many, I had read and read the Kamitic legends numerous times and just chalked them up as fanciful stories, which is evidence of my Western education (indoctrination), non-holistic thinking and lack of maturity. When I was undergoing my informal initiation that’s when the truth of the Story of Ra and Oset appeared to me.
The Story of Ra & Oset
According to legend, Oset (Aset/Auset/Isis) wanted to be a goddess, so she conjured up some old foot magic and created a serpent, so that when Ra journeyed across the two lands. Â The serpent would poison Ra with its bite and in order to save him. Ra would have to reveal his true name to her based upon the belief that whosoever knows his true name could control him. As planned, Ra journeyed across his kingdom and when he came upon the serpent that lie in his path, he was bitten and became very ill. In agony Ra called out to his children to save him but none knew of a cure except for Oset. When Oset came to Ra’s aid she called him to reveal his true name to her so that she could drive the poison out him. Ra after much hesitation tells Oset,
“I have made the heavens and the earth, I have ordered the mountains, I have created all that is above them, I have made the water, I have made to come into being the great and wide sea, I have made the ‘Bull of his mother,’ from whom spring the delights of love. I have made the heavens, I have stretched out the two horizons like a curtain, and I have placed the soul of the gods within them. I am he who, if he openeth his eyes, doth make the light, and, if he closeth them, darkness cometh into being. At his command the Nile riseth, and the gods know not his name. I have made the hours, I have created the days, I bring forward the festivals of the year, I create the Nile-flood. I make the fire of life, and I provide food in the houses. I am KhepeRA in the morning, I am RA at noon, and I am Tmu at evening.”
After hearing all that Ra had said, Oset told him, “The poison continues to run through your body because you have not reveal your true name, my Lord.” Finally having no other choice Ra conceded and he led Oset into another room so that no one else could hear them. Â When they were alone. Ra caused his name to pass from within him and into Oset, which she used to drive the poison out of Ra’s body. Â The story ends with the impression that the name was not revealed, but the story was a riddle because the name was revealed to Oset in secret. To understand the story, the word for secret and hidden is “Amun or Amen,” which also means to conceal (this is the reason the word was borrowed and used to follow the end of Jewish, Christian and Islamic prayers).
It was from this Story it was revealed to me that Khepera (sunrise), Ra (midday), Ra Atum or Tmu (sunset) and Amun Ra (midnight) are not God. They are the divine attributes of the Almighty God, Nebertcher. Together these four attributes correspond to the four moments of the sun (sunrise, midday, sunset and midnight), the four directions (east, north, west and south), the four stages of Life (birth, life, death and rebirth) and the four moments of the Kongo cosmogram (Kala, Tu-Kula, Luvemba and Musoni).
This is how I discovered the maa aankh, a Kamitic – Kongo inspired cosmogram based upon my ancestors’ cultural perspective, which reveals my divinity and uniqueness. Instead of making me feel inferior or culturally subservient to others.
So you see, Egyptologists and other Western scholars got it wrong because they are not culturally in sync with the Kamitic thinking, which was holistic. It was because of my experience guided by the wisdom of my padrino, that allowed me to rediscover and resurrect my own divinity. Thereby connecting to God, which allowed me to see the sacredness of all things. In other words, I had to see God through my Ebony Eyes in order to get a holistic perspective to improve my life. This is why I am eternally grateful for meeting my padrino because without him I would never have had the pleasure of meeting the orisha Ochossi (Oxossi) and later the netchar Maat.
That’s right, it was Maat that showed me the entire picture or Maa. It was Maat that showed me the Maa (the Way), which I hope you can see means more than just balance, reciprocity, law, justice, order, karma, etc. I hope you can see the difference from knowing and believing in God. When you believe. You only see part of the picture – usually the one based upon your physical senses, hence the intellectual side everything (based upon your limited understanding). You see the differences between yourself and others, which is why it is hard for people to come together peacefully.Not only that, when you just believe you tend to argue with others on who is right or wrong, which is a typical Npu (Anubis/Sebek) and Eshu (Ellegua) trick, all due to perspective.
It is important to note that people that believe in God need rules, laws and commandments to follow or they believe that God will punish them and so on. And, rightfully so, because without these rules they would cause great harm to themselves and others because they lack the maturity, understanding and responsibility.
Spiritual people on the other hand don’t just believe in God but know God, which allows them to see life holistically. They live their life based upon what is ideally correctly. A truly spiritual minded individual can or tries to harmonize (be at peace) with anyone regardless if they agree with their beliefs or not, because they understand everyone has a journey. They can come together peacefully with others because they focus on the individual’s spirit. This does not mean they condone negative, self-destructive and perverted behavior, no more than Moses did. It just means that see the sacredness of all things and do not need any commandments, laws and rules to tell them what they should and should not do. Because they see the dangers beforehand. It is part of the holistic or Maa perspective.
I say all this to inform you that if you find yourself flip flopping from faith to faith, not knowing which way to turn or what is right from wrong. If you feel that you have lost your way or that you haven’t found your way. It could be because you are looking at life from one perspective and not seeing the whole picture. It might be time for you put down the books and ask Maat to show you the other side of life. So that you can develop your intuition and learn to see life holistically.
First let me begin by saying hello and that I truly enjoyed reading this post as well as many of your other posts. I would also like to add I am a very private person and I have never in my life left a comment or post to anything. However, for some reason I felt the need to type and share with you what I was currently feeling after reading this.
Just to provide you a little info on where I am coming from, I was raised in the Christian belief system and I believed it pretty much served me well for all my life. Any issues in my life or unanswered prayers I chalked up to me and as my own inadequacies or as punishment for something I had done. I had always been concerned about salvation, being a better person, a better Christian but I was not searching for some new belief system or any great spiritual enlightenment. So looking back on the past, this journey and this place that I find myself in now I find it very interesting that it began simply by wanting to have more knowledge of my ancestors and what part of Africa I descended from.
About a little over a year ago I had a sudden desire to know more about my ancestors. I really was just trying to find out how far back I could fill in my family tree and if I could discover from what part of Africa I descended from. Well to keep this story succinct, not long into my research I found my attention being diverted from one tangent and topic to another, each one causing me to question what I had always been told and what I had always believed. The first thing I encountered in trying to trace my heritage were the beliefs of African Americans of the diaspora as the true biblical Hebrews, which then led to, well, who are the Jews in Israel today, from that topic I found myself reading discourses about the inconsistencies between the message of John in good works as apposed to Paul and the reliance on faith for salvation, this not surprisingly led discourses on the canonization of the bible and the agenda of the early church, which then proceeded to an examination of the excluded books of the bible and the message of the early christian Gnostics and the Christian stories as copies of Egyptian cosmology, which culminates in where I find myself today, the study of Kemet as the basis and foundation or the tie that binds it all together. Quite the journey considering I only really wanted to know what part of Africa my ancestors were from:-) Anyway you perfectly pegged how I am feeling in your statement of feeling lost or haven’t yet found my way. It leaves a terrible void when you discover the things you believed are not exactly true and couple that with an indoctrinated fear that punishment is around the corner for having the audacity to question anything you have been taught it can also lead to some serious frustration. I do feel lost many a time not knowing what to do and as I strive to be honest with everyone including myself I must admit I miss the security that my beliefs once afforded me because I do not feel I have discovered how to fill the void as of yet.
Anyway that’s where I’m at and particularly your statement “It is important to note that people that believe in God need rules, laws and commandments to follow or they believe that God will punish them and so on.” is what really resonated with me. After all it’s much easier to believe you have a set group of rules to follow and all will be well (it’s quite convenient 🙂 Fortunately, I have never been one to shy away from work and realize that I need to extend my belief in God to actually getting to know God. Unfortunately, I don’t know what is the right path and I am certainly a product of the Western mindset that wants everything quickly and right now. So I have have begun the work I believe I need to do, starting with cultivating patience in my life and so for me, in light of true intentions and a readiness to work I am optimistic that in looking back from where I started, I am certain my path is being revealed (even if it is not as quickly as I would like:-) and will continue by whatever means are appropriate for me and my experience.
So, thank you for your writings. They are thought provoking and truly provide meditative nourishment to the soul and thank you for the opportunity to share.
Peace & Blessings
Thank you. It is rewarding to know that someone is benefiting from my experiences. Thanks for the light.
Hetep (Peace)