I got this in my email this morning…

“We ask you to cast, anchor, and hold the Net of Light steady for the Gulf of Mexico,” the Grandmothers said. “This crisis is affecting the entire world, and humanity is asleep. Wake up!” they cried. “Animals are dying, plants are dying, and your Mother is writhing in agony. If you hold the Net of Light steady at this time you will help stave off further catastrophe.

“You have been lulled into a false sleep,” they said, “told that others (B.P.) will take care of this problem. This is not so,” they said. “And this is not the time for you to fall into oblivion. Determine now to stay awake, and once you have made that commitment, think of, cast, and hold the Net of Light. Hold it deep and hold it wide. Amplify its reach to penetrate the waters of the Gulf and dive deep beneath the crust of Mother Earth. Anchor it at the earth’s core and as you hold it there, ask it to unify with the mineral kingdom of this planet. It will do this and will harmonize with all the solid and liquid mineral states on earth-including oil and gas. The Net of Light will call these minerals back into harmony.

“Whatever human beings have damaged, human beings must correct,” the Grandmothers said. “This is the law. We repeat: This is the law.You cannot sit back and ask God to fix the mess humanity has created. Each of you must throw your shoulders to the wheel and work. We are asking for your help. Several years ago we gave you the Net of Light so you would be able to help the earth at times like this. Step forward now. This is the Net of Light that will hold the earth during the times of change that are upon you,” they said.
“First move into your heart and call on us. We will meet you there. The Net of Light is lit by the jewel of your heart,” they said, “so move into this lighted place within you and open to the Net of which you are a part. Bask in its calming presence. It holds you at the same time that you hold it.

“Now think of magnifying your union with us. We, the Great Council of the Grandmothers, are with you now, and all those who work with the Net of Light are also with you. There are thousands, even millions now connected in light,” they said. “Along with this union, call forth the power of the sacred places on earth. These will amplify the potency of our joint effort. Then call on the sacred beings that have come to prevent the catastrophe that threatens to overwhelm your planet. We will work together,” they said, nodding slowly.

“Think of, cast and magnify the presence of the Net of Light in the Gulf of Mexico. See, imagine or think of it holding the waters, holding the land, the plants, the sea life, and the people. Holding them all!” they said. “The Net of Light is holding them steady; it is returning them to balance. Let the love within your lighted heart keep pouring into the Net of Light and hold, hold, hold. Calmly and reverently watch as the light from your heart flows along the strands of the Net. It will follow your command and continuously move forth. As soon as you think of it, it will happen. We ask you to practice this for only a few minutes at a time, but to repeat it throughout the day and night.

“We promise that this work with the Net of Light will do untold good,” the Grandmothers said. “We are calling you to service now. You are needed. Do not miss this opportunity. We thank you and bless you.”

Prayers needed.

Please share this with all your prayer pals:

SIOUX PRAYER REQUEST
A letter from Chief Arvol Looking Horse
(Present Chief and Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Nation of the Sioux)
Gulf Coast Oil Spill – Sioux Prayer Request

****** A Great Urgency ******
To All Nations

My Relatives,

Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.

We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.

The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make.

I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.

I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth. As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc’I Maka).

We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.

As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.

So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st, World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your own sacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our children’s future and well-being, and the generations to come.

Lao Tzu

The Way = Oludumare!

I love this quotation of Lao Tzu’s that describes perfectly my own view of the world and Universe I live in and my own ‘concept’ of God.

“Something there is, whose veiled creation was before the Earth or sky began to be; so silent, so aloof and so alone, it changes not, nor fails, but touches all; conceive it as the Mother of the World. I do not know its name; A name for it is “Way”; Pressed for designation, I call it great. Great means outgoing, outgoing, far reaching, far reaching, return. The Way is great, the sky is great, the Earth is great, Man also is great. Within the realm these four are great. Man but stands for one of them. Man conforms to the Earth; The Earth conforms to the Sky; the sky conforms to the Way; the Way conforms to its own nature.”

–Lao Tzu

I find myself agreeing with her on much.

While I have an historical interest in Egypt, and of course authentic human anthropology, I have often wondered why it easier for African descendents in the ‘New World’ in seeking to identify with their lost identities, choose to model their spiritual lives against lineages not related to them except by ideologies in the farthest reaches of antiquity.

The enslaved Africans who helped to people this part of the world WERE from West Africa. So why are Rastafarians modeling their spiritual beliefs against Judaic religion, or why do my Khemetic leaning brothers and sisters choose a system that hasn’t even been fully or correctly translated, and whose rituals are thousands of years out of practise, when the living traditions of our WEST AFRICAN ancestors exists still in largely unbroken lines down to us today?

The sisters commentary is interesting, and touches quite a few points I’ve raised myself. I often wonder if the state of our communities is directly related to an inability on the whole of us to connect with this West African heritage. Without it, we’re still not a cohesive unit, still labouring under false pretenses and mental slavery.

In a facebook discussion, a young man who I have discoursed with for years, and who incidentally I share very little intellectual or ideological common ground with, asserted that the sister in the video had nerve to imply disrespect because of other people’s priorities and choices.

I replied, ” I actually understand many of the forces that shape these ‘choices’, which are often ‘no real choice’, not always, just often, and I put them in what I see is the appropriate context. Also, ‘depends on the question’? What is her question here? It’s the same one I frankly ask on a regular basis… I put it to Rastafarian brothers and sisters, to Khemetic brothers and sisters, to Christian brothers and sisters and Muslim brothers and sisters… and I find the answers (often ‘non answers’, not always, but often) very grounded in a particular world view and mind set. ”

I also want to ask a couple more questions, and I included it there too. When you look out across the Atlantic, what do you see? Just the Sea?

I see a turbulent ocean true, but I can never look at the Sea and not see Yemoja and Olokun. I see that too…

When I look out across the Sea, I can never forget that across this water, the next land mass is where my Ancestors came from.

When I look out across the Sea, I can never forget the millions of Africans lost to it’s depths, and when I see that choppiness of the water, I hear them call out to me… to something inside me asking me to remember them and honour them.

So for me, I can never look past my spiritual roots, beyond it to something else. I am not denying the African origins of Egypt, Christianity, Judaism or Islam. I accept these this as part of my historical understanding, even if many others cannot see it, or reject it.

My only point of divergence, is I would say, her comments on the origins of humanity in north-eastern Africa. I am fairly convinced of that. Even the Yoruba believe they walked out of Khemet, across the desert and into Sub-Saharan Africa thousands and thousands of years ago, with an intact religious system handed down largely unchanged until (colonialism) recent times.

My question I put to many across the Diaspora–and I mean those who are seeking, those who have invested themselves in homegrown spiritual solutions, Rastafarism and Khemetic philosophy in particular–why they feel the need to create something from strands of something else, when such a powerful tool as their own Ancestral practise and their spiritual inheritance is there for them to use.

My Madrina posted this article to her FB recently. It is written for Christian evangelical missionaries, discussing not only Orisha based traditions, but specifically the conversion of Orisha devotees to Christianity, and demonising of one of the most powerful energies we honour and venerate.

I read this article a few years ago, I may have posted it to my old blog or not, but I still felt the need to add a comment. When I was reposting it to my FB feed, my attached comment grew and grew, until it exhausted the character limit, and herein contained in this blog post.

I am excerpting a small part of the article, from the portion discussing conversion of devotees and hoping to inspire more personal fervour  in missionaries to fuel a more convincing approach to converting us ‘poor misguided savages’.

Except, as I read their argument, it seemed to prove why they’re failing to stem the bleeding away of young, African descendants in the ‘New World’, and in fact the attraction of non-African peoples to Orisha devotion, one of multiple African Tradition Religions in the West that is growing and thriving.

Read:

Strategies and methods may vary from country to country, and even within countries, but the gospel must never be compromised. Perhaps it is an indictment on today’s preaching and the witness of Christians that Santería is now flourishing in the United States. It has already been observed that centers of Santería are abundant in Miami, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The excuse given is the large influx of immigrants from Latin America. However, in 1970 Santería also came to where it could not previously take root. The Oyotungi Village on the South Carolina coast near Charleston was established for the worship of the African orishas. It seems obvious that Murphy’s observation on the power of Protestant preaching that demanded conversion is a good one. Could it be that Santería is now on the move across Latin America and in the United States because our strategies for reaching the unsaved have failed to give priority to God’s ordained way to reach the lost?

via Santeria: African Gods In America.

Hmmm… it’s interesting my tradition doesn’t convert, but include and encompass… flows around the hard edges of politics and history, to create a way for itself in the face of persecution.

And when they tell you about the ‘Gospel’, you need to ask yourself about the Council of Nicea, (don’t mind Christian propaganda, this is world History) and WHICH Gospel are they talking about? The excoriated portions not in support of European-based phalli-centric world domination, or the four severely-doctored-for-political-purposes ones that finally made the cut of the Council, at the expense and excommunication of the Cardnials and Bishops supporting the former and not the latter. You know it’s the King James Bible they are bringing you, a further mistranslation of this ‘acceptable-to-Constantine’ Bible.

Yet, for these missionaries, the writer of the piece, and those already guilty of some of the worst kinds of colonisation and culturally divisive ‘evangelism’ and oppression in the not so recent past (someone PLEASE say Rwandan genocide AND ‘there is no ETHNIC difference between the Hutus and the Tutsis until the Catholic missionaries went to Leopold’s ‘garden”), in our day and age, still don’t seem to understand one basic principle, “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you”. Which is why I ever charge this sort of thing with hypocrisy at its root.

It’s like Taran said in his post recently, about why religion is often like genetalia; that so many religious people feeling the need to mentally hump their religions in your face.

I could never convert anyone to my tradition… it’s not something someone can be converted to. You’re either called or not. That’s it. But for these people, and so many other people I have met of this persuasion, they feel it’s either their right, or their life’s purpose to convince me their choice is the right one, and hence it is the ONLY choice for me or for you. As though my choice for my life is wrong or somehow less valid than theirs. As soon as they start talking, I hear “Lay down G.I. lay down G.I.” or Gimli the Dwarf saying, “In the language of Orthanc, help means ruin.”

Frankly, this is a kind of narrow myopia that continues to plague our enterprise here on planet Earth. It’s not the message you bring (because who can refuse ‘God is Love’, it’s your delivery mechanism… instead of literal the knife-point, whip and lynching-rope, it’s now an intellectual knife or a battle in the minds of the INHERITORS of MY tradition in particular. And why? For reasons they weakly attempt to explain, or outright refuse to acknowledge, or for more nefarious reasons of LOSS of CONTROL, and FEAR of the MENTAL EMANCIPATION of so many young people in our post-colonial world, who are being CALLED back to their traditional religious roots.

So many of us are actively seeking to close one of the most hideous of gaps created by the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; the divorce of the Africans brought here from their spiritual expression and the language they used to talk to and interact with GOD. That is our COSMIC right. For all the BOOK learning of so many, they do remain enslaved in thought and deed to a spiritual system that fails us as a PEOPLE because it’s motivation is not really the empowerment of it’s adherents, but the empowerment of the SYSTEM of religion, and their OBEDIENCE to ‘leaders’ under the guise of submission to God. God isn’t the focus, but the trappings of the system and it’s own power, and the empty ritual associated with it. If this is something that works for you, then I say, keep doing it. But you have to be honest about it if and when it stops working for you.

It is almost as though, they [the missionaries writing this piece I quote and the fervent born-agains] are DESPERATE to prove to you that their message or religious thought is the only acceptable one, and I refute that.

I also keep to the forefront several STAND OUT comments. One made by my father, that: Modern Christianity is European culture deified.

The others, made by John Henrik Clarke, remain ever part and parcel of why I went the opposite way and abandoned Catholicism at age 16, after reading some of his writings. I kept walking until I found a spiritual path that spoke to me as a woman, and a woman of African descent, and that is my right under Cosmic law. So no one will be teefing my head. I include them here for your perusal:

“My main point here is that if you are the child of God and God is a part of you, then in your imagination God is supposed to look like you. And when you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people.”

“Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.”

“Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the hand maiden of conquerors. Nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors, and used as the framework to control their minds.”

John Henrik Clarke

(I got these from here, but I’ve read the pieces they belong to.)

I was just about to knuckle down and be productive today, when I came across this post to one of my yahoo groups.

Apparently a pseudo-documentary on the “black sheep of religion” Voodoo and its tenets aired October Channel 4 in the UK. The location of the piece, which is ostensibly in support of the video, notably #160has #160″can_you_believe_it/debates/” in its URL. You can read it here.

Unfortunately I found even the intro article to the actual video footage, offensive.

The subtle snide mocking derision in the piece, as well as some clear lack of research regarding use of names etc. I found disappointing. One would have hoped that someone doing a piece like this would be a little more serious, but there`s a distinct note of someone having a lark about it to me.

I am yet to watch the entire video, and will reserve further comment until then. This is mostly directed at the written article which also notably does not have a name attached to it. However, the little bit I`ve seen of the video, makes it clear the white boy who went off looking for voodoo certainly appearsto take what he is doing seriously, but there still seems to be a slightly hollow quality to the exploration.

Meanwhile, by all means go over and have a look at the video. If you have broadband, live in the UK, have PC, use Internet Explorer and use Windows Media you can view it online here. But only for another week or so. For everyone else, there`s a torrent, and it`s on YouTube as well. I`d be interested in what other people thought of the video.

Technorati Tags:
media, african traditional religion, atrs, voodoo, orisha, quest

Found a marvellous photo essay on Voodoo on BBC.co.uk. Check it out. Click on the link below to view the whole essay.

Spiritual force

Voodoo is a state religion in Benin – the West African country where the practice started, before being taken to Haiti and elsewhere by slaves.

Some 65% of the seven million population are adherents. They say it is a positive force, bearing little resemblance to the popular image of people casting evil spells by sticking pins in dolls.

Priestess Na Danon says the word “Voodoo” means both the religion and the spiritual forces within natural phenomena such as water, fire, earth and air.

From: BBC NEWS | Photo journal | Voodoo priestess | Spiritual force

I found this on Assata Speaks, and really wanted to share it.

I think if Black Men and Black Women really took this to heart, including me (with the right man of course) there would be less divisiveness among the African family in the Diaspora.

But I guess, that’s a little to Afro-centric and Pan-African… too Black Nationalist for some. I stand by them and where I found them though; these are words to pay some attention to.

—–

1. Unselfishness and selflessness–Consciously put your loved one at the center of your heart and cultivate awareness of his/her needs. But don’t go overboard; remember to also take care of yourself.

2. Generosity–Give of yourself, sharing time, things, and emotions.

3. Acceptance–Commit yourself to patience, forbearance, tolerance, and accepting your mate not as a fantasy object–but a real person.

4. Respect–Your mate is a gateway to God and so deserves your respect, trust and support.

5. Honesty–the hard work of communication, revealing yourself, truth-telling, listening (these are big practices)–all lead to authenticity.

6. Empathy–Genuine love involves working hard to understand, and share, the feelings of your loved one. And to offer compassion and caring even for feelings you don’t “get.”

7. Play–Don’t take your love or yourself so seriously. Remember to leave room for fun, whimsy, joy and meaninglessness too.

8. Passion–True passion is not the romantic fascination we associate with teenage crushes; it’s a deep wonderment and interest in the other.

9. Mystery–Being open to not knowing, to not having it all worked out, to the discovery of being together.

10. Mission–Strengthen your bond by having some shared “mission,” purpose, direction.

From: Assata Speaks – Hands Off Assata – Let’s Get Free – Revolutionary – Pan-Africanism – Black On Purpose – Liberation – Forum

Well… I had a guarding Orisa reading last night to definitively find out who my tutelary Orisa was, and while it was a nice surprise and no surprise….

My MAMA is Yemoja!!!

However, Osun is walking with me hand and foot. The two of them take care of me. I am in fact what they call Dos Aguas in Lukumi… a daughter of two waters.

The way it was explained to me was that Osun said “Okay Mama, you can have herhead, but she’s mine from the neck down.”

I guess I always knew it… there is no other explanation for the supernatural relationship I have always had with the Sea, and water in general and very specifically.

Read more…

Ochun says you’re feeling drained away, something which is pretty unusual in so restless a person like you. Action is the keyword in your character. The point is you feel disappointed and anxious deep down inside. Your guarding Orisha recommends you to pour some beer all over you before taking an ordinary bath. Let the suds dry and then proceed to take a normal shower.

From: Caribbean Inside: a portal of the Caribbean and the America

Look, some of this has to come out or I am just going to pop; bust up, implode or something. Some way, some how I have to find a way to express this thing from my mind to some outside form.

Thing is, somehow I feel as though I may take a long time to finish this, post this and even if I post this, access to it will be limited. I doubt this will be posted before it takes shape and manifests itself.

Why is this? I think this is mostly because of my spirituality and a missive I received to keep big things to myself before it’s done. So I am not going to tell you what’s ACTUALLY happened, what’s happening, what’s likely to happen.

Instead, let me tell you how I feel.

The world reels, colours are richer…. all of a sudden the tapestry of my life must contemplate skeins and skeins of the richest kinds of threads.

I am reeling… I am spinning and spinning and spinning… it’s something like I experienced during ritual work in Trinidad. Spinning, spinning, spinning away something haunting me, and turning, turning, turning into freedom.

I am feeling the freedom that the bonds of friendship, love, loyalty and spiritual work can provide me, that which I have sought for more years that I tell you. I am feeling safe and protected and as always, just when I felt the connection between me and my spiritual self were slipping away, forces beyond me organised itself to bring me back to it.

All I have prayed for is right there in front of me, being offered to me of a platter of bronze, surrounded by plumes of peacock feathers. All I have to ask is if it’s mine. My eye is as big as my heart, my heart is bigger than it’s ever been, and I’m salivating with want for this… for my life to change, for that which has held me back for so long is beaten into a permanent retreat. For my life to become all I’ve dreamed, all I have known and been told over and over and over again by the mystics and seers who have reached out to me and gave me the messages from SPIRIT, you’re alright, it’s alright, it’s going to be just fine, finally, finally MANIFEST.

What can you say about how you feel in moments like these. Utter terror? No, it feels normal. Like I’ve been waiting for it, isn’t that right babies? Wasn’t Mami waiting for it for so long, and filled pages and pages, outputted gigs of binary on the subject?

Shucks…. I am no fool. All is chance and fortune, and my fortunes are changing, I haven’t just been praying in my bed, I’ve gone out and met it come hard come soft… and it’s done both. There are too many wicked souls in the world, too much jealousy and insecurity and a dear friend likes to say, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

I feel as Aragorn must have, when Gandalf returned with Eomer at the Battle of Helm’s Deep; like Gandalf himself must have felt at the gates of Minas Tirith fighting off the Witch King of Angmar when light broke and the horns of Rohan exploded across the Battle of Pelennor Fields. (You can tell I’m reading LOTR… all things lead me to elements of Tolkein’s tale. I cannot help my epic imagination and appetite for this story. I identify!)

I have been embattled. Ya’ll think I was kidding when I said I was struggling under the weight of something. I’ve written about it more than once, but because the depth to which I have been hampered, wounded and violated, although I have begun to heal, it still isn’t done yet.

Yet, I am at the end of the fight, finally at the end of the battle and I am blessed to find both protection and protector.

I guess for the first time I’m beginning to realise that Orisa loves me, my Guardian Angel, my Ori, all are there rooting for me, so no matter how bad things are in terms of this NEGATIVE ENTITY that’s trying to harm me, I have love all around me protecting me from the worse of it, and more… the more I help myself, the more help I get.

I am feeling it… feeling that love, and it’s got to get worse before it gets better, but with Ifa’s blessing when I come out the other side they’re will be strong, solid support waiting to catch me and help me to recuperate.

I am on the cusp of another huge leap in faith. I am on the axis of yet another evolutionary turn, a fundamental CHANGE in my life. I feel it coming on, seeing it up there on the road.

I am blessed to be here… yet again a feeling of being blessed to be alive and approaching yet another watershed moment.

Mojuba Oludumare! Mefererun Egun! Mojuba Orunmilla! Mojuba Osun! Mojuba Yemoja! Mojuba Gbogbo Orisa!

I have come to the last spasm in a cycle, and I am strengthened by the love all around me.

I am scared. Scared to the marrow of my bones, but I am not so scared to reach out for something with both hands and hold on, hold on, hold on. I have to hold on for my babies, my old people to come again, hold on for my husband to be, hold on for all the work I must do.

I see the road I’ve walked and the road I am still walking, and for the first time clarity is there, all I am waiting for is blessing and ritual. It’s all starting to make sense for the first time in a long time.

What also comes back to me strongly is a warning I got in divination earlier this year, that I paraphrase here “If you want to do something, don’t talk about it until it’s done or you’ll have doubts and it will lead to it remaining unfinished.”

This is perhaps the biggest thing I’ve attempted in my life. This happening, this event, this momentous discovery of the sweetest, greatest opportunity I’ve ever been presented with, is the kind of thing I would have blogged in a heartbeat, but this unwillingness to divulge in and of itself is remarkable and rare.

The thing is, this thing isn’t as mundane as fuck, an argument, a