I’M KAMITIC! AND I’M PROUD! (What it Really Means to be Kamitic)

Hetep (Peace)

I know most of you have heard the famous 1970s Cultural Hit anthem by James Brown, “Say it loud. I’m BLACK and I’m PROUD!” Well, I deemed it time to change this popular mantra and declare that I’m KAMITIC AND I’m PROUD! I decided to write this post in response to the misrepresentation some have due to the growing usage of the popular Kamitic term “Hetep” which means “Peace”.  Understand it is not my intention to belittle anyone or group but to clearly distinguish from my perspective what is and who is Kamitic (Kemetic, Khemetic, etc.) versus individuals that are at present caught up in the moment, so that true seekers don’t get the wrong idea.

Egyptian Tattoos of former Piston Player Rasheed Wallace

First, being Kamitic is not a fad, something that is popular or the “in thing” right now. I mean it is great that people want to decorate their body, home, etc. with ancient Egyptian motifs and all but, this is not what being Kamitic is about.

Portuguese ship

To understand what Kamitic is and is not we have to understand how it all began.  According to my research, when Central and West Africans were taken to the Americas.  Each of these ethnic groups brought with them a fragment of their cultural spiritual traditions. Those taken to Cuba used their African cultural heritage combined with Amerindian and Spanish influence to create the rich Afro-Latino traditions known as Lucumi (Santeria), Palo Mayombe and Abacua; in Puerto Rico similar Afro-Latino influences were used to create Santisimo and Santeria; similar influences combined with the French gave rise of course to Vodun in Haiti and Las 21 Divisiones in Dominican Republic (Las 21 Divisiones/Los Misterios also known as Dominican Vudu); while developing in Trinidad and Tobago there was Shango Baptiste; and last but not least in Brazil, Candomble, Macuumba and Umbanda. (Not to mention the other Afro-traditions that exist throughout the Caribbean and South America). All of these powerful and beautiful Afro – spiritual traditions were birthed out of a Spirit of Resistance, but in North America due to the fact that the taskmasters were Protestant, the Africans were unable to create such a tradition. This however didn’t mean that they didn’t try. Instead, the first Africans that stepped on the North American shores (in Jamestown, VA) came from Kongo – Angolan region and they brought with them the infamous Kongo Cross.

The Kongo Cross also known as the Yowa and Dikenga

The Kongo Cross (also known as the Yowa and Dikenga), which was the spiritual and philosophical foundation of the Kongo culture, is what the first Africans in North America used to build their own spiritual tradition of resistance. That’s right, contrary to popular belief, early African Americans did not lose all of their culture – this is a myth.  Our ancestors in North America like many other enslaved African descendants managed to preserve their very own African cosmology. What was lost was the philosophical and theological understanding of our culture. 400 years of slavery can’t erase or undo what has been practiced since Ancient Egypt.

Kongo Cross used to signal and provide for ventilation for those on the Underground Railroad.

Now through this sacred cosmogram early African Americans were able to preserve and create new traditions based upon their African heritage and new American experience, like an informal initiation system reflective of the sun’s movement and the famed ring shout.

African American Ring Shout. Notice the cross formation symbolizing the four moments of the sun and Four moments of Life.

Europeans observing the odd behavior and practices, which consisted of early African Americans envisioning their world from a different perspective than their oppressors, labelled it hoodoo and voodoo as a means of demonizing all African beliefs, practices, traditions and cultures. (It should be noted that hoodoo is believed to be derived from the Spanish term judio pronounced hoo-dee-oh meaning Jewish.  It is theorized that the term was used first by the Spanish merchants to identify those Africans who refused to accept the European ethnocentric view of the world that everything wasn’t Christian was primitive and evil).

Contemporary Ring Shout

Anyway, this new perspective that early Africans in America held is what author Theophus H. Smith called a Conjuring Culture.  This Conjuring Culture, which was birthed from the Kongo Cross became the philosophical base for the American Christian church that we see today. Most of the African aspects such as speaking – in – tongues, dancing (shouting), struck by the spirit, prophesizing, etc. – are all African elements that never existed in the Church prior to the genocide of the Amerindians and enslavement of Africans. All of these elements are now widely accepted in all charismatic churches throughout the world without any knowledge that it stems from African spirituality. This cultural appropriation exists because as Churchill said, “History is written by the victors”.

Azusa Street Revival – the birth of the Pentecostal Movement

Now the Conjuring Culture that was birthed from the Kongo Cross didn’t just create Christian fervor, which emerged and became the famed Azusa Street Revival.  It also gave rise to two very powerful underground movements that exist today because of Psalms 68:31, which states:

“Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon
stretch out her hands unto God”.

In the minds of the Africans in Jamaica, the Kongo Cross gave rise to the black Zionism Movement, where Zion became the iconic figure of Ethiopia, which later became Rastafarianism.  While during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this verse gave rise to Ethiopianism. Here is where Ethiopia became the iconic figure of return symbolizing freedom. When Dr. Martin L. King Jr. began protesting and marching for civil rights. He was seen as a Black Moses where instead of the biblical Children of Israel being enslaved, it was the Children (Sons and Daughters) of Ethiopia who were enslaved and modern day United States was the biblical Egypt.  This is why Martin L. King constantly compared the civil injustices in the United States with the plight of the biblical Hebrews in Egypt.

But, Egypt was also mentioned in this most widely quoted verse, and this inspired many like W.E.B. DuBois to refer to Egypt in the early 1900s, as an iconic figure for sociopolitical movement. Like the spiritual tradition Rastafarianism that was born out of the black Zionism movement (or Back-to-Africa Movement).  Kamiticism was born out of the Ethiopianism movement, which was first widely popularized throughout the Afro-diaspora by Ra Un Nefer Amen, the founder of the Ausar Auset Society. Both Rastafarianism and Kamiticism are Afro-spiritual traditions born out of necessity and the spirit of resistance.

Unfortunately, although both Rastafarianism and Kamiticism have accomplished a lot throughout the Afro-Diaspora, they both suffer from similar misinterpretations, misrepresentations and misunderstandings.

Novelty Rasta Mon Kit sold online

For instance, just because you see an individual with dreadlocks, wearing red, black and green colors; smoking marijuana or wearing a Bob Marley shirt doesn’t mean they are a Rastafarian.

Mutabaruka, featured on the 2008 Jamaica episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYo82yxHb_c

Rastafarianism as a movement consists of several branches, all with different beliefs. Above is a photo of one of my favorite poets, the famous Rastafarian dub poet, musician and actor Mutabaruka talking to my favorite television host Anthony Bourdain on the show No Reservation 2008 about Rastafarianism and the whole Ital-lifestyle.

Popular Kamitic figures and icons tattoos. Maat tattoo on the entertainer Rhianna.

The same can be said about those who are Kamitic.  Just because someone wears an ankh or some other Kamitic glyph (or image) tattooed on their body doesn’t make them Kamitic. By the way, nor does wearing Kamitic jewelry, having Kamitic artwork (including images of Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, etc.),  saying Kamitic words like “Hetep” or adopting a Kamitic name. While we are at it, learning Kamitic history and practicing a Kamitic inspired religion doesn’t make a person Kamitic either. It helps one to get a better understanding of what it means to be Kamitic but, sorry to step on peoples’ toes.  It doesn’t make them Kamitic no more than an egyptologists (lower cased intentionally) translating hieroglyphs is ancient Egyptian, or practicing Taosim makes an individual Chinese, or Shinto makes a person Japanese.  These are all forms like cloth weaved by a weaver.  Just like clothes don’t make the man, doing these things don’t and will not make an individual more or less Kamitic either.

Because being Kamitic is more than wearing Egyptian jewelry, Kamitic clothing, a Kamitic name, speaking Kamitic, etc.  As you have read above, it is not a movement that just started in the 1980s when Afro-centricity became widely popular and grew in the 1970s and 1980s.  No. Kamitic is a cultural way of life and like any other cultural way it consists of an indescribable philosophical change. As a result, it could be said that there are several denominations or groups, and anyone who considers themselves Kamitic should be able to tell you how they made the transition. I can only share what happened to me and my experience.

From my perspective, Kamitic spirituality adds the missing philosophical and theological elements that were lost due to the slave experience, which has allowed me the ability to interpret life once again from a holistic perspective (and not from the perspective of the victim or victimizer).

This is because when an individual truly converts and becomes Kamitic. They are spiritually born again because an old part of them dies and another part is born. This moment is symbolized as the transition from Ra Atum (setting sun/death) to the Khepera (sunrise/birth) moment on the Maa Aankh. It is similar to receiving the Holy Ghost because it is truly a change in consciousness. This metamorphosis is called in the Kamitic language “Maa Kheru” pronounced “Maa-Xa-ru.” Maa Kheru literally means “One Who is True of Voice“. Meaning, in other words, you see Divine Truth (or it was revealed to you), so you speak and live it.  When this Truth is revealed, it doesn’t have to be something dramatic like the biblical Paul being knocked off his ass (donkey). It is personal and it doesn’t matter if others witness it or not. It is simply revealed to you, thus establishing a rapport between you and the Divine within you.

Maa-The Path of the Feather

This is how you begin to discover your truth or maa. It also how you receive Divine Protection because Maa literally means Divine Truth, Divine Balance, and Righteousness and symbolizes the Way to the Divine (symbolized as the vertical yellow line on the Maa Aankh).  What this means is that when you begin to connect with the Divine within you. The Spirit will reveal to you your own maa or personal truth to help you balance your life and live righteously.  The Spirit will show you what works best for you and what doesn’t work for you, versus you following a bunch of dogmatic do’s and don’ts created for the masses. For instance, some people in this lifetime need to listen to their spirit and abstain from sweets because it is detrimental to their well being. This same restriction however would not apply to everyone and it doesn’t mean that sweets are bad or evil. It just means for this particular individual(s), they would have to avoid sweets because their spirit revealed to them to do so. Sweets for this individual(s) becomes a taboo for them or basically part of their maa (personal truth, personal balance, personal righteousness living or simply their personal way).

This means you become responsible for your own development.  Thus you are now held accountable to the Divine, your aakhu (ancestors) and to the people. When you willingly violate the maa (your personal truth) that was revealed to you. You reap the consequences. Understand, this is not God or some other entity punishing you for breaking the Law, and by the way you are not going to be rewarded either. The maa is established to help you to work your own spirit.  So when things work, you know what works for you. When things don’t work out, you know what doesn’t work for you, and you know what to do in order to initiate change.  As you can see, when you become Kamitic you become aware of how the Divine Laws interact with you, instead of wondering around with no guide.

Understand Kamitic is what Westerners called pagan.  The word pagan comes from the Latin word paganus, which means “country folk,” hence indigenous, traditional, folk ethnic religious folk practices, etc.

If you watch Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code starring Tom Hanks, you will see him run around the Vatican pointing at obelisks and calling them pagan. When he goes more in detail, he explains how the Church (the Vatican) placed Christian iconography on top of the obelisks in order to subdue those who followed the Egyptian way of thinking. (Note that followers of the ancient Greek religions were called Hellenes – Hellenic culture, gentile and paganos).

Obelisk in the Vatican

What was the Ancient Egyptian or Kamitic Way of Thinking?

The Da Vinci Code hit on it but it masked it with more conspiracy theories, which led people to go in search of a literal golden grail in France or somewhere in Europe. People missed the point and made this all about Jesus and some bloodline. No. It was all about the pagan way. It (and this) has nothing to do with Jesus per se, it was about Gnostic beliefs.

You see, Kamitic history reveals that the Kamitic people strongly believed that we are all made in the image of the Divine. That Men and Women are Divine polar opposites and counterparts or the manifestation of the Divine on earth. That Women have similar rights as Men because Men are the Causal, while Women are the Effectual. Said another way, Men are the Initiators of Divine Will, while women are the Manifestors or Makers of the Divine Will. I know it is nice and sounds sweet to call a man, “My King” and a woman, “My Queen” but in Kamit they were serious and history reveals that the men and women literally played the part. Men modeled themselves after the king who emulated the Sun, strong, constant, always shining, resilient, powerful, like that of a lion symbolized as Hru. As women modeled themselves after the queen, who emulated the moon, reflective of her king or the sun and would do anything to protect her family, village and nation as lioness like the netchar Oset (Aset, Auset Greek Isis).

Nyut (the personification of the mysterious and unknown realm symbolized as the female womb) and Geb (the personification of the materialization of what is known symbolized as the male)

Think about that for a moment.  Imagine if men saw their woman as the personification of the cosmos and women saw their man as the materialization of potential. Would sex just be a mere act? I think not. Would a man disrespect his woman or just let anyone run all over his woman? Would a woman just disrespect and allow her man to continue to fight to be in a system designed against them both? I think not. Both would see each other as divine counterparts and would make their world (their kingdom and their reality) in their image. Every time they came together, they would be reminded that they were conceiving (physically and spiritually) an ancestor to enter into the physical realm because the aakhu (ancestors and spirit guides) were symbolized as stars in the night sky of the belly of Nyut (Nut). Do you see why “they” had to demonize us and our way of life? Yeah, it sounds romantic, but as you can see it is beyond that because it creates a natural nationalism that is against the machinations of the ego-self (Set or the devil) that are promoted throughout society today.

Ancient Kamitic Shaman/Priest

You see, there are only two emotions that exist in our universe and they are love and fear. The Kamitic way of thinking truly rivals Western thinking because it is based upon the Love of God. It is because of the Love of God we were made in the image of a Perfect Creator. Therefore, everything that exists in our life (both the good and the bad) was put there by divine design to help us to realize our divinity and accomplish our destiny. In other words, make us spiritually stronger. This is the reason when you truly have overcome a destructive habit you feel accomplished, free, relieved, empowered and victorious.

Western thinking however, is based upon the Fear of God, which is that we were made in the image of the Divine but fell due to sin. Consequently, we have to beg and plead eternally for forgiveness in order to be saved. We have to put ourselves in service of others or go to God through some clergy or we will be punished by a vengeful deity that made us flawed in the first place.

Charlton Heston as Moses in Cecil DeMille’s Ten Commandments

Basically Kamitic thinking is where we basically develop a relationship with God by discovering who the Divine is within us. Whereas Western thinking is where we are told who God is and ostracized or punished for not accepting the beliefs of spiritual tyrants. In other words, Western religious thinking focuses upon people become Children of God, whereas Kamitic spiritual thinking is focused on helping an individual become a Man or Woman of God.

So a true Kamitic is not about following a particular person or group but, his or her Divine’s Will and that is what made the Kamitic people of old dangerous. This is why the early Christian Church waged war against the Kamitic and Kushite (ancient Nubian) people.  This was later followed by the Islamic jihadists, who drove the Kamitic people to the West of Africa and into the African interior.  A true Kamitic descendant in these contemporary times (because that is what we are) is a free thinker that knows how to use all of the faculties of his and her mind (the superconscious/subconscious and conscious). No, we are not super humans and being Kamitic doesn’t mean we don’t have problems. We live in a physical world, which is dynamic and always changing, so we will always have problems because nothing stands still or is for certain.   But, we know that the solution to our problems doesn’t rests in our own thinking.

It involves us learning how to access the deeper part of our mind (the superconscious part of our being or the Divine mind). This is the reason all of the Kamitic traditions have a spiritual system or cosmogram that they follow like the Kamitic Paut Neteru (the Kamitic Tree of Life) or the Maa Aankh (the Bantu – Kamitic Cross).

Let me give an example. There is an altercation that occurs and people are up in arms. One group wants strike out in anger. Another group wants to boycott or protest. Religious leaders and fraternal organizations convene and want to do something that show that they are on the peoples’ side but at the same time not want to jeopardize their standing with various parties.  Activists of all types want to talk on the radio, podcasts, etc. and keep the energy high so that something is accomplished. These are all good and valiant efforts, which I am not knocking at all but have to be considered and well thought of. But let me tell you how a Kamitic man or woman handles the situation. They talk to the Divine like their ancestors did before them through either meditation or by consulting an oracle.  

If you scoff at meditation or the use of an oracle, then you know nothing about being Kamitic. Because the whole basis of the Kamitic spiritual tradition rests on the Story of Osar (Asar, Ausar or Greek Osiris), where the hero of the story, Hru (Hrw, Heru or Horus) defeats his more learned uncle of war, Set (Set-an, Satan, Greek Typhon, the Ego-self) on the battlefield through intuitive (contemplative/meditative) means. The Story of Osar is a metaphor about the human experience. Yes, it is true that during the Council of Nicaea it was decided that the Story of Jesus was modeled after the Story of Osar to distort the Gnostic teachings.  Once it is realize that the Christian story like the Story of Osar are not to be taken literal because they are based upon similar metaphorical truths. Life is all about manifesting the Will of God on earth.

As you can see, part of the reason so many people have converted to a Kamitic path is because they have have broken the mental chains and realized that the “real devil/enemy” is not some entity or person that exists outside of themselves. The “real devil/enemy” is our lower self and who or whatever we give our personal power to. Everything that our Set (Ego-self) tells us to fear for no reason is what we give power to.That’s right, your enemy only has as much power over you as you allow them to. Once you realize your true enemy is what you fear and what you give your power to.  You will be FREE. Until that time, the answer to the question as to why does a small minority control the majority. It is because we mentally allow them to do so by buying into their reality and not investing in our own.

Now understand, when I say Ego-self, I am not talking about just being arrogant and braggadocios. I am talking about that part of our being that was hurt when we were younger and now uses that painful experience as a springboard to validate their treatment of others rather it is justified or not. I am talking about the part of our being that grew up believing that money is the root of all evil and that in order to make money you have to toil day and night, and compete and kill off others to survive. It is that old self, that old ego way of thinking that is afraid of some real spiritual work because it knows it has to make some changes. Yes! That part of our being that doesn’t want to change but would prefer.  That we sit on our loins and just bellyache, criticize and complain – Yeah, that part of our being. That part of our being that is afraid to do what is right and just, even though it is not popular.  That’s your Set, your true enemy.

Courtesy of Imo Dara http://www.imodara.com/post/98828162639/angola-chokwe-ngombo-ya-kusekula-divination

So those who have truthfully become Kamitic realized that the reason we keep having the same problems and every solution they offer complicates the matter even more so, is because we are using the same thinking that created the problem symbolized as Set. We have to think outside of the box and that means doing something different. That different thing means to go deeper within our superconscious symbolized as KAMTA. This is where all of the great ideas and inventions come from. If you look at the detailed Maa Aankh cosmogram above you can see, there are no new ideas that are coming out of our subconscious because we are just reacting or surviving. This is the part of our being that functions on automatic and out of habit.  The new ideas come from the deeper parts of our awareness – the superconscious. This is where we get intuitive ideas and also where our ancestors and spirit guides can give us wise counsel.  You will also notice that this is where we get our dreams.

Spiritual culture as you can see is based upon this part of our being – our higher spirit or superconscious. It is not based upon making use of our higher spirit/self. This is the reason in the Story of Osar, Hru was finally able to defeat his uncle Set (that is do something new and improved) through the intercession of Osar. A thorough analysis of Japanese and Chinese history and culture will reveal that the reason they were able to bounce back on the world scene in a relatively short time.  Is because both of these countries embraced their folk ways, which consists of delving and tapping into their higher self (the superconscious). This is the reason why all throughout Asia you will find stalls where people can get detailed I-Ching oracle readings and partake in other practices that will help people align themselves with their higher spirit.

Understand.  The true Kamitic has realized this and now uses his or her life as a sounding board for perfecting their understanding of the Divine within them and all people.

So, while other men and women are being swayed by half-truths, lies, and the inconsistencies of men through the various airwaves.  The true Kamitic, like other traditionalists and the traditionalists of old, are able to discern the truth and navigate through the malarkey.  Like a wise general and strike the enemy where he is most vulnerable like all of the great leaders of antiquity have done before them. Don’t be fooled by popular Greek inspired movies that depict the oracles as being either young virgin women or some old hag. These are all distorted images used by Holly-weird to discourage people from embracing the traditional ways that will liberate our soul. The true oracles were bones, shells and yarrow sticks, etc., which were used even in the bible (both the New and Old Testament). It was a practice that the ancient Hebrews learned from….Guess? That’s right…the Kamitic people for all those claiming that we were ancient Hebrews.  Our ancestors were not brought here from the East of Africa but the West of Africa, which is where the descendants of the Kamitic people fled to avoid Christian and Islamic onslaught.

That’s right. A true Kamitic or Kamite is revolutionary by nature in mind, body and spirit.

Hope that helps

Hetep (Peace)

The Origin of Black Jesus

Formerly (How to Separate the Deified Jesus from the Jesus Within? (The Birth of Black Jesus)

There are a few people wondering why I advocate using the Lord’s Prayer even though I consider myself to be a follower of the Kamitic philosophy.  It is because as a shaman, I am concerned with what works because most of our ancestors were Christians and we come from a Christian background. But, due to misinterpretation, misrepresentation, and misunderstanding about the ideas our ancestors had about Jesus Christ.  There is a lot of confusion circulating around.  This has led a number of us to turn our back on spirituality or worse become an atheist, which is totally out of sync with our nature and a true slap in our ancestors’ face.  So, let’s begin.

This discussion started when I was talking with my wife and at the time we were watching the film Red Tails, and noted that one of the pilots had a picture of Black Jesus.  I am not sure if people got it but the director was trying to show how there were two depictions of Jesus that existed.  To understand this, it has to be remembered that when the Africans were brought to North America, unlike the Africans in the Caribbean and South America. They were unable to practice their religious beliefs, which most of us already are aware of. Consequently, they had to adapt and modify their beliefs and practices in order to survive in the new hostile environment they found themselves in. Now, contrary to popular belief, the Africans brought to the North America were not forcefully converted to Christianity as some authors believe. There’s a substantial amount of historic evidence that reveals that many of the people from the Kongo-Angolan region had converted to Christianity prior to the advent of the slave trade.  This means that even though most of the Africans from this region weren’t Christian, many of them had knowledge of this European faith.

During slavery, for almost hundred or more years, Protestant Euro-Americans were very leery about converting the Africans to Christianity for fear that baptism would give them “crazy ideas” that they were free from bondage.    So they gave the early African Americans bits and pieces to make the people subservient, which allowed the early African Americans to fill in the voids with their own beliefs and practices. According to my research, most of these beliefs were influenced by the Kongo cosmogram.  This went on for years until evangelical Baptist and Methodist preachers began traveling through the south during the Great Awakening. It was during this time a large number of early African Americans converted to the Christian faith and one of the big drawing points was water baptism. According to classic Kongo belief, it was a barrier of water that separated the land of the living from the land of the ancestors or spiritual realm. When one crossed over to the spiritual realm and returned back to the land of the living with a change of consciousness, it was believed they were reborn, a similar belief existed in Kamit (see the maa aankh). Prior to the early African American involvement in Christianity, you will not find this belief nor practice, because it is straight from Africa particularly the Kongo-Angolan region.   In fact, there is no proof of people ever speaking in tongues, the sign of the Holy Ghost, until African Americans joined the church and people were struck by the Spirit at the Azuza Street Revival.

So, what this means is that for more than a hundred years, early African Americans even though they were not encouraged practiced their traditional beliefs did manage to blend their beliefs and practices with European religion, which became the foundation of what we call the Black Church Experience. It was from this spiritual legacy, that the Black Jesus was born.

Now, for those of us searching for spiritual answers and trying to find our way (our maa), we find this hard to accept.  I know I did because we wonder why our people would willingly convert to the religion of our enemy. Why would they willingly convert to a religion that taught that they were meant to be beast of burden and the wretched of the earth based upon the so-called Hamitic myth?  I know that if you are like me, you probably have ancestors that resisted this and you’re probably torn up inside about the whole Jesus issue.  Well, through a lot of souls searching and conversations with my ancestors I learned that early African Americans didn’t really convert to Christianity. They actually created their own version of the religion, which began in the Kongo, this is where Black Jesus was born and why in the Caribbean Black Jesus is associated with Kongo spirituality.

Now when I say Black Jesus, I am not just talking about a painting of Jesus painted as an African man.  I am speaking about the concept of a Black Jesus. That is an individual who suffered right alongside the slave in the field. An individual that was beaten and whipped by the oppressor, and then persecuted because of the color of his skin.  Just think for a moment. Have you heard or read anything about Jesus? If you’re like me, most likely you haven’t. There is not much written about him, but you can identify with him because he exists in your racial consciousness. This is the Jesus that Negro spirituals and the first gospel songs were all about. I don’t care what you claim to believe, even the staunchest black atheists today can’t resist the power of Mahalia Jackson singing, “How I got over,” because this is the Jesus that she is singing about.  Black Jesus was birthed out of struggle.

The difference between Black Jesus and the Jesus that was taught in Sunday school is that Black Jesus is a powerful archetype that took on the characteristics of the Kongo nganga’s (Kongo priests) and the Yoruba orishas. This is why if you read any books about the religion of the slaves, like the Slave Religion by Robert Robetau.  You will find that early African Americans loved Jesus because he was a healer and a miracle worker like Moses.  In fact, next to Moses he was considered to be the greatest healer or conjure man of the bible. Note that I said, next to Moses. Another difference was that Black Jesus wasn’t worshipped like Jesus is nowadays, but was talked to like a familiar friend or a common ancestor, because he was about community and was associated with the superconscious. The interesting thing about this is that Jesus was viewed the same way in the Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin America, which means this could not be a coincidence.

The superconscious also called the higher consciousness, objective consciousness, divine consciousness, the Spirit also referred to as God.  It is what connects us all together as one. It is the divine spark that dwells within each and every one of us regardless if we believe it exists or not. It is what gives us the divine potential to accomplish anything we put our minds to. Many non-Western cultures created spiritual cultures to cultivate peoples’ higher spiritual abilities. For instance, we all have the ability to see into the future but in order to achieve such a goal requires us to learn how to listen to our higher consciousness or simply intuit. Spiritual cultures focused on developing these abilities in individuals so that they could greater contribution to the survival of the entire community; whereas non-spiritual cultures simply focused on the physical survival of the people by dominating and subjecting others to their physical rule.

Early African Americans (as well as others in the African diaspora) have known about the or superconscious for hundreds of years because they are descendants from African shamanic cultures.  In shamanic traditions, the way to access the superconscious is through dancing, drumming, fasting, sensory deprivation, exposure to extremes of temperature, or the use of psychoactive drugs.  Those familiar with the African American religious experience will note that besides the latter two, all of these practices can be found within the Black Church. These practices along with the latter two (exposure to extreme temperature and psychoactive drugs) are readily used within the Native American spiritual services, which should give you a general idea as to how the relationship between Native Americans and early African Americans evolved.

Anyway, the early African Americans danced, chanted, fasted and on occasion drummed (using handclaps, hand and body slaps – i.e. hambone since drums were officially outlawed) to go into trance and meet Black Jesus who gave them certain virtues like lucidity, patience, kindness, truthfulness, humility, and forgiveness towards one’s fellow man, which is called Gifts of the Spirit or the Holy Ghost in some churches. These are all qualities that according to traditional spiritual teachings, one cannot obtain without ascending to the higher consciousness or meeting Black Jesus. Unfortunately, because many African American pastors refuse to research their own spiritual lineage. They fail to understand that this is the reason they feel they have to go to church. It though has nothing to do with the church itself but it is all about connecting to the Divine consciousness. Some of the other fruits of the Spirit are chastity, faithfulness, gentleness, generosity, goodness, love, modesty, self-control, strength, wisdom, counsel, and peace. So, you see, the bible simply conveyed what early African Americans already knew about the super consciousness, which the Kamitic people called the ba – the divine spark.

But somewhere along the way, things went awry in regards to the Black Spiritual Experience. Many have traced this great change back to around the Civil Rights and Cultural Movement of the 1970s. It is not known exactly what happened but it seems as if the Black Jesus fulfilled his purpose and people had no more use of him as they got more rights and freedoms. The reason is that people started accepting the Euro-American Protestant idea of Jesus who was more about individualism instead of community. It should be noted that around this same time, there was a sharp decline as conditions in the community across the country got worst.  As people migrated out of the neighborhoods, more and more drugs became available. Isn’t it interesting that most of the social ills that exist in our communities were not present prior to that time? The other interesting thing is that it wasn’t that drugs, prostitution, etc. did not exist at all, but there was something preventing it from running rapidly as it exists today. The reason is that there was a change in consciousness.  In a matter of time, the religious experience of African Americans moved from communal based spirituality to individualism.

This is why in the minds of many; Black Jesus is simply an image.  He is not the Black Jesus of old, which is why no matter what color Jesus is. For many of us, it is hard to divorce ourselves from the myth versus the cruel reality associated with Christianity. When we hear the name Jesus what comes to mind are all of the atrocities that were done in Jesus’ name, under the banner of a long blonde hair man looking to the heavens. Understand, I have nothing against Europeans and their descendants but it has to be understood the psychological and spiritual damage that was committed due to the idea of some and their so-called “master race.” Although Hitler was the only individual to build a society that worked towards the annihilation of other ethnicities, he wasn’t the only one that believed in such theories. These theories of white superiority had been circulating around Western civilization for centuries. It was these theories that later inspired Colonialism, which is why in the minds of many (especially those who know history) they are associated with Jesus.

So that we are clear about the confused state people are in regarding Jesus. Just think about the four little girls that were killed in a church bombing in Alabama by Jesus loving Klansmen of the KKK. Clearly, these individuals that committed this crime didn’t know anything about the peaceful teaching of Jesus, but can you imagine still loving a God that would seem to condone such acts of violence? What about all of the lynchings of all the Black, Jewish, Native American and Hispanic men by so-called Christian men and women? Imagine if you were a Native American and you were told that Jesus didn’t love you and you would not go to heaven because your entire way of life is uncivilized, along with the number of treaties supposedly made under God that was broken? Could you still love Jesus? This is why Jesus leaves a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths because of the actions and behaviors of foolish and ignorant people. Jesus taught about love but many of his stewards all around the world have done otherwise.  And, they are doing the same thing today. This is why a lot of young people are not just turning away from him but turning away from spirituality altogether. And, it is not just minorities.  Many Westerners are turning away from Jesus and to atheism because of the same negative history. I can’t tell you how many atheists I have met that are so fond of talking about the various atrocities committed in the name of the savior.  And, why is there all of this confusion? It is simply because some zealous men made Jesus and the God one and the same.  It is hard to worship a God that oppresses you, but we can’t exist without God, because being spiritual beings in a physical body. We need God just as much as God needs us. Without God, we have no access to the spiritual fruits that were spoken of earlier, but without us. God cannot physically implement His/Her plan in the world of the living.

So, how do we get rid of this evil concept so that we can grow spiritually? How do we erase the hundreds of misinterpreted, misrepresented, and just totally incorrect ideas about God and Jesus that have been told to us throughout the ages?

We just simply need to return to the old ways and see that Jesus is an archetype of who we are supposed to be.  Jesus is not God, which is why he never talked to God by talking to himself. He talked to God like everyone else did by speaking with his superconscious or ba. Notice that when the disciples asked Jesus how they should speak to God, he said talk to the father by saying, “Our Father.” Jesus gave an ancient recipe on how to connect with the ba. It is a similar recipe that the psalmist gave in the Book of Psalms, which is why was the most popular book in early African American and Jewish folk traditions. If you look far enough you will find this is the same way the Kamitic people spoke about God when they mentioned Osar.

When you really read about Jesus it makes sense why he clearly told his disciples not to worship him, because he knew it would confuse people. Jesus understood that the superconscious was the ba and he identified it with God. This is why saying the Lord’s Prayer or Psalm 23 empowers you because it is poetic and it invokes the Spirit within our being. It is spiritual alchemy that the ancient Hebrews learned from guess who?  That’s right the Kamitic people, who people are beginning to recognize now were master shamans. So, to reprogram your lower consciousness and rid yourself of the old, dogmatic ideas of Jesus and your divinity, invoke your ba as Jesus did. Jesus referred to his ba as his Father. Early African Americans the following suit referred to their ba as God or Lord. This is why the Kamitic people understanding the nature of the ba called God Nebertcher (Ne-ba-tchar) – The Lord of All Things, which is why it is perfectly okay if you are trying to clean your spiritual slate to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

I hope that helps.

What About Jesus? Banned From the Bible

Hetepu (Peace) Fam.

Lately, the History channel has been outdoing itself by showing the books of the bible that were banned by the Council of Nicaea and subsequent Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. I will not reproduce all of their efforts here but will just give you a brief of what they have been talking about. These books are just a sample of the hundreds of books that were not included in the Christian canon, some of which appear in other Christian sects like the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Coptic Church, Eastern  Orthodox and so on…

•  The Life of Adam and Eve: A more detailed story of creation than what is found in Genesis, this book includes jealous angels, a more devious  serpent, and more information about Eve’s fall from grace from her        point of view.

•  The Book of Jubilees: This obscure Hebrew text offers an answer to a  question that has vexed Christians for centuries — if Adam and Eve  only had sons, and if no other humans existed, who gave birth to humanity? This text reveals that Adam and Eve had nine children and  that Cain’s younger sister Awan became his wife. The idea that humanity  was born of incest would have been radical — and heretical.

• The Book of Enoch: This scripture reads like a modern day action film, telling of fallen angels, bloodthirsty giants, an earth that had become   home to an increasingly flawed humanity and a divine judgment to be  rendered though denied a place in most Western Bibles; it has been used  for centuries by Ethiopian Christians. Large portions of this book were   found as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: The only book that deals with young  Jesus, it indicates that Jesus was a strong-willed child who one        historian describes as “Dennis the Menace as God.” The book reveals  that at age five, Jesus may have killed a boy by pushing push him off a roof and then resurrected him. Perhaps too disturbing for inclusion in        the Bible, this book seems to contain traditions, also known to the  Koran.

• The Protovangelion of James: This book offers details of the life of  the Virgin Mary, her parents, her birth and her youth, stories not found in the New Testament Gospels but was beloved by many early Christians.

• The Gospel of Mary: This Gnostic Text reveals that Mary Magdalene may  have been an apostle, perhaps even a leading apostle, not a prostitute.  While some texts in the Bible seem to deny women a voice in the  Christian community, this text helps spark the debate about the role  of women in the church.

• The Gospel of Nicodemus: This is the story of Jesus’s trial and  execution and his descent into hell.  According to this gospel the Savior asserts his power over Satan by freeing patriarchs such as Adam, Isaiah and Abraham from Hell.

• The Apocalypse of Peter: Peter’s apocalypse suggests that there is a  way out of punishment for evildoers and implies that the threat of the apocalypse is a way for God to scare people into living a moral life, and committing fewer sins.

The documentary spoke about several controversial aspects that we have all had about the bible and the life of Jesus such as the Gnostics who went around telling people “Wake up the god within you!” Could you imagine how different Christianity would have been? WOW.

The point of making this known is to show you how spirituality became big business, but when you see Jesus as an archetype, that is a man who had the same problems as you and I and not a Deity. It becomes far easier to identify with him. When they deified him, they warped the whole movement and instead of trying to raise the god within, they began to truly idolize a human being. This is why in the Kamitic tradition people didn’t worship Osar (Asar, Ausar, Osiris) but instead honored him like a living saint. It makes more sense.

Well, hope this helps.

If you can check out this documentary. Until next time.

The Truth About Kamitic/Kemetic Spirituality: What about Jesus Part 4

Peace Family.

Continuing our discussion we will discuss possible ways of clearing up the confusion with Jesus. Please note this is not the absolute way but it is one of the ways that I have found to be useful and beneficial in my development.

See, Jesus as a real, physical human being that accomplished great things through the power of God. When we approach Jesus from this perspective, our rational mind says, “Ok. That makes sense” and instead of worshiping one’s understanding or cultural interpretation of Jesus and his teachings. The focus returns to worshiping and serving God.
Jesus then becomes an iconic figure, an ancestral archetype for Christians (and others) to aspire to be like. In other words, he becomes like a guardian angel providing one with insight as to how to accomplish similar feats as he has done in his lifetime.  In this role he is equated with Osar and through this role he is able to connect to others because he is the great Christian ancestor, like Osar is considered the great ancestor of the Kamitic people.
Is this approach anti-Christian? You ask. Did not Jesus say that he was the mediator? Did not Jesus say, “I am the door; the person who enters by me will find Eternal bliss”, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”, etc.  So, this approach is not anti-Christian. It is anti-Set.  Set is the author of confusion and the creator of war, which by the way the present state that most of our affairs are in.

If you really want to know if it is the truth all one has to do is “Come to Jesus” and see if it works. All one has to do is try.  If you try this and it works like I have you will be amazed because everything that Jesus talks about will have such a real and profound meaning to you. You will also discover that the real reason the Council of Nicea and all of the other political motivated agendas confused the issue about Christianity is to hide the fact that true Christianiy is actually a syncretism of the Kamitic/Kemetic religion.

Also see: Why other people’s faiths don’t work for us,  The Truth About Kamitic/Kemetic Spirituality: What about Jesus: Part 1, & Part 2.

Hope this helps. Hetep,

Derric “Rau Khu” Moore

For a complete discourse and in-depth analysis see:
MAA AANKH: Finding God the Afro-American Way, by Honoring the Ancestors and Guardian Spirits.

How To Make the Transition to Kamitic/Kemetic Spirituality?

Peace Family. Sorry I have been gone for a minute but we’re back.

In recent years there has been a lot of information that has surfaced on the net about Kamitic/Kemetic spirituality, Jesus and the Council of Nicea. So much so, truth seekers are at odds with each other and/or confused as to where they want to go. Zealous truth seekers are so excited about what they have learned, that they are ready to intellectual “blaze” anyone even their own grandma, which is understandable but it is wrong because you’re doing yourself and others who could benefit from your growth spiritually a disservice.  So, to prevent this Kamitic/Kemetic spirituality thing from being turned into a new fundamentalist movement, I was inspired using my experience to set give some pointers on how to make the transition, before going out and as Bob Marley says, “Catch a fire” on everyone and everything.

1.    It must be understood that the reason why you know what you know is because at this point in your growth (evolution) , the religion in question has not or is not serving you like it should be. There’s a snag that has caused a major rift or tear in your belief system, your paradigm and this is why you are here reading this today. This is the reason why you have learned what you have learned and are questioning everything in regards to the religion you were reared in.

2.    It must be understood that everyone has not experienced the same thing you have experienced. I tried to get saved in order to escape the violence in Detroit due to the crack epidemic and the Holy Ghost as it was taught in my church didn’t work for me. That’s not to say that it or Christianity didn’t work at all for anybody. It just didn’t serve me or help me at that particular time.  For someone else, it may be helping them and improving their life, so there is no need to try and convince them of anything otherwise.  It would be a serious violation and taboo for me to try and get my family to see things from my perspective.  If they ask I can try to explain in the simplest way possible but, othr than that nothing else is given because they didn’t and haven’t walked in my shoes, and therefore don’t understand the path.   Why is this so important? It is important because if you haven’t learned already you soon will years later, that it is a serious waste of breath, time and energy to try to convince others about the hidden truths of Christianity. You can argue until the cows come home scriptures and theories but you can’t argue experience because no one can take that away from you.  So, don’t’ throw you ).Jpearls to the swine (sorry for the swine reference

3.     With that understood, the question is now where do we go from here? To keep you from wandering all over the place from faith to faith, religion to religion. You have to understand what it is that you are looking for or what is it that you want, which is why the first two pointers are very important. The reason you’re in search or questioning things is because something was broke and you’re trying to fix it.  The spiritual pipeline had a serious leak because it was not reflecting your divinity. This is the true purpose of religion as true practitioners will tell you, that the purpose of religion is to tie you back to the Creator, but what does that really mean? It means that if you are made in the image of God, then you have the divine potential to accomplish anything in your life and solve any problem that you have as well. You just have to discover how to do it, so your religious foundation should begin with this first and foremost.  If the spirituality you deal with doesn’t begin or support this, most likely it is man-driven (political, financial, etc.) …can we say “Jim Jones”.

It is very important that these three pointers be understood that spiritual development is a form of healing.  A lot of people I have encountered didn’t understand this and this is why they (myself included at the time) was so confused about the whole spirituality thing. I know when I first embarked upon this path I was thoroughly confused. In fact, I was upset about Christianity for a long time, until I learned that it wasn’t the early Christians (Coptics, Gnostics, etc.) who messed things up.  It was men (Council of Nicea, Southern racists, and other politically motivated individuals, etc.) that screwed it up for so many.  And, if we don’t understand this we will throw the baby out with the bathwater and end up perpetuating the very behavior we despise or simply adopting someone else’s cultural perspective and neglecting our own.

This is what has worked for me. Have any comments or suggestions? Please share 🙂

For a complete discourse and in-depth analysis see:
MAA AANKH: Finding God the Afro-American Way, by Honoring the Ancestors and Guardian Spirits.