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Date: 04 Aug 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Palo Mayombe: The 'Dark Side' of Santeria? (was Drums & Shadows)
Message-ID: <20000804112634.18025.00000754@ng-ci1.aol.com>
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>From: Orlando Fiol ofiol@earthlink.net
>Date: 8/4/00 1:09 AM EST
>Message-id:
>
>Gnomedplume@aol.com writes:
>> Why is it so hard for
>> some over-educated magical "experts" to see how it is actually done by
>> those who really do it?
>Because magical religions are meant for the uneducated worldview. The
>educated person cannot conceive of a world based on speculative
>superstition after they've been trained to accept a completely rational
>plane of reason and logic.
If we reflect on the etymology of the word "educate", we would form the exactly
opposite conclusion, namely that it is the "educated" person in the true
meaning who can integrate the so-called rational with the so-called magical.
The word "educate" comes from the Latin ex = out of + ducere = to draw out.
Thus, in its literal meaning, education involves the drawing out of something.
Today of course, in a perversion of the original meaning, we think of education
as the instilling of something... a pouring in rather than a drawing out. But
education in the sense of a drawing out is spiritually correct. It is why in
the ancient temple walls of Kemet (ancient Egypt) we find inscriptions in medu
netcher (hieroglyphics) saying "know thyself", a saying wrongly attributed to
Socrates, who learned it from the Kemetic priests under whom he studied.
Traditional African religions have the same understanding. It is implicit in
the meaning of iwa pele, and explicit in key rites of passage performed by
allegedly uneducated people. The ritual in which the spirit of the as yet
unborn baby is made to talk [1] to say who they are and why they are
reincarnating starts the life cycle, which is intimately concerned with
following the ancient Kemetic injunction, "know thyself", which is the true
purpose of education, understood in the true sense. That is what must be
"drawn out" in the education process, i.e. knowledge-of-who-you-are,
essentially as spirit, because that is our true nature.
Having said all that, I would go on to say that "education" in the Western
sense is essentially wrong-headed, in privileging left-brain faculties needed
for logic and intellect, and deprecating the right-brain faculties which are so
essential for accessing the super-physical aspects of our true nature [2].
Properly understood, though, the concept of rationality transcends narrow logic
and intellectual faculty. It is in the complementary functioning of BOTH left
and right brains that a true rationality may be found. Traditional African
religion evinces a distrust of the left brain, for the very good reason that
the left brain, like a dog, may be clever, but isn't necessarily wise, and
needs accordingly to be restrained. On the other hand, a right brain
unaccompanied by a left brain is like a blind man without a seeing-eye dog. In
fact as we see with stroke victims whose left brain has been damaged, they lose
power of logic, even of speech. Unbalanced right-brainedness leads to
superstition, even as unbalanced left-brainedness leaves one unable to
comprehend our true nature as spirit, and the superphysical phenomena and
abilities that flow from that "inner-standing". There is no "education",
properly understood, unless there is balance between the two.
The achievements of Kemet, from whose spiritual traditions traditional African
religion derives [3] are testimony to what can be accomplished when there is
seamless integration, as it were, between left-brained and right-brained
faculties, for they gave us the logical science that is today wrongly
attributed to the Greeks [4,5], not only the magical rituals to which
tradtional African religion is today heir.
Speaking as one with the benefit of three academic degrees in the Western
tradition, I can tell you that my "education" [6] did not begin until I met
this Yoruba priestess...
>Orlando
>
Best,
Grisso
[1] See "African Spirituality" by Ephirim-Donkor, in which this ritual, as
performed in the Akan tradition, is described. I have myself participated in
such a ritual, and I can tell you it's r-e-a-l. This theme is also present in
"Of water and spirit", by Malidoma Some.
[2] See "Metu Neter, vol. 1", by Ra Un Nefer Amen, for a discussion of
left-brain vs right-brain function, and for evidence that the Kemites were
familiar with the distinctions.
[3] See, for example, "The Religion of the Yoruba", by J. Olumide Lucas
[4] See "Stolen Legacy" by G. M. James.
[5] See my article "On Science vs Religion: An African-Centered Approach
Explodes Western Myths", in http://TheAfrican.Com/Magazine
[6] See my article "The Awakening of Grisso", in http://TheAfrican.Com/Magazine
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