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Date: 08 Nov 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Subject: Re: ...the real deal with "honorary titles"
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Subject: Re: ...the real deal with "honorary titles"
>From: "OmiJuba" omijuba@home.com =
>Date: 11/7/00 1:47 AM EST
>Message-id:
>
>...and as far as Eoghan not having respect for Africans and the ATR's, y=
ou
>obviously don't know a thing about him and are speaking out of your ass.=
>Comments like that only show your ignorance.
>
>-=D3m=ECJub=E0
>
The only reason I choose to respond to OmiJuba is that he advertises hims=
elf as
an initiated priest of ATR. Lest anyone think that the coarseness of inte=
llect
and character that he displays here and in his previous post is in any wa=
y
representative of ATR, I will say the following.
ATR finds itself burdened by many whose only interest is in sorcery. They=
are
seekers after occult powers for personal gain or power tripping rather th=
an
seekers after perfection of spirit. It did not escape my attention many w=
eeks
ago when OmiJuba came right out and said, like Eoghan, that that is his
interest. In my experience, sorcerers and witches tend in general to the
coarseness of expression and intellect that he displays. They are part of=
the
ATR "scene", no doubt, but they are hardly representative of the whole. T=
hose,
especially of African descent, who are seekers on the spiritual path and
looking into ATR, should not let these sorcerers put them off. And no, th=
is is
not a racial statement. Many witches and sorcerers are African. But I say=
"especially of African descent", in relation to spiritual seekers, becaus=
e
raised and indoctrinated in Christianity and Islam, most of us have been
alienated from all forms of ATR, which have been uniformly condemned by
Christianity and Islam, both, as "devil worship", "paganism", "witchcraft=
",
"sorcery", etc. When we come across the kind of coarseness that is displa=
yed by
this character and others like him, it is natural to recoil. Yes, they ex=
ist.
And yes, they have taken up residence within ATR. But again, no, they are=
not
representative of the whole. Contrary to what Eoghan and others seem to t=
hink,
not only does ATR provide a path to "higher spirituality", but it is and =
was
the fount from which flow ALL other "higher" religious paths. However, it=
is
also the fount from which flow the sorcerers' arts. How does one know whi=
ch is
which? To paraphrase from One-Minute Wisdom, "in the same way that the fa=
rmer
knows good cultivation from bad."
Now, as to the substantive point that OmiJuba raised, namely that to spea=
k of
blood as a requirement for entry into the priesthood of ATR is "vile raci=
sm". I
have heard the belief stated that blood is indeed a requirement to ATR
priesthood, and I do believe there is some truth to it, but it is not rac=
ist.
If you understand the African concept of family, which extends into the
ancestral realm, and in which the ancestors continue to play an important=
role
in regulating the affairs of the living, both for the well-being of the l=
atter
as well as their own, you understand why it is that priestly knowledge an=
d
teachings tend to be propagated within family and blood lines. The ancest=
ors
see to it, and in part out of self-interest. But it is erroneous to concl=
ude
from this fact, that "blood" is per se a necessary condition, or a suffic=
ient
condition, for entry into priestly knowledge. Not all of the children of =
a
priest will necessarily have that calling. Sometimes the calling skips a =
whole
generation, as we saw with Luisah Teish in her partly autobiographical
"Jambalaya". But those who have a calling, almost inevitably, will have
ancestral guidance and support, and typically from within three-to-four
generations back. Now, this does not rule out the calling of a non-Africa=
n into
ATR priesthood, but it does make it the exception rather than the rule. I=
t is
analogous to the fact that parents tend to raise their own children, whic=
h does
not rule out adoptees. It is a matter of the spiritual realities as they =
relate
to the role that the ancestors play in one's own spiritual evolution, whi=
ch
leads to a certain racial and ethnic endogamy in various spiritual tradit=
ions.
I remember once reading an article about Hinduism and the induction "cate=
chism"
that the young child is taught. To the question, "why am I Hindu", the ch=
ild is
taught to answer, "Because my mother and father are Hindu. "Is that racis=
t? I
did think so at one time. But, having now been led by ancestors of my own=
along
the ATR path, I have a better understanding of what's going on. In fact, =
coming
from Trinidad, and having been to India on many occasions, I can see the
essential miscibility between Hindu and Orisha worldviews. They are not v=
ery
different, although because of bloodlines, one finds that each tradition =
is
almost wholly endogamous. So Hindu children do not grow up to be Orisha, =
and
Orisha children do not grow up to be Hindu, although at the level of unde=
rneath
reality, there appears to be little to choose between the two religious
traditions. In sum, what is happening, whether with ATR, Hinduism, Shinto=
ism,
Taoism, and so forth, is that the role of the ancestors in shaping one's
spiritual growth and development leads to what appears to be racial selec=
tivity
in many religious/spiritual traditions. This can be mistaken for racism. =
In any
event, spirit being what it is, I have no doubt that every student finds
exactly the teacher that they need and deserve, and that the transmission=
of
secrets is generally commensurate with the spiritual quality and capacity=
of
the receiver. Regardless of race. =
Having said that, let me add the issue of cultural appropriation, which d=
oes
lead to a desire on the part of some to keep certain doors closed. This i=
s as
real as the history of the African which has essentially been stolen from=
him,
by Europeans, who knew what they were doing. That is the burden of "Stole=
n
Legacy", the thesis of which has not been refuted, rather later work has =
added
to it, including by such non-Africans as Martin Bernal. Just in this grou=
p, in
another context, it came out that the Tarot has a Kamitic provenance. Two=
or
three days later, Cat is talking about tarot as though it is a creation o=
f
"Italian Renaissance". Cultural appropriation. I'm glad the tarot was pre=
served
in Europe. But it has an African provenance. Why is it so hard to give cr=
edit
where credit is due? At any rate, there is an inevitable resentment when
Europeans come into ATR bearing tape recorders and awash in research gran=
ts,
pretending to have a calling, and then walking out with copyright and oth=
er
ownership claims to various aspects of ATR, as well as occupying the comm=
anding
heights of academia from whence to carry out yet another round of cultura=
l
appropriation. If, as a matter of self-preservation, ATR is slow in its s=
haring
of secret information with the appropriators of culture, they/we can hard=
ly be
blamed, let alone be called racist. I don't expect to go to India or Chin=
a or
Tibet and demand that they reveal everything they know about spirit and
spirituality, let alone call them racist if they look me over a few times=
before even responding. I am reminded of Malcolm X when he said: they sin=
k the
knife deep into your back, they put a boot on your neck, but if you wrenc=
h the
boot away, you are committing assault, and if you merely pull the knife o=
ut,
you are stabbing *them* in the back. So no, even if some Africans prefer =
to or
advocate the withholding of spiritual and cultural secrets from non-Afric=
ans,
it is not "racist" to do so, for it is certainly not an attempt to oppres=
s or
subjugate another based on race, rather a perhaps vain attempt at
self-preservation.
Now, having said all of that, let me now say that there is something obsc=
ene
about a European so easily and readily leaping to an accusation of racism=
against unnamed black folk, moreover not based on anything that was said,=
but
based on this person's assumption about what was underlying what was said=
=2E Five
hundred years of rape, murder, torture, enslavement, genocide, discrimina=
tion,
still continuing as we speak, let alone reparated or atoned, and he would=
accuse *us* of racism. Please. Can anyone say "projection"?
Peace,
Grisso
(who doesn't expect his vituperative opponent to "get it".)
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