What I look like inside.
Prologue: Last night I had a dream that I was graduating in a very large ceremony. From Wednesday to Sunday (June 30 - July 4) I will be joining several people of African descent in an Ancestralization ritual convened by shaman Malidoma Patrice Somé, author of Of Water and the Spirit. The name of the event, Bringing Our People Home – African Diaspora Ancestralization, will take place at Mountain Valley resort in Kerhonkshon, New York (Home of Peg Leg Bates), one of the first resorts owned and operated by black people.
I am excited about this process. Let me tell you a little about it. The process of Ancestralizing Our Ancestors is based on the traditional practices of the Dagara people of West Africa, who are renowned for their indigenous wisdom and deep connection with the Ancestors. The handing over of our deceased loved ones to the realm of the Ancestors is the process of “Ancestralization.” There is probably no greater service that we as people of the African Diaspora, can do for Ourselves, our Children, Our Communities & Our Ancestors than to help the Spirits of our dead Loved Ones return safely & peacefully to their Ancestral Home. Ancestralization involves a precise series of rituals held over a period of several consecutive days and nights. This particular Ancestralization will be for People of the African Diaspora.
During ancestralization a person’s Ancestors are acknowledged and assisted in the process of completing their journey home. This is an opportunity for you to ancestralize those family members who have crossed over recently or in the distant past.
Dr. Somé, an Elder-initiate and one of the most revered men of Africa, will conduct the single most powerful and revered ritual o fhis people, the Dagara of Burkina Faso, ever done in the West -- The Ancestralization. Dr. Somé is also the holder of five post-graduate degrees including doctorates from The Sorbonne and Brandeis University and the author of two groundbreaking books, his autobiography Of Water and The Spirit, and The Healing Wisdom of Africa. His newest upcoming book, The Gift of the Gatekeepers is soon to be published.
I promised myself this year that I would engage my spiritual energies in a more significant way. Besides the writing, I want to do more ritual work with brothers and sisters. I love the fact that I am doing this on the fourth of July, the anniversary of US independence. It is for my family that I do this ritual. Here’s to our Ancestors, who quest for freedom led us here today.
Bones crushed beneath us, spirit all around us. More than memory; breath leads us home—wherever it is.
Quote from a speech given by with Dr. Some regarding the Dagara’s Cosmological Wheel.
The Dagara tribe of West Central Africa successfully categorize their people into five different categories: fire, water, mineral, earth and nature. These are shown above on the African Wheel with the colors the Dagara normally associate with each type. Each of the five types of people play a very specific role. Every person born into this world comes from one of these categories in order to help fulfill the kind of function that that category of people is supposed to fulfill in order to keep the community together.
For more information about the rest of the categories, follow this link
I excerpted part of the speech that specifically addresses my energy, and what I feel is my contribution to the world’s community, “nature.”
The last one we call "nature." The nature people are also referred to as the "witches." I know the Western world doesn't like the word witches. They have killed a few of them over time. :) Probably they intend to kill some more. :) But the point is, a witch is really a great thing to have, because this is what we call nature energy in its purest form. In my village for instance, the tree that we see is not a fixed thing that stays there for several hundred years.
The tree is probably the most mobile consciousness that we can tap into. There is no real clear English way of demonstrating a,b,c why . . . why the tree can be the most mobile thing. But believe it or not, this is the way it is. The Dagara people believe in a certain hierarchy in consciousness. The highest consciousness is the vegetable world, the nature world, trees. The second is the animal world, and the third one is us. :) So we are trailing behind. :)
Therefore a nature person is considered to be extremely important. That person knows the book of nature in such a way that they have the key to the evolution of our consciousness. The jungle is itself a decipherable book. When you look at nature it appears to be chaos, but you can perceive patterns in the chaos. If you only see chaos in nature it is a reflection of the chaos inside yourself. There is a very perfect order in nature. Understanding this kind of order is understanding the cosmic phenomenon. This is why, more often than not, indigenous people want to keep nature the way it is. Modification of it deletes an opportunity to decipher a very potent hieroglyphics. Perhaps this is why the modern world looks upon the indigenous as people who are not evolved, people who are primitive. In this context primitive is a reductionist word which does not depict the reality as it is, only the importance of being called primitive.
Nature itself, and the people associated with it, are supposed to be ones to bring the best out of a place. They makes us understand what change, transformation and adaptation means. Humans have a great chance of avoiding being caught in the hell of illness if they improve their ability to change this time, if they improve their ability to transform, just like nature does: when spring comes, everything comes to life, whereas before it was winter and everything looked like it was dead. Those changes allow for the kind of validity that our psyche needs in order to expand. I am just saying that illness, some of the causes of illness, comes from resisting something . . . . . maybe either resisting change, or resisting ourselves. These concepts are not all that alien. It is just that somehow we need to give them a new stamp, a brand new state of approval, so that they can become more participant in day-to-day life, in our work.
Talk to you when I come back from the visit. May you hold those who came before you with love and respect.
this is dope - you do so many interesting things with your life. and man, i remember going to peg leg bates place as a kid.
i can't wait to hear about this upon your return.
Posted by lynne / on Jul 2 @ 7:21 PMwow...tell me about it when you come back steven...i actually wanted to go but school but an end to that...ima have to revist malidoma's books in the near future...
Ryan