Contents

Volume 8.0

A Familiar Stranger

Guess what my friend… Believe it or not, I think that we’ve met. Perhaps our meeting wasn’t face to face, but I am sure that I’ve dealt with you before. Better yet, let’s say that at the least, I have dealt with an aspect of you, no matter how big or small. To understand how this is possible, first, we must look at what you and I are both made of. Simply put, we are the products of our exposure. At the beginning stages of the M’TAM initiations within The Earth Center schools, initiates are taught that the human brain does not harness the ability to invent. The basic function of the mind is to copy or imitate, so this makes you and I the result of what our brains have been inspired by.

All the events that we’ve gone through in our lives have added to us, making us who we are in this present moment. For example, even with this paragraph, as you read it, on some level it’s joining with you, changing you from the person you were before you picked up this newspaper. Another example that may help is to equate a single snowflake to a single life experience, can you see the similarity between what makes a snowman and what makes a human being? In other words, when you read this article, you are dealing with me, but who am I…? Dealing with me means that you are also dealing with all that has impacted my life. So, as you read these lines, you are being exposed to aspects of my mother, my father, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, acquaintances, etc. And each of them are the product of the individuals that influenced their lives, and so on and and so on.

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An elderly Kemetic woman giving a warm greeting. The depth and emphasis put on the Kemetic greeting is a clue into our ancestor’s understanding of the ties that bind all living entities together.

Now, there still remains the question of how we’ve met. Like I said at the beginning, perhaps our meeting wasn’t face to face, but I am sure that I’ve dealt with you before. Let’s try an experiment. First, I want you to imagine a person that you are close to. Let’s say that you spoke to that person a couple days ago. Perhaps, in that exchange you shared a humorous joke or a funny story, leaving them with laughter and happiness. Now, imagine your friend getting off the phone with you, but still carrying that aspect of you with them into the day, that happiness that they received from that joke. Imagine your friend going through their day, sharing that humorous story with anyone who would listen, affecting each of them on different levels, but all in positive ways. Imagine that at the end of your friend’s day, before going to bed, they end up having a phone conversation with their cousin. Before they end their conversation, your friend decides to tell your hilarious joke one last time. Both your friend and their relative laugh until tears role down their faces, and after they settle down, they say good night, hang up their phones and go to bed.

The next morning, your friend’s cousin wakes up and goes about their day, all the while giggling to them self about the joke that was shared with them the night before, still carrying your positive energy with them. They have the ability to continue to pass that energy onto others, who will then pass it onto others, and so on and so on. That aspect of you has been transferred from one person, to another person, to another, etc. That happiness that you placed upon your friend has now affected all those who heard the joke and all the people that they will share it with. Now, let’s say days later I speak to a friend of mine, and they ask me: “Hey Marrwho, you wanna hear a joke I heard today…?” As I’m entertained by your story, it becomes part of me, no matter how large or small the effects are, it has played a part in my life. Can you see how we’ve met? Can you see how I have dealt with an aspect of you? Now think, at the initial stage, what if you would’ve transferred negative energy onto your friend, the results could have been different.

I say all this because we as humans must begin expanding our awareness of how we impact ourselves and others around

us with our actions, our speech, and even our thoughts. It is important that we understand that our daily behaviors affect others, not only in our households and work places, but that they have the potential to change people in our neighborhoods, our cities, states, countries, and even the world. No longer can we afford to perform acts while remaining oblivious of their effects on our surroundings.

My spiritual teacher, the late Master Naba Lamoussa Morodenibig once stated that every thought and action echoes out into the Universe. When I think of an echo, I think of an emission traveling outward on a journey and eventually coming back to be received by the same entity that originally expressed itself. But that entity that expressed itself is not the only thing that is affected by that echo. If I am with a group of friends hiking in the hills, and I yell out, “HELLO!”, that echo from the hills will be heard by me, but also by everyone in the group that I am hiking with, even people camping miles away can receive that greeting and I would never know.

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This example of an echo is really a life principle, perhaps this is what our parents meant when they told us the old cliche saying, “what goes around, comes around”. I must say that in the past whenever I heard people make this statement, I would always accept it, but I never truly understood what it meant. I couldn’t grasp the notion of how what leaves me, goes around, to eventually come back to me again. Like a package that has been sent out, arriving back at my doorstep with a stamp saying “RETURN TO SENDER”. Only this time, at every step of the way it has been opened by people who have added something to it before sending it back. If I knew that every package that I sent out would always return back to me, for me to open and deal with, I would always make sure that the contents of those packages were of quality. How about you…? This example of a package returning reminds me of another old saying, a saying that I’m sure has become a part of you too, how does it go…? “Treat others in the manner in which you wish to be treated”. As I gain more experience over the years, and as I continue within the M’TAM education, the understanding of the link between me and my surroundings is becoming more and more clear.

When I look at the example of how Master Naba lived his life Master Naba’s life, I can see that he was just one man, yet he made such an impact on the lives of so many. Those who carry him in their hearts and minds transfer him and his message to others on a daily basis. His exposure was a result of being raised in a very old culture, the message that he brought had been transferred from generation to generation for thousands of years, similar to the example of the joke being passed from person to person. This is why I hold a special place in myself for the influence that he has brought to my life.

Today, I am passing a piece of him onto you, so that even if you have never met Master Naba, through me and this article you have. You have now been exposed to an aspect of him, as well as all those that influenced his life. Keep this in mind as you go throughout your day. Remember, all that you send out will affect so many, men, women, children, elders, etc. before inevitably coming back to you. We must be aware of such an influence because with it comes a huge responsibility. Just as a brother must protect a brother, we must protect the entire universe by taking care in what we enclose in the packages we send out daily. Well friend, until that day we may meet face to face, remember that we can act as friends with all of those we have yet to see, but already touch… May good things be placed in your path.

Volume 8.0

What is News?

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Native American farmers taking a break during the harvest. The harvest is a very spiritually signicant period worldwide, where people give thanks to the Gods and their ancestors for the food that will sustain them throught the dry and/or cold season to come.

Native Mid-Summer Festival

Among the native tribes residing within the region now known as the Southeastern U.S., a very important ceremony takes place during the time when the first corn ripens. It begins the new year for these tribes and is celebrated with ceremonies that generally last either four or eight days. The ceremony is called he Green Corn Ceremony and is also known as Busk (from the Creek Indian word poskita, or “to fast”). In fact, fasting was is just one of the rituals involved in the ceremony. On the first day of the ceremony, everyone gathers in the town square of the host village for the opening rituals of the ceremony, which begins with a big feast, a necessary preparation for the fast that follows. Interestingly, none of the dishes include any of the newly ripened corn. This shows the reverence that is held for the corn by these traditional cultures.

To illustrate just one of the many misunderstandings European colonizers had regarding native cultures, a traditional drink is ingested by the men as part of a ritual purification rite. This drink is brewed into a medicine, similar to tea, and looks black like coffee. For the native cultures, the color white symbolized purity and taking the drink purifies the individual, this drink is therefore referred to as the white drink. The European colonizers referred to the drink as the black drink, based on its color.

This highlights an important cultural distinction. For cultures that practice some form of traditional spirituality, certain things are sacred. What is sacred may differ between traditional cultures but an individual coming from one traditional culture to another can recognize and will respect what another culture holds as sacred, if for no other reason than the desire for other cultures to respect what you hold sacred. The lack of recognition on the part of the European colonizers as to why these natives called a “black” drink white shows their lack of spiritual understanding.

The ingesting of the white drink is done in conjunction with many of the events that take place within the host village. Most of these events are held in a plaza in the center of the village. The purity of the plaza has to be upheld as well. It is kept very clean, children are not allowed to wander into the plaza and any dog that did is often killed. The plaza was a performance space which held the ceremonial dances and speeches by elders who encourage everyone to forgive the past years’ transgressions and honor their cultural obligations.

Another important ceremony that occurs during Busk is the rekindling of the sacred fire, seen as a representation of the Sun on Earth, in the town square and throughout town. The sacred fire of the village is maintained continually. It is understood in the culture that as the year goes on and peoples fail to live up to their obligations and violate rules or break taboos, the sacred fire becomes less and less pure. It is at this time that the sacred fire is extinguished and all of the fires in the town are extinguished. This was seen as a representation of extinguishing the past year’s transgressions.

After cleaning the hearths where the fires burned, the sacred fire is then lit. People renew their vows to honor their obligations to each other, to their culture, their ancestors and the divine world. They then light their personal fires from the sacred one after a huge feast. This feast is preceded by days of fasting during the ceremony, after the ceremony begins with a feast. The period of fasting is generally between one and two days. The men are to hold strict to the fasting while children, women and the elderly are allowed to eat certain foods during prescribed times. With a pure, sacred fire burning brightly, the final ceremonial feast features the newly ripened first corn. It was followed by dancing and activities to celebrate another year. The people feast with the fire in their minds and hearts.

Sofkee Comeback

Many people across the U.S. enjoy grits as a regular part of their diet, unaware of its traditional history. In the native villages of the Creek Indian tribes, correctly called Mvskoke, Seminole and by other tribal names, it was customary for each village to have a large pot of food on the fire for any visitors to eat their fill when they arrived. Such is the hospitality that we see throughout traditional cultures around the world. In these villages the pot would contain sofkee, the original grits. A select variety of corn was used for this dish and because of modern agriculture this variety had almost gone extinct.

At this point in time, traditional cultures around the world are in the rebuilding phase. For the Mvskoke people, their Food Sovereignty Initiative is just one aspect of this rebuilding. It is the goal of their initiative to eliminate their dependency on the system that was built from the wealth of their land. The focus is on providing food and health needs through sustainable agriculture and cultural investment. To achieve these goals, the Mvskoke have turned their sights on their ancestors and the rich heritage of knowledge that allowed their ancestors to survive thousands of years.

One example of this traditional knowledge that was lost on colonial minds is that in the preparation of sofkee, the corn is soaked in water and wood ashes. This process makes the corn more digestible and releases niacin, an essential vitamin. Europeans who adopted the corn diet, but not the addition of alkaline ashes, suffered from a vitamin B deficiency called pellagra into modern times. This resulted in the modern requirement that all grits be enriched, although this problem had been solved long ago by our ancestral cultures.

Current Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative projects include a community outreach to empower local farmers and ranchers, a community food project and a youth/elder sharing program. One key project that has assisted with the saving of the sofkee corn is the MFSI seed bank. These projects are centered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma and extend throughout the tribal nation. Traditional foods and recipes are used in the programs Tribal Elderly Nutrition Services and the Meals and More program which adds an educational component about the foods for those being served. Guests are even welcome to come early and assist in the preparation to learn the preparation techniques. It seems that “southern hospitality” predates the “modern” south.