By Malidoma Patrice Some'

I cannot find the original thread where it was suggested that we read this book.

Anyway, I've started it. I'll post about the introduction and first chapter, after I look to see if there is a post about it already in the archives.

Dr. Some' is shaman from the Dagara ethnic group of Burkina Faso, West Africa. He talks about how his father was duped into the believing the Westerners, who enticed him to allow his son to go to missionary school. He talks of how the Christian missionaries beat them, and forced them to learn French, and Western thought, to the point that Africans ended up speaking more proper French then Frenchmen born in France! Dr. Some' really drives home the stark contrast between his life in the village, and his life as a missionary school student. At one point, he rebels in school, strikes a teacher, and runs away after, so fearful of the retribution for his rebellion.

I just saw this one and left my book at home. I'll get on board tomorrow but don't want this to fall. G-love, Uta, Sol, Firebrand, Mareva, anyone????

the first chapter

i don't remember where i read it, though......

in?

i don't ahev the time to reread anything, but i've read some parts a few times and other parts not at all-

Supposedly, Burkina Faso is the last waking land in which traditional, idegenious Afrikan spiritual science is practiced and that Europeans are running over there trying to get this POWER and use it against Afrikan people.

So what the FUCK are ya'll gonna do about this???!!!!

and counteract.


>>So what the FUCK are ya'll gonna do about this???!!!!

or spending SO much time on it.

i have 3 or four books on my plate right now...but after this Unlimited Power, Prisoner's Wife, and Oludarame...i'll be in.

only thing though. okp is seriously pissing me off with all the negativity and slow ass impatient minds, so i might be limited in how i get on board.... but hey *shrugs* i might thing differently tomorrow.

I keep forgetting to bring my book, or maybe we could discuss it via inbox. Lemme know

Have read Of Water and Of Spirit, have a list a mile long, but I will attempt to contribute. I have a friend who is studying with Baba Malidoma.

thanks for holding me down in my absence. The thing I want to type right now, is how struck I am about his description of guardian angels(I dont remember the Afrikan name he used for them). He really explained how they are like the cushions on the walls of the seclusion room in mental institutions<my analogy, NOT his>. As we bump along through life, our angels serve as our cushions, preventing us from hurting ourselves TOO much. Dr. Some' also talks about how each of us has a Divine Purpose in Life, which our soul has agreed to fulfill before we are born. Among the Dagara, shaman play a role in naming the child, because they can reach the SpiritWorld, to find out what your name should be, based on the Life Purpose that you chose while you were still on the Astral. To the one whose friend is studying under Dr. Some', please obtain his contact information for me, through your friend. I would like to communicate with Dr. Some' on this latter point, directly. Asante!

needed.

To the Dagara People, your guardian angel is called, your 'Suria'. That is a beautiful name. That would be a good name for a baby girl. What is this I hear about Dr. Some's wife writing a book on intimacy? Does anyone know the name of it?

I spelled it wrong before. The Guardian Angels are called siuras.

phonetics pleeese

See-OR-rah. Mine is named Linda, and she likes for me to welcome her by burning red and white candles

**************************************
"When flowing water meets with obstacles on its path,
a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in
volume and strength, filling up in front of the
obstacle and eventually spilling past it..."

~ I Ching

"Before you open your mouth to
speak, please make sure it's an improvement upon the silence."
--author unknown

dichotomy is where the money is, darling...
--Fone

Truth with out compassion is brutality...
--an unlikely sage

you can learn a lot about people when they don't view you as a threat.

the doveliest

Should we do a book discussion on it?

.

about this book was the way that conceptually he really had me- he managed to portray many things that i've never seen so well described before

but

some of his images and helpers were so far away from my understanding

i found myself almost reading through the specifics after the first chapter

i was also saddled with a lot of appropraiation issues when reading this.

was the issues he faced in order to RElearn indigenous ways after having been forced to go to western schools. Particularly the "ostracism" that he faced (as well as the mental ostracism that he dished out) upon returning to the village. It wasn't until the experience with the "green lady" of the tree that he was able to reconcile west and east. A brief synopisis for those who haven't read this:

As a part of a ritual of initiation to bridge the gap he felt between himself and his people, the village elders told him to sit down and gaze upon a tree until its true nature was revealed. Unable to do so, he tried to outwit the elders becasue he was sitting in the sun and the elements exposed. After about 30 hours sitting in front of the tree, he broke down. His intellect had failed him, so he was in a state of question. At that point the tree revealed itself to him in teh form of a "green lady."

The interesting thing to me is that there are detrimental effects that western ways of life have on indigenous world view. I mean it took extreme lenghts for Dr. Some to revisit something that was inherant to the community at large (because young boys were going through this and Dr. Some was in his 20s). But for those of us who have always lived in the west, what does that mean for us who want to reclaim ANY aspect of our past? How can we do that. At least Dr. Some had SOME experience, possibly, from which to draw upon. How would we, as westerners go about bridging that gap? It seems like we would have to be "reborn" all over again and learn as if we were babies...if that's even possible.

a very powerful sentiment

as people who try to chip through layers of indoctrination, we have small successes and small setbacks. are we relegated to that? or is there some potential for breakthrough? how do you reconcile east and west when you're surrounded by west? when west has permeated every layer of our experience? are we inherently carrying western ways and values with us?

some talked about strength of ritual. what kind of strong ritual could actually achieve something so difficult?

remember the fire?

for me. The one thing that I didn't find noble (and I dunno if I should be saying this in mixed company) was his "objective" to give westerners a better perspective on African ways. For me, I don't think that's important. I don't really care if they respect it (at least not at this point). Maybe THAT IS THE WAY for us to reclaim that...i.e. to abandoan as much of their ways as possible. In other words to FORCE ourselves to adapt and adopt our old way or perish. We're gettign dangeroulsy close to the latter...

in some ways i can see how a western appropriation of values like humility, modesty, community, healing & health would be to everyone's benefit- something to counter the rampant consumeristic values that have plagued not only westerners but also those that westerner's sit on when they/we get our tush's comfy

but in other ways i see how westerners have handled appropriations in the past with great consequences

and then, is he looking to be valued by westerner's? that was a question that really plagued me.

"is he looking to be valued by westerner's? that was a question that really plagued me."

from Ancestors and Nature:

In order to crack open something in yourself to allow you to be aware of the presence of ancesotrs' spirits, you have to walk into nature with your emotional self, not your intellectual self. You need to open wide yoru heart so that you can become moist and drink depply from the emotional echoes that you receive from the frown of a gnarled tree or the twist of a branch.

my husband and i were going on long walks through trees/parks every day. that sense of the forest being alive really made for some trippy walks

(see, folks, it IS possible without drugs)

I'm reading about his experience with the green lady, in the tree.

!

I have a girlfriend, with whom I have been friends since we were 3. Now I'm going to tell y'all this story, 'cuz I only really know 2 or 3 of you folk personally anyway, and well... somehow or another I think it might not seem so crazy if I share it here. Anyway. My girlfriend and I used to always talk about running naked through the woods. She lives WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up on a hill, in the woods, and we used to say that one day, we were going to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning, and just run buck-naked through the woods, and be free. It's like we had this burning desire to do this, for whatever reason. We never did, because the week-end I specifically arranged to stay with her for this purpose, it stormed-REALLY BADLY AND VIOLENTLY. We still talk about that week-end to this day, because I was so afraid of the lightning, and she had never seen me afraid of anything, or so unglued like that before, or since, I suppose. But I sometimes wonder about that week-end, and if someone or something was making a point for us to not do this thing. I wasn't exactly sure why this would be the case though. Like....you know the part from A Few Good Men, when Nicholson tells Cruise "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"? Well, I wonder if that storm was nature's way of saying, "You are not ready to get this close to me, yet". Or something. Dr. Some' talks about a point at which you have so great a knowledge of the Spirit World, that you could not live in the material world any longer, and still keep your sanity. I wonder if that was one of those kind of moments for my friend and me. AND, after working as a mental health counselor for 12 years, I always secretly thought that many of the patients I worked with were not "out of their minds" per se, but really did know some shit the rest of us weren't privy to, and whatever the shit was that they knew, it just blew their minds, or took them to some whole other, incomprehensible level. So when I was in my teens, I decided I was going to just do it on my own, in the summertime. I attempted to do it, behind my house, on this farm, which was about to be turned into a park. I could not go through with it though, because my area is not as secluded as my friend's is, so cars would have been able to see me, in the distance. If a white person drove through my area and saw me streaking through wheat and weeds on a hot summer morning, I SURELY would have been arrested shortly thereafter.

Reading this story about the green lady reminds me of that Energy that my friend and I were attracted to in the woods so strongly. We both had Some kind of need, from deep within, to be out amongst that Energy, whatEVER it was, and to be completely naked and free in the midst of it. We could not articulate it then, and I barely can explain it now. All I can say is, when reading that story about the green lady, one part of me was saying, "Now I should REALLY be thinking that this guy is nuts right about now", but another part of me was saying, quietly, "I know EXACTLY what he's talking about, and been tryin' to go there for YEARS."

an old poem of mine:




bunny slipper jesus
u give prophesies
over hospital lunches
shining divine light
through gaps in gowns
and curtains

godonly knows who chose u
to spout truth from
couchtop podiums
to deaf ears
but u're right

in sum way yr direct line
to god is raw and exposed
an u
my bunny slipper jesus
u
don't need no fkn translater
to tell u how the gospel
goes cuz u know
intrinsically
what so many others
try to grasp
intelligently or
thru weak channels like
blind faith

and i donno how
summa the chosen gain
followers an summa the chosen
gain
bunny slippers and summa the chosen
wear holy clothes an u wear
yr holey bathrobe u
bless terrycloth
in the absence of
soft cotton

who knows
maybe u know
the truth
maybe u know
better

maybe if yr bunny slippers were
free to the world u cd walk the distance and
part seas
at least yr not
parting legs like
priests do and
playing telephone games
like priests do

u
are pure
in some way yr
bathrobe embodies sanitation
the smell of disenfectant
yr baptism in
medication and
ability to not only speak
in tongues but to hold
on to yrself in the
bottom
of yr tongue

u
are pure
but u're purity
unadopted
takes the form of
dollar store antiseptics
and rough cotton swabs
generic hydrogen peroxide
rubbing alcohol

and your
inner light
shining
makes rays of sun
blessing the sick
in places where
sunlight
cd not touch
skin

i really feel ya on this one

i've always felt a certain power in nature, and i've always been really surprised by people who can talk about frivolous things in forests.

my husband and i were just talking last night about how one thing that brings us together is that niether one of us is the type to pick parts off of plants and trees. we're the touch & look type.

there's something about having plants & nature nearby that helps to maintain balance- because nature is intrinsically balanced, and we naturally swing around our balance points

i told my parents when i was very young that while i didn't quite get the man in the sky god mentioned in church, i could believe there is god everywhere in nature

on that note the best health of my life was when we were going on our long walks through the forest every day. we started back the day before yesterday, and i can feel a noticeable difference in my health & wellbeing already

people need nature

and i'm amazed at how out of touch with that so many people are

Is this Sonia Sanchez?

i wrote it

(excuse me if you were teasing)

this really reads like a Sonia SAnchez poem to me. I like it!

i really do

i used to read her books a few times a week

i saw her perform once, too. she was *incredible*

-peace to her-

.

up.

up for me

like I was sayin'(writin')....Dr. Some' is talking about his niece right now. She is possessed, or something, by Spirits. He wants her to learn how to accept their presence, as wisdom of the ancestors. He took her to this cave or something, I think there was a master shaman there to host like a cleansing event. The girl went into the cave, shrieked, and came out clear, and calm. Dr. Some' said that he attended for himself also, because he had an issue to work out. Before this section though, he talks about the power of indigenous culture. What is interesting about this book(I don't remember who suggested that we read this book during the equinox, but whoever it was, is a genius) is that the skeptic in me will ask a question in my head, and in the next sentence, no later than the next section, Dr. Some' will address whatever I had concerns about. Specifically, I was wonderin' "If Afrikan indigenous culture is so powerful, why couldn't the ancestors call on Spirit to prevent whitefolks from robbin' the Continent of 100 million people?" Dr. Some' addressed this just as I had this thought. He states that as powerful as indigenous culture is, based on its intimate relationship w/ the Spirit World, it is also as if it is protected by a very thin veil, or ozone-like layer, that keeps it in balance. Whitefolks punctured that ozone layer, with their colonialism, slave trade, missionary work, general havoc causin', wicked ways. Threw ish all out of balance. This imbalance manifests itself as famine, Afrikans continuing to colonize Afrikans, total dependency on Europe and the US for goods formulated from raw materials taken right out of Afrika, and so on, and so on, and so on.

The section I last read is when his sister(not his niece, that was an error on my part)was under the mentorship of an elder to help her learn how to deal w/ the Spirits that come in her midst. She was sent 100 miles away from their home village to undergo intensive training with her mentor, who was from another village.

Next, Dr. Some' talks about an experience he had w/ a youth in the west, who was written off by his parents as being a bad, unruly kid. Dr. Some' saw in him untapped genius, a Spiritual Awareness that merely needed awakening. He established a mentorship relationship with the boy, prayed with him, and helped him develop his connection with the ancestors, and use their wisdom to guide him in his life. Dr. Some' does not say if the boy was white or not, but I wondered, because he talks about how wealthy the boy's parents were, and how their wealth did not impress him.

.

Right now, Dr. Some' is discussing rituals, and how they differ from ceremony, which is far more sterile, and unemotional. He describes the first wedding he attended in the west, and how horrified and perplexed that he was at how quiet the audience was during the ceremony, and uninvolved in what was going on w/ the couple. He states that among the Dagara(and w/ the Akan too, according to my g/f, who is studying to be an Akan priestess), the whole families of the two individuals are joined during the wedding ritual, which takes like a week. So there is a lot of noise, and interaction during the actual ceremony. One side of the family has to prove to the other fiance's family that they are worthy of being joined with them. Offerrings are made, kind of like a dowry. I am impressed by all of this, but I still feel that I would not want my family THAT involved in my wedding, nor my marriage. I think if we shared similar belief systems, it would be okay, but since my family is heavily Christian, they would find something like this to be superstitious, or of voodoo, so they would bring a lot of negative energy to the ceremony, based on their Christian indoctrination. Who needs that on your wedding day?

This Brothah is so deep. There's so much I can type on this section, but I'm about to run to the store, so I'll be brief. One thing I would like to state is, that even under the oppression of colonialism, there are vestiges of traditional Afrikan culture in modern-day Africa. I even witnessed that last summer in Kenya. The wife of the cook where we stayed called one of her twins "Mami". The white people in my group thought that made absolutely no sense...to refer to your own child as "Mami", when YOU are the 'Mommy'. It just was not logical. I understood it, because I've seen people in Latin cultures do it, and even Black Americans will call so-called grown children Lil' Mama, or boys Lil' Big Man. According to Dr. Some', the Dagara recognize the very young as Elders, just like the very old, because the very young are Spirits who just came forth from the Spirit World, and the very old are about to return there. This is why the very young and very old have a natural affinity for one another. They are on the same wavelength. I think that Black Americans and Latin Americans remember that on some level, from traditional Africa, and are acting this phenomenon out, w/o even knowing why. I also know from personal experience that the very young DEFINITELY know things that they have not even lived long enough to know, and when they encounter certain things for supposedly the first time, they know all about it already. When my niece was 2, my brother-in-law was playing blues from the Mississippi Delta one day. My niece JUMPED UP, held on to the doorway, and did this DIP, as if to say, "Umph! This is my SONG!" Like old folks do when they dance to this music in jukejoints. The whole family just stared at her in disbelief. It was uncanny. Finally my sister broke our silence and exclaimed, "UMPH! You must have really felt that, huh?" That is just one instance of many behaviors that she exhibited early on that made it clear that she had been here before. Another example: my supervisor had a 2-year old when I did my grad externship. She told me that she turned out all the lights in her house one Friday night, burned a white candle in the middle of the living room floor(we were reading Tapping the Power W/in-Iyanla Vanzant at the time) and sat across it from her daughter. She said she looked very deeply into her daughters eyes and said, "My Spirit is speaking to your Spirit now. I'd like to know, why are you here?" She said her daughter did not bat an eye, stared back at her equally as intently, AT AGE TWO, and stated, "To show you your true worth, and power, through what I do, since I came from you." It freaked her out so badly, that when she told me the story Monday morning, she took me into a private area of the office, so no one else would overhear and think she was a lunatic. LAST NIGHT, on dr. Chissel's radio station, Iyanla Vanzant touched on this subject, and described an experience with her grandson when he was 3. She stated that her grandson, from the backseat of her car said, "Yeye, don't go into that place where you're going." She replied, "Why not?" He said, "Because I'm a church man, and you're a church woman. But BEFORE you were the church man, and I was a church woman." Iyanla said she was freaked out by what he said, but she trusted that his wisdom was coming from an Ancestral Space, so she heeded his advice, and changed her course immediately.

Another part about this section that moved me was Dr. Some's distinction on what it means to be an Elder, and how once you acquire a certain amount of wisdom, and are able to share it w/ others, in such a way that they are able to improve their life situations, you qualify as an Elder. It is not based on whether you are past 65, or whatever. Based on his definition then, that means that I could be an Elder, which is a really cool thought.

kinda wedding before

- something similar anyway-

my brother in aw had a 3 day long traditional wedding and we joke that the whole 3 days were recorded uncut (it was a *long* video)

our family is christian, so i donno about summa what you mentioned, but the worth proving and dowry and things were part of the ceremony

the thing is that in a traditional family and/or community, people tend to see/acknowledge/interact with the people around them for what they are. the desire to surround yourself with similar people and to classify yourself as a certain type of people is a western thing that is far out of hand. family is valued as the foundation of our lives in most african cultures. as such, of course you would want your family involved in an important part of your life, and, as such, they of course will want to be there for you, however the ceremony goes down.

http://members.tripod.com/~manofmoney/howtobafrikan.htm

Is this it??

.

I'm only finding excerpts so I guess I'll go out this weekend and buy it. Can someone tell of a place where I can read a little bit more until then.

peace

amazon.com or a public library site that had a long excerpt....

I'm gonna have to check this one out.

3 books in succession right now...and this discussion is really good. When I get caught up, I'ma have to cop this and 2000 seasons. For real.


----------------------
Avatar? Nea onnim sua a, ohu; nea odwen se onim dodo no, se ogyae sua a, ketewa no koraa a onim no firi ne nsa.
_______________________


Give back to our land of bread, water, and sunshine:
www.jampact.org.

After I reading the book, I found myself asking why I waited so long......

Will you do a thread on this book, please? It's about time we revisited it as a forum, I think. I'll chime in as best I can. I'll get my copy out for reinforcement, as needed. We can read Healing Wisdom and Two Thousand Seasons simultaneously in Activist. Those who have read either book can contribute to the discussion as desired.

----------------------
Avatar? Nea onnim sua a, ohu; nea odwen se onim dodo no, se ogyae sua a, ketewa no koraa a onim no firi ne nsa.
_______________________


Give back to our land of bread/wood, water, and sunshine:
www.jampact.org.

^

up.

discuss Of Water and Spirit next. Who has read it already?

That book confirmed some things that the universe had been pointing me towards. Can't wait to meet the Baba on the 10th!!!

a discussion on it after this one?

as the 10th draws near. I'm in the process of gathering my items for the ritual...

.

has occurred since I last posted a synopsis of where I am in the book. I think I'll talk about Fire next. Stay tuned....

i remember sherman going berserk over that one when we first read the book

that part is so powerful

I'm still beat from yesterday's ritual. It was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed or experienced in my life. A lot of ish went down up in there, much of which there are not even English words to describe. I don't know enough Kiswahili to know if there are applicable words to try to describe it in that language. All I know is, Afrikans are truly an amazing people. That is really all I can say. Whether we were born on the Continent, in Jamaica, or even in Baltimore. We are truly an amazing, remarkable people, whose power is indescribable, and quite capable of overcoming any oppression through Jim Crow, colonialism, vestiges of slavery...WHATEVER. Once that power is collectively channeled, and focussed, it is unstoppable. That is my take-home message from the ritual. And I can't wait to do one again.

I had to miss it.

about the same number of participants in the Ritual as there were in the workshop. Some new people came for the Ritual, and some were the same people from the lecture.

will you be the one to describe the fire part? I want to make sure it receives proper justice. I prefer to talk about minerals next, myself. Also, why didn't you all archive the first Healing Wisdom post?

really busy this week: leaving town on thursday

i didn't because i forgot. that's what happened with my childbirth post, too. once it leaves the first page, i forget about it completely and hope someone will remind me before it's too late.

I'll be carrying this whole post myself then, until I finish reading the book. GrrreAT.

as cheap as it sounds, i'll be happy to discuss anything that's brought up......

hey, where the hell is ananse?

HELLOOOOOOOO ananse?

or maybe we could ouja up some of sherman's long lost sense of initiative?

;)

as the quientessential aries i found this chapter AWESOME and plan to do a water ritual as soon i set my eyes on the ocean (which i;ve never done yet). hopefully in SC where there is SOOOOO much of OUR culture and tradition, with okps anase and serpentinefire (what a fitting name) :)

water rituals done prior are par for the course and i wope to allow my level of trust ot rise so that i can do an earth burial ritual or two...but the FIRE

the fire that can HEAL as well as burn, is what i realy want to experience. here in the country now, we can burn stuff liberally, but not at night how i want it. oh well *shrugs* i get enough "heat" running damn 15 miles a day in this georgia sun. (i'm SHADES AND SHADES darker) was watching that tassila maat tape and was like "WHOAH that's me???"

i like how the fire ritual space is set in one space whereas the cooling down area is set afar with others representative of the village. that's why i need anase and serpentine. and being that i can take a lot of heat "physically" i hope to not burn myself being too close seeing as how i like to take things to the extreme. anyways...all this should make for a good addition to the fast as i appraoch day 100. but i really wish i could do it next weekend at buford, SC during the Gullah Festival. :(

maybe the ancestors will work it out.

Did I give you a copy of that tape? You should feel really bad after watching yourself on there.

consists of the major elements that comprise the environment:
to the north is fire, represented by the color red, to the east, is mineral, represented by the color white, to the west is nature, represented by the color green, to the south, is water, represented by the color blue. In the center, is the color yellow, which represents Mother Earth. Individuals have characteristics which predominately correspond to one of the particular elements. For fire, they are the people who maintain the gateway to the ancestors. They have firey personalities, and often blurt out the Truth, then let the chips fall where they may afterwards. The ancestors use them that way, to get their message through the world of the living. Earth people are those who are nuturing, and naturally tend to take care of others, and make them feel welcome. Nature people tend to have supernatural powers, once they open their hearts and minds enough to manifest them. Water people are similar to libras in the zodiac: they make peace, and keep things cool. Mineral people are the historians, who help a people remember their purpose. There are rituals representative of each element also, that address a particular situation, or state of a society. Since the west has historically been so destructive, towards others and itself, this is very indicative of a fire-driven society, run amok. Dr. Some' recommends water rituals for the west, because we are already too hot over here as it is. Unlike astrology though, one determines what category one falls into as an individual not by the month one is born, but by the last digit of one's birth year.

I'm reading Sobonfu's book on Ritual, and children now: Welcoming Spirit Home. It buttresses a lot of the points Dr. Some' makes in Healing Wisdom. It also would have been a good book to discuss during the Sistahs Conference.

Fire is South, Water is NOrth, Nature is East, Mineral is West. Everything else I stated is correct though, to the best of my understanding.

up.

.

Dr. Some' writes that while Western Civilization will never be able to recreate ritual like the Dagara, we CAN create ritual space over here in our natural environments, to enable us to connect to Spirit. He states that in order to deal with the inevitable crises of everyday life, one must continously do rituals, to open and then close the gateways to the ancestors. In this part(towards the end), I'm really feeling like Dr. Some' is addressing me personally, because he states how there is no magic formula, no pill which guarantees one will be happy for the rest of one's life. He DOES state that there is a way to plug out of the Machine, and not be a slave anymore, and that way is through connection with Spirit. The first step towards connecting with Spirit is to become one with nature, through ritual. What he describes as the Machine is for what the Matrix is a metaphor in the Matrix trilogy.

In order to create ritual here, there must be sometype of dealings with Native Americans, who have been performing ritual here for thousands of years.

because i've never seen such a commercialized and exploited group as the native americans in the us

too many damn people are trying to track down their spiritual riches. the business of native american spirituality is a booming one with a lot of resentment around it.

we've been here a while. we know & love the land & have our own kind of connection with it.

the word ritual sometimes i think creates an image that isn't quite right for everybody. i grew up by a large body of water, and you could see people scattered all along the beaches downtown alone on cold days really losing themselves in the water. whenever i was upset, i would sit on the rocks for hours and feel the strength of the waves coming in and the expanse in front of me.

that, to me, is a personal ritual. but, i suspect, for example, that in order for it to be named a ritual it would need more objects and pomp and circumstance. but that's not how i relate to that water. it wouldn't have held teh same power with anything foreign introduced.

to me, that distance that's introduced by adding layers to ritual is the crux of the misunderstanding.

i thought that some's point was to recognize rituals where you institute them. give them the bigness that they deserve in your life, and find similar type rituals to serve the areas that don't have them but need them.

forthcoming.

on-going @ the Afrikan Ancestors Living Theatre, as long as there is interest.

performing Native American readings in Baltimore right now. If anyone wants the contact number to have one done, please inbox me.

I read the book a couple of years ago when I was barely 20 years old and alot of parts felt very intuitive but more parts probably went over my head.

The one part sticks out in my mind where Some'is talking about Star Trek or something and how they use all the machinery where elders in his village only need a cave. I think to be more exact the guy from Star Trek teleported himself and the elder that viewed it looked at it as something normal but could understand the use of all the electronic equipment. Could someone break that down?

Also he made a point about how we rush across town driving fast as hell to get to a job that is not going anywhere, how we are pushing a clock for something that is not moving. I think this mentality we have affects how we view everything. There have been times where I have been exhausted mentally and at those times it seemed like I was able to percieve some situations with alot more clarity.

Peace Yall

I've been telling all I can about this book named ISHMAEL by Daniel Quinn that I read. Not at all to take away from your post, but this books speaks about how "we" (the civilized nations,or non- bush people; "takers"-as described in the book) are destroying the earth and how the key to reversing the effects of our destruction lies in the wisdow of "them" (non-civilized,or bush people; "leavers"-as described in the book)
After reading this book, I, personally am on a mission to help in this reversal. I am going to AFRICA, come hell or high water, or both. Hopefully I'll be able to spend some time with these people.

***I'm new to the boards so, forgive me in advance if I do something I'm not supposed to***

Welcome newbie! Please consider going to Africa with Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc. I went with them twice, and they were both incredible experiences. you can locate Crossroads on the web, and there's a thread about it in the archives.

htp

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Notes from the Malidoma Some Lecture @ The Afrikan Ancestors Living Theatre


5/10/03
11:34 a.m.- 2:25p.m.

We are reaching back into the past, to determine our future. It is important that we remember…
There’s a need to understand the true legacy of our ancestors, irrespective of the fear that this knowing would make us too powerful.
The Renaissance of the Continent will come fr0m the Ancestral Energy of Afrikans born in America,. That Energy will travel back to Afrika, and revitalize it, according to the will of the Ancestors.
We are all being called to learn what abundance & prosperity is, beyond what the oppressor tries to tell us, when he really has no true interest in us achieving prosperity & abundance in the first place.
Dr. Some’s father and mother passed this year(2003). Dr. Some’ is the eldest, therefore expected to preserve the family medicines and herbs in his home village of Dano, Burkina Faso, West Afrika. He is in charge of these medicines and herbs now, and there was a question within the village of how he would be able to maintain this huge responsibility, when he lives in America, and gets to return home once or twice a year. Dr. Some’ went home to better understand these events, and why they were occurring within his family, and home village. His brother underwent brain surgery, and ended up in a coma. Yo obtain clarity on this series of crises, which sent him into a ‘tailspin’, Dr. Some’ visited Stenkuro. Stenkuro is a place, known to the ‘Old Land of the Ancestors’, located in Ghana. One can go there, and ask the ancestors directly what went on, and what’s next, but it’s dangerous because one has to hang onto a number of principles that can’t be violated. One can get caught up in a whirlwind, be recognized by the Dead as dead, and be unable to find one’s way back to the village.
There was a question of his readiness to embark upon a journey to Stenkuro, but Dr. Some’ felt that he could not wait until he was ready, but instead needed to leave it to the Ancestors to MAKE him ready. The sky in this place was crepuscular(relating to, or resembling twilight<the light from the sky between full night and sunset >). Dr. Some’ approached the doorway to this land, which is located in northern Ghana. The keeper of the doorway put a powder on the river, which turned it into a carpet, upon which he walked to the other shore, to cross into Stenkuro. Dr. Some’ crossed into this land with his mother’s handwoven basket, because she asked him to to bring something to her in the Otherworld, which would trigger her memory. Stenkuro is like a prism of VERY light Cascading Colors, with regular people busying themselves amongst shea trees. Everything is in the present tense. There is no sense of space nor time. The barrier with the living world DELETES. The distance between points A & B is distorted. There is an intimacy between time and space. Nature expands exponentially, and there is such BEAUTY, which exists as aconstant, unlike everything else.
Dr. Some’ saw his mother walking with a group of women in Stenkuro, and hid behind a shea tree, after leaving her basket out in plain view. She found the basket, and wondered aloud from where it came, and acknowledged that it belonged to her. She then stated that she forgot to make a needed offering to the ‘genies’ of the family, to promote the genius of her family, which is why there were two deaths, and the coma tragedy in the family. The necessary offering would have to be made before someone else in the family also died, like one of his mother’s children. Once Dr. Some’ returned from Stenkuro, he was able to make the required offerings. He slipped away from Stenkuro unnoticed, which was necessary, lest he not be allowed to leave, or he go mad by the time he returned to the world of the Living. There are TWO TYPES of presence in the Ancestor World: 1. One is treated as a guest, but can’t eat nor drink amongst the dead, which is difficult, because people will not understand why one can’t join them. In this case, one must leave in the middle of the night to make one’s way successfully back to the Great Barrier.
2. One is unseen by the ancestors, and must worry about making it back to the Great Barrier without being noticed.

The technology by which Dr. Some’ was able to travel to &fro Stenkuro is largely ignored by the modern world. This technology speaks to countless other technologies where visiting other worlds is possible, removing gravitational pull on objects become a reality, and the lens of human perception is erased, in order to allow one to see “what is not there”.
Upon returning from the Ancestral World, Dr. Some’ realized that we are on a Big Odyssey to Return to the Source, for anchoring, and communication.

thank you so much for transcribing it

it's nice to catch it through instead of in bits and pieces

I have eight more pages to go. I'm doing two -at -a -time.

malidoma was stationed in oakland,ca for awhile where I met someone training under him.... He was an apprentice and he took a handful of us students under his wing just to give some basic guidelines to think about. The apprentice later went on to write a text entitled Thoughts from the Underworld... I have yet to read the Healing Wisdom of Africa... I know that the apprentice and Mr. Some had a falling out due to what he felt was Some's commercialization of the Dagara culture. I know that Mr. Some takes a handful of people every year to Burkina Faso to do spiritual work...
I have since retired my studies of spiritual matters, for I felt my body was processing more information than my system can handle. I encountered all this about 7 years ago and it is a joy to see that others are interested and learning. I remember that our lessons stressed THOUGHTS and WORDS... anyway, just wanted to share a little and am pleased that the word is spreading...

peace and blessings =)

that is exactly what i struggle with of some's words and work

...interesting to hear...

spirituality are religion are two different qualities in my mind

spirituality can be taught

religion has to do with your culture, your environment, your surroundings, ....

one he crosses the teaching spirituality and wisdom line into teaching religion and culture, he runs the risk of exploiting his people to some extent

culture cannot be learned

was that the nature of the dispute?

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I need to finish the notes from the lecture, then this can be archived.

Haven't forgotten about this...

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I seem to recall you mentioning
that you are a youth mentor.

Some' observes, "Westerners see
adolescents as fundamentally naive
about life. By contrast, the tribal
mentor sees a youth as someone who
already contains knowledge that he
or she needs, but who must work with
an older, more experienced person to
'remember' what they know. A mentor
therefore is not a teacher in the strict
sense of the term, but a guide who shows
the way, working from a position of res-
pect and affinity, addressing the knowledge
within the young person. The pupil is not
an ignorant person in the eye of his or her
mentor. The pupil is seen as a storehouse,
a repository of something the mentor is quite
familiar with and very interested in, something
the mentor himself has and knows very well. The
mentor perceives a presence knocking at a door
within the pupil, and accepts the task of finding,
or becoming, the key that opens the door. There
develops a relationship of trust between mentor
and pupil, motivated by love, and without success
would be unlikely."

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What are your impressions, thus far? I'm finishing up Of Water and The Spirit right now. I wanted to do a thread on that next, but I did not receive any response when I suggested it, so I did not start one.