AFRICAN SPIRITUAL HISTORY

                                                   AFRICAN SPIRITUAL HISTORY

                                                        By Aubrey Weldon, Esq.

During a recent Rotary meeting one of my fellow Rotarians asked me to be her speaker for the meeting. Every Rotarian in the Club is responsible for providing a luncheon speaker at least twice a year. It was only twenty minutes until the time for the speaker to start talking for at least thirty (30) minutes. So, I told her that I would be happy to be her speaker but I will talk about what has been on my mind during the summer and give some reflections on what I had learned.

I called my talk, "African Spiritual History" because I had read several books over the summer that really sparked my interest in light of the spiritual journey I had taken most of my life. I had read the following books: The Essential Talmud by Adin Steinsaltz, Everyman's Talmud by Abraham Cohen, The Torah-The Five Books of Moses by the Jewish Publication Society, The Qur'an by Abdullah YusuAli, The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra, Buddha by Deepak Chopra, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead by James Wasserman. I had read a lot of spiritual books in the past including Hinduism, Japanese teachings and Chinese teaching concerning spiritualism and after traveling on every continent in the world I still felt that something was still missing concerning the spiritual essences of mankind. So why talk about African Spiritual History?

After reading the last book, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, a bomb exploded in my brain and the realization that over 50,000 years ago the seeds of spiritualism were placed in the minds of humans in Africa, my ancestral homeland. First of all it must be understood that the spiritual teachings received by humans was controlled by the earthly powers of the ruling class so the mask of the spirit could change from one cultural to the next. Conquerors on every continent set the stage for spiritual evolution and at times humans could be put to death for not believing in the correct spirit of the day.

I was surprised to find that the spiritual evolution of humans in the West was filled with African spiritual practices. The original African name for what became known as Egypt was "Kemit" which means black in the African language of North Africa. The Kemit people were the early spiritual story tellers of the ancient world. The city of Memphis in Kemit was translated by the Greek with a sound that sounded like Egypt but spelled differently. That name became the symbol for any reference to the ancient Africa and the times and traditions of the Pharaohs of Africa. As a result, in the Western mind and most of the world, Africa as a spiritual center of humanity was hidden.

I was further surprised by Qur'an's references to some of the same stories in the Torah. Christianity's history is also filled with stories from the Torah. The African belief in the after-life, how the world was created, and what we call the Ten Commandments can be found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

All the messengers and teachers of the past have tried to explain the spiritual path of human life. In ancient Africa there were various temples where spiritual teachings were passed on in the priesthood. The African Book of the Dead was mainly concerned about the after-life and what happens to the spirit once it leaves the body. Though the body was preserved through mummification because they believed that the body contained the personality of the dead the main concern was ensuring that the spirit would reach the eternal place of rest. After death the spirit still had to deal with chaos and disorder and without the proper spells and guidance it could get lost.

The ancient priesthood defined what the spirit was and gave in the name "Ka" which meant "the breath." The Anuk (the cross with the circle on top) is the symbol for the breath of life and was carried by the Pharaoh because the Pharaoh had the power over life and death. Overtime, the breath of life became known as the spirit of life. Though the ancient Africans worshipped many gods there was only one Pharaoh who taught the one god idea for a short period of time. It was the Hebrew people who picked up the one god idea and made it an institution. After years in Africa and being surrounded by the teachings in ancient Africans it can be easily understood why the writings of the Torah and the stories of spiritual evolution of the one god concept became the only reality for them.

Of course in the last 2000 years the teachings of Rabbi Jesus (the real Rabbi who was trained in the African secret teachings and who was stoned to death by Jews and hung from a tree-Jehoshua Ben Pandira, son of Mary and Joseph) and not the mythological Jesus in Christain writings authorized by Romam Emperor Constantine in 4 AD to create a new institution about spiritual life while banning 50,000 years of African history. This had been one of the greatest summers of my life and I felt a need to share it with everyone. We all share the same breath of life and not one life is greater than another. We are all brothers and sisters of the breath and from the breath comes the word. As Saint John said, "First there was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." As the Africans taught that "first there was the breath of life and all things were created by that breath." Remember as you make choices in life that every breath you take is a miracle!

In every word you use there is a thought, a deed, an image, and power. Everything you read and every word you use affects the quality of the life you live.

Peace!