Forever, Wherever... Now and Never, Amun! (Part 1).

[To venture into eternity is to see all things and nothing all at once, to feel pain and pleasure all at once, to be and not to be all at once. Close your eyes, stare into infinity and notice its one identifiable quality that our minds can comprehend: Blackness]

Getting better with my introductions, do you agree? Anywho, onto matters with greater significance, welcome to this week’s edition of ‘The Other Side with Sihle Sibeko’ (“TOS”). As promised last week, we are delving deep into the framework of African Spiritual Sciences (“AS”). Whilst my intention is to marry AS with commerce, understanding the principles in AS is important and you’ll be able to refer back to this post if ever there’s any confusion in future. AS is quite complex and I will do my best to simplify it into easily digestible tenets. Today’s post will probably be my longest by far so without further ado, let’s jump right in…

1. Blackness is (our understanding of) Infinite Source

Ever watched a movie about space or time-travel? Ever peeped NASA pictures from space looking down on Earth or any other planet? What’s the common thread in all of that? The answer is simple: Blackness. Plato calls it Materia Prima; Dr. Gabriel Oyibo calls it Africogen - a long, endless stream of Blackness that’s so immense it wraps the entire multiverse in itself.  According to Cosmologies by the BaKongo, the Dogon and the Bantu amongst others, Black is not a colour but rather a manifestation of Infinite Source holding ALL potential and non-potential within itself. Black is the culmination of all colour (aka of all Light, Dimensionality and Distinction), Black has no wavelength (aka it is infinite and immeasurable). Blackness, looking at the infinity of the night sky, is formless, limitless, untethered and beyond characteristic – it exists beyond both space and time (I mean, if there’s no light can you tell the distance between two points or how long it could take to travel that distances?).

“Amun-Ra represents the ever-present invisible power (Blackness) and radiant Light (Distinction) of the divine force that sustains life” – Canadian Museum of History

2. Art imitates Life…

Life isn’t some meaningless huhah (you are welcome to exhale your nihilistic or existential angst). In AS, life serves a vital role – it gives the infinite an opportunity to experience its own potential (and non-potential) through form, consciousness and expression. Everything that exists comes from + is endowed with this Blackness so yes, our little movements, relationships, happy moments, angry moments, highs, lows, sorrows, confusions, hopes, dreams, ecstasies and more all contribute to tickling the curiosity of an Infinite intelligence beyond, but simultaneously within the realms, of our individualized comprehension (this will be explained later on in the post). Life in all its dimensions is a painting on the canvas of its own Source.

“Maybe, then, to live well is just to practice an ART of living” – Lanier Anderson

3. Well… then nothing’s random?

Uhm, no… or not really. In AS, life is both random and pre-deterministic. Crazy right? Well, not so much. An ancient Igbo saying is “If your Soul is good, then your Destiny shall be good”. In AS, each individual has a pre-determined Purpose they must fulfil (how the individual arrived to their Purpose is a whole ‘nother story). While the end-point is “fixed”, the journey is malleable. Vala Afshar calls this “new-path creation” – there’s an infinite array of paths an individual can take, with pre-determined points that require us to make a choice determining the next steps on our path for better or worse. Life is about the exhilaration of the journey as much as it’s about the fulfilment of its purpose.

“Real randomness requires an infinite amount of information” – Tristan Perich

4. Balance is paper-thin… and fluid

Everything is One, and in AS the culmination of everything gets us to One, or in this example: One Hundred. What’s the difference between 99+1 and 50+50? Both equal 100, the difference is the weighting, or in AS terms, the distinction & duality. Duality is the friction point where two opposite yet complimenting forces dance harmoniously to the tune of creation (whether 99+1 or 50+50) emanating from Infinite Source (aka 100). Everything carries distinction, meaning everything has duality from the smallest quark to the largest cosmic object. The duality of forces within a cosmic entity, no matter what it is, and no matter the degree of its distinction (whether 99+1 or 50+50) will always give us 100. In fact, duality ensures the imperfection that is necessary to produce life because harmonizing anything to a state of perfection takes us back Infinite Source, aka back to being stateless, indistinguishable Blackness. Optimizing Balance in the type of life experience we want to lead (eg: a blissful or painful life) is our job as beings dancing to the tune of Creation.

“In all things there must be a balance, and that includes on planet Earth - as above, so below.” – Baba Credo Mutwa

5. Human vs Tree vs Big Bang – Who’s who? Who are you?

AS assumes the notion that expression is unison, the only difference is form. For instance, a child is conceived when a sperm cell meets a fertile egg; a tree is planted when a seed meets fertile soil (sounds familiar?) and a universe is “birthed” at the culmination point of energy and matter (there’s a lot more to this). Everything in the universe can be understood through allegory because a Human characteristic is contained in everything that exists, same way a cell would say everything contains Cellular characteristics. The smallest imitates the largest (and vice versa) in its own melodramatic way. In AS, we (humans) recognize the patterns of Creation and apply them to our everyday life. That’s why African clan names incorporate Animals (eg: Ngwenya – the Crocodile tribe; Sibanyoni = the Feathered Bird tribe), relate themselves to the Universe (eg: the Dogon = People of Sirius B; AmaZulu = People of the Heavens / Universal Sky) and African folktales speak of celestial deities in a familial way. We have a DEEP affinity with our environment because we ARE our environment and our environment is US.

“Know thyself to become Ntr (nature)” – Khemetic Mason Proverb

End of Part 1