Notes for Sunday, September 2, 6247 (2007)

Taught by MIT (Minister in Training) Mama Zerita Sharp and Baba Raymond Davis
UNOFFICIAL NOTES



Introduction
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Mama Zerita provides an overview for the class, and the course material. Today's agenda is shown below:
I. Introduction
a) Teachers
b) Course Description
c) Review of Syllabus

II. Presentation of Lesson
a) Distribution of Text
b) Discussion of Key Concepts
c) Questions/Comments

III. Closure
a) Distribution of Materials


Discussion of Text
----------------------

• Examines the African continent from the Atlas, making note of some boundaries
• Reviews some images which underscore the pageantry and spirituality of indigenous African cultures

• Share readings from "How the Old African Religions Were Structured", see the article at this link by Vincent Okungu (12/11/6240)
• Discussion
• Are the neteru "spirits" in the West African sense of that tradition? They are referred to as "nature spirits", since there are functions in nature, which contain the energy of the Most High
• Was Asar the first ancestor that was deified? Suggests that it is symbolic and not a literal story.
  
• Asar has divine birth; not to be confused with Christ, since Asar is born divine, and was not elevated t0 divinity; in this sense Christ is more like Imhotep, who was elevated to divinity
• The goal in our tradition is to become Asar, where Asar and Aset are spiritual models
• Must begin to know the divinity that is in each of us, and Asar as an example of that spirit that we draw from, since the issue of historical record is limiting
• From the reading, "Divinities and ancestors, though came under the general nomenclature of spirits, they formed a separate homogeneity; they were domesticated spirits. But African religious recognised other spirits that inhabited natural objects and creatures such as spirits of rocks, sacred trees, rivers, forests."
• Refers to "man's double" in west Africa (Akan, Igbo, and Yoruba), similar to an individual's Ka in Kemet. Emphasized the migration and exchange for years between Kemet and other parts of Africa before the Sahara's desert encroached further
  
• Important to be mindful of the thrust to separate Kemet from Africa
  
• Is the recognition of ancestors, a form of "worship"?
• Nearly completed the reading
• Final discussion
• Important to "speak" to ancestors, and not in the 3rd person
• Names are not given casually, but are statements of purpose

Homework
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• Reading "Popular Religion" pages 189-209 from the book, Egypt, Gods Myths, and Religion (ISBN: 0-7607-3644-8); also reference was made to "Soul of Africa: Magical Rites and Traditions" (ISBN: 3-8920-2716-8)