New Beginnings to Celebrate Beltain and the Grand Trine

May 1st marks Beltain. The Celtic name for the time of year when life is reborn in the Western Hemisphere. Beltain, is an actual New Year, in that it is the time when life springs forth new and fresh once again. We celebrate Beltain by celebrating fertility, our own and that of Earth Mother in any and all ways possible.

This year Beltain is also falling within an astrological vortex of power called a Grand Trine...

According to Wikipedia " a grand trine occurs when you have three planets or other points in the horoscope that are all separated by a span of 120 degrees. With the placement of the planets, the grand trine visually looks like a large triangle across the horoscope of the recipient. It is a special configuration that is thought to promote high ideals, insight, vision, creative expression and well being..." This Grand Trine is the alignement of Venus, Pluto and Saturn.

In conjunction with the Juicy Goodness that EarthMother is exemplifying at this time...I am bringing forth some fruit of my own in the form of three classes I wish to offer.

Afrikan Spirituality

Gynocentricity

and

Pagan Parenting

Are being offered at Magical Journey, a local witchy hotspot

AND

Beginning this week HERE ONLINE as well!

Tomorrow I will add a paypal button for those who wish to purchase the class information online The cost will be $10 per class

If at least ten students purchase one class, we will also meet for a conference Instant Message session once a week to discuss the topics of that class in depth

As always, I offer Online and Face to Face Spiritual Consultations through the Orisha Oshun for $50

And my book, full of basic information, prayers, incantations, rituals and history of Yoruba spirituality

Ona Agbani:The Ancient Path Understanding and Implementing the Ways of Our Ancestors

is available for $20 paperback and $14.29 download as well

Raising Children In Orisha - Pregnancy:Being Full of Love

Below is a blog I wrote at the height of my last pregnancy...

Had my first appointment with my Tennessee based midwife today
It went well
I realized, upon leaving her office that to be pregnant means to be full full full full full
of Love
And that is how I feel
I am full of the love the Universe has for me and so She/He/It has chosen me once again for such a sacred and monumental task
I am full of the love I have for myself, because I have accepted my mission with joy, thanksgiving, pride, awe, and downright giddy gigglishness over the fact that there is a PERSON growing inside my body AGAIN!

I am full of the love I have for my four children, whose lives, whose dispositions, whose characters, whose beauty, whose births have taught me that to give birth is one of the greatest spells a woman can cast
And I am full of the love that my lover and I were experiencing for one another at the moment

of conception,

full of the fact that we were able to break through all kinds of societal barriers, and touch one another, be close to one another and interact with one another sooo deeply
That the Most High in Her Holy Sanctuary was moved by our union and therefore blessed us with a new life
Soon there will be a lil mouth to suckle
A lil body to hold and bathe and caress and oil and kiss
Lil hands and feet to kiss and smell
Lil eyes to look into
A lil head to sniff and sigh onto
Soon I will have to stretch my body wide enough to allow ALLLLLL of that LOVE to flow out and join us all on this journey called life
BUT
I will always remember you thus
My baby's womb name is Damou
Zulu for "my love"
A womb name is a name that identifies the child for the time she/he is growing inside the mother and is no longer used once the child gets here
I must admit it is only today that I gained a full realization of why I chose that name
And even after having given birth four times before
I must admit that is was only today that I KNEW that to carry a life inside me is to be full
of love
My Love
Damou

Pregnancy is not an illness...women who are carrying children are not weaker or less competent or more delicate than everyone else on the planet

Quite the contrary...unborn children and the mothers who carry them survive and thrive in some of the world's most harsh conditions....starvation, war, slavery and rape

The continuation of life is stronger than all of these adversities

Pregnancy is a time of unbelievable strength, life altering change, forceful epiphanies, intense dreams, terrifying nightmares, and pure unadulterated POWER

Divine Power... called Ashe in our Yoruba Mother Tongue

When pregnancy and childbirth was taken out of the Magickal Hands of Granny Midwives and placed in the medicinal claws of obstetricians and gynecologists
Women had to be convinced that they were powerless, needy, weak, and physically vulnerable during pregnancy
And so modern pregnancy propaganda was produced and disseminated

I have seen women shrink from washing dishes because their bellies touch the counter and women who cry out when riding over potholes, women who are afraid to raise their arms above their heads thinking it would wrap the umbilical cord around the baby's neck, and on and on

I have seen how we have accepted the propaganda and believed the hype and therefore allowed others to dominate an area that is totally and unequivocably our domain

In actuality...pregnancy is the mystery of life, the magick of existence in plain sight on the physical plane

When you are carrying a child, listen closely...to your own desires and the voice of your unborn child

Allow these voices to be your guiding force

Pregnancy grants you the power that you need to manifest your dreams and with each child that power heightens and deepens and you as Mother gain a better understanding of it

Pregnancy is a ripening of womanhood, it is a higher level of womanliness, not a weaker diluted version

To the contrary, a woman's power is more concentrated than ever when she is carrying life

Bask in this power

Use this power

Embrace this power

Pregnant women have been said to be short tempered, irritable, surly and generally unpleasant I look upon these descriptions as indications of the fact that women who are carrying life are less able to deal with the inconsistencies and lies that they expected to cosign on a daily basis

Instead...the woman who is with child tells the truth more often than not

she does not lend her energy to maintaining the status quo and this is problematic and therefore viewed as negative

Pregnant women also take up lots of space...their big bellies, their big appetites and the sheer force of the energy they exude is big and wide

Bigness and wideness are not allowed in acceptable definitions of modern womanhood
Be WIDE ENOUGH...spread out...make room in the universe for the new bigness of yourself and the life that you are bringing into the world

More than anything pregnancy is used by the medical profession to convince a woman that she cannot trust her body and therefore herself, to do what it is supposed to do....you are made to feel that your body can and will turn against you at any time and cause harm to you and your coming child

When the truth is...your body all by Herself...is built to house, produce and maintain life

Your body houses the seed, the fertile soil, the water, and the nutrients to grow human life several times over

Woman is the house of power...and at no time is this more evident than when she is carrying a child

The Afrikan Woman...The Source

Akua said...
YEYE~ What are some values in femininity and African-centeredness that you instill in your daughters and HOW did you instill these values?


Values...hmmm...that particular term carries with it some connotations that I actually rebel against and hopefully live my life in such a way that my dawtas and my sun will do the same...let me explain
Most Afrikan centered individuals and organizations while claiming to be anti oppression and anti Western ism still uphold oppressive Western patriarchal values when it comes to women, mothering, femininity and womanhood
These individuals and organizations claim to have embraced an Afrikan way of life when in actuality what they are doing is taking Western patriarchal so called "morality" and wrapping it in Kente cloth
They have not actually examined and changed the toxic beliefs that enslaved our Ancestors and prevented us from practicing the Ancient Ways...they have only begun to call these beliefs by Afrikan names and they feel like by doing so they have somehow validated them and made them something whole or something different...not so



You still find women be treated as help meets in most Afrikan centered homes and organizations...you still find their roles being ones that are not taken seriously or revered...you still find their position being seen as beneath the man and the man being treated as the Head of the household or organization
When in actuality according to our Ancestors women are the repository of Ashe, we ARE the carriers of The Divine Power which cause anything and EVERYTHING to work...we transmit this ashe through our milk , our presence, our influence, our words, our wombs , our vulvas and our vaginas
Our Ancestors knew this and as such, they listened to their women and held their words in high high high esteem and were proud to say that women were the center of their culture, their world , their universe...the colonizers laughed at this position by the way


You still find the unAfrikan practice of producing, teaching and growing babies not being seen as the most important revolutionary work in the Afrikan centered community...bros still distance themselves from their families and put "reasoning sessions" with other bros or work or lecturing or touring or any and everything else over spending time at home with the source of their immortality
Our Ancestors said "if the child does not know his father the world is upside down"...while fatherhood was not the equivalent of motherhood it was seen as essential...with a wholistic view and way of living life children were intergrated into all aspects of it
Youth were not viewed as the property of the father and the sole responsibility of the mother



Et cetera,et cetera, et cetera....but enough ranting *smile*...what I teach my children is truth...is that we, we as in black, brown and red women of the world are the Source of all that we can see and all that we cannot see...every tree, every herb, every sacred stone, every planet and every star came from the fertile soil of our wombs and the juicy ripeness of our vaginas...there is nothing that is not the child of the Mother Goddess and we are she...research Her, with Her many names...Isis, Auset, Ishtar, Inanna, Lilith and you will see us looking back at you....listen to her stories, her myths, the oral history about her and you will hear the stories of our lives repeated again and again...look at the world alllll around you and you will feel the love of a mother for those she has brough forth

I teach my dawtas not to ever live in shame, not to ever feel cursed by their bodies or their beauty because it is the attraction to this same beauty that creates life ALL LIFE

I teach them never to feel that they have to cover that which is our reason for being here, unless they feel so inclined

I teach them that their sexuality is a sacred and wholy gift bestowed upon them along with the wisdom to use it properly and with love and ecstasy always and all ways
I teach my dawtas..."as it harm none, do as you will"...because truth and oneness with the universe creates a purity of heart that does not require endless rules and regulations

And these things , this truth, this love, this living in the beauty of reality and relaxing in the loving arms of the Wombniverse allows them the opportunity to be the amazing Children of Light that you see, and that they are

Unschooling-Being Guided as opposed to Leading

Owner of Keeyshas Kreations asks...

Greetings Queen,I have been homeschooling for 4 years now and my eldest daughter who is now 7 has always been advanced academically for her age. I wanted to know what teachings have you implemented in your schooling maninly in the subjest of History. Right now Wysdum is deep into Khemtic studies. This is her favorite subject right now. I am just providing the resources. I am not teaching her history in a chronological order right now. I am just letting her pick and choose, but every now and then I feel like she may be missing something. Her math is at a 3rd grade level, her reading is at a 3-4th grade level. I just don't want to overwhelm her and cause "burn out" Do you have any suggestions?Peace

Using my soon to be 18 year old and my own 38 year old self as examples I must say that we retain that material that we LOVE and are allowed to discover and understand at our own personal pace

Not only is this true...but when we allow our youth to lead their learning, no time is wasted, much much much less time is spent on disciplining and motivating them therefore they achieve much more than they do when we force them to learn those things that we have deemed important

Western Indo-European Patriarchal society teaches not to trust our children

Teaches us that they are stupid, they are lazy, they are manipulative, they are unruly, they are dangerous

We as parents are made to feel that we have to control and contain our children

Staying at home with our babies teaches us the truth

That every child's deepest desire is to please his parents and be a productive member of the society he was born into

That every child has a unique destiny he was born to fulfill and from the minute he is conceived he is ACTIVELY working towards fulfilling that very unique, very personal destiny

That our children are Highly Intelligent, Motivated with boundless energy and eager to learn new things each and every minute

And our role as parents is to have the resources available that allow them to learn those things they are interested and to make sure they are safe and that their basic needs and met

We do not have to guide their learning...we have to allow ourselves to be guided

It is not possible to live in this modern world and not have a rudimentary understanding of math, reading and science....include your children in your daily activities and they will pick these things up naturally...just as they walk and talk and use the toilet and eat with utensils...they will look around them and see what is the norm in their family and imitate it...this is how life continues....a beautiful cycle created by the Ancestral Mothers...we do not have to re-invent it, we only have to use it properly

For the study of history, I make sure that many world history books are available for my youth...these can be purchased at any used book store or at Half.com

I also make sure and provide my children with the history behind current events...the war in Iraq for example

I speak truth to my children and do not sugar coat any current or historical event to fit a particular political or world view

I provided the world history behind our own family practices...the historical reasons we are vegan, we home school, we wear nappy hair...et cetera

When asked a sincere question by my youth...I give sincere and truthful answers and I provide the history behind them

When they are reading world history I make sure that they are considering the perspectives of our Afrikan and Native American ancestors because our perspectives usually are not given in world history books and I provide them with reading that gives our perspectives

books like Roots and Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

I also make sure that my youth have an understanding of the position and contributions of women in our society and do not take it or themselves for granted...I do not and therefore they do not assume that all significant events were led by men

As long as you continue to allow lil Wysdum to guide her learning, you can be assured that she will remain motivated and will retain that information which is relevant to the fulfillment of her destiny...history does not have to be taught chronologically in order to be relevant

She is not missing anything and IF she is...there will always be time for her to pick it up later

When I first started home schooling, I worked hard to make our environment a School in Our Home...we had a room set aside, set times for this, permission to go to bathroom...posters on the wall to motivate and on and on

It was not the children who burned out...it was me

By bringing the poisonous toxic Western education mindset into our home, I created an environment that I did not like and did not enjoy being a part of

So I relaxed...I meditated , I breathed, I prayed and I submitted to the fact that it is okay to trust my children

And that they would learn, were learning ALL the time whether they were seated at a desk or not and that just as I as their mother knew when they were hungry or tired or overwhelmed

I would know when they needed extra help in this area or more information in that area

Trust yourself mama and above all trust your child

Ona Osun-Roads of Oshun

"One of your god children referred me to you. I recently received my osun> pot - not initiated yet -just had to receive her and her pathe is Osun Ibu> Oddoi - she represents the dry river bed and her crown contains a> sunflower. Do you know any more about this road? I look forward to learning> from you...you are inspiration your blogs are filled with ofo ase!"

I am not familiar with this road but it sounds like two roads that I am familiar with

the road Ibu Kole....which is the road of Oshun representing the muddy depths of the river

In Ibu Kole we see a side of Oshun that departs from how she is usually depicted in that she is old and has but one dress that was bright yellow but has become almost white from constant washing and wearing, in this road her companion is a vulture which also teaches her the secrets of sorcery and witchcraft

the road Ololodi...which is the road in which the Oshun meets the sea and I have also heard described as the road which represents the waters under the ground...a sistah friend who is a priestess of Yemonja also spoke to me of a road of Yemonja by the same name and we wondered whether or not Ololodi was a road that Yemonja and Oshun share...we decided that in truth you cannot separate the waters and that Yemonja and Oshun flow together over and under the Earth whenever they get the chance

The roads of Orisha represent the different ways in which they manifest themselves on the Earth , in the case of Oshun that would be rivers, lakes , lagoons , waterfalls et cetera

Roads of an Orisha are also indicative of initiates of the Orisha who made their marks on the world in a particular way...for example an Oshun priestess who was particularly adept at the womanly art of witchcraft may have been called IbuKole, when she passed away and her descendents elevated her departed spirit to the level of Orisha she merged with Oshun and became a "road" of Oshun

I pray that this is my reality when I pass into the Ancestral realm...*smile*

Iwure to Your Highest Self

Odo Oshun-River Oshun








Sista,


Would you give us the ori prayer, the one that means, "it is ori alone that accompanies me on my journey....


"Give thanks!"

Our Ancestors were skilled in the art of iwure, meaning literally "to pull ire to you"...


Ire is the Yoruba word for blessings, good fortune, goodness





Iwure is sometimes translated as the English word 'prayer'...however, the concept of iwure involves not only an asking the Universe for what you need and want but also a rearranging of your life so that you are in the best position to receive your blessings and being open and willing to receive your blessings





An iwure that I was taught by the Medahochi Kofi Omowale Zannu, who passed away last year, (iba ara torun-we pay homage to the citizens of the spiritual realm) assists us in gaining a more productive and closer connection to our Highest Self , called in Yoruba the ori





Ori is the Yoruba word for head and according to our Ancestors the head is where the Highest Self dwells...our Ancestors said that it is our Ori that leads us onto the physical plane (by being the first part of our bodies to issue forth from our mothers' wombs) and that the Ori holds our destiny and assists us in fulfilling it





Ori nikan


Lo to alason


Barokun


Ori mi iwo ni


Bimo ba lowo lowo


Ori ni oro fun


Ori mi iwo ni


Bimo ba timo laiye


Ori ni oro fun


Ori mi iwo ni


Ire gbogbo timo laiye


Ori ni oro fun


Ori mi iwo ni





It is Ori alone who will accompany the devotee on a distant journey (the journey of life) without turning back


If I have money it is Ori I will praise


My Ori it is you


If I have children on earth, it is Ori to whom I will give the praise


My Ori it is you


All good things that I have on earth, it is Ori to whom I will give the praise


My Ori it is you

Integrating the Orisha into the lives of those who follow other paths...

My dear Sistah Goddess Raet...mommy, phenomenal woman and author of Holistic Parenting from the Pan Afrikan Perspective says...

Great post, I have a question, "What advice can you give to parents who are not initiates of the orisha tradition, but still want to the Orisha to be a part of their children's lives?"

Raet

Well those who do not use the Yoruba tradition as their primary spiritual system can still intergrate the names and qualities of the Orisha into the lives of their youth by teaching them to the children as Forces of Nature. For example, explaining to a child on a windy day that the force they are experiencing was called Oya by some of our West Afrikan Ancestors or sharing that the ocean's name was Yemonja in ancient West Afrika.

Afrikans are part of a global family as well as a global majority. We exemplify this to our children when we acknowledge all Afrikans as Afrikans and as our sisters and brothers and we do this when we respect and teach as many Afrikan spiritual systems as we can to our youth as well.

I feel that it is important for my children who are raised in the Yoruba system to understand that RasTafari is an Afrikan tradition, Voodoo and Hoodoo are Afrikan traditions, the Akom system is Afrikan, and the KMTic system is ours as well.

When we teach our children this oneness we also assist them in not feeling alone or singled out or abnormal. We help them to understand their place in the Universe.

I suggesst giving your youth several Afrikan names for the same phenomena...fresh water is known as Oshun in the Yoruba language, Het Heru in KMT, Tingoi in Sierra Leone, Faro in Gambia; the ocean is Agwe in Haiti, Naete in Dahomey (Benin),Olokun in the land of the Fon and so on.

I also suggest making those parts of any Afrikan system that is moving to you , part of your normal worship routine. My children and I perform libation in the Yoruba language, chant oriki (praise chants) to our personal orisha, recite the Yoruba pledge as created by Kabiyesi (iba ara torun) of Oyotunji Village for the Royal Academy and then we chant a KMTic hesi and utter the 42 negative confessions of Maat as part of our morning ritual. Throughout the day we listen to RasTafari music as well as Native American and East Indian music to keep ourselves grounded and uplifted.

As mothers and fathers it is imperative to be in tune with the behavior of your youth and then implement whatever ancient Afrikan practice you feel would be effective in managing this behavior. Sometimes this may be a ritual from the spiritual practice that guides your life, sometimes it may come from another part of our vast Afrikan tradition. Do NOT be afraid to claim that which is yours. Pull wisdom from all corners of the Earth...the tradition of any brown people is yours to use.

Any and all resources must be used to actually raise, uplift and fortify our children this is THE REVOLUTION.