The Color Red, Christmas, & Africa

5 years ago my son asked me this question as we were ending the Christmas celebration season. Seven days before New Years was recognized in his consciousness (December 25) on the Gregorian calendar and Seven days after (January 7) in the consciousness of his Coptic Egyptian school friends. To the ancients the celebration spanned the entire time plus a couple weeks, with different cultures shorting different days. However, mostly among merchants and schools the celebrations and recognition time has persisted throughout the time period. I think its important to note before I get into all this that I don't think we should focus here on when the New Year (Thoth 1) was for those in Kemet vs when it is in America today, on a day for day calendar basis. What I am looking at here is patterns in culture and piecing the puzzle together based off commonalities among traditions cross culturally.

However, I do think its important to recognize that the first people to recognize this time period were Africans along the Nile recognizing the inundation of the Nile signed by the heliacal rising of Sirius or "Going forth of Sopdet (The Bible and Radiocarbon dating: Archaeology, Text and Science)" on the morning sky (She Who Is sharp) aka Bringer of the New Year, Bringer of the Nile Flood, Skilled Woman, Kings Guide to the celestial 'Field of Rushes', Mother, Nurse (paradise in heaven) (the lady with the 7 or 5 pointed star icon above her headi see Temple of Isis/Hathor at Denderah) or "Sigi Tolo" (Dogon) "Sirius or Seirios" (latin) "Sothis" (Greek 322BC-AD395) or "Star of Isis" or "Dog Star" or "Anubis" or "Sepdet" or Soqdet" or "Wolf or Blue Star Kachina" among Native Americans, which the pyramids embody in the alignments of its corner foundations. Other characters of this astronomical story were Sah (Osiris) (Orion)(tolo atanu among Dogon) (inferred from the star-clocks of the early Middle Kingdom)(^MULSIPA.ZI.AN.NA "The Heavenly Shepherd" or "True Shepherd of Anu" in Late Bronze Age Babylonian star catalogues)(Hayk among Armenians)(N phila among ancient Aram)(al-jabbar among Muslim astronomy)(Sieu or Xiu or Shen in China and shenziu in Shang dynasty)(Archer/ijasz or Reaper/Kaszas or Nimrod among Hungarians)(Figg's Distaff or friggerock among Scandinavians)(Aldebaran or Alpha Tauri in Siberia)(Hapj among the Seri people of Northwest Mexico)(Las tres Marias in Spain or Los Tres Reyes Magos/Three Wise Men in Puerto Rico) or the star Canopus (inferred from the Utterances 422, 266, and 216 in the Pyramid Text of the Old Kingdom) and Sopdu (Horus). Her hieroglyph is represented with the star and the bread symbol. See also Papyrus Ebers and the Encyclopedia of Cosmology by Norris S. Hetherington for details on the location of the star and the significance of the number 70 astronomically. See also The Midnight Sun: Death and Rebirth of God in Ancient Egypt for more of Sopdet and Sahu or Sah (the far-strider)(maybe the star Canopus) in relationship to the concept of striding across the sky. Another character in ancient stories of this process is Hapi, the spirit of the Nile.

Sopdet in red dress, star, red headband

Her hieroglyph 

Her hieroglyph

Bread Cone (di)
Middle Kingdom

Lets look at the hieroglyph for a moment before we get back to the characters and the color red. The bread symbol or cake symbol also means "father". The bread and log symbol for bread is abbreviated Thoth, father also jt-nTr-father of the god. A pyramid shaped symbol within the pyramid is translated as give. The meaning of the Bread Cone is "to give", "present". The phrase "Given Life(represented by the Ankh) Forever is represented on a jar concerning Amenophis III and Tiy in the Louvre Museum. The dome and obelisk are common in Freemason architecture.

Hagia Sophia "Holy Wisdom" 532AD, Instanbul, Turkey

Another building to note is the Hagia Sophia. Sophia being the Greek term for Wisdom or Lady Wisdom. This dome was constructed by by Justinian in 532AD on the site of an earlier Greek Orthodox Christian church "Great Church/Magna Ecclesia", Catholic cathedral, then Ottoman Mosque, then a museum in 1935. The original church was dedicated to the Wisdom of God, the Logos, of the Trinity with its patronal feast taking place on December 25th, "the commemoration of the birth of the incarnation of the Logos in Christ". The Blue Mosque nearby was built in 1616. The Obelisk of Theodosius, also nearby, was brought to Constantinople from Egypt, making it the 7th addition to the minarets. This obelisk was originally of Pharah Thutmose III (1479-1425BC) and is today known as At Meydani or Sultanahmet Medani (Sultan Ahmet Suare). The procession of the Imperial guilds or corporations was held at this site. These parades were known to be riotous and filling the town with hundreds if not thousands of merchants who boasted of their goods and products coming from Egypt. Meat was a mainfare, beef/cow specifically. When the processions were over each guild had to give its possessions to the Sultan as gifts followed by prayer. According to The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Fascicules 111-112 : Masrah Mawlid, "All the guilds and the corporations had their own pennants; for example, the guild of lady's slipper-makers had a pennant with golden and silver threads and tassels, the cord-makers had a red and green one. The weavers had two different pennants: one red, and the other red, yellow, and green. Sometimes these guilds included wild animals." The Weavers Guild or The Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dublin (1446-1840), the original textile guild, "the Merchants" was London's oldest company. Medieval guilds were religious fraternities. They held parades where various guilds enacted scenes from the bible. I hope you are seeing my vision of the early European practice of a Christmas/new years parade and Egyptian/Kemetic influence. The vaulting stands tall like an observatory and looks like a pupil from the inside.

Considering that stories of good and evil often have ancient origins and have often
been juxtaposed depending on the story teller I wanted to reduce these characters to its commonalities. So, I started with from above, fallen to earth, and the color red. From this I wanted to know what stories were created in Kemet of "gods", which I conceptualize as characters or mascots to convey stories, wearing red or red and white or red and black. Were there any other people coming from Africa to global communities in ancient times carrying with them these ideas? What other characters of modern times carry on these types of ideas?

One common theme I noticed in observing the costume of the color red when I looked back in time coming forward to the present was judgement. Ideas such as "Judges" or"Judgement" or "Judgement Day" or "Scales of Justice" or "Maat" were key to this backdrop of story development.

An interesting correlation to judgement and the color red is the Catholic Red Mass celebration. Each judicial year the Catholic Lawyers' Guild of the Archdiocese of Boston still conducts the traditional Red Mass to ask for divine guidance in the proper representation of clients and in the proper administration of justice in the courts and in public office, according to their website. The Red Mass started in England in the Middle Ages and continued through World War II. This legal guild further states that "Red Mass is celebrated in honor of the Holy Spirit as the source of wisdom, understanding, counsel and fortitude, gifts which shine forth preeminently in the dispensing of justice in the courtroom as well as in the individual lawyer's office. Other blessings that are commonly requested to prevail in the minds, offices, and court rooms are Divine strength, wisdom, truth, and justice." Another site for the Diocese of Cleveland Lawyers Guild says the "Red Mass originated in the Cathedral of Paris in 1245 to invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit on the judges of the ecclesiastical courts.... The red mass became the tradition because of the red robes worn by the judges and the red vestments worn by the priests." So lets have a closer look at where we see the red robes and vestments.

TheCommon Fig/Mulemba (of Lemba) Tree

While I have not been able to find a date of origin of the common fig in Africa I was able to find a date on the fig-wasp mutualism originating between 70-90 million years ago as a product of a unique evolutionary event. Therefore, I would think that this variety and its widespread usage among the continent would indicate its antiquity among the human species and would predate the fig variety found in the Middle East about 9,000 years ago. These wasp are unique to other wasp in that they have evolved to specifically pollinate this variety of fig tree in Africa, so they co-evolved.

( Afrikaans ) gewone wurgvy ( Arabic ) jammeiz al abiad ( English ) bark-cloth fig, common wild fig, strangler fig, ( French ) India-laurel fig ( Fula ) bikeshi ( Hausa ) chediya ( Shona ) Gerina ( Spanish ) Jagüey poplar, Arbol Washington, Laurel, ( Swahili ) mrumbapori, mtschamwa ( Tigrigna ) shibaka ( Yoruba ) odan ( Zulu ) umBombe ( Ibinda ) Nsanda.

The fig term comes from the classical Latin "ficus (cultivation of fig) from the Persian word is and the epithet in honor of the collector of a collector of plants among the Europeans, Danish Peter Thonning (1775-1848). The central Africans use the term Mulemba (ficus thonningii) it is described from Ghana in West Africa. It produces white liquid (latex) that is interpreted as mother's milk among the Lemba tribe in central Africa. Lemba stands for the maternal side of an individual. Lem appears in many biblical names, including Lemech related to Hebrew Melech meaning King, and Lemuel. Its leaves are also used for livestock fodder and its bark is used for making bark cloth. The Senegalese and the Igede and Fulani people of Nigeria, Anola, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia cook the high protein, calcium, potassium, fiber and magnesium leaves of this fig as a vegetable. The common wild fig, Ficus thonningii, is extensively used in African ethnomedicine for treating a number of disease conditions which include diarrhea, urinary tract infections, diabetes mellitus, gonorrhea, respiratory infections, and mental illnesses. Latex rich leaves among these people are preferable because it is known as more potent. The roots are sometimes used as a treatment of "spiritual diseased believed to be caused by evil spirits.

In Angola school kids would go to pick up mistletow and use the sticky sap like glue on the end of the sticks.

"The fig tree is one of the oldest known fruit trees. Illustrations of fig trees are found on monuments and tombs of ancient Egypt. The Sycamore Fig grew in abundance along the Nile, the region from which Abraham's cattle-herding ancestors came. Zohary and Hopf, authors of Domestication of Plants in the Old World (Oxford University Press), assert that Egypt was "the principal area of sycamore fig development."

The Sacred Fig Ficus religiosa or Bo/Peepal/Peepul/Ashwatta and Bodhi and Sri Maha Bodhi tree (288BCE) is native to Nepal, India, southwest China, and Indochina. Budda was sitting under a Bodhi tree when he was enlightened.

"Figs were also a common food source for the Romans. Cato the Elder, in his De Agri Cultura, lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian (De agri cultura, ch. 8)"

Depictions of early people extracting from the fig tree with serpent. One dates to BC, the later AD

 


The Adventures of Pinochio Story (1883) "No Strings" Personification story of telling lies and troubled child

Russian stamp with Buratino
The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino (1936)

Much like the Christmas Carol Pinnocchio is visted by surreal characters.
Gimmeny Cricket (Green)


"Trouble awaits boys who rebel against their parents and capriciously abandon their paternal home! They will never experience goodness in this world, and sooner or later, they will have to pay for it sourly."- chapter IV

"My boy, do not trust those who promise to make you rich overnight. They are usually either mad or charlatans! Heed my words, and turn back." - chapter XIII

"Now you call me “your dear little cricket”, true? But do you not recall when, to banish me from your house, you threw a mallet at me?"- chapter XXXVI
The Blue Fairy

Taking the form of a blue-furred mountain goat, the Fairy warns Pinocchio of the impending arrival of The Terrible Dogfish, but is unsuccessful. It is revealed in chapter XXXVI that she gives a house to the Talking Cricket (who offers to accommodate both Pinocchio and the sickly Geppetto) while she was in the form of the blue-furred mountain goat.

The Blue Fairy: Pinocchio, why didn't you go to school?

Pinocchio: School? Well, I... [looks up at Jiminy]

Jiminy: Go ahead. Tell her.

Pinocchio: I was going to school till I met somebody.

The Fox & The Cat (con-men)

The Green Fisherman

II Pescatore Verde
The Adventures of Pinocchio

He is described as "...so ugly, he looked like a sea monster. Instead of hair, he had on his head a dense clump of green grass; green was the skin on his body, green were his eyes, green was his long beard which drooped downards. He looked like a great lizard erected on its hind legs."

According to Giacomo Maria Prati, The Green Fisherman is one example of the story's parallels with classical mythology, stating that the Fisherman is evocative of the cyclops Polyphemus of Homers Odyssey.

My Trip to Cahokia
The Middle Star of Orions Belt or Red Horn to the Native Americans.
Long-nosed god maskettes AD 1100–1500 Illinois Marine shell
Lightning whelk "Long-nosed god" maskettes, ca. 1150-1450. They have been found in eastern Florida, eastern Oklahoma, and several sites on the upper and middle Mississippi River

The Red Horn character is associated with a Human Effigy Pipe at the University of Arkansas Museum. He is in red material with falcon wings feather cloak. His headress is a copper plate held by a strap with a long braid and a rope of beads. The bread reminds me of the Ninti bread in Africa. He wears earings of the red horn with the long nose.

I also think this Cahokia figure is important to note here because of the similarities of the breast milk and pupil or child like Isis and Horus and Jesus and Mary. I have said in previous blogs I think that this denotes student and teacher, the-one-who-seeks-wisdom and the lady-wisdom who gives her suckle and milk to drink as written in the Book of Thoth. Also found in a mound with astronomical alignment.

Woodlands, Mississipian Period 1050-1400,
Cahokia, IL

The Red Horn character was has an underlying theme in its myth of the conferral of ritual kinship upon strangers in a function similar to that of the Calumet Ceremony of historic times. 

The movie Red Dawn was filmed in the fictional Calumet, Colarado. The Wolverines' secret hideout was filmed in an abandoned Safeway.

 

 

Its interesting to note that Red Ochre pigment uses Iron Oxide and was used by even early humans in burials. People in Africa also use red painting on their skin.

The Scribal Pose Cross Culturaly

Scribes were students before they were teachers. During each phase of learning, receiving knowledge, and teaching, giving knowledge, there were particular "stances" one would take to align the brain in the most optimal position for what it was about to receive. We see these poses today in the statues of ancient KMT and the writings on the walls. But you know what, scribes exist cross culturally, not just in Africa. Some believe writing developed independently by different cultures separately. There was no school that the first writers went to in each culture....because they all had no contact until Columbus, remember? In America we celebrated Columbus Day this week, which originally was October 12, 1492, and the children were given an excused absence from school. It is a federal holiday honored by the school system where children are not compelled to learn to read and write and the like. So imagine a world, shall we, where the human race scattered across the globe uncivilized and remained as such until each independently developed their own civilization elements. Why is this important to the Egyptian Goddess Seshat whose imagery spans a history of over 7,000 years? Let's look at the 8 litmus test in which scholars determine who was and was not civilized.

1. They had to have a writing system 
   
   
2. They need to have used a complex government- Law 
   
   
   
   
3. The complex government should supply public works to the people, like bridges and irrigation..benefits to all.. check out the Merinda culture 5000BC (stretching-of-the-rope technology to produce lines and angles in the land)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. They need to have artisans and specialized jobs... check out the Badarian culture of 4400BC and the legendary god Ptah, master of crafts. 

   

   Naqada I /Lapis Sight

   

   Ptah/ Lapis Skald Cap

   

   Ptah / Agriculture/Green god

5. Complex religion. "The earliest known shrines appeared in Egypt in the late Predynastic Period, in the late fourth millennium BC, at sites such as Sais and Buto in Lower Egypt and Nekhen and Coptos in Upper Egypt." (Wiki)

   

   Luxor Temple

   

   Sem Priest in Temple

   

   Sem Priest or Priest of Seshat

   
   

   

   Sem Priest/Zulu Priest

   
   
6. Farmers along river valleys to support the growth of cities 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Architecture 

   

   Mexican Hut

   

   Early America

   

   Ancient Egypt 2600BC+

   
   
8. They need to have a social class in which they separate groups of people based off their connection to the specialized jobs 
   

So for me taking into considering the elements of the early culture of people who thrived from writing and the laying of the land to produce specializations and support large city states I get all warm inside when I see scribal poses cross culturally. Particularly, when I see they coincide with the first temples, and farmers, and artist, and irrigation, and the color blue, and large populations along rivers of any given culture. Common threads and elements that to me or too much alike to be considered to have developed independently. So Columbus I am sorry but I dont think you chartered the first boat to the Americas and the education break for this day really should be put in its proper perspective in our school systems. 

So, enough about cultural continuity and "civilized" folks, who were the we ancients modeling in art? Who was the wet nurse? what did it signify? Why is our galaxy the Milky Way? Why do we have a thirst for knowledge? I mean really, should all cultures who build mounds and write create their own breast feeding mother in art? Why is the act of breastfeeding created in art in similar ways as the scribal poses and prayer stances? Whats this all about?? Do we really believe its about momma feeding little Johnny Appleseed colostrum? Did the ancients create permanent art and put this act in the temples, building, graves, ect for reverence to their mother when they were a child? I mean, what explanation are we really given for this cross cultural phenomena?

My first inclination when I started to study Seshat and read a play in the book of Thoth, in which the one-who-loves-knowledge in the script says his line about how he thirst for her and calls to her for him to suckle at her breast. This made me think that maybe the statues of Isis and the like are really just another version or aspect of Seshat during that phase of the scholars reverence to their educational path. Not a different person, but a different recognition in the eyes of the artist to a goddess with many favorable things to acknowledge. But even if Seshat is not all of these goddesses with different headdresses and titles in one, she certainly contained the image of the woman who breastfed the ancient Africans in their quest to become knowledgeable. Knowledgeable about math, architecture, astronomy, agriculture, medicine, and divinity.

Last month I drove to Cahokia Mounds in St Louis after visiting another ancient pyramid site in Evansville, Indiana while visiting the casino. I saw this statue of a figure with a bended knee, which I recognized as a scribal pose, breastfeeding.

Cahokia Mounds
City of the Sun/Heliopolis
Illinois North America
1,000-1400AD
Found at Pyramid site

Statue of a Scribe Amenemhet,
Buhen, Dynasty 18,
reign of Scribe Hatshepsut
(1479-?1458 b.c.), Diorite

MIDDLE TO LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
ILLINOIS, INDIANA & KENTUCKY
Flourite: 3 right knee up,
second statue is in Lotus position with beaded forelock found off Ohio River

Etowah
Cartersville, GA North America
Found at Pyramid Site

Sandy 1250AD Tennessee State Artifact
Sellars Farm, Lebanon, TN pyramid site

Seated figure
Ile-Ife, Nigeria, c. early 14th century ce
Copper. Height: 53.7 cm
Found on a shrine in Tada, on the Niger River, 192
km. northeast of Ife. Nigeria National Museums,
Lagos: 79. R. 18. Photo: Karin Willis, courtesy of the National Commission
of Monuments and Museums, Nigeria and The
Museum for African Art, New York
Figure wears a wrapper with a sash tied on the left hip

Scribal position with tools

This pose, called the Madonna, as well as the seated position in lotus and with one leg raised is found among the Chinese, Lakota, Australia, South America and more. What I've come to recognize is that the older something is the more applicable it is to more cultures. The history of Seshat goes back beyond Narmers palate and the early cultures in Africa 7,000 years ago.

Marsh mallow

We are deep into the fall season and toasted Marshmallows are my children's favorite. But what is the history of this campfire favorite? I like to trace the roots of plants to the roots of people and culture.
 Marshmallow are a central part of our "holi" days all with roots in Ancient Africa. Marshmallow topped hot chocolate for Christmas, Marshmallow easter bunnies, Marshmallow centered candy for Halloween, Marshmallow topped candied yams for Thanksgiving. Each equinox celebration carrying the tradition of the food with the the cultures that carries the celebrations.

"The Althaea Officinalia, it's scientific name, is a woody stemmed perennial herb, which grows 2 to 4 feet high and has little delicate pinkish-white petals. These five petal flowers bloom only in the summer months and their long thick roots are a pale yellow color.

The ancient Egyptians used mallow root for making candied delicacies for their gods, nobility, and Pharaohs, over 2000 years ago. Since it was a crime for anyone else to eat these sugar like tidbits, children had to look towards honey and figs for curing the candy sweet tooth.

Egyptian marshmallows don't look like the marshmallows we know today. They mixed the mallow sap with honey, grains, and baked this into cakes."

The plant looks like cotton when dry and okra when flowering, to me. The French carried it to America. Most interesting to me of the plant that inspired ghostbusters is that it can be used to make cords, as in the stretching of the cord ceremony. 

In this video I thought she gave a good explanation of the medicinal value which the ancient egyptians recorded as well. It protects the gut and as a reflex also the lungs. This may help people with digestive problems that may also get pneumonia or bronchitis along with their acid reflux.

The marshmallow plant's sap was also used by gladiators in ancient Rome

The Search for Egyptian Blue

Today my daughter came home from school and began to teach me about the origins of writing in Mesopotamia and the origin of civilization. I asked her about Odivie Gorge and Napta Playa and its proximity to Mesopotamia. She began to explain to me the 8 litmus test for a civilized society. So therefore, not all people were civilized or contributed of civilization. Having been a student of anthropology at Vanderbilt I understand these teachings, however they do not seem to be comprehensive or logical.

I like to look at cultural continuity. Like through linguistics or culinary taste or color choice. Such as my favorite color, blue. Blue has been noted as possibly the earliest artificial pigment ever produced. Made by sand, lime, and copper (CaCuSi₄O₁₀) or another site says calcium, copper (may contain metal or malachite), silica sand and soda. . And this began in Africa. At least by the Old Kingdom, more likely Naqada period, depending on if the source is also referencing Mesopotamia. I try to focus on developments of the Old Kingdom and prior in this blog, because it was one of the highest times of notoriety for Seshat before the role of woman changed in much Africa. Interestingly enough, this Old Kingdom blue was also found in the Parthenon, of which we have a replica here in Nashville with Nike & Athena, along with a huge obelisk and river out front. Its also found in the Near East, Mediterranean, Pompeii, China, Mesopotamian inlays, on Artemis and Iris, the Byzantine fresco The Ascension of Christ, in a mural altarpiece in the Church of Sant Pere Terassa in Spain, terra cotta warriors, and the Mayan's blue come to mind, but I will have to look up the ingredients there to be sure its the same. "The precision and relative complexity of the procedure which must be followed to produce Egyptian blue therefore suggests that the ancient Egyptians’ grasp of chemistry was extraordinarily well advanced."

The photo or visible-induced infrared luminescence of African blue or Han blue and purple is intriguing to me. They emit infrared radiation when excited in the visible range. This is giving science the ability to reexamine ancient art to see the color that has faded. It also gives us the ability to see in "black & white" how intrinsically connected civilized cultures are through the cultural continuity of the use of this pigment. Science is also using it as a form of technology transfer and considering its usage in the application of things that need an extra layer of security, such as currency.