Highly Venerated in Spain Today, The Black Madonna "La Morenata", Early Temples, and Seshat

This morning while at a doctor's appointment I saw a book about ancient sacred sites. I opened it to a page and there was a picture of a black Madonna, "La Morenata"-- The Little Black Madonna. I read about her and was intrigued. Then I noticed the adjacent page was about St. Teresa and the next the number 7 so I made sure to take note to what was before me. I had been interested in images of black Madonnas in the past. There is one that can be found in New York I thought was interesting. As I studied more about Medea I developed a conception of these women doctors who were taken to other countries from Africa for their ability to heal, which some perceived as magic.

One site about the Black Madonna of East 13th St states, "Latin words Nigra sum sed formosa ("I am black but beautiful") were inscribed on the base of the statue. This phrase is taken from the Old Testament’s Song of Songs, in which a captive shepherdess declares her love for a young shepherd to the women of King Solomon’s court." When I read this a year or so ago it interest me because 1) this figure was black with the depiction of a women and male child, as the iconography in Egypt- teacher/student relationship theme I kept coming across. 2) She was in NW YRK. 3) King Solomon, the architect and first temple builder for Jerusalem, involved in the stretching of the cord ceremony and knot in the bible was involved (whom I perceive as a student of the science from the books that would have been contained in the library of Seshat-chief architect), and 4) It reminded me of my favorite t-shirt given to me at Obama's BET Inauguration Ball that read "My Black is Beautiful", a popular empowerment theme for African Americans since the 70s. I was thinking at first, does this inscription mean that black women have been struggling with proving their beauty to other cultures long before slavery? How long did this go back? So with many questions in my mind I spent several days looking for more information on Black Madonna's and other sayings of ancient times that we African-Americans still use today, such as Imhotep's, "My Brother".

So today opening the pages to see La Morenata brought me back to this place I had forgotten. Where are the black women who were teachers? What is this hand/fingers business I keep seeing? Why does so much written about these figures discount or explain away their blackness? I think we all know the reason for that... I will write about Demeter in another blog, but she is where I ended up with the last research several years ago while searching "I am black, but beautiful". Countless writings from the turn of the time from BC to AD concerning these black women who had come to far off lands with their knowledge of healing, herbs, and other north African type cultural backgrounds. 

I don't think that I have written about it yet but the astronomy of Easter and the science related to the stars and Seshat are related. So Easter and its celebration has been on my list of things to delve into deeper as the holiday relates to the goddess Seshat and the science of the stars from that early time period. La Morenata's feast day, Virgin of Montserrat's Day, is the 3rd week of Easter for Spain April 27th, which is tomorrow for me now many people will pray and feast in her honor in Europe. It was on 9/11/1881 that Pope Leo XIII declared the virgin of Montserrat, La Morenata, patroness of Catalonia. 9/11 is also the National Day of Catalonia. On April 25th this song Virolai to her was desclared winner among 70 compositions, the first stanza of which begins with the verse "Rosa April, the Sierra Morena, Montserrat star". Tradition says that this statue of her was found after it was hidden in the 9th century from the Moors who had come to that area. All of Catalonia was under Moorish control by 718 AD, according to Adam Kent.

If you know someone who can speak Catalana please have them provide me with a true translation from here. In the mean time this is what Babble I mean Google has provided me... From reading the translation things that stood out to me were wife of the mountain, gold saw & make you a palace (building), crowned with stars, mystic spring, water of life, fishermen, port, Lebanon cedar, Incense tree, palm sion (Zion), sacred fruit, guide to heaven. Noteworthy is that this festival coincides with St George's Book Day. In 1995 UNESCO established 4/23 as World Book and Copyright Day, the day is celebrated by women giving a book to men and men given the women a rose. Also, the Incense tree is The frankincense tree (Boswellia sacra) before translation- L' arbre à encens. The frankincense tree is found in Somalia, in Ethiopia, the Yemen and Oman. There is also mention of a Palm Zion which may reference a hill where Zerubbabel built the Second Temple, "Daughter of Zion". In the New Testament the Daughter of Zion is interpreted as the bride of Christ. However, as stated in my previous blogs I do not think the terms bride, daughter, mother, son, etc should be taken literally to describe a biological lineage, but rather an educational association of sorts that spans time.

Translated Lyrics to Virolai
April Rose, wife of the mountain
Star of Montserrat,
illuminate the earth Catalan
guide us to Heaven

Gold with a saw, the little angels sawed,
with a saw gold, these peaks there, to make you a palace.
Queen of Heaven, the seraphim down
Give us a blue inside your coat,

Dawn, crowned with stars,
City of God which David mused,
At your feet, the moon arose,
the sun's rays to give you clothes.

Catalans you will always be the Princess
Spaniards, the Star of the East.
For good, be the force,
For fishermen, the port of salvation!

Comfort those who leave their homeland,
Without ever seeing the peaks of Montserrat.
On land or sea, you listen to those who crave
Turn to God's hearts who abandoned;

Mystic Spring Water of life
sprung from heaven in the heart of my country,

Catalan

Rosa April, the Sierra Morena, 

Star of Montserrat, 

illuminate the Catalan land, 

guided us toward heaven. 

Saw the golden angels sawing 

axes hills to make you a palace; 

Queen of Heaven that descended Serafina, 

ten us wrap your blue cloak dincs. 

Dawn rising star crowned, 

City of David dreamed that God, 

to the moon you are putting your feet, 

the sun his rays assumes you dress. 

Catalans will always be princess 

Spanish Star of the East, 

Be good for the pillar of strength 

port of rescue for sinners. 

Give relief to those who longs for the homeland, 

without ever seeing the peaks of Montserrat; 

on land and sea oïu who implores, 

return to God that the hearts have stopped. 

Mystical Power of the water of life, 

rageu heaven in the heart of my country; 

gifts and virtues leave it to bloom; 

Take, please, your paradise. 

Ditxosos eyes, Maria, who you see! 

ditxós heart that opens in your light! 

Rose of Heaven, the seraphim voltegen, 

my prayer to give your perfume. 

Cedar gentle Lebanon crown 

Incense tree, palm Sion, 

the sacred fruit that your love gives us 

Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world. 

Our story begins with your name 

Montserrat and our Sinai: 

feel for the scale of all the glory 

rocky areas covered with rosemary. 

Rosa April, the Sierra Morena, 

Star of Montserrat, 

illuminate the Catalan land, 

guided us toward heaven

Lyrics to Another version

Over the edge

I saw the temple

Up in the air

There were angels

Inside the halls

I touched the Virgin

Her skin glistened Black

Mother of God

Soaring up over the peaks

Past the clouds around us

High above the Earthly planes

You'll find Montserrat

Past the other patron saints

You'll find Montserrat

The Legacy:

"Over 150 churches were dedicated to the Virgin of Montserrat in Italy alone, as were the first chapels of Mexico, Chile and Peru; even a Caribbean island bears her name. For centuries, the monastery enjoyed outrageous prosperity, having its own flag and a form of extraterritorial independence along the lines of the Vatican City, and its fortunes declined only in the nineteenth century. In 1811 Napoleon's troops devastated the buildings, stole many of the treasures and "hunted the hermits like chamois along the cliffs".....In recent decades Montserrat's popularity has again become established; there are over three hundred brothers and, in addition to the tourists, tens of thousands of newly married couples come here to seek La Moreneta 's blessing on their union." Discovering Barcelona

African Hair Styles

KMT

Namibia child 

Sacred Mathematics Embodied in African Culture

Today I was thinking about Seshat and the history of mathematics and archaeology. I asked myself where is the cultural proof in Africa of the embodiment of this science. If it is so old and comes from this land, where is it seen within the structure of the culture where libraries are not existent to hold the knowledge?  Then a blog reader emailed me this video. I had seen this video some years ago, but the email served as a reminder that we are all connected and the answers are there if you look. Thank you for that.

Bringing research like this work done by Ron Eglash to the public is important in the study of Seshat and the written scripts connection to KMT. Before there was the written word, there was the living word. Those who existed and embodied the knowledge, outside of that which is embedded in our DNA acted out unconsciously, but that which we create consciously. What happened to the people who embodied sacred mathematics both intuitively and consciously?  They are here, living and breathing the lives that their ancestors have taught them through ritual and secret society.

We must not destroy this knowledge because it is my belief that we don't know yet all that it contains in its most subtle forms. To discredit it, accept part but not all as valid or truth would be catastrophic to human history and culture. I hope that we can honor others and allow them the respect to be who they are without the destructive thoughts that we have all the answers that they should adopt our ways to the abandonment of theirs. 

Green Business, Building, & Seshat

What attracted me to the story of Seshat back in 2009 was that it was noted that she loved knowledge, as I do, she loved genealogy as I do. The only difference between her story and mine, as I could find, was her ability to keep things organized. That is and has been my Achelle's heel.

I was attracted by her ability to connect with the constellation, having myself known since in the womb where I came from and wanting to maintain that connection. Her story showed me that women as far back as 7,000 years ago did have that direct connection with the heavenly realm and it was revered. Science has confirmed that the temples were aligned with accuracy to the stars and here I had found a story written by Egyptians themselves that portrayed a women in its iconography as the originator of these sciences of astronomy, architecture, time keeping, and education. It was this women who directed the astrological portions of these building techniques and who said "put it here", to mark the exact location of the temples. Her symbol was a device to beam locations, her knowledge, and intuition were desired for millennia.

This week I was able to attend a symposium on micro-lending for green businesses, a green business academy, Earthday, and visit the Parthenon to see Athena ("the Goddess", hē theós, whose knowledge came to Greece with the olive tree) who stands tall with a female sphinx on her head, and was reminded of Lady Wisdom's presence right here in Nashville. Today I stumbled across something I noted several years ago regarding the green building techniques  that were a part of the pyramids and thought it was noteworthy for this blog. This is just one of the many ways in which early KMT has influenced my life today.

There is a cement mixture called geopolymer, its green, low energy, low temp, low cost, and good for the environment. When I learned about the reconstruction of this technique the researcher noted that the ancient Egyptians used an environmentally friendly building technique and they wanted to mimic this. The pyramids are durable and use recycled material from the natural environment. The knowledge of how to build structures this durable encompasses material science, chemistry, and physics. This green technology of using LTGS ceramic bricks, instead of traditional building materials, are an environmentally friendly production in construction that taps into the knowledge of the ancients. The knowledge taught in the ancient libraries presided over the Mistress of the House of Books, Seshat.

 

I think that more work needs to be done in the areas of technology transfer in building materials and techniques. Commercialization of green building technologies that are scalable in less than 7 years deserve our attention now, lest we stop building. Geopolymer cement may or may not be a part of the solution, but it can certainly get us thinking in the right direction. When we are able to link ourselves with our environment we will have tapped into that essence within us that aligns us with the source that will in turn allow us to create life continuing "products". When we take a stand and commit to it, thoughts become matter.

HIStory has not taught HERstory

The Origins of Human Civilization and Egyptian Reverence to Transformative script

One of the things that seperates human civilization from other living beings is the ability and extent to which we can transfer knowledge through time with script. As an anthropologist by training, this is why I am fascinated with the iconography of Seshat in Egyptian art. For early civilizations, she was their icon for not only script, knowledge, & time, but also the tree of life and architecture. It is baffling to me that most people I encounter have never heard or seen her.

HIStory has not taught HERstory. So I must.

The differentiator between humans and other life forms is our ability to transfer knowledge from generation to generation. This is what I learned while in undergrad earning my BA in Anthropology at Vanderbilt. According to Wiki, anthropology "is the academic study of humankind. It deals with all that is characteristic of the human experience, from physiology and the evolutionary origins to the social and cultural organization of human societies as well as individual and collective forms of human experience. Anthropology's basic concerns are the definition of human life and origin, how social relations among humans are organized, who the ancestors of (early man)..."

With defined language abilities, humans are expert at transferring knowledge from generation to generation. The next step into civilization(cities) was the ability to carry this knowledge in written form. The ancients recognized this as a divine process. This divine process was transformative and held special importance for thousands of years among the culture and keepers of the art- those who were scholars and scribes. The Egyptians considered themselves to be the originators of this process of scripting along with divine connections. Considering the importance to humanity script and libraries have played, I want to draw attention to the ways in which they recognized the importance of the ability to write to human high culture. Being in the information age is certainly a proper time to bring this to the forefront of our attention. 

It is for this reason that I blog. I hope that you will join me in this fascinating study and share with me your thoughts, ideas, and findings. You are welcome to post in the comment section or email me directly.

The Wadjet

The 3rd Eye is the window to the soul.

In this picture we see the All Seeing Eye, the Winged Falcon, and the Serpent. The colors of Christmas, red, white, green, blue, gold..
Matthew 6:22-23 (King James Version)

22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Psalm 17:8

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

8 Keep me as [a]the apple of the eye;
... Hide me in the shadow of Your wings
Footnotes:
Psalm 17:8 Lit. the pupil, the daughter of the eye (seshat: she who scrivens, mistress of the house of books, lady wisdom...see my blog for more)

We commonly think of knowledge, education, or schools when we look at alternate meanings of the term apple. Students symbolically give teachers apples. The "Big Apple", New York, is the seat of America, and also our original capital city. Etymologically Speaking states, "The term, the Big Apple, was first used in the early '20s by stablehands to refer to the New Orleans race track, then the king of race tracks. The name was later borrowed by travelling jazz musicians to refer to Harlem, then the jazz capital of the world. The dance, "The Big Apple," was all the rage in Harlem nightclubs in the '20s and '30s. In 1971, the term "The Big Apple" was revived as part of a publicity campaign to upgrade New York's image and promote tourism." Or perhaps the term apple brings to mind the computer giant, "Apple". For me I think of knowledge, good knowledge-the apple, bad knowledge-the rotten apple. Interesting to note that our nations most renowned city borrows its tag-line from African-Americans from New Orleans.

Lets look at the etymology of the term apple to better understand what the bible was saying in terms of apple of the eye.
According to the online etymology dictionary, "as late as 17c., it was a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts" "Apple of one's eye (O.E.), symbol of what is most cherished, was the pupil, supposed to be a globular solid body. Apple-polisher "one who curries favor" first attested 1928 in student slang. The image of something that upsets the apple cart is attested from 1788."

This is a task of unraveling parables. The anceints used parables to teach concepts. So to understand what the parables meant we have to look to Egypt and the evidence that was not burned or destroyed through time to piece together the lost knowledge from scripts we do have access to in some scrolls and sacred writings cross culturally. This, I believe all relates back to Seshat, the goddess of truth and predicesor/consort of Thoth/Tehuti.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART: THE 7 DIVISIONS & THE 7 CHAKRAS