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.
as the gods Attum, Seshat and Thot write his names and years on its leaves. (from the Ramesseum)
The other day I took some time out for myself to visit the local $2 movie theater. Eddie Murphy used to be one of the best comedians and I remember when people went in droves to see RAW. So feeling nostalgic about the Eddie Murphy of my youth, I decided to see "A Thousand Words". Although I had not seen any of the previews and knew nothing of it's content, I was pleasantly surprised. Overall,it was a good movie and quite funny. Not only that, it's plot centered around the Tree of Life and the book publishing industry. Specifically, the quest to publish a book to impact millions of souls.
In the movie, Eddie Murphy's character, Jack McCall, had to work through the trauma of feeling abandoned by his father, who left when he was young. This struggle led to him being closed off to his true self, the person he was meant to be. It was a story of self discovery which led to a spiritual and genetic connection through meditation and magic. These lessons were inundated with imagery of a magical Bodhi tree with falling leaves intertwined with the plot of a black man who was the top dog at a book publishing firm. Mark my words, this may be Eddie Murphy's comeback movie.
One of the central turning points in the movie is when Jack "sees the blue pearls". This leads to an epiphany just prior to his blood getting on the tree. The color blue is my favorate color so I like to hear it being talked about in a positive light. This led me to wonder what the blue pearl in this movie signified, so I Googled it. One website states that the pineal gland and the blue pearl or crown chakra are the gateway to heaven. It is said also that by meditating on the blue pearl, which is inside the pineal gland, one can eventually receive guidance from one's higher soul. The outward appearance of spiritual work on this is the "laying on of hands".
Chakravatin, King Ashoka Chakra
Mahabodhi Temple,
"Great Awakening Temple"
site of the Bodhi tree
In the movie Jack does not speak because of this phenomena connecting him with the Tree of Life, represented by the Bodhi tree. In ancient times, Indian emperor King Asoka (304-232 BC) paid homage to the Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Temple, and held a festival every year in its honor during the month of Kattika. It is said that in the end times, lotus will grow here. It is also at this temple that Buddha spent 7 weeks at 7 spots meditating and considering his enlightenment experience. Several specific places here relate to the traditions surrounding the 7 weeks. In Bangladesh and India, Kartika is the 7th month which begins with the suns entry into Scorpio. This is during mid October on the Gregorian calendar and ends November 15th. In some African cultures, it is forbidden to say the number 7. So speech and absence of speech is connected with this divinity. In Egypt, Seshat is nameless. To call her name at the New Year hour is to give one power. The number 7 is taboo also among the Kolokuma of the Ijaw in Nigeria, Malinke (descendants of the Mali Empire), Mbundu, Kikuyu and Kamba (Bantu people in Kenya), to name a few. Among the Mandak and Ga, the avoidance of the number 7 is found in speech where 7 is referred to as 6+1 according to the "Encylcopedia of African Religion" (p 611).
"Among the Dogon tribe in Africa the spirit of the 7th ancestor is repronsible for world order. This spirit also wove a cloth that is a manifestation of the Word and imparted it to humanity. The word for the cloth is soy meaning "it is the spoken word". Soy is also the word for seven." states the Encyclopedia of African Religion. Also in a book by Shannon Dorey called The Nummo about the Dogon the author further connects mathematics, the word, speech, and 7 with the Dogon and Egypt. The author states "The number 22 is the measure of the circumference of a circle when the diameter is 7. At one time this proportion, known as pi, was a religios secret. The circle is a symbol of immortality and seven relates to the Master of Speech (identified with the number 7 p152)....In the Dogon religion the "word" was a symbol for DNA....The words which were in the tonu soy of the po, Amma made them come out and gave them to the Nommo: this became the cloth that cannot be broken. According to the Dogon, the rope represents the unbreakable tie Amma had established between the ancestors and their descendents. The cloth in this passage is another representation of the "word", or the DNA that is a part of all life and identified with Amma. This same symbolism appears in Catholic iconography and was discussed....in relation to priests being "men of the word" and "men of the cloth". So here again we see how the teaching of science and mathematics is passed down through story telling in African culture.
The god Osiris paints Pharaoh's
name onto leaf of the
Tree of Life. Karnak.
Because the number 7, Seshat, the Tree of Life, and books are the topic of this blog I thought it fitting to talk about this movie which includes all of these themes in the plot. The only movie I haven't commented on that I have seen at this discount theater is Avatar, another "Tree" movie. Now, is it me, or is Hollywood, the city of stars, spending a lot of energy on Tree of Life movies which, in their various forms, include attributes of Seshat? I hope that you enjoy this movie as I have and add your comments to this blog on your insights.
