Monday, December 3, 2012

Subtitles and Subtexts!


Empelandaba: Part 1

The End Of This World Is Just The Beginning Of Another

We are approaching the much vaunted and long overdue Dooms Day, prophesied by many astrologers, pseudo-scientists and New Age enthusiast paraphrasing the Mayan Calendar. The fact that this very calendar is composed of obscure and archaic symbolic hieroglyphs and interpreted by mostly English speaking modern conspiracy theorists did not deter the publishers of numerous “2012” books, documentaries and even big budget Hollywood blockbusters from profiting from this dubious “discovery”.

The reality is that for millennia and within many traditions and cultures, humankind has generated similar End of the World stories, in fact every contemporary book based religion has one. They all sound distinctive and are made to seem like the exclusive revelations of the various Gods, prophets or seers. But there appears to be many similarities and parallels running through all of these tales of human or earthly annihilation. From the ancient Egyptian/Kemetan Pyramid and papyrus scrolls and rituals of the Secret Orders to the Abrahamic religious traditions and the aforementioned South American Mayan civilization, the consensus is that what begins must surely end. But the difference is that while some say “No one knows the day or the hour of the Day of the Lord (Judgement Day)…”; the others declare that “It is written and encoded in the stars that when such and such occurs, the End Time is near…”. Yet even in the former tradition, we can hear of Jesus the Christ telling his devotees that certain events must take place on earth that will be mere signs that the End is at hand.

The problem with all this religious speculation is that it comes with a lot of collateral damage. So many people, believers and even those who are not even part of such conspiracies end up on the receiving end of the conspiracies, which increases levels of unwarranted fears and the more people exist in fear, the more susceptible they are to all kinds of manipulation and propaganda.

But there is another more positive side to the concept of the End of The World and that is the one posited by radical revolutionary movements such as the September National Imbizo; www.septembernationalimbizo.org - Even though this is a burgeoning young political movement largely made up of online contributors, supporters and followers, the few members who are spearheading it do meet regularly and many campaigns have been staged to varying degrees of success. In the bleak economic climate of the world and within the Black world in particular, SNI propagates an End of the World theory that is influenced by Black Consciousness and to a specific degree, Afro-Pessimism. What this means is that they view the existence of Black people within a predominantly White Supremacist society as an aberration to the natural order of the universe. A failed experiment. In other words, in order for the Black person and the Black woman in particular to realise full human status, the neo-liberal and global White Capitalist governed world must come to an end and there is no way around it, no reformist solutions or truth commissions can remedy this situation. This means that the world as we know it and as we have experienced in throughout the past cruel 3 or 4 centuries of Black subjugation, has to end in order for people of Afrikan descent to live decent lives. The Black radical revolutionary believes that it is impossible for people of colour to enjoy the benefits of an immoral Eurocentric society while the rest of the Black world languishes in abject poverty and acute types of inferiority complexes.

This is not a doomsday prophecy, it is not even a pessimistic of cynical view, but one based on careful analysis of the bleak and desperate Black condition…One has to simply think of the so called Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, the so called New South Africa, Mali, Haiti, Jamaica and any other African state to see that things are really out of order. But what is order? Is it Western styled modernisation or laissez faire macro-economic policies as instituted by the International Monetary Fund, governed by the World Trade Organisation and enshrined in the policies of the United Nations? Surely, there is more to the world than this; this state of desperate human suffering would exist if all these institutions were truly created to right the wrongs, or could it be that they were enacted to sustain them?

As already mentioned, the idea that the world would or should come to an end is enshrined in many religious texts and while others offer promise of a New Earth, others promise Heavenly abodes for the chosen few, it all “depends” on certain preordained factors, you have to meet the standards of perfection espoused by the specific gods, priests or prophets. Everything is related though and one has to relate all this end of the world talk to something, perhaps in the human psyche or in our various cultural ideals. Since religions and organisations do not emerge out of a vacuum but usually as part of coping mechanisms, we have to investigate further why obsoletes are ‘encoded’ into our stories and ways of seeing. Let us leave that for another telling. For now let me share what one of my online friends sent today, interestingly, I wrote part of this article yesterday before receiving this email, so I guess the spirit of the End is really upon us; so read with an open mind:

The winter solstice, according to ancient spiritual cultures, is the time when the energies of the earth enable the greatest enhancement to the ability to enter the state of altered consciousness, thus enhancing man’s ability to communicate with her/his spirit and the Divine World Spirit. It is also the time when the Divine World Spirit dispenses the seeds that will govern the coming year. The 2012 Winter Solstice also marks the ending of the current era of 5126 years (Kali Yuga—age of darkness), and the beginning of a new era that will manifest greater spiritual awareness in the world—Age of Aquarius, Satya Yuga, etc. Only those people that are in harmony with divine law, and especially those that have made a special preparation for the occasion through initiations will receive the spiritual dispensation that will descend during the solstice. Yes, there will be a catastrophe; being left out of the direct reception of the dispensation.”

Please follow this link and listen!: End of What World?  – Ras Heru-Khuti*

 

Menzi Maseko ©

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