 With the accession of Kamala Harris to the vice-presidency American political life has entered a new phase. A woman of Tamil (India) and Jamaican ancestry has ascended to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, proverbially a “heart-beat from the presidency”. It is not so much that a woman is so close to the office of the president – Hillary Clinton actually won the presidential popular vote in 2016 – but that a woman of black and south Indian ancestry has done so. One could say that Kamala Harris’s ascendance to the highest political office in the United States ever held by a woman of any race or color was history-making but there are some “markers” that pre-figure it.  To understand it – even if it requires a willing suspension of disbelief in most – one must look literally to the heavens, that is to say to the stars and their movements. Any such discussion will be more or less contemptuously dismissed as “astrological superstition” by perhaps 95% of the population. However, every nation and culture probably for as long as modern human beings have existed on the planet have turned their attention, usually with reverence, to the night sky and all of the heavenly bodies there with their movements. That attitude began to change more or less decisively at the beginning of the 19th century with the ascendancy of the scientific paradigm. All science, by the way, comes from ancient thinkers but that is a subject for another day. In the event, the heavens and their billions upon billions of stellar and planetary bodies began to lose the awe they had instilled in human beings up to the rise of an exclusive science.  What does any of this have to do with Kamala Harris (and one could also ask with Amanda Gorman)? To understand one has to turn to that much-maligned aspect of observational astronomy known as astrology. This is not the place to go into a detailed explanation and defense of the “meta-science” of astrology but to use it to arrive at an explanation of what is to come. Around the celestial equator – the earthly equator projected into space – there are 12 constellations. Due to the counter-clockwise rotation of the earth’s axis each of these constellations rises at the dawn of the spring equinox for 2,160 years before being replaced by the constellation in front of it which, in its turn, will rise before the spring equinox for the ensuing 2,160 years. This phenomenon is known as the “precession of the equinoxes”. Since there are 12 such constellations, the equinox returns to the same constellation every 26,000 years and this is called the Great Year, 26,000 years long. Every period of 2,160 years that an equatorial constellation inhabits the spring equinox is called an Age and every Age reflects the essence and impact of the constellation that rules it. About 120 B.C. the constellation of Pisces, the Two Fishes, came to inhabit the spring equinox, replacing the constellation, and therefore the Age of Aries, the Ram. Within 100 years after the onset of the Age of Pisces, the avatar known as Jesus Christ was born ushering in the Age of Christianity, symbolized by the double fishes. Early Christians in fact were called “Pisciculi”, that is, “little fishes”. In 2039, the constellation of Pisces will move away from the spring equinox and the constellation of Aquarius will take its place, making the “dawning” of the Age of Aquarius. The approach of the Age of Aquarius is already being felt. It has impacted the just- completed presidential election.
To understand this one must understand that Aquarius, now represented as the ”Waterman”, was far more anciently the primordial Egyptian goddess Hathor-Nut. Hathor in ancient Egypt was depicted archetypally in several guises: the celestial Cow, the Moon, and the Tree of Life in Amenta – the Underworld – where she is seen pouring out water from a vase to the thirsty souls passing through Amenta. Nut is the Egyptian sky goddess, the personification of the Waters of the Heavenly Ocean. In reality, therefore, the Age of Aquarius is more fundamentally the Age of Hathor-Nut, archetypally the Cosmic Feminine. The tangible influences of the Age of the Cosmic Feminine have been felt at least since mid-20th century with ever-increasing intensity. These influences have been felt in all aspects of modern society – politics, the professions, and personal relations to name but a few arenas. As we have seen, the political arena has been permanently impacted. Perhaps nothing has been so deeply affected as gender roles. But what is lacking in all the millions of words written and spoken about this phenomenon is historical context. Now – though change is underway - we take as given the rule of the patriarchy in family, business, politics and religion. But it was not always thus. Such evidence as can be unearthed showed that prior to the advent of the ascendant patriarchy 3-6,000 years ago, the matriarchy ruled, probably for 200,000 years. Longer probably, and likely mediated by the female control over the production of new life. Among other things, the first deities worshipped by human beings were undoubtedly goddesses and this primacy of the goddess held firm until Judaeo-Christian times in the western world. Hebrew women in or around 600 B.C. told the prophet Jeremiah in no uncertain terms that they had no intention of abandoning the goddesses for Yahweh. They could depend on and were valued by the goddesses unlike the emerging male deities of an increasingly masculinized religious universe.The goddess was marginalized where it was not outright suppressed and in the European Middle Ages untold numbers of women were burned at the stake because of their continuing adherence to practices and beliefs inherited from the ancient matriarchy. But this terrible time was bound to pass and slowly it did. It is our contention that Kamala Harris’s rise is tied to cosmic events whether realized or accepted or not. The Cosmic Feminine is itself re-arising after several thousand years of the being ignored and suppressed. And not a moment too soon. Donald Trump presented a clear and present danger not only to America itself but to the world. If it is true that what we might call “higher forces” guide our individual and collective destinies, then we can say that they intervened before things really got out of hand in America. Donald Trump had to go and no mistake. Is it too much to speculate that President Joseph Biden sensed something in Kamala Harris that impelled his decision to run with her as his vice-presidential candidate? Was she in some way chosen for him? Too much speculation I am sure. However, what can be said without fear of contradiction is that both of them must be protected because their enemies are legion, as they say, a certain number of whom seem ready to cancel the election in the most violent way imaginable. Charles S. Finch, M.D. January 21, 2021  It was quite a spectacle, seldom – if ever – seen since 1776. A large, roiling
crowd of self-proclaimed “patriots” converging on the U.S. Capitol pushing past the Capitol security force and surging into the Capitol building virtually without opposition or restraint. Inside, senators and congressmen were locked cowering under desks in a room by security for their own protection because it seemed like the mob of “patriots” was intent on doing them bodily harm, especially to Nancy Pelosi and Vice-President Pence. By taking over the Capitol these “patriots” thought they could take over the country. Perhaps the most extraordinary – and unthinkable – aspect of this whole event is that it was set in motion by Donald Trump himself, the President of the United States, a first in American history. There has never been an American president that ever incited a murderous mob such as this one. To storm the Capitol building, the citadel of American democratic government; when it was over, five people had died. Donald Trump has all the instincts of a Mafia mob boss and it still seems inconceivable that he could ever have been elected president, with a minority vote yet. If ever the existence of the electoral college could show itself to be an undemocratic, out-dated, anti-American, even dangerous institution the election Donald Trump brought that truth into sharp relief. Trump as president is a clear and present danger not only to America but also to the world-at-large, the one man who could launch nuclear missiles at a declared enemy such as Iran. Clearly there must be more established constraints around the presidential office; there is too much potentially destructive power in the hands of one man. A fascinating aspect of the whole matter is that, while the Capitol police showed themselves to be totally incompetent, ineffectual, and fearful against this raging mob, one man, a black security officer inside the Capitol, stood his ground and managed to lead the advance guard of the mob up the stairs and away from Senators and Congressmen behind locked doors cowering beneath tables. That man should be celebrated all across America. Which brings up another point: the mob was maybe 500 strong and there were no more than two black faces to be detected in it. The racial animus that has simmered among a critical mass of white people for at least 60 years was on full display; these people seemed intent on starting another civil war. This white mob attack on the Citadel of the country does not bode well for America, with all its outsized wealth and power. We haven’t seen lynch mobs in America since the mid-20th century but what we saw on January 6th was, in effect, a lynch mob. There was something Hitlerian about this whole thing with the fascist-leaning provocateur Donald Trump sending out the modern equivalent of Nazi brown-shirts to take the government by a storm. The man should be in jail and no mistake; he is a traitor and a criminal. Craven Republicans cannot do what is necessary, their loyalty to their party and to the President “trumping” (pun intended) their loyalty to the country. The matter is not finished, with state capitols all over America surrounding themselves with armed protection in the expectation of similar attacks against them. There was a Ft. Sumter mentality among those mad men and the rest of us must get ready for what is to come. Charles S. Finch, III January 18, 2021 There can’t be anyone who can’t vicariously experience the horror of the breath and life of George Floyd being choked out of him by a policeman kneeling on his neck. All anyone has to do is jump into any deep pool of water and try to hold his breath for more than three minutes. At the end of that three minutes a dire panic sets in as the body frantically searches for the breath of air that will sustain life. Though difficult to say but getting shot in the heart or brain couldn’t possibly generate the same sheer terror of feeling one’s breath and life steadily ebbing away as the knee of that burly cop, Chavin, chokes off the windpipe of George Floyd. For what? A counterfeit $20 bill that wasn’t actually counterfeit? Even if it had been, the most that should have happened is handcuffs behind the back and the presumed offender, Floyd, ushered into the back of the patrol car.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that Officer Derek Chauvin was trying to deliberately strangle George Floyd. He had to know what he was doing, especially after the man on the ground pleaded with him by saying through his strangulation “I can’t breathe”. Chauvin kept maximum pressure on the windpipe for 8 minutes 40 seconds when the human organism cannot sustain life deprived of oxygen for more than four minutes. So what was it that provoked Chauvin to murder? He apparently had a history of excessive force and violence against suspects but on this occasion he seemed to be possessed by a murderous intent. Of a black man. When is the last time a white suspect or perpetrator was deliberately strangled to death because this murder of George Floyd had to have been committed with deliberate intent. The whole event was captured live on video and broadcast to the world. Not to put too fine a point on it the incident put America in a rather bad light in the eyes of the world, undoubtedly the reason that Chauvin and his enablers, the three other cops standing around him watching him commit deliberate murder, were arrested, Chauvin being charged with second-degree murder. Lest the above-mentioned international “bad light” for America not be taken seriously all one has to do is turn on to the news stations and watch massive demonstrations involving hundreds, even thousands of people, erupting spontaneously in the major cities of the world. George Floyd and Derek Chauvin are now names on the lips of people everywhere and justice for George Floyd cries out everywhere. What is striking about the police strangling of George Floyd is that it has happened to untold numbers of black men ever since the end of the American Civil War in 1865. In the century following the so-called “emancipation” of black people from slavery, lynchings of those same “emancipated” people in the American South became a routine all over the region, usually without any provocation whatsoever. Why the outrage over George Floyd today? Perhaps because the deliberate strangulation of a man who had committed no crime by Officer Chauvin was videotaped in real time and viewed over the entire world in a way that had never happened before. It brought back into focus a murderous, racially-motivated police assault that many assumed had disappeared from America permanently. The authorities, forced to arrest one of their own, knew that there was no glossing over or ignoring this police murder. Chauvin was no longer a police officer, he was simply a homicidal “perp”. Will any lessons be learned by those in power, especially those accustomed to treating black people like animals to be hunted? Doubtful, very doubtful. These patterns of behavior toward black people specifically and people of color generally are too deeply ingrained in white people as a whole ever since 1619 (we won’t even talk about the historical plight of the American Indian). We can all agree that the vast majority of white people would never dream of acting like Chauvin but within the “herd” of white people the willingness and mentality to maim, wound, and kill black people circulates as a sub-terranean current and erupts in unexpected fashion often against black people like Arberry and Chauvin who are minding their own business, going about their daily lives with no thought that mortal disaster is about to descend upon them. And Malcolm used to say it doesn’t matter if, as a black person, you are doctor, attorney, professor, preacher, or president you are at mortal risk. The solution? Mass, disciplined, committed organization for people of African descent with common goals spelled out and enacted. Especially the goal of protecting ourselves not only for the moment but for far into the indefinite future. We weren’t brought here in the hellish holes of the slave ships to face our “final solution”. Using another cliché we are not meant to go “gently into that good night”. We have done enough dying in America and for America. It rather seems that the entire Black World has seen or intends to see THE BLACK PANTHER, though Blacks make up just 37% of the ticket-buyers. It is a crowd-pleasing movie for all audiences and, having attended the film, I can attest, as so many others have, to the infectious enthusiasm of the film-goers for the movie from start to finish. It is a brilliant film in many ways, with magnificent special effects and set pieces, sure-handed writing and directing by Ryan Coogler, and uniformly inspired acting by the cast – Chadwick Boseman (in the lead), Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, and Danai Gurira. THE BLACK PANTHER is sure to make a billion dollars in world-wide ticket sales by the middle of March. WHILE THE AUDIENCE WAS LARGELY ENGROSSED IN THE ACTION, THE SET PIECES, AND THE STORY LINE, I FOUND MYSELF DRAWN TO OTHER LESS-NOTICED ASPECTS OF THE STORY. I WAS PARTICULARLY INTRIGUED BY THE FICTIONAL COUNTRY OF WAKANDA, A JEWEL OF A NATION IN THE MIDDLE OF AFRICA, SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS OLD, UNIQUELY POWERED LITERALLY BY THE MOST POWERFUL MINERAL IN THE UNIVERSE, VIBRANIUM. COOGLER AND HIS CO-WRITER DREW FROM SEVERAL STRANDS OF ANCIENT AFRICAN HISTORY TO WRITE THE SCREENPLAY. FROM ANCIENT TIMES IN AFRICA, EITHER THE KINGDOM OF KEMIT OR CUSH - EGYPT OR ETHIOPIA – COULD HAVE SERVED AS THE PROTOTYPE FOR WAKANDA. THESE, IN THEIR TIME, WERE AMONG THE MOST ADVANCED AND POWERFUL NATIONS ON EARTH, INSTRUCTING, AMONG OTHERS, THE PEOPLE WHO BECAME THE GREEKS OF HISTORY IN SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, ENGINEERING, PHILOSOPHY, AND MEDICINE.  THERE WERE INTERESTING MYTHO-TYPES WOVEN INTO THE STORY. THE BLACK PANTHER, WHICH IS ACTUALLY A LEOPARD, WAS CALLED BAST, A NAME FOR THE CAT-GODDESS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, CLOSELY RELATED TO THE LION-GODDESS SEKHMET. MOREOVER, THE PHARAOH AND THE PRIESTS OF BOTH KEMIT AND CUSH WORE THE LEOPARD (PANTHER) SKIN AS A BADGE OF OFFICE, LATER RE-MANIFESTING AS THE “LEOPARD MEN” OF INNER AFRICA, A SECRET SOCIETY OF NATIVE MAGICIANS. SECONDLY, THE RIVAL KING WHOSE ARCHETYPAL REPRESENTATION WAS THE APE, CALLED THE APE HANUMAN, THE MONKEY-GOD OF INDIA. HE MIGHT JUST AS WELL AS REFERRED TO HIM AS KAF, THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BABOON, APE FORM OF THE EGYPTIAN GOD OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE KNOWN AS THOTH, OR HERMES BY THE GREEKS. FINALLY, THE ELITE COHORT OF WOMEN WARRIORS WHOSE SOLE MISSION WAS TO GUARD THE KING WITH THEIR LIVES, WAS MODELED IN PART ON THE ANCIENT PRAETORIAN GUARD: THE PRAETORIAN GUARD (LATIN: COHORTES PRAETORIAE) WAS AN ELITE UNIT OF THE IMPERIAL ROMAN ARMY WHOSE MEMBERS SERVED AS PERSONAL BODYGUARDS TO THE ROMAN EMPERORS.
THERE WAS SUCH A UNIT OF WOMEN SOLDIERS IN THE ARMIES OF THE WEST AFRICAN KINGDOM OF DAHOMEY (1626 – 1890) WHOSE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY WAS TO PROTECT THE KING AND WHO WERE SO FIERCE AND LOYAL TO THE KING THAT IT WAS SAID THAT AN ENEMY COULD NEVER TAKE THEM PRISONER. THEY WOULD NEVER SURRENDER AND WOULD FIGHT TO THE DEATH, WITH TOOTH AND CLAW IF NECESSARY. THEIR TERM OF SERVICE WAS 25 YEARS BUT WERE NEVER PERMITTED TO MARRY UNTIL AFTER DISCHARGE. FEW MEN WOULD MARRY THEM HOWEVER FOR THEY CARRIED THAT INERADICABLE FIERCENESS INTO ANY MARRIAGE. IN ANCIENT EGYPT, A PARTICULARLY FIERCE AND IMPLACABLE WARRIOR WAS ALWAYS LIKENED TO “A RAGING PANTHER OF THE SOUTH”. IN THE CLIMACTIC SEQUENCE OF THE MOVIE THE BATTLE TO THE DEATH BETWEEN KING T’CHALLA AND HIS DEADLY ADVERSARY KILMONGER WOULD HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED IN ANCIENT TIMES AS A GIVE-NO-QUARTER WAR BETWEEN TWO RAGING PANTHERS OF THE SOUTH. THE OUTCOME – SINCE IT WOULD DETERMINE WHO CONTROLLED THE SUPER-METAL VIBRANIUM - WAS BOUND TO DETERMINE NOT ONLY THE FATE OF WAKANDA AND ITS PEOPLE BUT ALSO THAT OF AFRICA, AND INDEED THE WORLD. THE IDEA THAT AFRICA HELD (HOLDS?) THE FATE OF THE WORLD IN ITS HANDS IS A WORLD-CHANGING IDEA. CHARLES S. FINCH III ELLENWOOD, GEORGIA FEBRUARY 22, 2018  Contemporary Africa can be defined by what I call the Humpty-Dumpty paradigm - trying to seamlessly piece back together Humpty-Dumpty after he fell off the wall. Humpty-Dumpty is the nursery rhyme version of the “World Egg” that comes down to us from the ancient cosmogony of Egypt, the Egg broken into a hundred pieces. The whole thing seems like Mission Impossible and yet... One has little (or no) idea of the power that resides in Africa; even most Africans in Africa seem oblivious to it. Benin and Togo are the Land of the Vodũ and I would be willing to give a 100% guarantee that if one ever deigned to visit, especially under the guidance of Erick Gbodossou, one would be maximally impacted, willingly or no. Gbodossou is a practicing physician born and raised in Benin – the epicenter of the old empire of Dahomey – who, however, lives and works just outside of Dakar, Senegal. Under the tutelage of his grandfather he was deeply instructed in the world system of the Vodũ and today can be considered an adept. The Vodũ are the spiritual Powers of the Fon and Ewe people of Benin and Togo of which there are 41 major ones. Their direct counterparts elsewhere in Africa are the neters of ancient Egypt, the rabs of the Senegalese Lebu, the abosom of the Akan of Ghana, the nommo of the Dogon of Mali, and the orishas of the Nigerian Yoruba. The destinies of the Universe and of humanity are directed by these Powers. The Supreme Being of the Vodũ pantheon is Mawu, the Goddess of the Ocean, usually linked with Lissa, considered either her son or her husband. Or both. The place – Benin/Togo – is intense with spiritual power everywhere making one fairly vibrate every waking moment. The tour starts with attendance at the annual Vodũ Festival (January 10th of every year since 1993), a day-long parade of chiefs, priests, priestesses, dummers, and dancers representing Vodũ temples from around the country. Indescribable is what it is. One co-traveler from the Bahamas wanted to leave straight-away to go back to Nassau so he could tell his countrymen who celebrate Junkanoo twice a year where their celebration comes from, virtually intact. It is veritably a feast for the eyes and the senses. The next day the rounds of the Vodũ temples begin, starting with the Temple of the Pythons, dedicated to Danh, the Rainbow Serpent of the Heaven. One has the option of having one of the pythons draped around one’s neck. These pythons, 4-5 feet long, are entirely tame and non-venomous. They are not captives; when it is time to eat they slide out of the temple and into the bush in search of prey. When they find one and make a meal of it, they then slither right back into the temple. The group then enters the temple where 15-20 of them live and if one silently beckons them, they will come and slither across the feet. One gets to like it, unaccountably so if one has customarily found snakes repellant as most people do. I could have stayed longer; strange as it may seem it is like I could have had a dialogue with them. It was that kind of place. One comes away with a different idea about snakes, at least the non-venomous ones.  The next stop was to the Door of No Return in Ouidah, the major slave-trading port in old Dahomey. Benin - formerly Dahomey - is one of several West African countries, Ghana is another, that has formally apologized for its role in the slave trade and has erected a memorial to that scarring historical episode. The Beninois do not shrink from acknowledging the consequences of their complicity and culpability in the slave trade and will discuss it freely and frankly. The Dahomeyan empire was built on slave-raiding and slave-trading with the Europeans in exchange for guns. Because of recurrent wars with the Yoruba state of Oyo in western Nigerian, Yoruba captives would be sold to slave traders by the Dahomeans and Dahomean captives would be sold into slavery by Oyo though each state raided for slaves everywhere in that part of Africa. It is a deeply emotional place to visit for African-Americans in the same way as Gorée Island in Dakar and Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. Periodically, offerings and prayers are offered oceanside to those African souls who died during the Middle Passage and lie buried in the sea. The hurricanes that hit the Caribbean and western Atlantic every year actually form off this same African coast and apparently follow the routes of the slave ships to the Americas. There are those who insist this storm pattern is caused by the as-yet un-reconciled spirits of those slaves who ended their lives at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Some will know about the work I have done with the cosmic cycles and energies that impact the world, derivable from the black hole at the center of galaxy, 26,000 light-years away from us. The energies from that galactic center that impinge upon us every second began their journey to us 26,000 years ago. Ancient sages had developed the “sight” and perception that enabled them to determine the meaning of these energies for the destiny of our world (and every world in the galaxy). They were able to perceive how certain cosmic alignments created sign-posts that formed a “book” permitting a reading of these cosmic processes. Jesus himself admits of the reality and truth of these things when he says in Luke:25-27: Portents will appear in the sun, moon, and stars. On earth, nations will stand helpless, not knowing which way to turn from the roar and surge of the sea, men will faint with terror at the thought of all that is is coming upon the world, for the celestial powers will be shaken What I am leading up to relates to the change in the celestial alignment at the North Pole when, in or around 2050, the constellation Cepheus will replace the current polar constellation Ursa Minor – anciently called Wep-Wat, the Jackal – and will remain at the pole for the next 3,700 years, constituting the Age of Cepheus. Who is Cepheus? Cepheus is the Cosmic Ethiopian King, once thought of as a real king (or emperor) who ruled from Ethiopia to Phoenicia (Joppa) more than 3,000 years ago. What struck me forcibly while traveling through the country is that contemporary Ethiopia is truly the Land of Cepheus. Another unusual (to me) cultural feature of Ethiopia is the ubiquitous presence of St. George, iconically always represented as slaying the dragon. His figures and portraits are as common as depictions of Christ. St. George is the patron saint of England but appears to be the patron saint of Ethiopia as well. We were shown an ancient book, going back to the 11the century, with an illustration of St. George slaying the dragon so his presence in Ethiopia is at least that old. When one studies the story of St. George and the dragon, one finds that it takes place in Libya and “Libya” was one of the ancient names for Africa itself. There is a Rastafarian community living in an area about 3½ hours from the capital. As is well-known, the Rastafari consider Haile Selassie divine. Ethiopian symbols and national colors – green, yellow, and red – abound on Rastafari paraphernalia. They adopted unmodified the figure of the Ethiopian Lion holding the national flag. Even their dreadlocks were derived from similar hairstyles found among peoples in southern Ethiopia. The name Rastafari comes from the original pre-coronation name of Haile Selassie, Ras Tofari, meaning “Prince Tofari”.
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AuthorDr. Charles S. Finch lll has conducted independent studies in African antiquities, comparative religion, anthropology, and ancient science since 1971 CategoriesArchives
January 2021
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