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Reviewing Ayi Kwei Armah’s book The Way of Companions

Reviewing Ayi Kwei Armah’s book The Way of Companions

  • Post author:admin
  • Post published:April 24, 2022
  • Post category:Ancient Knowledge / Books / History / Society
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I have recently been reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s book The Way of Companions. It is a fascinating book that I think teaches us all something about some key ideas that…

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Book promotions: Awakening and Spiritual Tools books

Book promotions: Awakening and Spiritual Tools books

  • Post author:admin
  • Post published:March 20, 2022
  • Post category:Advanced Technologies / Ascension / Disclosure / Extraterrestrials / History / Indigenous Knowledge / Science / Society / Spirituality
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Font page cover This is the book I have been waiting to write all my life. In it, I share the findings I have arrived at, on my intellectual and…

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Parallels in chieftaincy artifacts among Akan, Ancient Egyptian and Polynesian peoples

Parallels in chieftaincy artifacts among Akan, Ancient Egyptian and Polynesian peoples

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  • Post published:December 7, 2021
  • Post category:History / Society
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It is often by examining artifacts of culture that we can make links between the present and the past. This is because culture is often cherished and preserved, and artifacts…

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The Nagas, the seven-headed serpent, and migration to different parts of the world

The Nagas, the seven-headed serpent, and migration to different parts of the world

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  • Post published:August 13, 2021
  • Post category:Ancient Knowledge / History / Spirituality
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Note: the content of the article below is actually identical to the introduction to the 60-page paper with the same name as this article. To download the paper as a…

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Akan “bayi” and Jamican “obeah”

Akan “bayi” and Jamican “obeah”

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  • Post published:April 6, 2021
  • Post category:History / Indigenous Knowledge / Society / Spirituality
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"Bayi" is the word for "witchcraft" in the Akan language. "Obayifo"/"Abayifo" used in the current Akan language means "person who practices witchcraft". I say this because both words have roots…

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Dr. Wade Nobles on Empowering African People

Dr. Wade Nobles on Empowering African People

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  • Post published:December 5, 2020
  • Post category:History / Indigenous Knowledge / Spirituality
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Last month (November), my spiritual brother and friend in Ghana sent me this video on Dr. Nobles' thoughts. My friend cautioned me to take my time listening to the video,…

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Okomfo Anokye, great shaman and statesman of the Akan and Guan people

Okomfo Anokye, great shaman and statesman of the Akan and Guan people

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  • Post published:October 15, 2020
  • Post category:History / Indigenous Knowledge / Spirituality
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Even if anyone contests the claim that Anokye was and still is the greatest medicine man (shaman) the Akan have known, it is without doubt that he is the most…

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Kasskara, an epic Lemurian saga told by the Hopi people

Kasskara, an epic Lemurian saga told by the Hopi people

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  • Post published:September 23, 2020
  • Post category:Ancient Knowledge / History / Society / Spirituality
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Tawa, the Sun spirit of the Hopi People Robert Morning Sky & Anton Parks Anyone who is familiar with my books and other writings will be aware that I have…

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Honoring Armah, Diop, and Williams while reclaiming ancient Kemetic culture

Honoring Armah, Diop, and Williams while reclaiming ancient Kemetic culture

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  • Post published:July 14, 2020
  • Post category:History / Society
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A page from the book SaNhat, translated by Ayi Kwei Armah and Shemsw Bak So, after reading the works of Cheik Anta Diop (e.g. The African Origin of Civilization; Black…

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Western cultural appropriation of symbols of ancient cultures

Western cultural appropriation of symbols of ancient cultures

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  • Post published:July 11, 2020
  • Post category:History / Society
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Many of us know that in war, the victor takes the spoils. Those European powers that encroached upon, invaded or colonized other cultures around the world took their symbols and…

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24 Apr

https://www.theakan.com/reviewing-ayi-kwei-armahs-book-the-way-of-companions/
I would like to share a review of one of Ayi Kwei Armah's more recent books, titled wat nt shemsw (The Way of Companions)

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In the mundane educational system, it is often cla In the mundane educational system, it is often claimed that individuals who practice or even dabble in indigenous spirituality are superstitious, or that their methods are not based on evidence. Far from it. In fact the practitioners or if you will, the technicians of traditional spirituality are anything but arbitrary. Rather, these "spiritual technicians" base their methods on keen observation, conducted over stretches of time, that result in discernible, repeatable or predictable patterns. In essence, these repeatable patterns serve as the principles that underlie their spiritual practices.

If we take as an example the entity Mami Wata (depicted in the 1st and 2nd photos of this post), for this entity, a being of the water element, it is known that it has certain observances which, when carried out, can bring the entity as a spirit (and it is said, sometimes, also a very physical presence) to the practitioner. The entity can arrive with what sounds like peals of thunder, that can shake the ground, and the buildings on it. Knowing its call mantra, performing its observances, and burning specific incense while speaking its call words can bring out this entity.

In this regard, we could term the spiritual technicians of certain forms of indigenous spirituality as practitioners of "spiritual science". After all, science consists primarily of observing phenomena, accurately discerning repeatable patterns, and codifying those patterns into conjectures, theories and laws, all based on evidence. A main difference between the methods of material and spiritual science, however, is what is considered or is admissible as "evidence".
Fashion in Africa and in the African Diaspora has Fashion in Africa and in the African Diaspora has been evolving in most interesting ways that blend Kemetic and indigenous African cultural influences with modern cultural influences. More and more, we find in Africa and elsewhere in the African Diaspora an eclectic mix of our African styles and symbols with those influences from Arab and European cultures. It is curious to wonder where things will go next with this evolution.
What is prayer? Is it something that is merely rel What is prayer? Is it something that is merely religious, or is there a spiritual dimension to it? Prayer is communing with nature, and with the divine. What nature and the divine have in common is spirit. Long before the powerful Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam took over many parts of the world, indigenous people prayed. They poured libation. They smoked the sacred pipe. They made offerings.
The metaphor of the iceberg with a small portion f The metaphor of the iceberg with a small portion floating above water and with a much larger portion submerged is appropriate for describing portions of our awareness and mind that we access consciously and portions that we do not access consciously. The conscious portion is the part we routinely access as we go about our daily lives while the subconscious (and even deeper, the unconscious) portions are not routinely accessed during normal waking consciousness.

Psychologists and esoteric adepts have both studied these hidden parts of our awareness and mind. It is interesting that what psychologists call the 'super ego' is what esoteric adepts call the 'Higher Self'. This part of ourselves can be accessed through subconscious channels. As such, the subconscious parts of our awareness and mind are important to know and to learn about, if one is interested in claiming and integrating more aspects of one's being.

The subconscious mind functions through the language of symbols. Symbols can have power as they represent energy relationships that the subconscious mind operates by. These energy relationships directly interface with manifest reality. For this reason, use of, and work with symbols through the subconscious mind can be very powerful.

For access to, and work with the subconscious mind from perspectives of both esoteric traditions and Western psychology, we can cite a few examples such as Jungian psychology, meditation, shamanic journeying and trance work, magical symbols, seals, sigils and talismans, dream work and dream symbols, all of which draw on the symbolic language of the subconscious mind.
After months of work, I have now completed and pub After months of work, I have now completed and published two books that together would quite easily be the most important written works I release in this incarnation. The first book, Awakening to your nature as a Spirit Being Incarnated on Earth, chronicles possible life journeys of any one of us on Earth. The second book, Spiritual Tools for Enlightenment – A how-to guide, is a practical guide that offers some insights into some tools that can be useful on the journey to greater awakening. The two books are written specifically for spiritually inclined people. More about these two books can be found on theakan dot com.

These two books are like yang and yin. One complements the other. As in the yin-yang symbol, within yang, there is yin and within yin, there is yang. Astrologically, these two books also represent a culmination of Jupiter and Saturn conjunct in the first house of my astrological chart. The book Awakening to your Nature as a Spirit Being Incarnated on Earth has a form reminiscent of Saturn and structure. The book Spiritual Tools for Awakening: A how-to guide, has a form reminiscent of Jupiter, and expansion. By completing and publishing these two books, I have brought to fruition an important part of the spiritual work I am doing in this lifetime.
Over half the current estimated population of the Over half the current estimated population of the world believes that hell exists. That is, 54% of the world, of whom about 33% are Christians, and about 21% are Muslims, on some level hold this view. Hell is a place where, in these religions, people go to suffer for their sins, and it is believed by many in these religions that the suffering and the punishment there is eternal.

Given the sizeable proportion of humans who hold this view, one could say that it is worth looking into this issue of hell in some detail. I think that religious persons of either Christian or Islamic persuasion (as examples), do not have many ways to explore this issue of hell beyond learning about it in doctrine and scripture and also holding on to the faith that such a place exists.

Those of a non-religious inclination, however, who choose to see themselves as spiritual rather than religious, may choose to develop psychic abilities that allow them to explore the question of the existence or non-existence of hell. They can do this through their own spiritual faculties, as well as by learning about the spiritual explorations of others.

Of the spiritual explorers I have come across who have looked into the issue of hell, it would appear that none of them have found a place of eternal damnation. Rather, there appear to indeed be places where spirits of low vibration end up after death. They congregate there, and they appear to suffer continuously. One place you may read more about this is in the book 'A Wanderer in Spirit Lands'.

Doctrine and faith in scripture can however be extremely powerful. What we hold to be true can manifest in our reality. The power of what we believe to be true is so great that these low vibrating beings who end up in the hellish dimensions of the the spirit worlds believe so strongly that they should suffer there, that it becomes their actual experience until they 'repent' and subsequently decide to experience something else.
We are energy beings, that are full of electric ci We are energy beings, that are full of electric circuits and networks! In our bodies, we have the central, the peripheral and the gut nervous systems. The central nervous system has the brain and spinal cord, however it extends beyond these two, to include the oral cavity, heart, lungs, and the gastrointestinal systems. The peripheral nervous system consists of the nerves that connect the central and gut nervous systems to other parts of the body.

A curious but not well-known fact is that there is a nervous system in the gut, which has the most neural networks in the body.

Biologists classify the brain into 4 sections: the frontal, the parietal, the occipital and the temporal lobes. The human brain has been described as a biological space-time transducer, which is to say that we can manipulate space and time with our minds, based on our thoughts.

Different brain functions impact our ability to create memories. The hippocampus, a structure in the brain, influences the creation a kind of short-term memory known as emotional memory. It is an important structure because childhood traumas can cause the creation of long-term memories that bypass it and that can result in the development of a smaller hippocampus in the traumatized individual.

Recent studies seem to indicate that eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate (which contains over 300 antioxidants, minerals and substances for neurochemistry) may boost brain function by stimulating brain waves while improving focus, recall, memory, mood and general immunity to disease.
It is often by examining artifacts of culture that It is often by examining artifacts of culture that we can make links between the present and the past. This is because culture is often cherished and preserved, and artifacts of culture connect us to who we are as a people.

I would like to share some curious similarities between three collections of people separated by both distance and time. These three are the Akan people of West Africa, what we know of as the Ancient Egyptians of the Nile Delta, and those Polynesian peoples who have preserved their culture on islands in the Pacific Ocean for millennia. This post has cultural artifacts from the Maori and the Samoan people.

In studying swords and weapons used by the Polynesians, the Ancient Egyptians and the West African Akan, I noticed that each group uses curved shapes for their weapons. The first image in the post is of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II. In his hands, he holds a curved sword that was known in Ancient Egypt as the khopesh. The first part of this sword looks straight and the second part looks curved. The second image in the post shows an exhibit of a khopesh. The Akan also have a sword, shown in the third image, known as an "afena", which has a straight first part and a curved second part. Similarly, the Samoans (fourth image) have a weapon known as a lautau that follows the same pattern, and so do the Maori, who have a club weapon with the same pattern.

Besides these items, there are also some incredible similarities in the headrests and stools used by chiefs all over Polynesia with those in Ancient Egypt and among the Akan. This, and one other cultural artifact used as an authority symbol by traditional chiefs in these regions, the fly-whisk, are discussed at length in an article on theakan dot com.
It is commonly known that mammals, reptiles and ot It is commonly known that mammals, reptiles and other creatures breathe in air and breathe out air through a nose. But it does not have to be air through which creatures exercise their ability to breathe, and breathing need not happen only through a nose. For example, amphibians breathe through lungs and skin, earthworms breathe through their skin while underground, and fish breathe through gills while under water.

The real mystical breathing, for us humans, does not simply happen by only breathing air through your nose. It happens by focusing on energy exchange between our physical and subtle bodies on one hand, and the environment in which we find ourselves in on the other. This "true breathing", which can happen whether you are buried underground, submerged in water, or surrounded by air, is a natural function that we as humans have, that we may have forgotten ever since coming out of the womb. "True breathing" is taught by a number of esoteric traditions I have trained in (Buddhism, Daoism, Kemetic and Vedic Yoga). 

Sometimes called "pore breathing", and it entails breathing with both the pores of your skin and with your bioenergetic field. As unbelievable as this may seem, it is entirely possible to go for several minutes (or even hours, for spiritual masters) without inhaling or exhaling, just breathing by expanding and contracting your energy field. Breathing like this brings the mystery of life to our living experience, moment to moment to moment. We may not realize it, but the chemical components of exhaled air (carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour) are the exact chemical components of what make up flames during combustion. 

Physical breathing gives our bodies energy just as energy is released during combustion. Add "true breathing" to that, and we can experience being much more than our physical bodies. This is because we can feel the exchange of energies between the subtle bodies of our microcosm, and the ambient energies of the macrocosm that is the universe, thereby knowing that we are energy beings and spiritual beings, in addition to having  physical bodies.
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