my sister

a tribute to my sister: Minerva, or Bori as she like to be called.

04/30/1951 - 09/22/2015.

Minerva G. Newton in 2010

The older I get the more I appreciate all that is around me.
As I see my children grow up, having their own children, I see the miracle that life is.
Always stay true to yourself and others, savor what is family and good friends. Touch it embrace it. The hurt that comes with life will be forgotten when you surround yourself with spiritual love.

Blessings to all, Minerva G Newton.  
Sept. 15, 2014 

What I SEE in Me

artistic look at Brandi Homes by Rita Granberry

Mon Top 100 Belle Femmes 



Minerva G Newton

in 2010

“I am, as always, struck by your beauty. It is its own. It has its own voice. It means things one only notices through relationship and on the more superficial level it is a crowd pleaser. But the eye and the senses engaged by the secrets in your eyes carry perception another direction and one can see more. In the end there is your beauty defined by the life you lived, the beauty you share being honest, and the beauty you create by being Indian, and African and Puerto Rican, and a woman challenged in life to be herself. It's a beautiful thing, little sister; a beautiful thing to behold.” - Gregory E. Woods 12.1.10

Thank you so much Gregory. If these words had been written by another, I would probably just glanced at them once. But since these words were written by you, they go in my soul.

Blessed be....Bori.



Maitrieya Sandess walking the beach

 

Daughters of RA

Creation story of Adam & Eve

It is a pity and a truth, but many of the mores in society around the behavior and appropriateness of women are based upon the lack of discipline and training of the spirit of men. Men uninitiated into the mysteries leaves little room for the creative expression of women in many societies. Deep penetration into the laws of Sharia, the tenets of the Abrahamic religions tell the story clearly.

One need alter one's perception to see the faint trail of small animals in the forest. It is the same in this arena. This area of study is a hunt, and the laws of the Hunter require, and give permission to the Hunter, and the Huntress a way of probing into the shadows for the prey easily named, but fierce of countenance, and battle skilled. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.27.13

colorful pants on a black woman

"Well, at some point in the quest for power, personal power the dynamic of the opposite sex diminishes in importance. This is part of the process of becoming, and coming into the realms of power, and discovering what lies within you, and what power is. Basic to the misconceptions of power is the lack of relationship with one's own death. The teaching about the relationship with one's Death lies in women's traditional relationship with blood. It is true with men, but men's understanding and basic grasp of this life way is steeped in the mysticism of the Womb. 

In the beginning women's relationships with Life was taught in ceremonies led by the elder Wise Women to the child/woman during initiation(s) about their menstrual blood, and their blood from giving birth. Men's relationship to the life force of blood is through the hunt and war. Because Western women are out of sync with their wombs, disassociated from the Earth, our Mother, and not in the practice of nurturing their wombs many things are out of alignment including the men of their lives. From here, from this fault lie the seeds to start on the path to reconnecting with the primal forces of Nature that ushers in the balances that restore Life in the body, and creates a right relationship with Death that restores the power of living in the present in the presence of Creation upon the Earth, our Mother." 

- Gregory E. Woods 8.27.13

Minerva G. Newton's gold jewelry

Your comment, "If you don't require a lot for yourself how can you require a lot from a man?" brings to mind something I learned about people in general: what people actually believe is stronger than whatever religion they espouse! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories august 27, 2013

collage of Black art

DON'T LET OUR TROOPS FEEL FORGOTTEN ANYMORE!

THE TROOPS' STUFF IS BUMPER STICKER DEEP"

"As much as we have worked hard to try to help our troops feel appreciated and supported while deployed overseas, we're not doing enough! Too many of our troops feel that Americans don't care about the mission or the men and women sacrificing for it!

"We're bored with it," said Matthew Farwell, who served in the U.S. Army for five years including 16 months in eastern Afghanistan, where he sometimes received letters from grade school students addressed to the brave Marines in Iraq — the wrong war.

"We all laugh about how no one really cares," he said. "All the 'support the troops' stuff is bumper sticker deep." - NBC 8/22/2012

Never before in our nation's history have we as a nation put almost 12 years of time, effort, money, and most precious of all, American lives lost, into an effort like this conflict in Afghanistan. And yet, here today, we've lost the energy and fervor with which we supported our troops before. They noticed.

We must do better. We can't let this be OUR legacy as a generation. When this war began, and the anti-war protesters took to the streets, we stood by our troops, we got our American flags out and rallied to support the troops in the streets because we wanted to show the world that this would not be a repeat of the shameful way Americans treated their troops during Vietnam.

We didn't want the War on Terror to end up being a repeat of that sad chapter in American history. Now we're in danger of allowing that to happen to our troops in Afghanistan. We must show our support to correct this trend immediately!" - Minerva G. Newton

Maitrieya Jessie Lotus shooting a gun in the woods.

"IT'S SHAMEFUL the way we treat them, it really is....That's why I posted Slash doing CIVAL WAR ....they are treated like a "human grocery store".... Tell it. We had to petition the so called public servants to clean up the mess at Ft. Bragg....our fighting men living in deplorable conditions WHEN THEY GOT HOME to base. I call on these polititans to remember that these men have the same hopes and dreams and loves that they do, and deserve at least what a lower middle class person would have in their own homes. Maybe the private sector could go in and sponsor a row of these soldiers homes for renovation....Good letter... THANKS for sharing." - Pamela Pickens Underwood

"So true what you say. For sure they do have the same dreams that we all do. It is certainly a shame they way they get treated after they get home.
Here in Florida at least they are building some homes for those that come home after being hurt. It is not everywhere but in certain towns.
A note, this past week a soldier was seen looking at where his house is being built. This soldier lost his leg in the war. His spirits were high. knowing that he was being appreciated by getting this new home.
Love you Pam, my sweetie, blessed be, Minerva♥"

Minerva G. Newton

Bori, as you know words like this hurt my ears and heart. Sometimes I wish I didn't know so much about the contradictions and history of your concerns. It is the Mother's Heart speaking here. That sound is hardest on the senses of right and wrong, but this culture does not respect it, and somehow claims not to hear it. Countless young men are brought into a life of crime, and each learns not to regard, hear, or acknowledge their own Mother's Heart Songs. Their actions show it. It is the same for soldiers.

Our country's leaders put it out there early in the invasion of Iraq. They made it very clear Mother's Heart Songs had no validity in their decision-making process. Remember the woman who camped out in front of Camp David, the silent Code Pink protests in front of the House? There were many women in black walking near the White House in silent protest with their Mother's Heart Songs clear and in the air. Nothing. Soldiers intuit this things, and the most sensitive ones I am sure have spoken on it, but the military culture does not give credence to those sentiments. It is a cold hard fact of life. But those songs have to fill the air. They have to be sung. Balance has to come into existence, and it will be birthed into this madness someday. The songs of Mother's Hearts has that Medicine.

I hear the songs in your words, Minerva. I hear them. I read these words yesterday, and tried to shut them out of my head, but I couldn't. It is morning here, and the first thing I did was write these words before I began my prayers for a new day. I love you, and encourage you to sing those songs in your words. - Gregory

ELDERSHIP

“The Elders have some much to teach us, it all depends if we want to listen and learn, or just say I am not interested. It does touch many souls because at the end he will be reunited with same souls and other souls. The life of an Elder has mystery in it. Life itself is a mystery. It is up to us to see it and learn or just close our eyes and pretend that one person's life did not exist.” – minerva

photo of Minerva

AGE, MYSTICISM, & MYSTERY: a creation story

SHANELLE GAYDEN, age & beauty re-defined

"Wait until a mystery unfolds before your eyes, Shanelle. When the years come, and you realize powers of maturation, of growth, and the development of the meaning of beauty cannot be contained in a moment, or a year something intangible will enter your being and you will become what many women, and the beauty industry, and fashion industry shun and/or downplay to young girls, and women..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

black woman with long dreadlocks by Element Everest

Bori in red

dark beauty of Bria's face

"All colors are enhanced, or fortified by dark skin. Dark skinned beauty is the depth of origin, and original ideals and ideas of beauty, and it is a creation story overlooked more often than not by what is misunderstood about magic, mysticism, and mysterious things outside our peripheral vision of the worlds." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

RECOVERING HEART FROM HEARTACHE

wolf black & mysterious of nature & power

"This is true Gregory, women many times are just sex objects. But in this case I not only blame the man, I also blame the women for allowing themselves be treated in that way. Don't tell me that a woman doesnt know when she is being treated like a sex object. They do know, but they seem to like it because the more men like her, the more she thinks she is all that. They do not take in consideration that the men are just using them, they just think that they are hot. 



Women and men get married after the divorce, it seems that they have the woman or man waiting around the corner just to marry them. For myself I rather be married than to live with a man. That way we both have the same rights.


As far as women being scorned because they stay with a man all through their life, they only get scorned when they stayed with an abusive mate just for the sake of marriage. I believe in divorce because sometimes the man that you have or had was becoming the ruler of the house and wont even let the wife speak. I believe that the man should be the leaader of the house but he should always discuss what he plans are together with his wife, when men start ignoring what a woman needs to say, I feel it is time for him to go one way and for The woman to go her way.


We (women) are worth a lot, we create our households, we raise our children and are the main caregivers for us to be taken for granted.


Thanks for sharing." -Bori.
 
 

Bori

Love's in need of human detox:

Love organs are the main sanctuary of love, life, and lineage, this organ has such a crucial role. Everything depends on the way we use the love organ. A masculine energy initiated the first violation of the f...eminine being misled at the onset of the first human generation. The departure from the sweet safety of divine sexuality became the habitual confusion as a man or a woman preys on someone for selfish gratification, everyone loses in this game, the creator as well.


As men, it is our responsibility to respect and protect women, if gettin' mine causes you to lose your position or mine then that is the mentality of a thief. The more we seek after original sexuality ( which is good to the last drop and then some ) and insures that we will care for our lover as a way of life, then the universe will celebrate our commitment to love which did not come from humans but allows us to be human.


So in conclusion, to scar up your eternal spirit to get your freak on is unfortunate and leads to ruin. Woman is sacred femininity and the author of love is looking for real men and women to enjoy original sexuality. - Adruma Victoria

photo: Maitrieya Jessie Lotus picture of the embrace

Tena koutou katoa Whanau Kin ~ greetings and salutations Family Kin. I recognise you all and acknowledge that YOU and all who are standing with you Ancient and Ancestral are standing there also.



First of all, greetings and salutations to our Spiritual Kin in every manifestation which is seen and unseen. To our Ancients and Ancestors who stand with us in all of our Earthly journeys, I give thanks and appreciation for their guidance and support. To our Earthly Kin of every Rainbowed hue, I say welcome and come forward to the summit that is friendship and Family Kinship.


At the base of all Sacredness is relationship. Such sacredness is accorded to every lifeform as a fact innate of BEing ...of existing. One has no need to 'earn' this reality. It simply IS the power of Life to name itself even in our own images, which includes the mirror of possibilities that is 'ego Self'.


Every BEing is part of Life's own yearning for itself. HOW this comes about is as elusive and enigmatic as it is for some plagued by rules or undertaken upon a landscape of deception and strange coloured ethics. However it occurs, life is still calling forth itself in the unfoldments which the cognitive Mind attempts to order, control and too readily over simplify. Perhaps we need to consult our Winged and Four Legged elders about the intrigues of mating ...since they appear to accept the seasons of life a lot more readily than so many two leggeds. Power and Control is a very poor substitute for sacred relationship borne of mutual respect and accord.


In my own cultural milieu 'marriage' did not exist as it does in a modernist pseudo Christianised diasporic expression. MOEA is a state of relationship when two decide to cohabit sexually ...bearing in mind the Tribal long house is a place of collective gathering and relationship. If one chose to initiate relationship, it is done in the fullness of the tribal reality. This is what 'formalises' the recognition with the usual social sanctions which rest on respectful group to group inter relationships.


It is good to remember how our Ancients organised themselves in the circumstances in which they found themselves. Respectful relationships not only occurs between a man and a woman. Pro creation of Human BEings is not the only basis for 'mating rituals'. Life is the ultimate Parent of itself. Is what is occurring Life giving? Ought unhappy people who no longer trust in mutual respect within their relationships be 'required' to stay in such arrangements? I don't know. In my situation as a Tribalz Woman, my support systems are broader than a single life partner. Perhaps there is a need to look at the reasons for individuating partnerships which in some cases places far to much emphasis on that single event to provide for one's myriad of social needs. No single person can actually meet all of our Human needs, nor ought they be expected to.


I hear the terms love and wonder if we mean unconditional ...unconditioned by past suffering, and disappointment without malice, free to associate from an open Heart without fear. I wonder. ~ Mereana Taki

Septembre 3, 2010

Mereana Taki's great beauty from sea, land & stars. . .

absolute beauty of Puerto Rican bred Minerva

developing young men

Minerva in her home

“The feline creatures of legend and fact share inner space with women who connect with the play between light rain, sun energies, and the spirit of those moments vulnerable to discoveries between the worlds they walk as mothers, lovers, the child, and the wild woman's songs heard in their eyes. What a thing to behold in the face of a beautiful woman. What lessons to be taught to a young man who doesn’t know the difference between lust and love, and cannot understand the terrain, the geography of the actions of his words about women.

A number of young men, sent to me by Spirit, have great difficulty grasping simple concepts beyond the vernacular of the streets. Yesterday, I intervened between a young black boy degrading a girl in my group. I won’t get into long discussions with young cats about this. They get enough lectures from school teachers, and public service announcements. I simply said, “Everything you do as a boy, or as a man to a woman, a girl some kind of a way comes back to your mother.”

Typically, boys recoil but the truth penetrates.” –Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Marg Helgenberger, actress !!!!

MOTHER'S & SONS

“The feline creatures of legend and fact share inner space with women who connect with the play between light rain, sun energies, and the spirit of those moments vulnerable to discoveries between the worlds they walk as mothers, lovers, the child, and the wild woman's songs heard in their eyes. What a thing to behold in the face of a beautiful woman. What lessons to be taught to a young man who doesn’t know the difference between lust and love, and cannot understand the terrain, the geography of the actions of his words about women.

A number of young men, sent to me by Spirit, have great difficulty grasping simple concepts beyond the vernacular of the streets. Yesterday, I intervened between a young black boy degrading a girl in my group. I won’t get into long discussions with young cats about this. They get enough lectures from school teachers, and public service announcements. I simply said, “Everything you do as a boy, or as a man to a woman, a girl some kind of a way comes back to your mother.”

Typically, boys recoil but the truth penetrates.” –Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

HEALING from the perspsective of Boricuan Born Minerva

"Our body consist of many parts, we hear, we think, we make decisions and for that your mind needs to be learning something new every day. Healing is a process that we go through every day. Every day one goes through different circumstances and experiences that might make us change our mind. So as long as your heart is opened every day to take and accept changes, every day you are healing yourself." - Minerva

powers within

African-Puerto Rican firestorm ~ Minerva

“Knowledge is power. Self-Knowledge is formidable.”
–Adruma Victoria

African slaves in America

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” - C. Jung

OBATALA

"Obstacles are the things that you see when you take your sights off of your objective."

 - Elaneet Barclay-Jones CLP, Yogini

My journey in cyberspace has been interesting...

Boricuan Born Minerva 2

Minerva is an interesting woman I met online who blogged on Yahoo 360!.  Yahoo 360! stopped supporting their blogsphere July 14th of this year.  It was very disappointing.  Their blog format was well thought out, and for me, the best. I had three blogs where I wrote extensively on a variety of subjects important to me on spirituality, power, healing, politics, racism, and other things. One of the more memorable sites was hosted by an archeologist from the South.  Her knowledge was deep and informative.  I used her as a reference, and she occassionally researched things for me. There was a Vietnamese photographer whose entire blog was composed of his black and white photos of his native land.  There were fascinating healers, and hell raisers.  There was a brother from Western Pennsylvania, Marque Smith, who explored his darkness poetically.  We stay in touch.  Every time I have a gig in Western Pennsylvania I let him know.  He is a good brother who has helped me on my journey.

Minerva's FACEBOOK page

 I wish I could recall all the people I corresponded with over the years like Sarah G. Sky Star Lady Hawke Lisa Marie and Native brothers like Black Horn, and Lone Wolf , and the intelligent NDN woman White Crane. Writing online is a risk.  Writing has always been a risk.  Bearing your vulnerabilities online has expanded the concept of universality, connection, and vulnerability to a dangerous level in times where governments like China's, and the USA have sought to expand the definition of security into the realm of suppressing original thought, and look for ways, under the guise of keeping their nations safe, to silence voices that question illogical reason, greed, murder, and terror concepts that seize people's mind into a brain freeze.  Online writings, and chatter, like the spoken word, leaves a trail, and more than ever one's word must be his or her bond.  -Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories     

Black Puerto Rican - Minerva

AMERICAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

“We claim our rights rather than understanding our responsibilities” – Maxwell Perira Kamath I.P.S, the then Jt. Commissioner of Delhi Traffic Police told in a function. We always claim our rights to know the information against doctors, police officers and other people. In the meantime we fail to understand our responsibilities like helping a road accident victim by giving a first aid and making arrangements to take the victim immediately to the hospital. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has already issued a circular about Need to build confidence in public for helping road accident victims.

PUDUMAI BALAKRISHNAN IS A BLOGGER I DISCOVERED ON MINERVA’S BLOG TODAY. THAT QUOTE BRINGS TO THE FOREFRONT A FUNDAMENTAL FLAW IN AMERICAN THOUGHT AROUND RIGHTS, AND FREEDOM. –DAWN WOLF, KEEPER OF STORIES

a gentle reflection