Diamonds Are Rough

Diamond Jackson is a whore; in polite society she is an adult actress. She is fine; as good looking as a man would want a woman to be but she embodies histories we like to ignore, or pretend didn't happen. Her perceptions mirror the inconsistencies of men's theology. This woman likes to be filmed and photographed copulating with white men in submissive and dominate roles. As an outside historian observing this let it be pointed out: she raises awareness about the conditioning of thought and practice that influences the way men and the law looks at, and judges women victims of rape and molestation. 

Black women, like Diamond Jackson, school white men's imaginations about who they are, and what they truly think about Black women in their contempt... There is a history to this assertion Americans need to uncover!

Sadly, there are millions of Americans ignorant of the basis of the social constructs they take for granted, and assume have always been in place for the right reasons. Women have the right to know what preceded today to better understand the forces that dictate life every two minutes, in the States, when a woman gets raped. If the MeToo Movement is going to acquire true power it needs relationship with the past realities, and principles that set this stage of such deep disregard for women and it needs a sacred base. Understandably, fear keeps women focused on outrage. With no substance and a lot of emotion this aspect of the women's movement moves to sink in quick sand without balance to a righteous cause. But, why balance, and what needs to be balanced? 

The obvious questions arise from knowing what has passed on before today, why and how. (Sankofa) There is another dangerous question we cannot afford, in the long run, to ignore; a deeply disturbing question not to be answered by men. There is a link between whores and professional women too terrible to think about, but it is there. You discern and ask the question from these histories. 


Gregory E. Woods (Dawn Wolf), Keeper of Stories
4/29/18 

Teaching world history revolves around women.

Diamond Jackson makes this point without reservation.

Differences between the African and the Euro-American

Abby Parece ,by the way in jeans, makes the light look better back in 2015!...

Abby Parece made a statement in 2015: "If you keep looking back you might miss what is standing right in front of you!" "What would Sankofa say?" would be the question to ask, not being a white man. I am an African First Nation man.

Sankofa affirms the spiritual practice of looking backwards to better see the present and the future. It is distinctly Akan, from the Adinkra system of writing in present day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In Colonial times European countries after slaughter and subjugation the continent of Africa was divided amongst the war participants against African rule, thus becoming countries with multi-linguistic groups, and cultures living in new circumstances.

The immediate task to maintain cultures and rituals throughout the continent of Africa was, and to this day difficult because Europeans as Colonial powers are extremely brutal. There are quite a number of West African authors, from the 1960's onward who have critiqued this time and illustrated detailed stories of that initial period, and how it moved through the decades. In these struggles, Sankofa was the appropriate technique amongst others to maintain the ancient cultures as France, and England, in particular thrust their nasty spirit into daily life!

In the United States, white Americans have inflicted themselves with gross contradictions to live by as they spread dark forces upon the people indigenous to this land, and the enslaved Africans they kept alive to copulate bringing forth more 'property' to bear upon their individual, and collective wealth. This system of manipulation for financial gain and cultural dominance to this end slaughter ancient ritual practices of the many African traditions that survived the Middle Passage. The Church, the educators, the business men, and the Department of War were the high priests of this orgy of dismantling the soul of people, Red and Black.

The 20th century bore fruit from this violence in both of our communities. Sankofa became more of a presence in the African spiritual communities in major cities as more and more Black American's struggles brought them closer home to who their ancestors prayed better understanding of self over mere survival. Washington DC's African spiritual communities are 'houses'.

There are eleven (11) houses: Yoruba, Akan, Ausar Auset, and one house of Voudoun. Each employ Sankofa in the practicality of unlearning what white people poured into our souls, as bowel. It is safe to say, and accurate to say the Sankofa presents itself to need, and is indifferent to being disregarded the way whites like to overcome their dichotomies with denial insisting upon other ethnic groups to simply get over whatever they (we) think they did to us!


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
March 7, 2018

Abby Parece by EASPHTOGRAPHY in October of 2015.

Enough.

Natural woman's look at self in the 21st century is akin to her grandmother's time during the awakening of 'Blackness'! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories  

The feel of the 21st century's Black American woman en vogue in 2017. . .

As one gets older, the wiser and thoughtful ones consider the past in relation to the future projections of what may or may not come to pass. It is a way of being concerned, connected rather to the outcomes in prophetic ways that minister to tomorrow with hope, as an antidote to the reality that people are slow to change the trajectory of who they will put up with in authority over their lives, and what they will tolerate to avoid transforming! This is how we equate change with what was promised to us by our religious leanings to believing in God, and the hope of redemption.

How we measure time in retrospect is an insight into our contradictions: we believe we have progressed; yet resist change, at best with ferocity, but insist others should change to make the world a better place to live. This is how we stumble through life with dictators, and tyrants. Being under the presidency of Donald Trump, another tyrant, is an arrival at the center of the truth about humans, and in terms of American history: a testament, a tribute; have you, honoring the trust in the slave/master relationship.

People like Donald Trump persist as the dominant type of leader because fearfully people vaguely dream of being rescued, and do not want to put into action the advise of the sage, who throughout history, have shone the masses how to liberate their minds, and spirits; not only for eternal life, but life on Earth, our Mother.

"When is enough, enough?" is the central question and the universal answer is as it was before: "Not yet, be patient; there is tomorrow." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (August 7, 2017)

Dancing. La danza de la Alegria por algo conseguido.

Dance of the West African woman's body is intelligent knowing of... 

Sexy Women of the '70's
 

African Women's Body of Wisdom

an elegant way to tease wearing a valerie peach draped two-piece outfit.

Our future is in the births to come, the mothers who birth and the men who become men to become men, in the deepest sense of the word! - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

"...and then there is the dream of Life! How we dream it determines tomorrow remembering yesterday! This is Sankofa." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories (August 6, 2017)

BOUND out of Shape!

Upon the back and between the wings of Sankofa you have to travel deep to re-discover who you are after five hundred (500) years of the European's treacherous intent, mind, practice and steel determination fueled by the Papal Bull to recreate himself in others. Unable to see themselves for the 'white' in their eyes Africans throughout the Diaspora, Asians and Arabs in the multiples of the tens of thousands strive to be the 'white of their kind'. It is sad, but emancipation from this is within each soul.

The question is: who wants to be themselves? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.23.16

Ideal woman in black cloth. photographer unknown.

QUEEN as Chattel

When Queen Elizabeth I said, "I'm a hopeless romantic... in that I see no hope in romance." consideration has to given. Didn't she have a failed relationship or two in her years and didn't British law control her ovaries in a manner of speaking? As Queen protocol restricted her sex life, and conditioned men of the court had to follow certain rules with consequences should they be broken for a sexual liaison with the Queen. So, it makes sense. If what I recollect is true romance had no place for her to indulge in romantic daydreams or romantic trysts. 

 There is a depth to Queen Elizabeth I's insight. I had not considered it from the weight of her view as Queen and a woman. But, if memory services me correct didn't she rule as an unmarried woman? In England, that statement has to be clarified. It has to be rated against the backdrop of the times and the conditions she created for herself in that brutal and crude culture she presided over.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

4.7.16



Fluvia Lacerda on the balcony stands in stark contrast to the conditions of royalty and womanhood of Queens of Europe in centuries past. It is a question of freedom. Are women free in the 21st century, or under less restraints? - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5.10.16

Teaching the Soul through Breasts



Crystal Clear holding her breasts as big as she is strikes a cord of familiarity
extending backwards as the Sankofa bird remembering the Mother Land.
- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 12.1.15

 

Qui est vous? Who are you?



delicate beauty of a red haired woman in soft light.

"A people without the knowledge of their past, origin and culture are like a tree with no roots." are the words from an Irish person who places emphasis upon being Republican and proud. It is a universal message, a universal truth, a statement logic would decree as a norm. But, knowing who one is is not as common as it once was in older times.

Across the landscape of cultures there were dreams and from the dreams came visions and the visions sought consciously were the simple return to what we knew coming into this world. Vision quests in the traditions that sought them are a returning to a place of knowing from a place one forgot themselves in the social context of their people.

"Who are your people?" is a question my father would ask of people. It is an old question, an important one that is a non-intrusive way of connecting relationships. Without the guide post the griot in West African cultures, and the historian in modern Europe and the United States or the recollections of the storytelling responsibilities held by particular family members so charged with this responsibility families and individuals would not have access to their spiritual and physical lineages.

Popular in American society are the cults of disenfranchised young people without well structured foundations floundering about waving banners supporting what is momentarily trending online. Groundless they express themselves pitifully, from an Elder's view, as Suicide Girls, Gothic chicks, occultists, lesbians, atheists, or join motorcycle 'clubs' heavily influenced by the moodiness of Jimi Dean. I could go on with the examples, but if you are a citizen of most countries you get the gist of my observation.

Older women are increasingly becoming less powerful seeking ways to remain younger and essential outside of the context of the depth of middle age and the powers inherent within the maturing process meant for women. It is a sad state of being. If women are retarding their maturation process towards the Old Wise Woman status, and men are stunting their growth through addictions and incarceration what hope do young people have of ascension into the higher realms of being? Further exploring this tenet of our national ideology what hope has the nation? The level of maturity and the depth of commitment to the higher purpose of serving define and secure the status of being a global force upon the Earth. The tired methodology that served the white man's quest to dominate the world today has the reverse effect upon consciousness.

Unaware of the higher realms of being and the consequences of evil white Americans are pushing an agenda inscribed in death sentences, and death knolls are taking the place of songs of deliverance. In the fear-based quest to remain atop of the world men like Donald Trump are feeding off of the bowels of their being. Feared as a white man, a rich white man many Black Americans are poised to vote for him. So deeply is the devotion to self-inflicted wounds, and submission to dark energies millions across the nation are voting against their best interests. They aren't thinking. They are not strong enough to see into the deep, and they are afraid of not being part of the group that appears stronger than any other upon the face of the Earth.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
3/28/16

Make American Great Again. What a profound indictment in four words!

news paper story of whites killing Blacks in 1898

Madison Washington was an enslaved cook who instigated a slave revolt November 1841 aboard the brig Creole.

Motorcycle gang,

A Look Back

"a rise in the morning with the right woman, a wife, is something beyond the mating call of a gigolo, a player." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

a look back...

My Story

I was 15 years old standing before my father. Daddy held his hands out palms up and said, "On the one hand I can teach you how to be a man." He raised the left hand and said with the same solemnness, "On the other hand I can teach you how to be a Playboy."

More than anything else I wanted to be like Daddy; a man! I touched his right hand. Daddy said, "Good. What I am going to teach you is applicable to both!"

A great deal of choice is based upon what you don't know, but I knew I wanted to be a man. Being a man was all I'd seen growing up. It is important to ground children in the basis of life allowing the elements of Creation to become alive. They are already within us. Let them live to express themselves is the example I gleaned from watching men like my father, and men with women like my mother.  There were probably sissies, and homosexual men prowling about, but the men I grew up with protected us from that element. How it was done came alive within me when I had little children. It had been part of the arsenal invested within my character by Daddy and other examples of wisdom. I learned a craft from men. From the perception of life as sacred the challenge of brokenness within men expressed through aggressive sexual advances against same gender was met with force of spirit, understanding of the elements within the two of us, and just a hint of an ass whippin'! You see, how we love as men is how we war when necessary. Isn't love stronger than death, and doesn't love cover a multitude of sins?

Today, in the aftermath and brutal process of warfare against alpha males in the schools, and social systems the attacks are creating a crippling fear within fathers and men. It is astounding. I can't relate to it, but I see it. I touch it. I converse with it, and decided to help in personal ways through interaction wherever possible. But, that is not enough. I realize fear is a by-product of bullying, and the dominant characteristic of the American way is bullying. With so many feminine men defended by women their sons, who were born to protect their mothers and sisters find themselves in a place without the prerequisite teachers of their masculinity. Without real men to develop a boy into a man monsters come forth, and killers become more dominant in our war-like culture.

A Solution

It is possible that manhood in the U.S. is truly and deeply shaped by the Euro-American, and therefore tainted for other ethnic groups. The folly of trying to be a man in the social context of what is 'American' for other cultural groups is quite possibly soiled because outside of our heritages, the cultures we come from; the truth is we are not white men! We had their spirit forced upon us, so is there wisdom in not finding a way out of that morass?

I think we need to run, and get our souls, and families out of this crippling spirit's grip. We can live here in the United States, but we need to be defined by our ancients. There is no life as a white person with the spirits they brought to these shores for us that would honor our ancestors. We have seen and known this all the years we have been here as slave, visitor, immigrant, or Native person. What we need to do is grow the courage, develop the concepts, and plan the strategies to unlearn ourselves into our authentic selves.

How?

The answer is in the declaration: unlearn and listen to what you've learned by doing. On a parallel course unlearning and discovering one's self is the spiritual work this endeavor requires. It is a question of life or death, not only for us individually, but for our children's children. That vested interest alone steps us outside, just a wee bit, from under the spirit of the whites because their spirit eats their grandchildren to feed their children.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
6.28.16





Elena as Queen typifies the standard of womanhood to be idolized, and protected by men. It is in the movies, written in books, and displayed in plays, and acted out throughout American history as the catalyst for hanging Colored men for looking upon a white woman's 'purity'! - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 6.28.16

SANKOFA VIEWS Black American Women

poster to Black Women

I love Black Girls

3 Black women's natural hair styles

Three Black American women with their 'naturals' sitting on the ground talking and laughing unabashedly reminds me of the climate when I was a young man; and Black women engaging life was intimidating and exhilarating at the same time challenged me and other young cats to exceed our limitations. Standing in close proximity to their presence did more to bring us into the concept of better where it could dwell comfortably within us. That is what Black women inspired in us. They were the glimpses of the Goddess compelling us to push our intellectual capacities over the horizon, and they were the Muse of creative impulses in ways foreign to this generation of Black women. 

It was and looking backwards, astonishing to feel that beside our parents a Black woman's appreciation of us made all the difference in the world. Those daily pushes from Black women's vitality diminished the social climate set against us, and made a world of possibilities a real world to create and leave as a legacy. That is part of the story of how I developed during and after the Civil Rights movement when I was stateside: internally and through indirect and direct communication with what I felt from the wombs of countless women engaged with their vital energies. It was a theater unlike today's world with the current fashion of disconnection from those energies and the hipness of being someone else, and less the feminine of the Black female doesn't inspire; it creates questions away from the why of existence! 

Gregory E. Woods,
Keeper of Stories 11.16.14 

legs agape - Keke Palmer 

GO BACK & UNDO

Sankofa bird

Ghana is home to the Akan people, whose philosophy and way of life gave birth to the idea of Sankofa. Sankofa  means “return to the source and fetch it”, “look back and walk forward”and “the wisdom of learning from the past to build for the future”.

 ”It is often associated with the proverb, “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi,” which translates “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.” Inherent in the understanding of Sankofa is the belief:

“It is not taboo to return and fetch it when you forget.

“You can always undo your mistakes.”

The idea of Sankofa is literally embedded in the culture of the Akan, for it is found within their Adinkra writing system. The Adinkra is a series of symbols used to communicate the Akan’s organizing logic or spirituality of their culture.

The website www.allafricawithin.com states that the literal translation of Sankofa is:

“The symbol is based on a mythical bird that flies forwards with its head turned backwards. This reflects the Akan belief that the past serves as a guide for planning the future, or the wisdom in learning from the past in building the future.

The Akan believe that there must be movement with times but as the forward march proceeds, the gems must be picked from behind and carried forward on the march.

In the Akan military system, this symbol signified the rearguard, the section on which the survival of the society and the defense of its heritage depended.”  ©VisionThought 2010. All Rights Reserved.




Bruni Sablan's Heavy Set Woman Marks - Terra Cotta Clay with Black Patina
Bruni Sablan nov. 23, 2013

FELT TIPS FROM KRISTINA'S 'Heavy Set Woman' Mark's -Terra Cotta Clay with Black Patina.
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The Shadow of Who You Were



a specter  from Egypt's past viewing the hieroglyphs of his culturefrom the gallery of  Sole Satya
September 18, 2012

"... and they come back as spectators, and to us as specters, from time to time to see themselves. What has transpired in their absence is of no importance to them. It is the life they lived and what they left behind that concerns them. It is the only thing they have control over save the memories they could never share. Their memories we cannot mingle with intimately because the nature of memories are the substance of wind and sand. They are the mist of early sunsets, and like the chill of the mornings waiting for the sun to burn the chill away is our promise of connecting with the ancient past whenever they subject themselves to the task of reappearing." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.5.13

Sankofa, Purpose, Existence

Purpose. We are born with our purpose and reason(s) for being! Raison d'etre, in the French language, or in English means the reason for being. Adults ignorant of the 'why' of their existence are trapped in a funnel where they believe the diversions, the distractions away from their clarity.

Our birth and our childhood held the 'why' as a clear picture of who we were meant to be, what we were going to do and agreements made before the birth experience. The adults who have to white water raft through tumultuous waters of doubt and fear of life need to make their journey back to the clear moments of their childhood to remember their 'why'!

Sankofa. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1/6/15

white dress on Helen Mirren posing with actor Lasse Hallstrom by Casey Curry

.Journey of HEIGHTS

What she sees is within.
April 9, 2013

"The journey of heights we take plunges us into the depths from whence we came into the heights from which we fell. That is one way of looking at a mysterious ability of humans. The journey of heights is the Sankofa movement, and the forward thrust of intent, and the mild participation of prophecy acting, or working simultaneously for the maturation of our force, and the ascension of our spirit within from the limits of our bodies. Sacred life prepares us to leave this world more alive than dead from the strain of  holding form in a physical body." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.22.13 (written 7 days before Mommy's body was delivered into the Earth, our Mother.)

"There's a natural mystique flowing through the air..."
- Bob Marley, singer
April 9, 2013

naked in the mirror

FORGIVENESS

“The vestiges of racism reside in us all either as the perpetrator or the recipient of its ravaging energies. Either role in life affects the best parts of a soul leaving scars, and prejudices not easily removed, and grudges not easily set aside. The spiritual work to lessen the grip of this creature is difficult, uncharted, and wrought with emotions, and unforeseen dangers. At its core are ancestral lines.

A starting place is in the present beginning with reaction to what shut down communication between you, and the 'other'. Many people today are engrossed in their ancestral lines, not as a genealogist, but as a doctor doctoring himself or herself. It is a beneficial endeavor for the self, and the generations dead, and gone, and those yet to come to life. It ain't easy, but neither is giving birth.” – Gregory E. Woods 11.5.12

tattooed body of Carmen Chaplin (granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin).

END of the year

Most readers have not been in my presence and don't have another sense of me and who I am. Through my musings, what I write about and the images I use there is a sense of me that is viable. Like anyone else the dimensions of self are more than one. This year is closing out, and many look back on their years with regret, or anticipation to get into the next year. I don't make New Years' resolutions anymore. They were too connected to other people's perceptions of me so I stopped making them. Instead I focus on the purpose I am in this life. The only times I was unsure of why I was alive were during the periods of my life I could not find a place my particular gifts fit in, or jive with the people I was involved with during those times.

I have a notebook that is detailed about my purposes in this lifetime, and I have a detailed prophecy about the why of my existence, and I have an analysis of my life from the perspective of Ausar Auset spiritual teachings. These three give me the words. I live the purpose. It is easy. It is easy living knowing the who and the why. How I know is directly tied to my childhood. There is no child who does not know why they came to this place, and I was no different. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12.30.13 


UNCS Clothing Co.

That is quite an image, a couple of old heads on powerful machines. Having lived their lives as young men it would be interesting to listen to and feel the power of their lives as they tell it, and sense what is related to them. . .

The Sporah Show

"Never set limits, go after your dreams and don't be afraid to push the boundaries..," #Sporah
Sporah is a popular TV personality in Tanzania. 

the WORK of HEALING!

Artist: Loyiso Mkize

I remembered the importance of Sankofa (an Akan concept) and something I learned from wise women: a ceremony of recapitulation.

Sankofa is a bird always depicted looking backwards its beak holding an egg its tail feathers. The proverb of this bird is simple. “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi," which translates "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten." The ceremony of recapitulation is action. You'd have to seat and write about every sexual experience in your life in detail, and as you write or speak take back the energies you gave, or were taken from you. The logic and the reason for this is simple. Think about why that is. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.23.13

Sankofa

Holy of Holies

Appreciation 4 Thickness

I am larger than life!
5.15.13

The deeper part of seduction comes from the most powerful aspects of African-American women's blend of energies that befuddles naivety, overwhelms (at times) common strengths, and pulls upward a man's spirit into realms of super powers that have to come from her. It is always difficult to weigh the enormous sway of power Black women hold over the country's frail ideals about Beauty. Every visit back to the forms of women who nurtured Black African masculinity restores sanity, and allows us to unearth the mysteries our ancestors sang into the dank air of the hulls of many a ship about the spiritual powers and ties our spirituality could heal our people with. A Black woman holds the keys to mysterious powers to heal, travel through the energies of Sankofa, and ritual with the Powers she often knows not that she has within her Holy of Holies!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
5.18.13

IDEALS & Practical Reality

ideal beauty of a white woman has stumped the ideologies of traditions within many cultures, and inspired reform in the thinking process of countless people informed and insulted by the assaults against the multiple ideas of the ideals of womanhood. Image is a powerful thing to overcome, and so is the belief in not wanting to know how to associate with the powers of Sankofa in a spiritual practice that makes sense of the nonsensical. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.18.13

Khandi Alexander's exquisite & compelling carriage causes the Atlantic ocean's waves to move dangerously close to the ideals the dominant culture extols and topples them with aplomb. It appears that way, but the truth behind the carriage, the poise, the confidence in Black women's dominant energies lays in her heritage, and her tradition of overcoming odds specifically design to undermine First Mother, and those who understand, and believe in her strengths. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 8.18.13

deep powers of the transition

Zillasfashion

"You can see the Sankofa bird if you don't look directly at the woman's figure. It is hard not to look at her form, but this being the 21st of December in the year 2012 we need to be mindful of the disillusion of a 5,000 year cycle closing today. Sankofa is timeless. This bird cannot exhaust her  usefulness. Life is a seamless flow from realm to realm, and within that stream our consciousness awakens or slumbers. It is a choice. For the millions submerged in the mundane your purpose is served creating the angst within souls who crave light and enlightenment. The existence of the mundane's indifference, and lack of commitment to growth stimulates growth, and nurses the transition from one cycle to the next." - Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha (Gregory E. Woods)