HER Soul Mystery

Mereana Taki
April 2, 2014 

"Sometimes existence places you somewhere that beauty decides to wrap you up in and nourish you with every shade of amazing ...every ounce of jaw dropping exquisite ...every morsel of aliveness-ecstatic your heart can possibly stand and then ...crank it up a few billion vibrational notches as you walk into a beach side restaurant at sunset to choose from a menu of live (yes swimming in the fish tank) sea foods ...the sweet hum of nativez hosting every species of visitor you can imagine ...and right there you KNOW ...you FEEL that you are where the Joy in your Soul intends to live always ...walking in beauty ...it's not any physical plane moment ...it's that moment when you remember ...you are before the Mind and long after it has been returned to existence ...a Supreme Celestial in evolutionary Human transformations." - Mereana Taki april 4, 2014

Mereana Taki
April 2, 2014 

Three of the MADONNAS

left to right Eartha Kitt, Jayne Kennedy and Freda Payne  

A Study of SOUL

"A study in depth of the self begins the day, the journey, and its contemplation mirrors the progress of soul. Life is a spiritual walk that either affirms or denies life. Either way it is a spiritual walk. The meanings in life for the giver or the receiver, the victim or the predator, the teacher or the student lie within the perspective of the role we choose. Life is a deep art."  

I wrote this the day before we buried Mommy on the 30th of April 2013. I wrote as I breathed and breathed as much in and out of the words and teachings of my Mother since Mommy died last April. Every day her life force in her words came to me in indescribable surges and I wrote not the first words, but from the growth of the original teachings I wrote. I had written the meanings down in the meaning of my life. The whole of my life I did this, but the summation of her death was in the fullness of her life, and the union between Mommy and Daddy. 

I have an Iroquois made Mourning Blanket gifted to me by a Woman Elder last June from one of the tribes of the Sioux people. Somehow it carries Medicine Powers I cannot put words to. It is behind me now in my office looking at me from beneath a Coyote skin asking the questions and giving the answers swiftly in the most subtle of ways that Spirit does in Creation. Inexplicably, the blanket is now a gift from my mother in the Spirit World. 

~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.22.14

Span of 40 years

Lena Horne (1941) was 24 years old.

 June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010

Lena Horne (1981) was 64 years old. Her sultry voice aroused me at that age. Of all the things to remember about a woman her voice ranks high on the list because her intonation speaks to places within a man that may or may not be alert. A man's awareness can awaken by sound. There is the sound of a woman's presence, the sound of her look, the tone of her presence, the menace of her anger, the clinch of her convictions, and the stamina of her vigor, and the feel of her eyes. These speak to the subtle bodies of a man's nature. How we listen determines how we receive the gifts and the lessons of our lives upon the Earth, our Mother from the women in our lives and the women surrounding us with their daily lives!

If the sound of a woman's voice does not awaken the need for connection something is amiss within the man, and shortens the sense of wonder a woman can evoke within a man, or it is simply that her voice does not speak to his soul and resonate for other reasons. The ardor of the fires within a man's loins, the smell of a woman's allure, the pretense of machismo, and the fear of not being enough will make some men behave poorly, and motivate others to be better; not good enough, but the best of themselves.

Women are the center of Life because divinity rests at their center place in ways that made Creation possible, and the Creator accessible. A woman is the nature of a poem if she knows herself, and is better than the societal role given her gender. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 11.4.13

symbol of Tranquility

For decades Lena Horne represented the contradictions of race, and talked about it publicly. She was a study, and for Colored folks a model of excellence for which she was forgiven for being light skinned. 

I didn't grow up in a house bound by judgements of shades of Black or Brown skin tones. 'Color-struck' was something I read about as a teenager, but for millions it was a big deal. I understand it now, but as I remember Lena Horne's observations she deplored the system and used it to her advantage to become an activist, and a professional singer. This is a strategy and it worked for her. She wished the nation would ascend beyond the legacy of European conquest, and the survival mechanisms people of color employ worldwide to survive, live and prosper in the system of thought, belief and practice imposed upon them by the European's spirit and will! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.4.13

Colored Folks History

Poster

START OF WORLD WAR I AND THE GREAT MIGRATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS

The start of World War I was 100 years ago today when Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. The Great War reduced the flow of European immigrants – then a principal source for cheap labor in large American cities outside of the South – to a slow drip, which subsequently created new employment opportunities for African Americans, who wanted to escape the South’s Jim Crow laws and lynching.

The movement of about 6 million African Americans from the South to the Northeast, Midwest and Western industrial cities in pursuit of these opportunities is called the Great Migration. Harlem, a predominantly white New York City neighborhood located at the northern end of Manhattan, saw a tremendous influx of African Americans during the Great Migration. One could argue that Archduke Ferdinand’s death helped to spark the Harlem Renaissance… - Lioness Daiba Sala

Mother and child image in Chicago’s Union Station shot by Esther Bubley.  

“At some point, being Black became profitable to anyone and everyone who wasn’t, in fact, Black.” — Jack Qu’emi, The Appropriation of Black Culture through White Consumption of Hip Hop, 2014

MEN IN TRAINING

Bella on the dare. 

An Elder Hudson said, "If you are not BORN AGAIN it will be difficult for you to experience SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Growth can only come after Birth and it depends on what you are fed and not on what church you attend. So make sure you have the right Spiritual diet to ensure effective Spiritual Growth. Grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord and savior Jesus Christ." 

It took some urging within me, and a tad bit of courage to say what I knew about spiritual growth. I couldn't be angry at his projection into the world. I could be truthful, and I was. 

Bella in gentle form. 

Spiritual growth is not contingent upon being 'born again', but it is re-birth. The enormous spiritual growth witnessed and experienced in the eras, epochs and times past are testimony to that. In fact the rise of Christianity rose up in a historical period known as the Axial Period. It was a phenomenon unparalleled. All of the major religions within this period of a few hundred years arose to creative and spiritual zeniths at the same time! 

What is important is the freed sense of being in relationship with the living elements of Life, and the Creator, who created them. There are many places upon the Earth, our Mother to connect with what is necessary to grow in one's spirit, and many traditions to attain that goal. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.21.14

TRANSform

Holy of Holiness by Kat Adisson

NEVER TIRE OF REJUVENATION

Nicole Kidman 

MANHOOD DISCUSSION: Fatherhood & Prophets

African & European styles

African woman in traditional wear. 

Power of 2 Circles

The Workout Of The Day

June 1, 2013

The spiritual aspect of life is certain and very much a part of who we are. The white man saw the world different. For him circles had to have a physical function, and from his practical frame of reference wheels were developed for wagons, bicycles, cars, trains etc. For people indigenous to the lands of the Blacks, of Turtle Island, or Australia, for example, the circle became a teaching tool, and reflected in their stories the circle was where they came from and how relationships were interwoven with spheres of influence from world to world, belief to knowing and understanding of the world(s). In today's lexicon circles are a part of the structures surrounding us entering our conversations when revelations come full circle! 

The question of the day asks where are you on the Sacred Medicine Wheel your life is governing itself with? - Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha (Gregory E. Woods) 6.4.14

Bollywood Story for 2014

Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley & family. 

Bollywood moms

1. Celina Jaitley: Beauty queen, actor, entrepreneur and writer – Celina Jaitley has everything going for her. Although her Bollywood status is average, she has a number of endorsements and activism going for her. She is now also a very busy mom – having given birth to twin boys last year in March. Jaitley and her Aussie businessman husband Peter Haag are now doting parents busy cuddling the little bundles of joy.

WeModel

There is and has always been great pride in the achievements of Black people in every field. It has not abated over the years. Nor, has the breath taking experience of being in the presence of African American women!

proud of you

Jasmine Tookes 
Born 1991
California, USA

African American perfection of Essence

Phemy Williams on her 48th birthday
June 8, 2008

Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 to Divide Africa

The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent. By the time independence returned to Africa in 1950, the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily."*

In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismark called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa. Bismark appreciated the opportunity to expand Germany's sphere of influence over Africa and desired to force Germany's rivals to struggle with one another for territory.

At the time of the conference, 80% of Africa remained under traditional and local control. What ultimately resulted was a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that divided Africa into fifty irregular countries. This new map of the continent was superimposed over the one thousand indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. The new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups who really did not get along.

Fourteen countries were represented by a plethora of ambassadors when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884. The countries represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey, and the United States of America. Of these fourteen nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time.

The initial task of the conference was to agree that the Congo River and Niger River mouths and basins would be considered neutral and open to trade. Despite its neutrality, part of the Congo Basin became a personal kingdom for Belgium's King Leopold II and under his rule, over half of the region's population died.
At the time of the conference, only the coastal areas of Africa were colonized by the European powers. At the Berlin Conference the European colonial powers scrambled to gain control over the interior of the continent. The conference lasted until February 26, 1885 - a three month period where colonial powers haggled over geometric boundaries in the interior of the continent, disregarding the cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the indigenous African population.

Following the conference, the give and take continued. By 1914, the conference participants had fully divided Africa among themselves into fifty countries.

Major colonial holdings included:

Great Britain desired a Cape-to-Cairo collection of colonies and almost succeeded though their control of Egypt, Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), Uganda, Kenya (British East Africa), South Africa, and Zambia, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), and Botswana. The British also controlled Nigeria and Ghana (Gold Coast).
France took much of western Africa, from Mauritania to Chad (French West Africa) and Gabon and the Republic of Congo (French Equatorial Africa). Belgium and King Leopold II controlled the Democratic Republic of Congo (Belgian Congo). Portugal took Mozambique in the east and Angola in the west.
Italy's holdings were Somalia (Italian Somaliland) and a portion of Ethiopia. Germany took Namibia (German Southwest Africa) and Tanzania (German East Africa). Spain claimed the smallest territory - Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni). - by  Mark Wells 

European colonial powers 

Playing with ourselves

Leslie Vega  and a friend in the glory of their faces and what is within!
Oct. 27, 2013

OH, You Don't Remember or Didn't Know?

American's story 

FOOD vs AMERICAN FAMILIES

Getting to Yum: The 7 Secrets to Raising Eager Eaters

Interesting. This subject and its relevancy to these times is troubling for reasons I cannot quite grasp. Something transpired in this generation, and it may be entitlement (I don't know), that did not exist prior to these times. The science of making children eat is indicative of something outside of what I know about food.

I traveled the world growing up. Never in my household, or any I visited, nor in any continent did parents struggle thus. Eating and play were as fundamental to being a child and being alive as breathing and coming home at night after playing all day was a natural rhythm. But, a scientific and methodical approach to getting a child to eat? Interesting it may be, but isn't it a 'tell' that something is askew in our approach to life? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.29.14

To A Man: a stupid question

dark & lovely woman's smile 

"Do you think gay men prefer straight and married men?" - a woman asked.  

"This must be a women's question" I said. "Men don't have these thoughts, considerations, or talks. The whole of my life on three continents this has never entered a single conversation amongst men." 

"Gregory E. Woods I have to disagree with you cuz if men don't have these thoughts why are their so many down low brothers and the majority are married? I have a gay friend just last night asked me what he going to do with his married man he is seeing cuz he talking about leaving his family to be with him! I got mad cuz I thought about the man's wife! How he can be so deceitful and disloyal with another man." - Maurine Steveson

hair flung into the air by belly dancer

"Maurine, those down low brothers are what they are: closet homosexuals. These men are already in that life. I am not referring to those men. I am talking about men deep in their masculinity. Men. Not a semblance of a man. A man! 

For fun I called up some of my friends with the initial question of this feed. Same answer. No man's body can compete with a woman and all her glory. Manhood is so deeply embedded and intertwined with women, their bodies, their moods, needs and the sacred space they all carry that it is dangerous for a predatory homosexuals to approach a man about sex. The consequences of interfering with the mystical and magical that comes from women and from our own women is extremely dangerous for a gay man if he thinks his lusts can take precedence over  the purity and the power of what women gives us. 

For men it is a stupid question. Don't even ask a man something like that. We have sons and daughters to raise and women in our lives that hold answers to questions of existence and living. . ." - Gregory E. Woods, 6.25.14

Sarah Palin at home!!

dark skinned woman's pretty legs in high heels 

hair to the floor of an Arabian woman. 

IN L.A.

Talina Hermann

Jocelyn Osorio  modeling for Talina Hermann by  bluecaleelphotography.
June 27, 2012 

MUSANGWE FIGHTERS

Anti Lynching Parade in Washington, DC - Crisis Magazine, August, 1922.
VOICE

Musangwe Boxing is an ancient South African tradition that was used to find the bravest of warriors and to teach men to fight for their tribe and land. The Venda Tribe of South Africa is well known for continuing this custom. Musangwe Boxing has only three rules. The fight can only end if one of the fighters loses a massive amount of blood, someone is knocked out, or one of the fighters raises his hand to give up. There are no scheduled match ups. Each fight starts by a man coming into the center of a circle formed by the audience with his hands raised. He then waits for someone in the audience to challenge him. There is no money involved and the only reward is respect. It is taken very seriously in South Africa and hundreds of people gather to watch each battle. Many people would call this tradition barbaric or savage-like but I disagree. It is their culture. It’s their tradition. It’s what they do and in a time where many African Customs have been lost due to colonization, I think it’s great that they are holding on to what their ancestors strived for.

“This is a sacred place. The blood of our forefathers and their teeth have all fallen here. My grandfather was a fighter here in 1939 and then my father, and then I started in the 1970s. There is so much crime these days. Fighting here keeps the young men away from crime. It also teaches them not to beat their women. They must be men to fight other men." African Fighter Poison

Written by @KingKwajo

Musangwe boxing

African forms of ART

African Goddess on bed 

Hello!

dark beauty nude 

dark skinned woman's fly hair style 

SCIENCE for MURDER

South African doctor guilty of creating chemical weapons to to Exterminate Africans 

During apartheid Dr. Wouter Basson over saw the creation of chemical weapons and drugs to use against and on Black Africans during the 1980's and '90's. Dr. Basson, a cardiologist,  was made the head of Project Coast in 1983. Under the orders of then-President PW Botha, Basson secretly created large batches of toxins and bio-toxins under the guise of research laboratories. The chemicals were made as a last resort against enemy forces, and Basson created various covert ways to administer the weapons. [1]

Basson also created drugs such as Mandrax and cocaine, which amazingly the South African government wanted to use to quell dissent among soldiers. Weaponized tear gas was also produced and sold to Angola’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola leader Jonas Savimbi. Basson also created drugs that made kidnappings possible and capsules of cyanide for field agents to commit suicide if captured.



Important this is to the consciousness of a targeted people. There is no reason to believe that this kind of espionage is dead. Our white relatives are the smallest racial group in the world. There is a silence and a deadliness to what that feels like to them we prefer to pretend is not present in our lives. With all the logic of all that has preceded in colonialism, and European conquest how can anyone of the most targeted group for extermination give up vigilance? 

Dr. Wouter Basson, at this point, has only been lightly reprimanded after six years of investigation. It is only professional misconduct he is found guilty of! What that means, and is telling us is the value of Black African lives! Six years of official investigation about the previous system of apartheid's methods of chemical warfare against Black Africans was a pretense, and posturing with an expense account. The real break down 'we' need is deep, and the depth of what is needed to right the terrible wrongs is not to allow the pretense of justice have an upper hand over what works, and has worked for centuries amongst the indigenous peoples of South Africa, and other traditional cultures in places around the world. 

For me to give an answer to right the wrong in South Africa is to ask for many people to go deep within themselves to look at and study the reflection of Dr. Wouter Basson within us all. Seeing our shadows, and Dr. Basson is a shadow, is an essential first step in this kind of healing practice. This doctor is a problem, a contradiction of great magnitude, and a dilemma of the soul and the spirit of a people. Victim and predator alike need to be in the circles of the spiritual work necessary to restore balance and right thinking and right living to a continent, and her People, and to the Earth, our Mother! - Gregory E. Woods, 6.23.14





Philadelphia schools closing for prisons.

This Black woman's natural beauty from within and without is an expression of joy and promise!

  

Lupita Nyong'o in a mystery take

Lupita Nyong’o  

AFRICAN BEAUTY

HERITAGE

PART 59

There is supposed to be a reciprocal relationship between Black men and women. Without an ability to comprehend, and act out the subtle art of merging the process of vulnerability, and other powers it all remains an ideal, a dream and a recollection of what once was a spiritual reality, and a fact of life! 

I understand the concepts of Kingship, and the realms of the Queen, as do many others, but it is out of reach because of the stories we carry and tell ourselves and each other by action, thought, and assimilation. Unlearning, forgiving, and venturing into the underworld of the source of our tragedies are our deepest fears. That fact is the bane of our existence. We don't collectively, or individually have the fortitude, integrity, training, intent, or the impeccability of Jesus to walk into the underworld and emerge renewed. We are afraid of the internal life.

The reminders of Kingship, and the realms of the essence of royalty, and divinity for a Black man and a Black woman are missing the spiritual, cultural, and emotional connection to the African tribes each of us come from. Being Black White People, and accepted by whites has taken precedence. To arise from this morass takes what? How can that happen?

- Gregory E. Woods (Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha) 4.7.13

The Best of our Best

AFRICAN BELIEF

Giving a young lady her piano lessons, in Georgia, around 1899.
One of the W.E.B. DuBois' exhibition photos.

ALL MY LIFE I’VE BEEN CONSIDERED THE WORST.

The black man is feared all over the world. Everywhere he goes he seems to be the first enemy. Whether it’s the lady clutching her purse tightly at the sight of a black man entering the elevator or the fact that the prisons are filled with black men. Being the biggest target of the police, they are the enemy of the state. Everything negative seems to amplified as a black male.

Although he is feared he is also admired. Black men’s presence is admired by women all over the world. Their physique is often referred to as godly. Physically dominating in most athletic competition. The educated black man’s swag is impeccable.

Black men are the fathers of humanity. And when a black man reaches his full potential? Man the possibilities are endless. What would happen if black men unified with black women and focused on rebuilding their communities? New Kemet can be built.

Written by @solar_innerg

Group of women at the Midwest Horse Show in Chicago, the pinnacle of the African American social scene. 1938

'We're in denial of the African holocaust'

world news

Malcolm X's daughter on Juneteenth

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of civil rights activist, speaks at 17th century burial ground to remember the end of slavery in the US

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, is known for her work as a memoirist and activist. Photograph: Stephen Chernin/AP

Speaking at a burial ground for hundreds African slaves in New York in commemoration of Juneteenth – the day in 1865 when Texas learned that the civil war had ended – Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of human and civil rights activist Malcolm X, implored African Americans not to forget their history.

"We're in denial of the African holocaust," Shabazz said. "Most times, people don't want to talk about it. One is often restless or termed a racist just for having compassion for the African experience, for speaking truth to the trans-Atlantic and Arab slave trades, for speaking truth to the significant omission of our history. We don't want to sit down and listen to these things, or to discuss them. But we have to."



To this, the audience cheered, clapped and nodded their heads in agreement. Around 150 people turned up to hear the daughter of the civil rights icon speak.

Juneteenth is a celebration that takes place annually on the 19 June to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth is recognized in most US states, and, in 1997, Congress officially recognized the day as Juneteenth Independence Day.

Shabazz spoke passionately and at times poignantly of the African American experience, and said that understanding the role slavery played in shaping the modern world is a way of paying hommage to their ancestors.

"As we share in a discussion of civil rights, we must reflect on their sacrifices and contributions of their lives," Shabazz said, adding, "The struggle is not over. The struggle continues."

One of Malcolm X's six daughters, Shabazz was only two when her father, widely-regarded as one of the most notable and influential African Americans in history, was assassinated on 21 February 1965. She is an author and motivational speaker, and is perhaps best well known for her memoir, Growing Up X.

"Malcolm taught … the truth that our history did not begin in slavery but that our ancestors, refined and industrious African men and women, were the architects of great civilizations," she said.

At the end of her speech, the audience stood for a moment of silence while Shabazz read off a list of names that included the Queen of Sheba, Nelson Mandela, Dr Martin Luther King, and her father, highlighting the long and global history of Africans.

On 19 June, 1865, Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the civil war had ended.

Granger officially delivered General Order No3, which stated: "The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free."

Shabazz spokle at the African Burial Ground National Monument in downtown Manhattan that perseveres a colonial-era cemetery. More than 400 men, women and children of African descent – some free, most enslaved – are buried there.

The late 17th century burial site had been forgotten for nearly two centuries until it was rediscovered in the early 1990s during excavation.

The late poet Dr Maya Angelou spoke at a dedication ceremony opening the slave burial site to the public in 2007.

"You may bury me in the bottom of Manhattan," she said. "I will rise. My people will get me. I will rise out of the huts of history’s shame."


Lauren Gambino in New York
Thursday 19 June 2014 17.55 EDT

What We Do To Children

Black Power co-founder 

A Wonderful WAY

Cosetta Chantal

Sempre bella
May 29, 2014 

Cosetta Chantal with her Harley Davidson
June 1 , 2014

5 Things to know

Sankofa Infinity 

May 13 , 2014

Sexy After 40

November 6, 2012 

www.touchestudios.com

PLAY DANCE

from Mereana Taki's gallery

Kuki Airani hula no Rarotonga

June 9 , 2014