MAKE AMERICA DENY

This is one of the great, deep and tragic misconceptions of white American thought patterns. It comes from the roots of what belief became myth that had to mask the truth of their bloodletting and propensity to war with all of Life. In brief, the lie told to themselves became their historical basis for justifying the inexcusable lust for taking. The illustration of this clusterfuck, for lack of a powerful word-picture, is the great American contradiction, the misconception of freedom. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories May 20, 2017

Freedom contradiction. "This is one of the great, deep and tragic misconceptions of white American thought patterns."

African stories contradict themselves ...



Maat Petrova by kfos in this moment said, 'The moment you surrender to the space, is where you'll find peace from it.'



A white woman, like Katy Cee, in chains arouses no more than erotica.
Chains worn by Black women are met with studied scrutiny with the intention of freeing her.
White women's bondage is self -inflicted. - Gregory E. Woods

Tiara Kristine Harris
http://goddessembrace.com/


"Looking at Tiara Kristine Harris in a stance of a woman's ascent into Goddess energies speaks to the elements of divinity often not addressed honestly. It is often the lies we live by that make the mental acknowledgement of the Goddess unworthy of exploration by query. Fear embedded in the European tradition of terror upon white women lent itself into the paradigms of African women through the Church, slavery and wars against the soul, and the nations of Africa over the centuries. The African women bold enough to plunge into the mysteries of Yoni, their essence the who of who they are alive create ripples through unawareness men-predators will always confuse with sexual allure will never understand their daughters, never know what danger their belief has placed them, or know how to pray, or recognize wholeness in the circles of Holiness.

It is a deep thing being a Sacred woman. It is even deeper being married to one." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.6.16

Www.artenlove.com

Tiara Kristine Harris, stance of a woman's ascent into Goddess energies.

 

a Watching Parable: the 10 Virgins



Aida King in the moment !!

October 19, 2015

Parable of the Ten Virgins


Narrative

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, Jesus tells a story about a party of virgins, perhaps bridesmaids^[2] or torchbearers for a procession,^[3] chosen to participate in a wedding. Each of the ten virgins is carrying a lamp or torch^[3] as they await the coming of the bridegroom, which they expect at some time during the night. Five of the virgins are wise and have brought oil for their lamps. Five are foolish and have only brought their lamps.

At midnight, all the virgins hear the call to come out to meet the bridegroom. Realising their lamps have gone out, the foolish virgins ask the wise ones for oil, but they refuse, saying that there will certainly not (Greek ou mē)^[4] be enough for them to share. While the foolish virgins are away trying to get more oil, the bridegroom arrives. The wise virgins then accompany him to the celebration. The others arrive too late and are excluded.

"Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, "Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!" Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." But the wise answered, saying, "What if there isn't enough for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves." While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But he answered, "Most certainly I tell you, I don't know you." Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

— Matthew 25:1-13, World English Bible



Japanese rope bondage is commonly called shibari in the US,
but kinbaku is a more correct term.

Interpretations

The parable is one of a sequence of responses to a question in Matthew 24:3:

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

— Matthew 24:3, King James Version

Other parables in this sequence include the parable of the budding fig tree (Matthew 24:32–35) and the parable of the Faithful Servant (Matthew 24:42–51). The parable of the Ten Virgins reinforces the call for readiness in the face of the uncertain time of this second "coming."^[2] It has been described as a "watching parable."^[5] Like the parable of the Lost Coin, it is a parable about women which immediately follows, and makes the same point as, a preceding parable about men.^[6]

In this parable, Jesus Christ is the bridegroom,^[2][5] echoing the Old Testament image of God as the bridegroom in Jeremiah 2:2 and similar passages.^[2] The awaited event is the Second Coming of Christ.^[2][5] R. T. France writes that the parable is "a warning addressed specifically to those inside the professing church who are not to assume that their future is unconditionally assured."^[2]

The parable does not criticise the virgins for sleeping, since both groups do that,^[3] but for being unprepared. It is not clear exactly what form this lack of preparation takes: the foolish virgins may have taken insufficient oil or, if they light their lamps or torches for the first time when the bridegroom arrives (having slept through the previous hours of darkness), they may have brought no oil at all^[4] (it is also unclear as to whether the foolish virgins succeed in purchasing any oil that night:^[7] most shops would not have been open^[8][9]).

The parable is not written in praise of virginity,^[5] and indeed Louis of Granada, in his The Sinner's Guide of 1555, writes "No one makes intercession with the Bridegroom for the five foolish virgins who, after despising the pleasures of the flesh and stifling in their hearts the fire of concupiscence, nay, after observing the great counsel of virginity, neglected the precept of humility and became inflated with pride on account of their virginity."^[10]

Spencer W. Kimball gave an LDS perspective on the difference between the wise and the foolish virgins, and why they could not share the oil: "This was not selfishness or unkindness. The kind of oil that is needed to illuminate the way and light up the darkness is not shareable. How can one share obedience to the principle of tithing; a mind at peace from righteous living; an accumulation of knowledge? How can one share faith or testimony? How can one share attitudes or chastity.... Each must obtain that kind of oil for himself.... In the parable, oil can be purchased at the market. In our lives the oil of preparedness is accumulated drop by drop in righteous living."^[11][12]





White mother's concept of care!!!!

^{READ more}
 

From the Mountain Top to the Core

READ FIRST 

"The short and direct penetration into the practice of blowing up mountains comes from the minds of the people who came here from Europe. We ignore the subject being overly sensitive to how it makes white people feel, and in the end we don't examine the facts or the spirit of the question. 

The first step to acquiring personal power comes from the practice of unlearning all you know. That process requires deep self-examination. In the public forums centered around the environment the source and root of the problems go to the side and we all are instructed not to look in that direction, or make the obvious connections between the environment, conquest, supremacy, dictatorial patriotism, the Euro-American belief structure, and the tendency that came from the practice of killing one's grandchildren to feed one's children that none of the conquered people had ever heard of, or conceived in their darkest dreams! 

How else does a person deal with the truth of their actions to change behavior, I assert, is the central question to the complex problem of mistreating the Earth, our Mother. Activism not coming from a deep relationship with our Mother further soils the living waters. Why is that?" 

- Gregory E. Woods, 
Keeper of Stories (Dawn Wolf)
2.23.14

Dawn Wolf teaching Medicine teachings at Raw Food weekend 2011.

Painted BLACK

Courtney Paige Photography

Courtney Paige worked with photographer, Ryan Cooper, make up artist Ashley Rose,
and actress Jordana Largy on this conceptual piece they titled:  PAINTED BLACK. 

I had to check and register with myself at the title next to the woman in what I initially thought was deep dark shadow. My next looks at the subject suggested what wasn't obvious and then a quick read and I saw the briefest snippet of your concept. It is a dare to go forth with this concept of darkening a white woman's body to sell an idea, or a product, but in the name of art, or a dream is that OK? If it is will the artists be safe publicly? 

I think the challenge should fall upon the viewer to ride through the gamut of emotions, objections, feelings of awe at the sheer beauty of something intangible caught on camera, and wrestle with the facts of and the memories of the 'black face' traditions of vaudeville 100 years ago. Perhaps this photographic journey should be drawn out in the context of history, and the evolution, or stagnation of cultural paradigms and hard held feelings about race, supremacy, and freedom of expression.

It is very different and difficult for artists, healers, and dreamers and musicians to live the way we do. Finding the medium and the sacred space to share the things we've dared explore and tackle and come to grips with is hard, or easy enough. It depends upon who is the listening, or viewing audience. The general population are masses of people caught within the mundane who have yet to peer into the worlds their lives come from. The explorations of a healer, for example, would terrify the average person he/she comes to help. It is not a judgement. It just is this way. We all have our roles and gifts. It is just that in the acceptance of roles the magical people dare to challenge what their perspective audiences fear to look deeply into.

Artists, and creative people, by the nature and force of their insights and direct access to the Dream Time, walk a thin line with our dependence upon making our money through our arts, or regular jobs. The general population surrounding us judges us more than they judge themselves. This leaves the proverbial 'them' with no choices, it seems, beyond being quick to react and slow to reflect and think deeply as each challenge demands of them.

I wish you'd fleshed out this idea of yours, and let others either catch up with you, if you are coming from an enlightened place, or learn from the backlash. Either way it would have been in service to the world-at-large.

These are my words.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

African/Muskogee/Absaroka Indian

1.19.14 

http://www.courtneypaigephotography.ca/blog/?target=952

Jordana Largy in black makeup. 

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN!

A STORY TOLD 

"Deep into the sadness and the madness of blowing up mountain tops is the long and traditional relationship between poor whites and the wealthy white men beginning during the colonial period of American history that continues into the present moment!

I know Americans don't like to go to the roots of problems preferring to remain somewhere along the surface area. It hasn't worked well for anyone in the long run. But, for this issue examine the history and the correlation between the above mentioned relationship and the other relationships important to the dysfunction of the tearing down practice our culture produced!" - Gregory E. Woods, 2.23.14


Earthjustice

Julia "Judy" Bonds, activist.
 June 27, 2012 

  

"A spitfire daughter of a West Virginia coal miner who worked as a Pizza Hut waitress before she became, in midlife, a leading voice of the grass-roots resistance to mountaintop strip mining, died Jan.3, 2012 of cancer at a hospital in Charleston, W.Va. She was 58." 

That was how the Washington Post described Julia "Judy" Bonds who died in 2011 after becoming the face of mountaintop removal mining. She inspired a whole generation's fight to preserve their beloved Appalachia, as her daughter Lisa movingly recalls. http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/lisa-henderson

Judy is a reminder to everyone that nothing is set in life and that we must do what is right for the things we care about most, no matter how daunting the challenges are. 

This photo mosaic was created using photo petitions from the thousands of people who have already shown their support for our fight. Won't you do the same? http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/mymtrstory

MIND = BLOWN

My room was clean, but then i needed something....
October 7, 2013

By October 9th this posting  290,479 people liked this picture, and there were 50,252 shares. In addition there were 6,899 comments including mine posted before 10 am.
     
That's cool. What is funny or sad is that on Facebook there is more commentary and input for the most trivial of things. To the winds with the important things. This is reflective of the why, and how legislation not for the people is typically passed through Congress into law. It is like distracting a child, a kitten. It is easy and leads towards one outcome. Even in the midst of the outcome there is unawareness. It is astounding, but that is pretty much the way it works. In turn Americans tend to settle in circumstances, simmer in anger, and pray for a Savior, who always looks like, talks like and feels similar to the same ones who got lead us by our silent nods of "OK, whatever." into our confounding national state of affairs. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.9.13

ABOVE THE CUT

RARE BLACK FEMALE NUDITY

An online writer, Tish, the Scorpion said, "For whatever reason black female nudity is very scarce in Hollywood. There's just not alot of black nudity in movies (at least not since the Blaxploitation era). Even in low budget indie/b-movies they are rare, and i don't know why. But then again black female roles in media is kinda rare to begin with, so maybe i answered my own question. A part of me can't help but believe that the marginalization is a combination of social taboo among black women, and the standard of beauty being blond hair and blue eyes in the western world. But i digress. 

Here's a list of those rare occasion where a black actress has a nude scene." 

Cynda Williams, actress in The Dorothoy Dandridge Story

What spilled from underneath her initial text were short biographies, and pictures of 91 Black actresses. My response was thus:

This tribute (that is what it is) honors the presence of social advise Black children have heard from their parents and elders for decades about value and excellence. There were quite a few maxims we were told coming up. 

"You can't do as whites do." 
"You have to be twice as good as the dumbest white man, and better than the best..." 

That second maxim often led to heated discussions about being passed over for jobs, or promotions. Whites have always found ways to distort, discredit and find fault in the intent and achievements of Blacks, and in the character of Blacks, irregardless of their status, dignity, etc. The standards of excellence impressed upon Blacks by Whites are shored up with the eventuality of being debased because of your dignity, your commitment to excellence, your achievement. In the arena of social justice it is a known saying that two things are guaranteed: you may lose your life, or your name, or both may happen.

Black women at the highest levels of their fields are not ignorant of the weight of white judgement. Look at the recent put down of Beyonce. Forced to defend her integrity against a 'still wet behind the ears' white singer just getting into the field Beyonce has mastered, at every level, with the highest quality Beyonce Knowles had to put on a 21st century 'Black Face', and smile while doing her 'jig'. I was shattered and enraged at the shared humiliation.

Most 'Black White People' didn't get it. No white commentary, as far as I know, ever came out to acknowledge the affront. It all goes back to the knowing, the understanding of the social structure in the United States. Black professionals are held to a higher standard and lower expectations at the same time. It isn't that professional Black actress won't do nude scenes. It is that they won't because the standards are stacked not in their favor. Dignity and a good name are more precious than the attention nudity brings. Look what happened to Vanessa Williams. White women can send out sex tapes, or pose nude. The will receive accolades, and their commercial value goes up. Black women are held at lower levels of expectations while the expectation is of higher standards in their fields. It is a trick or a trap depending on who is looking at this. What it is is reality in America. - Gregory E. Woods 

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

"Elizabeth Taylor, the actress, but mostly Elizabeth Taylor, the woman is an ideal, an American ideal. The ideal of America was forged during and after the nefarious deeds that tainted people around the globe, and their various cultures. Once the supremacy of the idea, and the fact of white America, and Americans became a hammer above the heads of subjugated nations it became a gospel that fear enforced, and the images that came from this ideology became the additional lure of Elizabeth Taylor, the ideal. She was elegant, and beautiful in a magical, and unapproachable way. Women in other cultures exposed to the American culture learned to despise, and re-define themselves, and their men learned to gauge beauty by the Hollywood standards penned, and directed from those studios. At the top of the heap of idols, and inaccessible Goddesses reined Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, and on and on into the present we can go to find their inheritors. They were a small elite group, but they shaped the images in millions and millions of minds into what they were not: white."

©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Elizabeth Taylors' tiaras were world famous.

http://theweddingtiara.com/archives/elizabeth-taylors-wedding-tiara 

BLACK PRIDE: Wendy Raquel Robinson

Wendy Raquel Robinson is a great source of pride. She is typically cast as a singular character: a black woman, usually educated and professional, who is ghetto as hell, but aching within about the structural things out of balance from her childhood. Her character’s professional standing requires, her dreams require, and her man needs something less confrontational from her, but that is all she has got. Continually Wendy Raquel Robinson, the actress, finds nuances within this type cast. Her portrayals of these women are fascinating and respectful of a segment of the Black community often on the defense about the way they must survive in an unforgiving environment. I have my soul injuries inflicted by the women she portrays. Over time I became unforgiving and bitter towards their compelling paradigms, and developed a difficulty resisting their enormous sensuality. Their sexual appetites, and prowess is legendary, and you cannot count the men unable to pull away long enough to catch their breath and measure what could really happen, or is happening to their lives, and any dreams they must fulfill in life being intimately involved with these women. Incredible lovers with sharp tongues, good looks, fierceness, determination and grit to match an undertow of rage are the stuff of a stereotype worn with measurable pride by these women who are the Black American family’s growth or demise.


Wendy Raquel Robinson does a service to a misrepresented, but significant symbol in the Black American community. The definitions of power these women have designed for their children's survival and their survival are hard for reasons many of us prefer to overlook, and pretend do not exist, or respect. The deepest thing to do as a Black man is to fathom our women. Who speaks for them, or host national campaigns on their behalf? The elite cannot wrap their head around the deadly qualities, or the heart of what matters to these women, and nor do they want to. Black men love and need to talk it out amongst themselves, and with Black women present it often disintegrates into diatribes, and little is accomplished. Because so many of these women and men base relationships, parenting, and marriage upon conflict some people walk out of those roundtable discussions to bed, and little is resolved, and the legacy of dysfunction is passed to their children.

Black men; honest in their fear of these women, love them. How to navigate through the hell these women put them through leads some of them to discover what they truly believe and opens the way to discover why they are attracting these women’s paradigms into their lives. Listening to and hearing their stories without anger, or judgment becomes easier over time if they're not trying to get between their legs. If a man’s eyes are riveted to their women’s eyes they could see their woman’s world. Exploring these women as they explore their worlds is an act of power. It’s a lover’s quest. It requires a depth, and a sponsorship. Without assistance of an elder statesman, or a wise Black woman a Black man will not be able to grasp the tools to mend a broken heart, lessen the need for defending himself against his Black woman.

Loving a Black woman like the women Wendy Raquel Robinson portrays does not lend itself to the critical analysis of a Dr. Phil. It needs the insights of a Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, the depth and wisdom of a Maya Angelo, and the loving hand of a man.”

©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Wendy Raquel Robinson posing on red carpet

MY FAMILY'S STORY

the Woods family together just because in 2010

“The Magic is the right theme to have in life. How one functions without it is baffling to me. My family is close, and Christmas and other high days were spent together. But the real magic was what transpired between us in betwix those high days. Those days glued us together, and drew us to be a part of a whole within our thinking also, and has trinkled down through the generations. Magic is the operative word. I know Christians misuse the word, and miss the magic for the sake of proving some point, but the point is Life is Magic, and you embody it.” - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Mommy & Daddy and their children

a CHILDREN'S SONG

by Elizabeth T. Harris

The Story Tree

"Yet in life learn not to become involved in every story. We can be taught." ~Sage Marti

"The story draws us In to the story itself --- at times not inward for the meaning of the Story." - Elizabeth T. Harris

Sandra Bullock, Giving Back

Sandra Bullock opening health clinic in New Orleans in 2010

"Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Sandra Bullock returned to New Orleans to open a $700,000 health clinic at a local high school on Sunday. "Sometimes tragedies bring out the very best in people and it's one of the reasons why we stand in this school of excellence today," said the Oscar winner at the ceremony..."

RELATIONSHIP TO TRUTH

"It is said that the opposite of an ordinary fact is a lie, but the opposite of one great truth may be another great truth. We live with many profound paradoxes in our lives, values that may seem to pull us in opposite directions. Profound truths are like twins whom we hold, not putting down one for the other. The holding of paradoxes is not always easy. How do we be present to our own pain, fear, loss, disappointments sufficiently to make them part of the fiber and fabric of who we are, while trusting and holding the good, the joy, the excitement, the love of life? - When have you felt so overwhelmingly the one pole of a paradox that you lost sight of the other? Thanks for all of the dialogue, debate and exchange and for the hundreds and thousands who simply read and learned. I'd close by saying peace...but Justice must precede it." -Emilio Williams

PARENTING & GOVERNING

The head of a family like the heads of governments reflect the ruling paradigms, and direct the family or the government down the path of natural consequence. -Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska 2009

Practical! It is said that "law is a prescription for performance, made by the thoughts and acts of its maker or makers, to which those who subscribe are bound. When one thinks what he desires to be, or to do, or to have, or, when several think what they desire to have, or to do, or to be, he or they are unaware that what they are mentally formulating and prescribing is the law by which, in the near or distant future, he or they are actually bound to perform as the acts or the conditions in which they will then be. Of course most people do not know that they are bound by the law of their own thinking, else they would not think the thoughts they usually do think."

Democracy is Self-Government. As we free our minds allowing our asses to follow we become attuned to the process of critical thinking that makes room for creative and transformational ideas. As one thinks...I AM Emilio Williams

 

WIZARD OF OZ

http://keeperofstories.blogspot.com/2010/01/terror.html

War on Terror and the Wizard of Oz

"We are trying to design a strategy for a war on terror on the blind side of logic at the expense of our future as a nation. The story of our disconnection from the blood on our hands, our words, our national belief-systems and the sense of God blessing our deeds has held us in terror like a deer caught in headlights. No one can a fight a war tactic. You fight wars with tactics. Terror is a war tactic, a state of being, and the element fear becomes in the long run. So what are we fighting? What are we fighting for, and who are we really fighting?

We have come to the end of the terror white people have felt for centuries, and named their inner battle of the soul ‘a war on terror’ spending billions of dollars to fight the terror living in their souls. How long can a nation wage war on the substance of guilt and fears? All of our ancestors watch us justify the idiotic that has become Homeland Security, and the children, yet unborn, cringe from the perspective of their future as our children, the heirs of our paradigms, debt, and war culture. When is enough enough? When will the right questions be asked and answered? When will the Lion find his courage, the Tin Man his heart, and Straw Man what did he lose that we have not found?

This is my concern. This is our story, and these are my words"

-Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Paradigm shift towards African Empowerment

A fundamental lesson in business management is: "If you're not getting what you want, it's because you haven't asked for it properly."  When one applies this to personal relationships it can be an effective tool of analysis. If you don't like what you are getting, stop and consider exactly what/how you've been asking. Sadakne Baroudi

http://keeperofstories.blogspot.com/2010/02/12-keys-of-spiritual-activism.html

white business man

“Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them. I say to him, No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says, Pay me money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.”

Chief Joseph, Nez Pierce

FREEDOM

Yolanda Martinez on her 2009 birthday

“All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” Henry Ellison

nov. 09, 2009

TURTLE ISLAND & THE STRANGERS

The Lesson of the Cricket

A Native American and his friend were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. Suddenly, the Native American said, "I hear a cricket."

His friend said, "What? You must be crazy. You couldn't possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!"

"No, I'm sure of it," the Native American said, "I heard a cricket."

"That's crazy," said the friend.

The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed.

"That's incredible," said his friend. "You must have super-human ears!"

"No," said the Native American. "My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you're listening for."

"But that can't be!" said the friend. "I could never hear a cricket in this noise."

"Yes, it's true," came the reply. "It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you."

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.

"See what I mean?" asked the Native American. "It all depends on what's important to you."

(Author unknown)

Paris Hilton surrounded by spirits