Things have really changed.

The most popular Orisha in the United States, Caribbean, and South America has been reduced to a pint-size wrestling action figure. A giant size professional wrestler who goes by the name “Papa Shango” has snatched Chango’s persona. He is as big as an arctic bear and conjures up voodoo spells, right in the wrestling ring in front of thousands of people. He even has over 23,000 YouTube hits. I grew up watching Hulk Hogan, and the Rock. I watched wrestling even though I knew that it was incredibly sensationalized and teetering on the border of being completely ridiculous.

Sad but true, it seems like voodoo along with Papa Shango is sliding down the same slope.

In pop culture when people hear about Chango, they think of the wrestler. Or they are able to rehash stories of Chango being a philanderer. He was the man who danced and frolic all night with women. He had litters of illegitimate children and liked to use magic and sorcery because he was lazy and preferred to take shortcuts. There are some good stories too. Chango was a man, a king who ruled over one of the greatest African empires. His color is red, which symbolizes his passion and vitality. Chango governs our vigor, heredity, security and survival. Perhaps this is why he was so revered during the African slave trade. He is also honored today all over the world, in religions such as Santeria, Candomblé, Vodun, and Yoruba.





So is he a Mandingo warrior? Or is he an orisha who emulates masculine power and magnetism?

Chango can be associated with the root chakra, or the mulahadra chakra in Sanskrit. It is the chakra that is located at the base of the spine and it rules over the lowest vibrations. Coincidently, the color of the root chakra is also red. Chango along with the root chakra, rules over the physical body. Or in broader sense, Chango rules over the physical world. He bridges the gap between the physical and invisible planes.

Chango is known as a great sorcerer and magician.

In popular culture, there is a theory about the power of intention, where everything that happens in a person’s life, begins with a thought that is followed by an action. Chango governs our intentions and actually brings thoughts from the invisible world into the physical world. So this means that everything starts with a thought. The Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Movement, and even the election of the first black president all started with just a single thought. Chango is the Orisha who plants the seeds that bring about change. He is the orisha that symbolizes manifestations. So is this Papa Shango guy an imposter? Or have we as a society forgotten the real importance of an Orisha who has shaped our culture, and our core existence?

If you are looking for a crash course on how to be fearless, check out my e-course. The Seven African Powers: The Stepping Stones to Enlightenment. Or, if you have additional questions call for a consultation. I am always ready and willing to help! www.newafricanspirituality.com

Tags: Chango, Shango, Xango

Many people have read the books “The Secret,” “The Law of Attraction,” and “The Power of Intention.” Yes, they all can be considered blockbuster hits in the book world. They are stocked on the shelves in the “Self Help” and “New Age” section of every major books store. These books talk about positive thinking, about how the laws of the universe work as far as attraction. However, they seem to be missing one major element, the law of sacrifice.

Within the last decade, people have been swept away by the Harry Potter movies. People want to believe that performing magic is relatively easy. That it can be dwindled down to swinging a wand and repeating chants with powerful incantations. There are other people who believe that magic, and the laws of the universe don’t work that way. It’s not just about thinking positive, it’s about making real sacrifices.
That’s difficult to do, especially in the 21st century where almost everyone has a sense of entitlement. People think that they can just wave a magic wand and almost all their problems would be solved. Many people fail to realize that they must give up something that is truly valuable to them. They must make a trade, or an exchange of equal or more value. If a person wants to lose weight, they are going to have to give up the tasty cakes. They are going to have to sacrifice their time and invest it by walking in the park, or going to the gym.

If a person wants to have a successful business, they are going to have to sacrifice their time and money. If a person wants to be a performer, they are going to have to sacrifice their vulnerability. The universe works in such a way, where it is always expanding and contracting. This law creates and maintains life. Others may refer to the law of sacrifice as creative destruction, where something needs to be destroyed before something else is created.

We can see this law in many industries that just don’t exist anymore. No one has any need for a typewriter, or a phone booth. These things were destroyed, deemed obsolete so something bigger and better could replace them. Computers have replaced typewriters and cell phones have replaced phone booths. The law of sacrifice also exists within us. We must sacrifice the things that we don’t like about ourselves, in order to replace them with things that we love about ourselves.

If we think that we are too needy or overly independent. We can sacrifice some of these behaviors, and replace them with ones that are more beneficial to us. Building the life that we desire is not just about waving a magical wand. It’s about hard work, and sacrifice. And sometimes that means letting go of the things that we love the most.

It is a pity that people don’t understand the power that they have. People watch television, listen to the radio, and search the Internet, without even understanding how they work. These things work much like the laws of nature. They have different channels, frequencies, and levels of communication.

Baba Ifa Karade has described the Orishas as being forces of nature. Much like the Sanskrit chakra system, the Orishas reside in the human body, as spinning wheels of energy. They vibrate at different levels and frequencies and operate on different continuums or mediums. I wrote in earlier articles that energy, which is often referred to as ashé in Yoruba traditions, is both subtle and physical. Physical energy of course is solid matter, while subtle energy is invisible.

The Orishas fall into the subtle energy category. The Seven African Powers can represent the seven chakras that reside along the spine. Chango represents the first chakra. Yemaya represents the second. Oggun is the personification of the third chakra. Oshun represents the fourth chakra. Obatala represents the fifth, and Orunmila represents the sixth. The seventh chakra is the Ori and represents the highest level of consciousness. The Orishas exists on different levels of consciousness or planes of existences. Just like a ladder have seven rungs, with each one taking you a step higher. When you reach the top, you can see all the other rungs that you climbed to get there. They work, much like a hierarchy, where a person becomes more powerful with every step. The higher you climb up the ladder, the more you can see.

We can also go a step further. The Seven African Powers don’t only exist as a powerful hierarchy, but they rule over different domains of energy. A great way to think about this is to watch television. CNN is all about the news so you receive messages about news. MTV is all about music, or now reality television shows, so you receive messages about music and reality television shows. However, you can also tap into the power of the Orishas by tuning into their channels. Yemaya has her own channel, she sends out messages of fertility and creation. Oggun has his own channel, he sends out messages of strength and power. All seven Orishas have their own channels, sending out different messages for different purposes.

Some of the Orisha channels might come in blurry, with lots of fog or static. These are the channels that you need to work on. Others might come in crisp in clear. Some people may decide to turn their televisions off, or to ignore one channel completely. While, others can decide to become priest or priestess and began to broadcast information on an Orisha channel. So they are not just sending information but receiving it. It is great to remember that all modern day technologies are modeled after the laws of nature.

A wise man once told me that a great way to test a man’s level of consciousness is to have him sit in a room for two months. Huh! I balked. I could do that. I could sit and search the Internet, make a few phone calls, read some books, watch a few good movies. My list went on and on describing a myriad of things I could do in my room alone. No, a man needs to sit in his room alone, with nothing, just by himself.

Well, that was different. If someone asked me to sit in a room by myself for two months, I would probably go crazy. Then, I thought about all the odd stories I heard about Shamans being dropped off on a mountain with no food and very little water for seven days. Then, I thought about all the spiritual leaders who fasted and went on hunger strikes. Yes, these men had a considerable amount of control over their bodies and minds.

Even medicine men in traditional communities had to go through rigorous rituals and even life and death situations to become healers. In modern times, these ceremonies might seem archaic, even barbaric, but necessary. If a shaman survived seven days on a mountain, he was considered a God. If a spiritualist could spend two months meditating in a room, he was considered enlightened. And rightly so, these are people who have battled against nature and won. Which isn’t a very easy thing to do. How many of us eat when we’re hungry, rest when we’re tired, and drink when we’re thirsty?

What is most important is that these people have mastered themselves. They have no if any desires for worldly gains or conquests. They’ve experienced death. Death had knocked on their door several times and they aren’t afraid of it. Our ancestors knew what they were doing when they put a healer in charge. They wouldn’t let just any guy take the wheel. No, they had a series of conditions, of rituals, and regiments that they had to master in order to become healers.

I think that we should have a national referendum, where we ask all people claiming to be spiritual leaders to sit in a cave for two months. We can ask them to fast for seven days. We can ask them to give away all of their possessions to charity. Or we can ask them to do something a little more humble. Maybe going to a developing country, they can pick one in Africa, South East Asia, or the Middle East. And live amongst the Natives. No, they can’t go there and stay in a Western style four-star hotel. They need to go and live with Natives, drink out of their cups, sleep in their beds, so they can understand what true suffering and poverty is about.

They can then understand how it feels to be exploited and live a life where there is no hope, or opportunities, or possibilities of change. Then, they can test their skills to try and help people who really need to be helped. By doing this, they can look death, disease, and oppression in the eye and know that they survived. This is the real test of a spiritual leader.

Who Said Eshu Was The Devil?

Recently, I’ve had several people write to me about Eshu. They have told me horror stories about Eshu being like the devil, about him playing nasty tricks and games on people. He is a manipulator, and Orisha who never plays fair, and is unpredictable. Well, those were some pretty harsh things to say about Eshu. Then, I thought to myself. How did Eshu get this really bad reputation?

Then, I thought about Western literature. I remembered reading Dante’s Inferno where a devil like creature resided in the under-world. The devil was of course an amalgamation of the dark forces that exists within our selves and in the world.
We were taught to fear the devil, to fear the darkness. This is perhaps why Eshu has become more like the boogeyman than our spiritual savior. He bears his stripes strong and proud. He blatantly brandishes his wickedness and it is too much to handle for some people.

Why? Well, mainly because people are afraid to look within themselves. They are afraid to see the nasty devilish creature that they have hidden inside of them. So at night, when the lights go out, it comes out to play. It hides in their closet, and under their beds. It plays tricks on them by pulling off the covers, or by exposing its shadow to the light. It thrives on fear, because then people can push it back into the dark recesses of the mind, where it grows and becomes more powerful, more menacing.

Eshu is a representation of the trickery and manipulation that the ego holds over the mind. Eshu is also the personification of misfortune and death. When the ego becomes too strong, it begins to suppress the other parts of the mind and the soul, inhibiting spiritual growth. You can think of the ego like a virus or disease that eats away at your soul. Some people think that they can do away with their ego entirely. But much like the boogeyman, it sneaks up on them at night. The only way to deal with the ego is to become aware.

People can become aware by understanding that they have darkness inside of them. They can become aware by understanding that there is darkness in nature. Darkness is needed, for balance, for growth, for evolution. Our external world is reflection of our own inner turmoil. The things that we fear represent the issues in our lives that we need to face. So we all have a choice. We can go on being afraid of the darkness, or we can accept it as an entity that is needed for our spiritual development.

It is America’s worst kept secret. Many men, women, and children are exposed to cycles of abuse. In many cases, abuse is about control. A man may physically abuse his wife in effort to make her stay in a relationship. Abuse can also be about power. A woman may insult and or humiliate her child or spouse because it makes her feel secure. It can also be about victimization, where a person who is abused believes that they deserve to be treated badly. Abuse in many situations is cyclical and if not treated can last for generations. Many people in abusive relationships or situations are in denial, and fail to understand the damage that they are doing to themselves and their children. The best way to stop the cycles of abuse is to reach out to Obatala, the orisha of purity, wisdom, and peace.

Obatala is the father of white cloth. His cloth not only represents purity and lightness, it symbolizes the fabrics that weave our existence together. Obatala is the orisha of creation. He is the light or spark that is needed to manifest or to bring an idea from the subtle world into physical reality. However, Obatala also presides over DNA. After all, he did descend from the heavens on a heavy chain. This chain represents the double sided helix of DNA and the genetic codes that are past down from one generation to the next.

However, DNA also has links, very much like a chain. These links can represent cycles such as the seasons, cycles of energy, and even cycles of abuse. Although our DNA is set in stone, it can be turned on and off like a light switch, through a process called epigenetics. We can consider epigenetics to be the instructions manual for our DNA. The environment influences us, and things like anger may cause us to send the wrong signals to our epigenetic cells. The epigenetic cells then instruct DNA to stop or go, very much like a traffic light. They send the signals to the rest of the body to increase its intensity, allowing an individual to get charge up to the point that they become rageful and even violent.

It is important to understand that once the epigenetics code is changed, it is embedded in the DNA genetic code for life. The information is passed down from one generation to the next. It is common knowledge to think that abuse is a learned behavior. However, there are many scientists who would say that abuse is not only learned, it is inherited. It goes back to the whole nature verses nurture theory. The cycles of abuse, if not stopped become embedded into the genetic makeup of the human soul. Obatala understands the cycles of creation. He can read the instructions manual that governs both our behavior and genetic makeup. He can make people become aware, cleanse them and help to stop the painful cycles of abuse. He can help people recreate their lives so they understand that they can have loving and healthy relationships without the abuse.

In many traditional beliefs such as shamanism and Yoruba, it is customary to pay tribute to our ancestors.

Our ancestors can also be referred to as the Egguns in Yoruba, or spirits in other mainstream religions. For centuries, medicine men and traditional healers have understood the connection that we all have with our ancestors. Now, scientists are beginning to understand the connection as well.

Everyone knows about DNA.
It is the code of life that houses unique genetic information. Now, people can do a simple swab test for $200 or $400 and discern who their ancestors were and what tribe they originated from. Some people may decide to do this because they want to understand themselves fully. Others may do it because they are just curious, or struggling with an identity crises. However, knowing our ancestors may be far more important than we realize.

Epigenetics goes beyond DNA, because it instructs our body on how to react to particular, environmental situations.
Our DNA is set in stone. However, epigenetics instructs our DNA on how to act and not act in certain situations. In early studies of epigenetics, scientist found that children who were severely abused or neglected did not develop as quickly and efficiently as children who were loved and nurtured.

This is because the epigenetic cells instructed their DNA, to turn off the cells needed for development.

Instructions used to turn on and turn off DNA become embedded in a person’s genetic code, and can be passed down from generation to generation. This concept explains why some people have a predisposition to alcoholism. It also explains hereditary diseases such as lupus and schizophrenia.

Encoding starts as early as conception.
Cells from the mother’s mitochondria are inherited from her egg. Cells from the father’s mitochondria are inherited as well but they do not contribute as greatly to the growth of a fetus as the mother’s cells. People inherit thousands of generations of mitochondrial DNA from their mother’s lineage. In fact, most people can trace their lineage back to a mitochondrial African mother who lived more than 140,000 years ago.

So this means that we are carrying the hardships and traumas of our ancestors.
Shamans and spiritualist have understood this for years. Many shamans go through rigorous rituals like soul retrieval to bring balance back to the body and soul. Other spiritualist might create baths, or proscribe other herbs to change the vibrational frequencies within the body. Throughout history, in virtually all cultures, people have understood the importance of cleansing toxins from their bodies. They understood that negative emotions, bad foods, and stress adversely affected all parts of the body.

Just imagine a home that you inherited from your great grandmother.

It was passed down to you and no one ever bothered to clean it. It smells. It’s filthy and cluttered. You can’t move, and after awhile the dust, mildew and bacteria make you sick. You can make a choice to continue living in the mess and pass it on to your children. Or you can decide to clean it up. We need to understand that we are in control of our bodies. We are not only responsible for ourselves, but our ancestors who came before us, and our children who will come after us.

If you are looking for a crash course on how to be fearless, check out my e-course. The Seven African Powers: The Stepping Stones to Enlightenment. Or, if you have additional questions call for a consultation. I am always ready and willing to help! www.newafricanspirituality.com

Tags: Ancestors, collective consciousness, universal force, energy

For a long period of time, we lived in a world that was strictly physical. We believed that if we couldn’t see it, touch it, or smell it, that it just didn’t exist. Of course the mystics always knew that there was an invisible world. They knew about energy and quantum physics long before any scientist had ever looked through a microscope.

We can see this in many of the creation stories in the Yoruba pantheon. Obatala, the father of all orishas; is also known as the deity of purity, peace, and creation. He descended from the heavens onto to earth on an iron chain. This story can be interpreted in two ways. It can symbolize the concept of manifestation. It can also represent the biological makeup of human beings. Today, we understand that DNA is a genetic code that houses information that is past down from one generation to the next.
practitoners in the Yoruba religion seemed to have understood this concept as well. When examined under a microscope DNA looks very much like a chain or a double sided helix. Today, scientists understand that a person’s DNA code is pretty much set in stone. However, there are external factors that influence the behaviors of DNA.

Epigenetics instructs DNA on how to behave. It works, very much like a light switch, turning our DNA codes on and off. If we are overeating, epigenetics will instruct DNA to increase fat cells. If we are dieting, epigenetics will instruct our DNA to shrink fat cells. It can instruct our bodies to increase the production of cancer cells, or decrease cancer cells. A great way to think of epigenetics is to imagine that your body runs like a corporation. There is an executive board, which responds to the external economical environment. There are the middlemen, line managers who supervise the workers. Lastly, there are the workers, who don’t think. They just take orders without thought or question.

The corporate executives decide that they need to lay-off workers because of a recession. The executives don’t do the dirty work; they send the middleman or the line managers to do the firing. Workers get laid off, and the ones that remain are doing twice the work. The same thing happens in our body. We are the executives of our bodies and how we respond to our environment has a direct effect on us. Feelings of scarcity induce high levels of stress. We innately send signals to the middlemen to instruct our cells to stop working at optimum levels. As a result, other parts of our body have to pick up the slack. This is why people who are severely depressed are sluggish and lethargic.

In a nutshell, our thoughts can make us sick, or better. Positive thoughts, feelings, and actions allow the body to work at optimum levels. We need to understand the adverse consequences of negative thinking. We must call upon Obatala, the orisha of purity, wisdom, and whiteness to cleanse our negative thoughts, so we can be pure again and realign with nature.

Shamans believed that in times of trouble, pieces of the soul break away. They run and hide in the underworld, the subconscious mind. A Shaman will work to find the lost pieces of the soul, but it is incredibly difficult to do without calling on the father of lightness and purity, Obatala.
Obatala, In Yoruba is the father of all creation. He brings about wisdom, purity, and peace. Most importantly, he is the mediator between darkness and light, and can help to raise the consciousness of an entire civilization or just one simple human being. Obatala presides over cells within the human body, in particularly DNA.
Legend has it that Obatala descended from the heavens on an iron chain. This chain represents the genetic codes of information that are housed in our DNA. The chain also represents rings or cycles. This could mean the cycle of life, the cycle of energy, or even cycles of poverty and abuse.
In my earlier articles I discussed how our environment influences DNA. Epigenetic cells actually turn DNA cells on and off like a light switch. It works in response to our feelings, thoughts, emotions, and actions. We are very much in control of our bodies, even at a cellular level.
Sometimes, our bodies become unbalanced and we get sick. Our sickness can be mental or emotional or even both. We may visit a doctor or a spiritual healer who works with both physical and subtle energy. I mentioned before that subtle energy is invisible. While physical energy is hard and tangible. Subtle energy acts as a blueprint that instructs physical matter on how to operate.
Many spiritualist, healers, or shamans normally treat their patients by visiting the subtle world. In the subtle world, they consult the instructions manual to see exactly what part of the body or mind is not operating effectively. In many situations, people’s instructions manual have been changed. It has been translated into French, Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Shamans, spiritualist, and healers cannot understand the instructions and cannot find a way to translate it, because the language that it was written in is now dead.
This is the reason why it is so important for us to understand our culture and history. Our culture is the original blueprint of our souls. Without it, we are less than whole. Throughout history, parts of our souls have broken off. Our deities, our Gods, our practices are shunned upon and live in the dark recesses of societies’ congenial mind. This is the reflection of how split and broken we are as spiritual beings. Obatala is the orisha of lightness and consciousness. He can be called upon to rewrite, or recreate the instructions manual. We need to have an instructions manual, written in our own language, so we can put together the lost pieces of our soul.

The Seven African powers are highly revered and celebrated amongst initiates and followers of the Yoruba Pantheon. They call them Orixas in Brazil and Loas in Vodun. Practioners from different branches may not worship the same African deities. However, the principle beyond the belief of the Seven African powers runs deep.
In fact, the concept of the Seven African powers is centuries old. The Seven African powers can be associated with the Seven Rays, which can be interpreted to be the Seven Attributes of God. It was first seen in Verdic literature and referred to as the Seven Rishis. The Seven Rays as a metaphysical concept has appeared in several religions and dates back to the sixth century.
The concept behind the Seven Rays is that there are building blocks of light, which gives us life. Before we are born, our souls are sustained in a beam of light. The beam of light breaks into seven pieces when forming physical matter, or the human body. We are all born with Seven Rays or Godly attributes. However, we have one dominate attribute that forms our personality and life mission. The qualities of this attribute are developed and refined through successive life cycles.
The Seven Rays, or the Seven Godly attributes are connected to the energy centers in the body called chakras. Chakras are energy wheels that are located along the spine. Baba Ifa Karade talks about the chakra system and how it relates to the Orishas and the Seven African powers in his book, The Yoruba Handbook of Religious concepts.
He states that Chango resides in the first chakra, or in Sanskrit the mulahadra chakra. Yemaja is the second chakra or the swadhisthana chakra. Oshun is associated with the third charka or Manipura chakra. Ogun is associated with the heart chakra or anahata chakra. Obatala is associated with the throat chakra or vishuddha chakra. Orunmila is commonly associated with the third eye or the Ajna chakra. Lastly, the crown chakra is associated with the Ori. Of course, the chakras like any kind of energy vibrate at different frequencies. However, the vibrational frequencies get stronger when they are in full alignment and working harmonically together. Once this happens, a person is able to receive energy and knowledge from a higher source. According to Baba Ifa Karade, this process is known as enlightenment, or reaching the heaven that is inside of you.
7 is an incredibly popular number. There are the 7 solar systems, 7 sacred planets, 7 colors, and the list goes on and on. In many African religions, people may call on the Seven African powers for blessings, guidance, and protection. They do this because they understand that combining the energy force of the Orishas is far more powerful than just calling on one.

Eshu is the orisha that is honored and revered in Yoruba, Santeria, and Candomblé religions.

He is the protector of travelers. He is the deity that presides over crossroads. He has power over fortune and misfortune and is the personification of death. He is also known as the deity of chaos and trickery. He is the orisha of tough love, and teaches hard lessons that people can learn from. Lastly, he is the messenger.

However, Eshu is much more than that.

His holy number is three, which can represent the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in the Christian fate. The number three also represents the law of creation. There is the positive polarity of energy, the negative polarity, and the combination of the two creates the universal force known as ashé in Yoruba.

The crossroads has four elements, which can represent the different aspects of the human mind.

It is divided into four parts, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, the super conscious mind, and divine intelligence. The conscious mind contains all of your waking thoughts, ideas, and cognitive abilities and is best known as your reality. The subconscious mind consists of buried thoughts, beliefs, and concepts. Your worse fears are hidden here. Many people are unaware of all the pain, anger, and fear that are tucked away in the dark recesses of the subconscious mind. The super consciousness is a part of your mind that is connected to divine intelligence or in modern terms, the Universe.



If you have ever heard of the term collective consciousness, you will understand how the super consciousness aspect of the mind works.
It is a plane of existence that allows you to connect with a congenial force that binds and creates virtually all aspects of the physical world. In other words, it is the world of the invisible. The last aspect of the human mind is divine intelligence. From this stage, a person is able to tap into a vast pool of knowledge. Many spiritual healers tap into divine intelligence realm for guidance.

A popular story of Eshu is of him walking down the street.

The people on the left side think that his hat is red. The people on the right think that his hat is black. A battle ensues. Eshu takes off his hat and shows them that it is black on one side, and red on another. In this lesson, Eshu talks about the constant conflict that exists between the subconscious and conscious mind. In this case, one side is completely oblivious of the other. In life, people are unaware that many of their desires and much of their decisions are made based on thoughts and emotions that come from the subconscious part of the mind.

Negative thoughts, both in the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind can affect decision making.

When this happens, conflict arises, bringing misfortune and in some extreme cases, death. People need to resolve the conflict between these two spheres, before they can effectively explore the other aspects of the human mind. Eshu is the messenger who guides us to enlightenment. He works as a mediator between the lower and higher worlds, teaching us lessons, so we can evolve to be whole spiritual beings.


If you are looking for a crash course on how to be fearless, check out my e-course. The Seven African Powers: The Stepping Stones to Enlightenment. Or, if you have additional questions call for a consultation. I am always ready and willing to help! www.newafricanspirituality.com

Tags: Eshu Elegba, Papa legba,

What kind of world would we live in if everyone walked around with a loaded gun?

Would the world be more dangerous? Would people feel safe? Would all the fighting and wars stop because no one would feel weak, vulnerable, or defenseless?

The ego is like carrying around a loaded gun.

Many religious leaders have preached about how bad the ego is for our spiritual growth. Our ego gives us a false sense of security and a heightened sense of self. It gives us brief and fleeing spouts of pleasures. Our ego is cunning and misleading and it can cause us to either shoot ourselves, or someone else who doesn’t really deserve to die. Sadly, the ego is becoming more powerful. We can look at the state of our economy, the deterioration of relationships and families, the onset of malady and disease to see that there is a raging war in our communities and within ourselves.



The shamans believed in four worlds.

They believed that the upper-world was the future, or in modern terms, the world of the manifested. The middle-world, was the present, or the here and now. The lower world was the past, and the under-world was the world of the subconscious. The under-world is the Hell that Dante describes in the Inferno. It is where all of our demons lay. It is where our deepest and darkest fears reside.

Many of us are unaware that we are in the under-world, and have no if any knowledge about the deep-seated pain and negativity that hides in the crevices of our mind.

We are even more oblivious to the fact that we have a devil that presides over this world. A devil named Ego. Ego is like an egregious African warlord. His only concern is to maintain power. He and his men walk about, carrying semi automatic weapons, ready to dispel anyone or anything that poses a threat. The ego wipes out whole populations. He watches people suffer and die from disease and deprivation, while he sits in his palace, drinking wine and enjoying worldly pleasures.

The ego is a dictator who thrives on chaos and disharmony.

As the ego gets stronger, the rest of our souls get weaker. Ego suppresses us, blinds us. It keeps us from digging up the deep-seated pain that lives in our subconscious mind. Our spirit begins to wane because the ego is in charge. He does not even give us a chance to examine ourselves, to look within. Whenever we feel scared, vulnerable, or insecure. The ego will step in, banging his chest and flexing his muscles. He is ready to shoot any one who makes us feel less than whole.

The ego is like a loaded gun.

We carry it around because we are afraid to look within. By not looking within we fail to realize that our external world is a reflection of our inner state. We fail to see that we are all connected, that we are all one. By shooting our enemies, we are just shooting ourselves.


If you are looking for a crash course on how to be fearless, check out my e-course. The Seven African Powers: The Stepping Stones to Enlightenment. Or, if you have additional questions call for a consultation. I am always ready and willing to help! www.newafricanspirituality.com

Tags: Ego, Arrogance

Indigenous people from all over the world have understood the power of energy. They didn’t have microscopes or sophisticated equipment to study matter and atoms. They had something much more powerful, their imaginations. Today, after centuries of disagreement, scientist and spiritualist agree that virtually everything in our world is made out of energy.

Some cultures call it chi, others call it ashé, but all acknowledge the fact that there is a world, a plane of existence that is invisible, naked to the human eye. Energy in simple terms; is a source of power that shapes our existence. Energy vibrates at its own unique speed. Like-minded organisms vibrate in similar ways, but no two organisms are exactly alike. Energy from opposite spectrums such as male and female, or yin and yang can join together to create an electric charge or spark.

Energy can be physical or subtle. Physical energy is more stagnant and concrete. While subtle energy is more flowing and invisible. Just think of subtle energy as being the blueprint, or instructions manual used to create physical matter. When something isn’t working properly, we normally refer back to the users manual to see if all the parts fit together naturally. The basis of all energy work is to get the body and soul to work as one harmonic unit.

If the body isn’t working properly, or in extremely bad cases the body is diseased or ill, there is a tremendous misbalance of energy. Today, prescription drugs and surgery are commonly used to change the vibrational frequencies in the body. Our ancestors were able to alter our physical states by entering into altered states of consciousness. This state allowed them to travel to another plane of existence called the subtle world. By traveling to the subtle world they were able to diagnose pending and reoccurring problems. Some even got instructions on what herbs or remedies to use to cure a certain ailment or disease.

Subtle energy is incredibly important because it can stretch beyond time and space. It can change form and it can occupy many places at once. Remember, It works as a template for physical matter. Subtle energy actually exists within physical matter, just on a different plane or continuum. There are many ways to enter the subtle world. Many healers will enter into a trance, or conduct a brief meditation. Others may need to be possessed or mounted by a certain spirit and or guide to lead them into the world of the invisible. These are all ways to enter into the subtle world where virtually everything is created!

The first step to really understanding energy, ashé, chi, is to understand that energy is mostly invisible. We give it instructions on how to operate, and if we are not happy with how our bodies or lives are operating, then we can change it. We can refer back to the users manual and truly understand all the components of our being to evolve to be a single, harmonic unit.