An INVOCATION.
In the tradition of the Liberatory Elite of our ancestors, the world is waiting for US to announce who we are, what we deserve, and how deliciously we want to receive and BE received. We make our own space by way of our presence. We answer with an embodied sacred yes to that call. Working with and through all the ways, words, aggressions, and abandonment that we have witnessed in this country and in this world.
We remember through this INVOCATION, the power of our collective and individual energetic power. We affirm again, that our energy is AMPLIFIED as we unplug from that which doesn’t serve us and replug into EVERY aspect of our ancestral Divinity. And in so doing, our presence alone, vibrates out an irresistibly magnetic revolutionary prayer that brings forward the embodied liberation of Black People and the consciousness ascension of humanity. Ashe O. And so it is.
What we KNOW.
Removing, separating, discrediting and degrading a people away from their ancestral spiritual wisdom is a most diabolical act. One that must be addressed in order for Liberatory Human Healing to manifest upon the Earth without delay.
To have many of our African Indigenous ancestral ways ripped and raped from us has cost us in innumerable ways.
INnumerable ways.
Spiritual Reparations are in order and past due…
Funding those who heal, teach, council and hold ceremony. Funding the creation of healing centers and ongoing ceremony. Making sure our Spiritual Elders- Iya’s, Baba’s, Priestesses, Pastors, Metaphysicians, Shamanic practitioners (et al) are taking care of in their golden years and honored for the lives they have dedicated to our well-being. Removing all the barriers for the ways in which we heal- art, dance, story and communal ceremony. (I’ll discuss my visioning for how white people and organizations can honor reparations in a near future writing.)
The rippling effects of fractured rooting, continues to affect our inner-worlds, families, and our community. In spite of the sometimes seemingly endless fragmentation of my being that is the ripple effect of white supremacy, I continue to AFFIRM and know that what is rightfully ours- the people of earth, blood, and breath- can NEVER be taken from us. And so I breathe deep, perform ceremony, and listen. I listen within, to my mentors, wise plant and animal elders, and my community of powerful SpiritFULL healers and sacred artists.
The portals to our ethereal sources cannot be completely closed, however they can be blocked or weakened. One can even be programmed and taught to self-program themselves further and further away from their ancestry. And this is what happens to us daily, consistently, unrelentingly.
The Divine truth is that our sacred Blackness has been used to support this supremacist system in surrogacy since the early days of its creation. Masking the ways in which our individual and collective energy- through the manipulation of our minds and bodies- have been unethically harvested.
The life-force energy from the flow of our breasts, the sweat of our brows, the comforting creative power of our yonis and wombs, to the now forced extraction of the breath from our bodies is continuing to be weaponized. Used against us to demagnetize us from accessing aligned and rooted action that would serve our liberation most perfectly. This is about an under/over-standing of the energy dynamics at play and how our ancestral traditions and spiritualities are a powerful catalyst to opening us to that wisdom which has won before. Waiting to assist us in standing courageously FOR AND WITH EACH OTHER. The details of small and large victories against supremacy and all its allies, are waiting, within us.
Our greatest fear is no longer that we are powerful beyond measure- of that we are sure. It is that there are not enough spaces where these INFINITE powers are honored, nurtured, and protected- instead of hunted. It is that there is not enough time to flip the paradigm of hate to LOVE. We need all hands on deck to do it.
The CALL TO ACTION.
There are but two (albeit complex) steps- 1) access our Divine Source(s), and 2) follow that which we hear. How we hear from our most sacred selves must be cultivated rightly and righteously to be trusted.
The solace I enjoy in my existence is a direct result of the reconciliation journeys I have taken to retrieve my African, Indigenous, and an amalgamation of religions and spiritual traditions that my ancestors have collected and used with success. And so my heart visions to see an expansion of our sacred knowledge of how to grieve, how to share in and build sacred community, and how to deepen our own liberation through embodied practice.
This is my message- gained through the portals of connection that I have been able to access as a direct result of ancestral spiritual teachings. Gifted through the wise teachings of the Great Many Ancestors, elders and peers, who were/are brave and bold enough to add their energy to this timeless message for our people…
Learn to recognize home (the seat of Love)- the home of your soul, the home of your ancestry, the home of your sacred truth- so that you will always be able to RECOGNIZE it find your way to the support you need.
We must now, with greater commitment, Sankofa* our ancestral Spirit ways and clear any blockages that keep us from them. Remembering always that WE ARE that Spirituality, our own portals to our ancestry. So that as we seek this path of discovery, we can know that we can AND MUST trust and follow our intuitions to selecting righteous and lovingly aligned teachers, mentors and friends.
*Sankofa- Andikra symbol and Ghanian principle that loosely translated means to “Go Back and Get It”.
Simple steps to get started:
1-Engage the most powerful and accessible medicines of our ancestral traditions: sang, hum, chant, dance, drum, engage plant medicine, laugh, create affirmations, pray, make love, connect with the wisdom of animals, and observe the anima.
2- Deepen your purpose work by doing a deep dive into specific ancestral spiritual wisdom that will enhance your ability to be a catalyst for liberation. (ex. For me as a sacred healing artist, it looks like a deepening of the embodied and dance based practices and ceremonial ways of my ancestors). Ask for referrals of trusted sources, do your research on those you are invited to learn from, and ALWAYS trust your Ori- vibes are a VALID source of information.
3- Share the wisdom and creativity that has assisted you along the journey. Do so in an aligned way that feels most resonate to you. From individual, family, or public sharing, to obtaining short or long term mentees. There can never be TOO MUCH encouragement, hope, wisdom, and light.
This is not JUST for ourselves- this is for our communal liberation!
The Vision.
The knowledge, wise use, and application of Earth and Life honoring Energy Dynamics (often through the vehicles of Wise Womxn teachings, Indeginous, and African rooted Spiritual/Metaphysical and Religious Traditions), has been a consistent neutralizer and transformer of harmful systems. It has the ability to wake up those under this maligned spell (lift or neutralize the influence). It can also activate those of us who have gifts embedded WITHIN- to utilize their ancestral genius towards the highest and greatest good. YES…some of us have the answers literally encoded within.
Ok- that’s a lot.
Take a deep breath…now another….notice and feel if this truth is rising up from within.
And for those of us who have already begun and continue to deepen these traditions, truths, and practices-often in silence, silos, or at the dismissal or MIS-understanding of our families…
You are not crazy, you’re not making it up, and you are definitely NOT ALONE. You know what you KNOW. period.
Over and over again, I coach and council, formally and informally, those (like myself) whom this particular programming has so severely affected. The programming that turns all the beauty that we ARE “upside down, inside out, and backwards.”Encouraging us to feel at every turn that we have no place, no space, no voice- and are unchangeably-UNFIT. This is not now, and has never been true.
Blessed, Beautiful, Beloved…. there is no way to be off of your OWN rhythm or a MIStake of a unique Divine Design.
And our GOD IS ancestors gifted us many of the ways to deepen our access to Divine truths forever unfolding in, for, and through our experiences. The time for us to #ReleasetheMedicine of our love, our dance, our crafts, our songs, our music, our nature knowings, our channelings, the genius of our thought, and the UNDEFIABLE power of our voiced intentions is NOW.
To UNAPOLOGETICALLY require that we be honored and abundantly compensated for our gifts and offerings to be used to correct a system that we did not design. This includes EITHER educating our families and circles on the importance and power of a dedicated Spiritual Warrior OR allowing them to more deeply cultivate their own accesses to the Divine without us. We must unplug all the batteries to supremacist, unbalanced, or none reciprocal energy. For our own and our collective ascension.
I affirm that the Divinity that we ARE will see us through. As we continue the healing journey into clearing the many channels that have been programmed to “remain closed”. Through the relentless onslaught of toxic enculturation and yes, inculturation that white supremacy, both blatantly and subversively, continues to plant- WE SEE THROUGH.
We place our eyes upon that which we are creating and as my African Healing Dance mentor Wyoma teaches, “stay in the aspiration of it”. In each moment that we aspire we more firmly concretize that which we are creating.
Remind yourself (as I do) that I’m walking, I’m learning, I’m freeing ME and available to all the learning and growth that MUST come for me.
As we close the doors on toxic codings, all of our beauty unfolds like a magnolia flower in season- fragrant, healing, and in the most Divine time. As a fellow Beloved Surviving Child of the African DEITIES that were brought to these precious STOLEN shores; I extend this offering, blessing, and affirmation.
An AFFIRMATION of TRUTH.
We hear clearly the right wisdom of our beloved ancestors and elders through their Liberatory Spiritual legacies. We march, chant, and teach with the power of our truth in our hearts. We utilize the collective energy of our voices as unfailing CREATIVE CHANNELS. We know and respect that which we speak into creation and inspire. We follow and #ReleaseTheMedicine of our wise ancestral guidance unto our FULL Divine Liberation. Let thy loving will be done for the full and uninhibited liberation of ALL BLACK LIFE. And so it is. Amen. Ameen. Aho. Ashe O.
“The Body of Truth”
It’s weaved along the curves of our DNA, braided into the fibrous coils of our hair, drummed into the patterns of rhythms that our bodies spontaneously remember.
We are Spell-bound, SPELLBOUNDing, and SpellBONDED.
The sacred wolves have returned, the wise womxn witches have risen, the prayers of the ancestral mothers are upon us, the doors have been unlocked…
Connecting deep we find that WE- were the literal medicine we seek.
And so we rise with the wisdom of our ancestors, our weapons of love forged by the fires of our experiences, and with the unshakable blessings of the ENTIRETY of the loving universe.
We return ourselves to ourselves to shine a light for all humanity.
It is so. Ase O.
With Blessings, Sacred LOVE, and in service of the light,
Light Warrior Neith Sankofa
About Neith Sankofa:
Neith Sankofa (she/her/they) is the Founder, CEO, and principle facilitator of The Light Warrior SiStar Hood @WriteDanceAdventure.com (soon to be NeithSankofa.com). She is also the Resident Healing Artist at The Black mecca Project and a Healing Justice consultant with CommunityBuild Ventures. She is an author, sacred healing artist, consultant and coach in the areas of ritual, self-healing, and embodiment. She has a B.A. and M.A. in Religious Studies (minor in Sociology and concentrations in ethics and embodiment) both from Georgia State University. Neith holds a B.A and ordination from the University of Metaphysics, and has studied several forms of African, ancient and indigenous wisdom through dance apprenticeships and holistic mentorships. She has been a presenter at national and international conferences and is the author of several publications on the use of dance/movement and embodiment practices in academia.
Neith’s dance credits include performing in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games, being a featured dancer at the International Day of Peace, and the creator of The Healing Theater- a communal healing performance series. She has performed her “dance peaces” throughout the United States and abroad, using dance advocacy to bring awareness, light, and love to the needed spaces in our collective consciousness.
Her dance/movement workshops and fusion coaching style are designed to invite intentional connection between the spirit of your divine path, the conscious mind, and the wisdom of the body. They combine performance art, clarifying writing exercises, and dance/movement from various traditions. She incorporates academic research in Womanism and the principles of her Sankofa Healing modality (going back to retrieve aspects of one’s heritage for communal healing) in her coaching and workshops. Her presentation style can be described as intentional, intuitive and light-hearted. She affirms in her pointings that we are all part of the Universal One creative force, and that force created Light Warriors to shine their gifts and talents UNAPOLOGETICALLY into the world. Neith’s soul path commitments include assisting in the liberation of Black bodies (especially Black womxn) into the BLISS that is their birthright.
This article was originally posted, via medium.
