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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1999)
- fi — BLACK HKTORY MONTH 1999 FEBRUARY 3, 1999 • H it Çorllaiti ® l.»rutr The Mystical Temples Along The Nile: Part One B y M arilyn H ull Vast and unyielding, nothing but sand and dunes as far as sight ex tends. This is the Sahara. So m uch the archetype o f desert that the nam e itself means desert. Intim idating and m erciless. H aunting and harsh. Through the center o f this hard taskm aster runs the Nile. Is it so cu rious then that the w aters o f this river w ere considered so sacred, so life giving in this country that receives only three inches o f rain per year? The N ile is one o f the few rivers in the w orld that flows north. This direc tional flow is one reason the N ile is considered by m ystics to be the spi nal column o f the Earth itself. Through (R sp in a ish o rd o f the hum an flows the K undalini (from the H indu tradi- th eK i(ffo m the A sian), the life o f the w orld. T hrough the spi t’d o f th ^ E arth , the N ile flows une K im dalini force for all o f I i vital energy serves as trans for spiritual energy according litions. It rises physi- pinal colum n inexact praising o f our own gness. A s it does, . , ^ _ _ _ £ n t e r s know n as hakras to the Hirqjes, sentas to the i and seals to the Christian pr exam ple, ph { first lesson liai p ,^ rm u s t be that ical needs: Iter. W e learn i not depen- iure these ttead it is id o f G od thought ^survival, s our ra c e it, m th is 14 iding te it into oi SHt chakra: survival alsoknown as chakra ;ific temples whic h line a n d islands o f the Nile equiva, o f the t in all,J >le on Ej 5 rem ad Sward with i visit these fin d and open sb ecom e more ro w n m inds be- uned to the great cos- he Earth M other. O ur com es intertwined olution o f the Earth s w ith ours. Island : on E lephantine is- ; ruin W here once alls stood up to 40 feet ble strew n about in (th a n your w aist. And, E lephantine was the god K hnum , the fe physical body. This was o f the first chakra, the urowaj. These ruins de- BcWnlthttjail ing o f the y. N o other o f these sacred sites exhibit this advanced state o f disrepair. Yet, the essence o f the tem ple rem ains perfectly in tact; ju st as our souls rem ain after our physical bodies crumble. Extending your left hand gently back at the w rist, palm open to the ground am plifies the feel o f the en ergy that still rem ains in the vicinity. T he essence o f this area feels dis tinct, like the edge o f the knife, spe cific, black and white. There is no softness here, ju st as physical life has no softness. Physical life exists or it does not. Elephantine once ex isted, but now does not. Esoteric teachings tell us that first chakra initiations were performed here at Elephantine. These initiations were o f the m ost basic challenge: Do you truly understand that your life be longs to God? W ill you trust G od with your life? Do you trust the C reator o f Life to be the Preserver o f Life? It is said that the initiate w ould be re quired to transverse a tunnel com pletely filled w ith water. The water line rose so high that there was no place w here a second breath could be taken. The initiate would have to trans verse the entire length w ith one breath. Crocodiles infested this tun nel. The tunnel was sw allow ed up in darkness. D eath during this test was a very real possibility. M any indeed died. The initiate w ho survived this test did so by turning over all control to his intuition, his ability to psychi cally “hear" the instructions given to him by his spirit guides. And, he had to execute these instructions without question even when, especially when, such instructions w ent against com m on sense. In this way, the initiate dem onstrated the understanding that logic exists only in the physical world. And, that there is intelligent life that exists beyond the physical w orld that is real and capable o f seeing more than we can. In essence, God. U pon successful com pletion o f such initiation rituals, the candidate for the priesthood, m ale or female, w ould then be transferred. M oving ju st slightly north along the N ile to Kom Ombo, the candidate would begin their training in preparation for the initiation o f the second c h a k ra , the c h a k ra o f sex an d rep ro d u ctio n . Kom Ombo The ancient city o f K om O m bo rests along the banks o f the N ile betw een Edfu and Aswan. N ear this city stands the only tem ple in Egypt that is built in tandem: two altars, two holy o f holies, two hypostyle halls. This is the only temple that is dedi cated to two gods: to Horus the fal con-headed good and Sobek, the crocodile headed god. This is the tem ple that is dedicated to the con cept o f duality: light and dark, male and female, above and below. O ppo sites exist only in the physical world, and indeed, are the essence o f the physical world. In this temple, the initiate learned that good and evil, represented respectively by H orus and Sobek, must both exist in balance for the physical world to exist. Approaching the tw o altars, and again extending the left hand, it is p o ssib le to feel th ese o p p o sin g forces. The frequencies em itted from these adjoining altars allow the indi vidual to align and activate the en ergy center o f the second chakra, also know n as the sacral or sexual chakra. This chakra, w hen activated, allows the Kundalini o f the individual to be accessed, stim ulating creativity and sexual health and balance. TO The Nile is one of the few rivers in the world that flows north. The fertility o f the Nile Valley is no longer due to annual floods, but contemporary irrigation. (Left) The temple o f Korn Ombo, home o f the Crocodile God. This is where initiation rituals were held for those entering priesthood to learn about the earth s duality - good and evil for balance. (Above right) Horus, the Falcon God. BE. CONTINUED- Ego Trippin (there m ay be a reason why) I was born in the congo I walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinx I designed a py tough tha*B that only gl< one hundred y into the cei giving d lam'bad •«*« meat and a change of clothes 1 crossed it in two hours I am a gazelle so swift so swift you can’t catch me hday present three ibal an r ' *71 ( sat on the driaktoiiB. My bowels deliver uranium the filings from my fingernails are semi-precious jewels On a trip north I caught a cold and blew my nose giving oil to the arab world I am so hip even my errors are correct I sailed west to reach east and had to round off the earth as I went the hair from my head thinned and gold was laid across three continents THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY IS NOW! compre- I gazed ott- the forest na AME RICAN FAMILY t = i WTO M M * MSMfSS HVUTM UFI ■ 5» d e s e rts * with a p a c k e i'o f goat’ s Â5SÏ3 © 1998 American Family M utual Insurance C om pany and its Subsidiaries, M adison, Wl 53783-0001 umnv.amfam.com 1 soweddiaim>«<ls in y,backyard 1 "Y