The Proverbs, Wits and Wisdom Of Ancestral Africa



 

November 12, 2006 Don Jaide    

The Proverbs, Wits and Wisdom Of Ancestral Africa

 

Anger-
Anger does nobody good, but patience is the father of kindness.

Assistance-
Not to aid one in distress is to kill him in your heart.

Birth-
Birth does not differ from birth; as the free man was born so was the slave.
In the beginning our Lord created all. With him there is neither slave nor free man, but every one is free.

Boasting-
Boasting is not courage. He who boasts much cannot do much. Much gesticulation does not prove courage.

Borrowing-
Borrowing is easy but the day of payment is hard.

Chance-
He who waits for chance may wait for a year.

Character-
Wherever a man goes to dwell his character goes with him. Every man’s character is good in his own eyes.

Charity-
Charity is the father of sacrifice.

Children-
 There is no wealth without children. It is the duty of children to
 wait on elders, not elders on children.

Condemnation-
You condemn on hearsay evidence alone, your sins increase.

Contempt-
Men despise what they do not understand.

Covetousness-
If thou seeketh to obtain by force what our Lord did not give thee,
thou wilt not get it.

Danger of Beauty-
He who marries a beauty, marries trouble.

Danger of Poverty-
Beg help and you will meet with refusals; ask for alms and you will
meet with misers.

Danger of Wealth-
It is better to be poor and live long than rich and die young.

Disposition-
A man’s disposition is like a mark in a stone, no one can efface it.

Doing Good-
If one does good, God will interpret it to him for good.

Duty to One’s Self-
Do not repair another man’s fence until you have seen to your own.

Effort-
You cannot kill game by looking at it.

Evil Doer-
The evil doer is ever anxious.

Experience-
We begin by being foolish and we become wise by experience.

Familiarity-
Familiarity induces contempt, but distance secures respect.

Faults-
Faults are like a hill, you stand on your own and you talk about
those of other people.

Faults of the Rich-
If thou art poor, do not make a rich man thy friend.
If thou goest to a foreign country, do not alight at a rich man’s
house.

Favor of the Great-
To love the king is not bad, but a king who loves you is better.

Folly-
After a foolish action comes remorse.

Forethought-
A person prepared beforehand is better than after reflection.
The day on which one starts is not the time to commence one’s
preparation.

Forgiveness-
He who forgives ends the quarrel.

Friends-
There are three friends in this world–courage, sense, and insight.

Friendship-
Hold a true friend with both of your hands.

Future-
Thou knowest the past but not the future.
As to what is future, even a bird with a long neck can not see it,
but God only.

Gossip-
Gossip is unbecoming an elder.

Gentleness-
A matter dealt with gently is sure to prosper, but a matter dealt
with violently causes vexation.

Hate-
There is no medicine for hate.

Heart-
It is the heart that carries one to heaven.

Heathen-
He is a heathen who bears malice.

Hope-
Hope is the pillar of the world.

Ignorance-
Lack of knowledge is darker than night.
An ignorant man is always a slave.
Whoever works without knowledge works uselessly.

Immortality-
Since thou hast no benefactor in this world, thy having one in the
next world will be all the more pleasant.

Injury-
He who injures another brings injury upon himself.

Laziness-
Laziness lends assistance to fatigue.
A lazy man looks for light employment.

Love-
One does not love another if one does not accept anything from him.
If you love the children of others, you will love your own even
better.

Meekness-
If one knows thee not or a blind man scolds thee, do not become
angry.

Mother-
Him whose mother is no more, distress carries off.

Necessity of Effort-
The sieve never sifts meal by itself.

Old Age-
There are no charms or medicine against old age.

Opportunity-

The dawn does not come twice to wake a man.

Patience-
At the bottom of patience there is heaven.
Patience is the best of qualities; he who possesses it possesses all things.

People-
Ordinary people are as common as grass, but good people are dearer
than the eye.

Politeness-
Bowing to a dwarf will not prevent your standing erect again.
“I have forgotten thy name” is better than “I know thee not.”

Poverty-
A poor man has no friends.
He who has no house has no word in society.

Riches-
Property is the prop of life.
A wealthy man always has followers.

Sleep-
Sleep has no favorites.

Strife-
Strife begets a gentle child.

Sun-
The sun is the king of torches.

Trade-
Trade is not something imaginary or descriptive, but something real
and profitable.

Truth-
Lies, however numerous, will be caught by truth when it rises up.
The voice of truth is easily known.

Unselfishness-
If you love yourself others will hate you, if you humble yourself
others will love you.

Valor-
Boasting at home is not valor; parade is not battle; when war comes
the valiant will be known.
The fugitive never stops to pick the thorn from his foot.

Wisdom-
A man may be born to wealth, but wisdom comes only with length of days.
A man with wisdom is better off than a stupid man with any amount of
charms and superstition.
Know thyself better than he who speaks of thee.
Not to know is bad, not to wish to know is worse.
A counsellor who understands proverbs soon sets matters right.

PROVERBS BASED ON THE OBSERVATION OF ANIMALS

Butterfly-
The butterfly that brushes against thorns will tear its wings.

Dog-
If the dog is not at home, he barks not.
A heedless dog will not do for the chase.
A lurking dog does not lie in the hyena’s lair.

Elephant-
He who can not move an ant, and yet tries to move an elephant, shall
find out his folly.
The elephant does not find his trunk heavy.
Were no elephant in the jungle, the buffalo would be a great animal.

Fly-
If the fly flies, the frog goes not supperless to bed.

Fox-
When the fox dies, fowls do not mourn.

Goat-
When the goat goes abroad, the sheep must run.

Rat-
When the rat laughs at the cat, there is a hole.
The rat has not power to call the cat to account.
The rat does not go to sleep in the cat’s bed.

Wolf-
He who goes with the wolf will learn to howl.

Complied by:
A. O. STAFFORD (1916)

 

The Science of Light - Syncretism (Santos Bonacci Production Preview)

There is Beauty in the Struggle (Poem)

There is beauty in the struggle, can you see it?

Holding my head up high their profiling to try to throw me down in a pit.

Social worker trying to hit me with AA.

I've been sober for a year lady I'm just looking for work today.

I talk God talk so they like to look at me funny.

You think I'm making a point when your judging and I'm saying no thanks to all the fake money.

Yeah Ad -Seg they got a cell and a bed for me.

I just take it as shelter and a place for meditation to his glory.

A doubting Thomas something I used to be.

Weren't ever supposed to shove a halo, but it's just another brick in the wall now can't you see?

I'm just living to point people in a direction.

Getting tired of being treated like I'm some kind of infection.

I got the moonwalk in my back pocket.

But ain't throwing it on YouTube I'm trying to make a point to keep in a locket.

I got dirt about covered up history this city haven't a clue?

Like I was my own CIA surveying a lagoon its seen war now what do you do?

Don't judge a book by its cover.

Now I got you thinking of a lover.

All I got to say if I had a roof and a laptop.

I got the verbatim to false advertisement that could make all of Babylon pop.

So take it for what it is, I'm a street kid about my biz.

I'll find a home again just out makin' a name for myself.

Trippin' on the beauty in the struggle, caught my nigga Cole on the same shelf.

Syncretism as Religion

http://sarahannelawless.com

 

 

What do Robert Cochrane (Roy Bowers), Victor and Cora Anderson, Robert Graves, Gerald Gardner, Manly P. Hall, Johfra Bosschart, Madame Blavatsky, and others all have in common? They were syncretists. Syncretism is the belief that the majority of the world’s religions can all be reconciled; that what they have in common is more than what they do not. Within syncretism is a feeling of harmony, unity, and overall love. Syncretism is not a modern belief, it was shared by ancient cultures – the most well-known being the cross-over gods between the Egyptians and Greeks and also the Celts and Romans. They didn’t see anything wrong with this as either their beliefs, teachings, or their blood told them their gods are of the same origin. Some believe all gods originated from Africa, others the Middle East, and others yet from the Proto-Indo European. Put the cultures of these regions on a timeline and you’ll see that all of the above are right, they just represent different evolutionary periods through early pre-history.

Most definitions found of syncretism call it “an attempt to reconcile different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.” That word “attempt” is always in the definition no matter where I seem to look.  I suppose it isn’t easy to live in harmony and love, but one needs to do better than just attempt it.  I am coming out of the polytheistic closet – I am a syncretist and an animist. I believe all of the world’s religions stem from animism and it is getting harder and harder for modern scholars to prove otherwise thanks to recent research conclusively linking modern witchcraft and folk magic practices to ancient shamanism which is deeply rooted in animism. If you listen to the descriptions of the pantheons of the different Pagan cultures but do not mention the names of the gods, you will begin to see a pattern. I believe if you take all of these pantheons and cosmologies and create a template that if you stack them upon one another they will match – not perfectly as everything can corrupt and change – but pretty darn close. I am not a pantheist or panentheist as I believe in more than one god, but there is only one sun, one moon orbiting the earth, one venus, one mercury… you get the picture. I am not saying all religion is the same as there are obvious cultural differences that are a large factor, but I am saying they are similar and share the same origins – it is only their evolution over time that has separated them. This is why folk magic (aka witchcraft, aka shamanism) fits so well into any and every religion and why every religion practices it – yes even Christianity.  It is not because folk magic is a practice or a trade devoid of religion, no, it is because it is the root of every religion and therefore inseparable from it no matter how much faith evolves through time.

 

I believe as many ancient cultures do, that the universe was created from one god who the Greeks believed was pure love and the Celts pure awareness – he had to be destroyed in order to create and so every solar system, planet, and life form in the universe is a piece of that first god. Even scientists will tell you everything is made from nuclear star dust from massive planets to the smallest organism on Earth. We truly are all connected – the Norse called this connection the Web of Wyrd –  in Buddhism it is Indra’s Net. I believe the gods do not have human faces dwelling in a heaven separate from our world, instead I believe our world and the unseen worlds overlap.  I believe the gods so often worshipped in human form are truly the earth, its greenmantle, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, and that the fey found in so many cultures are the spirits of plants, animals, and our own ancestors. The gods and spirits are constantly all around us, under our feet, in the sky, on our dinner plates. Our world of modern technology and only going outside to go from place to place has robbed us of our deep bond with our own world and our gods.  So few still feel awe over a sunrise, a full moon bedecked with stars, the budding of spring, the beauty of a wild animal, or the whispers of the wind passing through the trees… So few are thankful when they eat and drink the greenmantle for dinner every night – the wine and vegetables on your plate are the blood and flesh of the Green Man; Dionysus, Osiris, Baldr, Persephone, Tamuz, Jarilo…
Syncretism is not a popular belief in Neopaganism. I have met with many violent responses in sharing my beliefs with others in the Pagan community. So I admit I have been very hesitant to share my cosmology even on my own blog. I do not understand this attitude as syncretism was born in ancient Paganism, the ancients themselves saw absolutely nothing wrong with it and even their literature reflects these beliefs such as the quote shown below from The Golden Ass, a work in Latin from 200 CE.  I think it is mainly an issue of hard and soft polytheists not being able to reconcile their beliefs and a syncretist, who thinks they’re both right, just makes it harder for them!

“First I bathed in the sea seven times, as Pythagoras taught us. Then I called upon the goddess, naming her Demeter, Aphrodite, Artemis, Persephone, Isis, and Queen of Heaven.” “Her hair was long and heavy. A chaplet of flowers crowned her head, over which shone a full moon supported by vipers and sheafs of wheat. Her robe was multicoloured: white, yellow and red. From left shoulder to right hip she was draped in a sash of gleaming black, tasselled, plreated, embroidered with silver stars and red-gold moons. In one hand she held a golden rattle; in the other a golden bowl. Along its handle an asp hissed, ready to strike. She wore sandals of victorious palm fronds. Perfume from her body floated over me.’I am Mother Nature,’ she said, ‘queen of the living and the dead, world, heavens, seas, and underworld. Every people know me by their own name: Artemis, Aphrodite, Persephone, Demeter, Hecate, Ma-Bellona. But in Egypt I am Queen Isis.'”

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