“Only the black woman can say ‘when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole …race enters with me.’” [Anna J. Cooper, 1892] Dr. Anna Julia Cooper was born into slavery on August 10th, 1858 [d. 2/27/1964]. An activist during her life, Cooper triumphed over race and gender barriers to become a prominent scholar, educator, author, sociologist, and speaker. She received her education at St. Augustine’s University (NC), Oberlin College (OH), Columbia University (NY), and the University of Paris (Sorbonne) where, in 1924, Cooper became the 4^th African-American woman to earn a doctorate with her Ph.D. in history. Author of the 1892 book A Voice from the South, which became a classic black feminist text, Cooper is often referred to as the Mother… or Matriarch of Black Womanism.

Matriarch is one of several commonly-used words (‘matrimony, maternity, matron, maternal, matrix…’) built around the Latin root term mater, meaning mother. ‘Matrix‘ is a word that makes me do a double-take because of the rabbit-hole the latter has become in popular culture, thanks in part to the movie. Somewhat ambiguous, the term matrix is defined as “an environment in which something – i.e. ‘matter’ – develops.” To my mind, it should ideally be like the organic safe-space of a mother’s womb as the primary classroom / laboratory and eventual portal into life. Upon arrival, however, the world – as rendered in the movie – is the inverse: a schizophrenic frontier of Europatriarchal programs into which humanity enters as de facto hostages. ‘Life’ becomes a place where humans remain colonized / enslaved to the ‘matrix’ – a system manufactured by elites – through mass delusion (blue pill). Truth (red pill) will supposedly awaken and set the masses free. The Matrix further plays into the trope of a woke white male messiah (Neo, the computer-programmer played by Keanu Reeves)

The ancient African mythology of Heru/Hero (protagonist) v. Set (antagonist… God of the desert, storms, chaos, disorder, violence and foreign oppressors) may well have foreshadowed The Matrix dynamics, but with a powerful woke black woman twist! Interpreted as the S/Hero’s journey, the true Queen of Kemet or Great Mother / Matriarch is said to be ‘She who sees Set and Heru.’ As the Great Mother, the black woman’s journey (alluded to in Anna Julia Cooper’s quote above) calls her to recover, understand, and anchor her sovereign Truth (referred to as Ma’at), and in so doing, to restore Divine order and balance to a Kingdom thrown into shadow and disarray by Set’s usurpation of the throne via the murder and mutilation of its true King. Proverbs from Ipet-Resyt (“the southern sanctuary” of God/dess consorts Amun-Mut, known today as the Luxor Temple) – like the voices of Morpheus and the Oracle (characters played by Laurence Fishburne and Gloria Foster in The Matrix movie) – serve up sage navigational advice about the stakes, dangers, and support available to the Great Mother on her journey of Sankofa (translated from Akan as: ‘In order to move forward, you must reach back / return to reclaim that which has been lost, forgotten, or stolen’). Among Ipet-Resyt‘s resources that the Great Mother returns to are the following proverbs:

• The Kingdom of Heaven is already within you; if you understand yourself you will find it…
• If the Master teaches what is error, the disciple’s submission is slavery. If he teaches truth, this submission is ennoblement…
• Your body is the temple of knowledge… All organs work together in the functioning of the whole…
• The best and shortest road towards knowledge of truth is Nature…
• People need images. Lacking them they invent idols. Better then to found the images on realities that lead the true seeker to the source…
• Ma’at, who links universal to terrestrial, the divine with the human is incomprehensible to the cerebral intelligence…
• The key to all problems is the problem of consciousness…

Ma’at represents a cultural and ideological antithesis of the antagonist ‘Set,’ whose mythological role coincides with interpretations of the ‘matrix’ as a hegemonic alien or Euro-patriarchal system of control – experienced as slavery and colonialism in the African world. As we learn from the biblical Song of Songs, the Shulamite’s journey is in search of her Divine Masculine who has mysteriously called to her from Set’s wilderness. Each challenge she overcomes during the process of seeking incrementally restores to her the scattered pieces of Truth and Divine Order. And as the Balance between Nature and Kemetic Mysteries subsequently reconstitute into their greater sovereign accord, Set‘s shadow flees as a New Era dawns… The time of Judgment, Revelation, Resurrection [Divine Masculine], Restoration [Kingdom of Heaven] is then said to arrive with the Great Mother’s Return in her ascended state of Ma’at…

The Great Mother who initially introduces herself in the Song of Songs as a ‘black and comely’ Seeker [SoS 1:5-6] is referred to by the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ (whom she solicits help from in her search) as ‘thou fairest among women’ [SoS 5:9]. As Seeker / Shulamite, several archetypes of the African Goddess / Divine Feminine / Great Mother become evident (i.e. her ‘matter develops’) in both the biblical Song of Songs [SoS] and Revelation [Rev].

• AUSET …is represented in Song of Songs by the Shulamite as the True Seeker [ref: Temple proverb] on Her journey of recovery and self-discovery. She must find the pieces of her Beloved which were mutilated and scattered in the wilderness [diaspora] by Set and perform a Resurrection ritual that will Restore the Heavenly Kingdom under the sovereignty and consortium of true Beloveds. Auset’s “seat on the throne” is assured by the God of Revelation [Rev 3:14-22] and destined by the crown She wears, representing her key to ascended consciousness.
• MA’AT …represents the time of Judgment. The feather in her crown of ascended consciousness (gained from her life’s journey) constitutes Truth, against which the hearts of those in the afterlife are weighed in the scales of Justice. The Principles of Ma’at predate the biblical ’10 Commandments’ as humanity’s oldest written sources of moral & spiritual instruction. In contrast to Set [God of chaos, disorder, etc. & usurper of the Kingdom’s throne], Ma’at’s Truth is in concert with Divine Order whose secrets are revealed on ancestral timelines and within Nature [ref: Ipet-Resyt proverb] – the God of Revelation’s “book of life” [Rev 3: 1-6]
• SESHAT …is honored in Kemet as ‘Foremost of the per-Ankh’ – ‘houses of life’ attached to Temples where knowledge, considered sacred and taught by priests, was attained. The term ‘Shulamite’ as emphasized in the Song of Songs suggests that the female protagonist is highly educated. [Shul, in Yiddish means “school / synagogue,” and is related to shule/scuola – German; schola – Latin; and skholḗ – Greek… all meaning “school”]. Among Seshat’s many considerable higher-order areas of expertise are being a Scribe [her name means ‘she who scrivens’]; Architecture and Building; and Keeper of the Magician’s Books and Spells… from which Ausar’s ‘Resurrection’ and the ‘Virgin Birth’ of ‘Savior’-figure Heru were facilitated. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BCE) referred to Seshat as Sefket-Abwy (‘she of seven points’), due to her Crown of Life [Rev 2: 8-11]. Not unlike the promise of Lady Liberty, Seshat earned the highest regard in Kemet as representing ‘She who opens Heaven’s door.’
• HATHOR …[Hwt-Hr] means ‘mansion of Heru,’ Kemet’s savior-figure. If Auset’s journey represents the Divine Feminine’s wilderness years [40], then Hathor represents her fertility years [40] and Heru would likely be one of the master-musician priests of her temple in Dendera. Worshipped as Goddess of music, dance, beauty, fertility, childbirth, women, children, and the S/Hero’s journey, the Song of Songs befits Hathor. Within her temple lie many of Kemet’s deepest mysteries, including depictions of Hathor’s face atop temple pillars [Rev 3: 7-13] resembling the Divine Uterus. Often depicted handing out water to refresh the deceased during their journey through the afterlife, Hathor is said to have used milk from her sacred Sycamore tree to restore sight to Heru‘s lunar eye after one of his bruising battles against antagonist Set. “His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set.” [SoS 5:12].
• NUT …is Goddess of the Sky, consort of Geb, and mother to Ausar, Auset, Nephthys, and Set in the Heliopolis Creation myth. As Water-Bearer, Nut’s crown represents the River which flows like earth’s Milky Way from humanity’s sacred womb and Source (in Africa’s heart) through the fertile Nile Valley Ma’atrix, in its organic response to the mysterious powers of the Morning Star [Rev 2: 18-29]. A New Dawn, AKA the Age of Aquaria, may be read in Nut‘s depictions and associations, as the forces of the universe rally to support when & where this True Seeker – humanity’s sovereign & Great Ma’atriarch – enters ❤ ❤ ❤ 

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?… [SoS 6:10] Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee… [SoS 6:13]