MALAIKA MUTERE

Posts tagged ‘Hathor’

Panther Kings, Barkcloth & Milk

From ancient times to the present day, Africa’s collective imagination has to one degree or another been influenced by the leopard as a symbol of its cultural and spiritual potency. The black panther is the melanistic color variant of leopards in Africa, so perhaps the phenomenal success of the movie of the same name can be used as a current barometer of that potency. North, south, east, west, and diaspora – the leopard is a powerful symbol of African warriors, sages, magicians, priests, gods, goddesses, queens, and kings. In West Africa, sculptures from Ife and Benin portray the leopard as a symbol of wisdom. This statue from ancient North Africa depicting King Tutankhamun riding through the underworld on the back (more…)

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African Culture, Colonial Experience, Hero's Journey, Oral Tradition, Shero's Journey

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Nyabingi ~ Oracle of the Drum & Warrior Queen

Queen Nyabingi is one of several likely inspirational fonts for Marvel’s comic book renderings of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, an elite group of female bodyguards who will soon be slaying on the silver screen [2/16/18] in Ryan Coogler’s directorial rendition of Black Panther – the movie. Though fictional, Marvel’s African kingdom of Wakanda is geographically situated around the source of humanity’s genesis, which happens to be where the legendary Nyabingi greatly impacted history as well as our pathways to a pan-African consciousness. A real-life fusion of warrior-queen archetypes that arose in the ancestral Nile River mythologies of Khemet, Goddess Nyabingi’s spirit also lives in the diffusion of beats and flows that birthed hip-hop in today’s diaspora. (more…)

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African Culture, Colonial Experience, Oral Tradition, Pop Music, Reparations, Shero's Journey

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KuNtu: A Well-Painted Home

I didn’t grow up a comic-book super-fan (more like occasional reader), nor grew to become enticed by Hollywood’s silver-screen adventures of super-heroes from the big-3 comic-book universes: Marvel, DC, and X-Men. Marvel’s recently-released trailer for the Black Panther movie (set for release on February 16th, 2018) may just have changed all that. (more…)

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African Culture, African Proverbs, Colonial Experience, Hero's Journey, Oral Aesthetics, Shero's Journey, Storytelling

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Hathor ~ Mansion of Heru

goddess_hathor_love

“…glorious”

Hwt-hr is the Kemetic version of Hathor, meaning ‘Mansion of Heru.’ Indeed, as Heru’s divine consort, Hathor is regarded as the sky in which he – as the sun god and “Djedi Sky Walker”/ Dancer – dwells. Hathor is worshipped as goddess of music, dance, beauty, fertility, childbirth, women, children and foreign lands who personifies feminine love, joy, motherhood, and nature in general. Women particularly aspired to embody this deeply loved goddess’s conjoined roles as wife, mother, and lover which gained Hathor the titles of ‘Lady of the House of Jubilation’, as well as ‘The One Who Fills the Sanctuary with Joy’.

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Hero's Journey, Oral Aesthetics, Oral Tradition, Reparations, Shero's Journey

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Purple Reign ~ Royal African Symbols

A color with mystical and noble qualities, purple/violet is associated with royalty, spirituality, creativity, and magic. Representing the upper end of the visible color spectrum of Light, purple/violet is both a completion (spiritual mastery) as well as a beginning of the energy vibration beyond the physical. prince on guitarThis is the energy field in which one realizes the eternal union that exists between one’s self and the All (one’s infinite/higher/pure consciousness) – which is the goal of the soul’s journey in this life and beyond. Purple/violet governs love and crown chakra, at the top of the head…

This post offers a brief look at the symbolism and meaning in the crowns worn by some of Africa’s royalty – gods and goddesses from Kemet (ancient Egypt) – along with some of the fundamental cultural wisdom that governs their being and evolution. It’s posted during  African American Music Appreciation Month (June), in remembrance of the late Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016 … “Sometimes It Snows In April”) – Purple Rain composer, performer and interpreter [*] of African symbols of love and royalty. This post honors the god(dess) who meets, supports and delivers us with such gifts of genius in our epic life quest for truth/consciousness/light, repair, and harmony. (more…)

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African Culture, African Proverbs, Afrocentricity, Hero's Journey, Oral Tradition, Pop Music, Storytelling

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Heru/Horus… Hero

Kenyatta2When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land. ~ Kenya’s post-colonial Father: Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Prime Minister of Kenya (1963-64), President (1964-78), and author of “Facing Mount Kenya.” These words are sometimes attributed to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Winner: Nobel Peace Prize, 1984; Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, 1986; Pacem in Terris Award, 1987; Sydney Peace Prize, 1999; Gandhi Peace Prize, 2005; and Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2009). (more…)

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African Culture, Afrocentricity, Hero's Journey, Oral Aesthetics, Oral Tradition, Storytelling

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Trees of Dreaming, Songlines, Story, Life…

Deep in the rain forest of western Kenya, there lived a special tree that many considered mystical. Once upon a time, her dwelling place was part of the great Equatorial African forest that once spanned the continent from east to west like a magnificent green belt that went through present-day Guinea. Her name was Mama Mutere, (more…)

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African Culture, Hero's Journey, Oral Aesthetics

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