Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY, EXCERPT...
"HOW WHAT IS CAME INTO BEING
"The book of knowing Ra's ways of being, and of thus overcoming the serpent Apep.
"Thus spoke the Lord of the Universe. He said:
"I came into being as the Existent, first to come into being.
"Having come into being as what exists, I then was.
"That was how existence came into being, for I was before the ancient gods, my creation.
"Before they were, I was.
"My name preceded theirs, for I created antiquity and the ancient gods.
"I made all that I desired in this world, and I spread over it.
"I reached out my hand by myself, before they were born, before I spat out Shu and Tefnut.
"I used my own mouth, and Magic was my name.
"It was I who came into being in my manner of being, taking on existence as what exists.
"Thus I came into existence in Primal Time. After that beginning a host of ways of being came into existence ,
"(For before then) there was no mode of existence whatsoever in the world.
"All that I did I accomplished alone, before any other being came into existence to create along side me in these places.
"There I created the modes of being with the energy in me. There I created in 'Nwn', while still drowsy, while I had yet to find any ground on which to stand upright .
"But then my heart was filled with energy,
"The design of creation appeared before me, and I accomplished everything that I wanted to do, being alone.
"Conceiving designs in my heart, I created a different mode of existence
"And multitudinous ways of being born of the Existent."
P. 61-63, "ONTOLOGY AND COSMOGENESIS," AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD, 2780-330 B.C., by Theophile Obenga; [from 'Papyrus Brenmer Rhind,' p.69-79; transliteration and translation by Theophile Obenga]