Rastafari and its Shamanist Origins makes me Angry!

Have any of you seen the book Rastafari and its Shamanist Origins? It makes me very angry!!!!!!!

 

I say keep on being angry!

1         Below is an excerpt from the website I RUDDER.COM attacking my book. I think the person launching the attack, either is intellectually challenged or he is deliberately trying to mislead people. I never stated anywhere in my book that Rastafari is a Voodoo culture. While many want to deny this Rastafari has pronounced Hindu Shavite elements within it. Historically there is a proven link between Rastafari and Shavism in Jamaica. The Hindu professor Ajai Mansingh now deceased a professor at the Mona Campus in Jamaica wrote extensively on this subject, and is qouted in the following excerpt. One scientist, who came here in 1973 from India via Canada, fell in love with beautiful Jamaica and has never wanted to leave. He has had his most moving discoveries and life experiences in Jamaica. Professor Ajai Mansingh, author of “Home Away From Home – 150 Years of Indian Presence in Jamaica”, explained why there has been a longstanding kinship between Jamaicans of Indian and African descent. The Indians who had been hired as indentured labour on the plantations after 1845, were left to starve by their masters. “The recently emancipated African slaves had very little, but they took pity on the Indians and shared their food with them,” he explained. Mansingh went on to explain that the Africans who had been attending Christian churches, observed the Indians gathering under trees to conduct their ethnic religious ceremonies. This inspired them to return to their African forms of worship, Christian in belief but with Hindu influences including the central table laden with food and flowers. “There is still a revival group in August Town that serves dahl bhat at their ceremonies,” he says.   The spurrious and emotion laden attempt by the person trying to attack my work which was first published in 2003 as Rastafari and its Hindu Origin's will come to naught as, various scholars and even Rastafari themselves agree with the assertion in the book that there is a Hindu influence within Rastafari. "This book called Rastafari and its Shamanist Origins. It tries to say that Rastafari is a pagan religion that does not worship JAH and that it is actually a pagan spirit voodoo Hindu religion. I and I think this is complete bullshit!!!!!! Rastafari has Hindu and African influences but it is not satanic!!!!!!!" These are his words not mine yet he contradicts himself and openly states that Rastafari  has Hindu and African influences . I never equated Rastafari with Satanism. I examined Rastafari culture in light of bible and it in no way upholds what Rastafari teaches. Above is a photo of Donesha Pendergast with a pronounced Hindu piece of jewelry on her forehead, symbolically representing the Third Eye which is a Hindu concept. Leonard Howell the first Rastafari on record to incorporate Hindu culture into his practsie was Leonard Howell.   Howell lived in an Indian styled hilltop commune, called Pinnacle he called himself Gangunguru Marajh, he even had a harem in the manner of the Hindu kings that he so admired. Howell was well read and had traveled extensively when he lived in the city of New York; he ran a “tea shop,”he more than likely sold Marijuana in his tea shop. Howell himself functioned as a healer; years later in Jamaica, he would use his knowledge to heal people, he took them to a hot springs bath that relaxed their minds and bodies healing them of many ailments in their physical bodies. Howell was not simply talking hope he was bringing about results many of the women he attracted were young uneducated single mothers looking for a way out poverty. The situation today has not changed much the Village Ram mentality; of some in the Caribbean, has spawned a generation of young single parent households headed by mostly, poor, young, uneducated women. This situation has led to an increasingly alarming number of single, young women, turning to, the drug lords for their financial sustenance. While criminal enterprise has proven to be very lucrative.The truly wealthy criminals hold a monopoly position. The  young  men and women that the dons employ; are largely their pawns, and are usually expendable when they no longer cooperate, or are either incarcerated or incapacitated. Howell was what the poor saw as a way of escape at that time he knew what they wanted him for and he wanted power and lordship thusly both parties were served they fed his illusions of grandeur and he literally fed them in this scenario each party corrupted the other yet they both got what they wanted . Howell was genuine in his beliefs he was willing to die for his beliefs and his followers this is what endears a man to anyone if a man is willing to die for his word that stance will inadvertently bring about a certain measure of respect from others even ones enemies. Howell was a bonafide channeler he was an adept in elemental magic; (elemental magicis rituals where various elemental spirits are conjured in order to aid the adepts, there are earthbound spirits, fire spirits, water spirits, and air spirits), his son Blade in the book The First Rasta by Helen Lee corroborated this. Howell was adept at spirit channeling people felt a definite presence when he entered a room, that was his hallmark his bearing and presence. Bob Marley would later emulate this man calling himself “Tough Gong,”meaning Iam tougher than Gong.  The original Gong was Leonard Howell, a Gong is a hallowed cymbal like instrument used by almost all oriental religious systems of worship, to announce the proceeding, or ending of a session, this instrument was also used to honor a particular deity’spresence. Howell was meticulous in his choice of names and euphemism’s Bob Marley’s use of the name was mostly braggadocios, and also a respectful acquiescence of the preeminence of Howell. Howell used Cannabis as a means of gaining contact with the spirit world. Howell understood that the average youth, of a western persuasion would never easily grasp the intricacies involved in spirit contact through meditation, and tantricism, the smoking of Cannabis was an easier simpler method so this was employed. In the late sixties, Howell and his followers were nominally wealthy people, because of, Cannabis cultivation. Rastafari culture holds as a core tenet that, Cannabis Sativa is a sacred i.e.  (Holy)  plant. Figure: A Cannabis plant, introduced into the Caribbean, by the Spaniards  and smoked sacramentally by Sadhu’s.         It is now a sacrament to the Rastafari.   Sadhu with the Third Eye painted on his forehead. The Third Eye and Yoga which is essentially Hindusim is embraced by many Rastafari today. Resultantly where is the error of the book Rastafari and its Shamanist Origins/Hindu Origins?

 

Time Zone: EST (New York, Toronto)

 

Messenger: Eleazar1234 Sent: 1/22/2008 11:48:45 AM

This book called Rastafari and its Shamanist Origins. It tries to say that Rastafari is a pagan religion that does not worship JAH and that it is actually a pagan spirit voodoo Hindu religion. I and I think this is complete bullshit!!!!!! Rastafari has Hindu and African influences but it is not satanic!!!!!!! He uses the Bill McNeil interview to say that Haile Selassie denied being God, but as we Rastas know, that interview was mistranslated and Haile Selassie I never ever denied being GOD!!!!!!! He also uses Marcus Garvey words that he said while under the influence of Babylon propaganda. THE FAILURE OF HAILE SELASSIE AS EMPEROR: When the facts of history are written Haile Selassie of Abyssinia will go down as a great coward who ran away from his country to save his skin and left the millions of his countrymen to struggle through a terrible war that he brought upon them because of his political ignorance and his racial disloyalty. It is a pity that a man of the limited intellectual calibre and weak political character like Haile Selassie became Emperor of Abyssinia at so crucial a time in the political history of the world. Unfortunately, Abyssinia lost the controlling influence of a political personality of patriotic racial character like the late Menelik, whose loyalty to his race and devotion to his country excelled all his other qualities, to the extent that he was able to use that very strength to continuously safeguard the interests of the Ethiopian Empire. What he did so well to preserve, a cringing, white slave hero worshipper, visionless and disloyal to his country, threw away. This is the impression the serious minded political student forms of the conduct of the ex-Emperor of Abyssinia. EVERY NEGRO ASHAMED: Every Negro who is proud of his race must be ashamed of the way in which Haile Selassie surrendered himself to the white wolves of Europe. These statements may be considered very severe, and in fact, they are. We could have been otherwise apologetic and sympathetic, but that would have been only if we were dealing with a Coptic Priest or a Religious Monk and not a[n] Emperor who held and presided over the political trust of twelve million people of his own country, and the political destiny of the entire Negro race. This little misguided Emperor could not realise that he held in his hands the political trust of the hundreds of millions of Negroes of the world, men and women, who were looking up toward the firm establishment of political sovereignty, and that Ethiopia, like Liberia and Haiti were to them prizes of glory to be perpetuated and strengthened in the maintenance of the dignity of that black race that other men have claimed to be incompetent, inferior and unworthy, which every black man must disprove. LOOKED WITH HOPE: to the same opportunities as white citizens in theWhen the war started in Abyssinia all Negro nationalists looked with hope to Haile Selassie. They spoke for him, they prayed for him, they sung for him, they did everything to hold up his hands, as Aaron did for Moses; but whilst the Negro peoples of the world were praying for the success of Abyssinia this little Emperor was undermining the fabric of his own kingdom by playing the fool with white men, having them advising him[,] having them telling him what to do, how to surrender, how to call off the successful thrusts of his Rases against the Italian invaders. Yes, they were telling him how to prepare his flight, and like an imbecilic child he followed every advice and then ultimately ran away from his country to England, leaving his people to be massacred by the Italians, and leaving the serious white world to laugh at every Negro and repeat the charge and snare - "he is incompetent," "we told you so." Indeed Haile Selassie has proved the incompetence of the Negro for political authority, but thank God there are Negroes who realise that Haile Selassie did not represent the truest qualities of the Negro race. How could he, when he wanted to play white? how could he, when he surrounded himself with white influence? how could he, when in a modem world, and in a progressive civilization, he preferred a slave State of black men than a free democratic country where the black citizens could rise to the sam oppertubities as white citizens in their democracies. TELL THE TRUTH: The truth must be told so that the white world will realise that it was not the pride of the Negro that surrendered in Abyssinia. It was the disloyalty of a single man who was too silly to take pride in his race, who played such a game as to disgrace the political integrity of a noble people. The Negroes of Abyssinia and of the world are satisfied however that Abyssinia was not conquered by Italy and the European forces of Mussolini. Abyssinia was only conquered by the black levies of Italy. The Askaris have really been the victors in Abyssinia. [Rodolfo] Graziani only marched into Addis Ababa after he had made sure of the advanced guard of the Askaris. Every battle that the Italians won in Abyssinia resulted from the advanced charge of the Askaris. It was black men fighting black men, and this was made possible in Abyssinia because the regime of Haile Selassie had given a bad taste to the mouth, not only of the blacks of Abyssinia but of those of the surrounding territories. They felt that they had a cause against the Amharic white loving Emperor who liked to chain and flog black men, and whose brutality to them gave Mussolini the cause to fool the world that he was bestowing a blessing upon the people of Abyssinia by freeing them. NO SLAVES: It was a piece of impertinence to suggest that black men should be held as slaves. We must admit that we glorified Haile Selassie when the war started, fought his battles to win international support, but we ever felt deep down in our hearts that he was a slave master. We had hoped that if Abyssinia had won that we would have forced the Government of Abyssinia to free the black whom they held as slaves. We would have preferred this than seeing the country taken by Mussolini or any European power; but now that the country is temporarily lost and the Emperor has cowardly exiled himself, the truth must be told. WHAT RIGHT HAS HE?: The future freedom of Abyssinia must be built upon the highest principles of democracy. That is why it is preferable for the Abyssinian Negroes and the Negroes of the world to work for the restoration and freedom of the country without the assistance of Haile Selassie, because at best he is but a slave master. The Negroes of the Western World whose forefathers suffered for three hundred years under the terrors of slavery ought to be able to appreciate what freedom means. Surely they cannot feel justified in supporting any system that would hold their brothers in slavery in another country whilst they are enjoying the benefits of freedom elsewhere. The Africans who are free can also appreciate the position of slaves in Abyssinia. What right has the Emperor to keep slaves when all the democratic sections of the world were free, when men had the right to live, to develop, to expand, to enjoy all the benefits of human liberty[?] The Emperor who has been exiled in Europe must have seen the civilization of Europe. In England where he lives he sees that men are not flogged and chained and kicked because of their colour or because of their condition, but where true human liberty guarantees to every man the happiest pursuit he can bring to himself. It has been reported that he is leaving England for Syria, where a large number of Abyssinian refugees are living. There is an interpretation that the decision to leave England and to live among "his people?" in Syria is to perpetuate his divine majesty in the presence of that king worship that he doesn't get in England, where men look at others as equals and not as masters by divine right. In truth, the Emperor is out of place in democratic England. He wants to be once more in the environment of the feudal Monarch who looks down upon his slaves and serfs with contempt. Except he changes the attitude of thinking himself better than the Negro who constitutes the larger number of Ethiopia and profit by the experience he has gained, he should not be a fit person to be in authority in the very country in which he was born. After all, Haile Selassie is just an ordinary man like any other human being. What right has he to hold men as slaves? It is only the misfortune of the slaves that causes him to be a slave master. Negroes who have the dignity of their race at heart resent the impertinence of anyone holding the blacks as slaves. Haile Selassie ought to realise this and abolish his foolish dream of being an Emperor of slaves and serfs and try to be an Emperor of noble men, and for him to be that he must himself be the noblest of them all. He hasn't proved his nobility in the war between Italy and Abyssinia. Ras Desta proved to be the Lord, the Nobleman of Ethiopia whilst Halle Selassie proved a cringing coward! BULLSHIT!!!!BULLSHIT!!! HAILE SELASSIE IS CHRIST!!!!!!! JAH RASTAFARI LORD OF LORDS KING OF KINGS   http://www.jah-rastafari.com/forum/message-view.asp?message_group=2587&start_row=1 The actual link for IRUDDER.com. To read the original complaint.