Becoming a Living Sun: Part One

By Heru Kepera Bullard

Presented By Omni-University

"Ours is a community of the Living, the Dead, and the Yet Unborn." Ancestor, Priest Jacob H. Carruthers, Ph.D.

Just as the daily sun rises and sets, so do we. The rising sun brings warmth, energy, light, and life into the living world. The sun asks for nothing in return, but faithfully gives all that it has and releases everything it has to give. The sun does not choose the beneficiaries of its life-giving energy; it just shines.

Even while the clouds block emitting sunlight rays, the sun remains true to its nature. Although we may not always see the daily sun, we know that it’s still there and will eventually bless us with the warmth of its rays. Actually, the sun is the perfect personification of what we should aspire to be; An illuminator; A life-energy-giver; An indiscriminate provider; and, unselfish benefactor; A guide; A light.

For those who seek the light, i.e., knowledge, the sun is often referenced, both culturally and historically, as the amplification of God’s extended powers and life-giving gifts. African scholar, Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau tells us that, within the Bakonga spiritual cosmology of life, the living sun animates man’s progressions in becoming “Ngunza Nganga.” The Ngunza Nganga is the initiated spiritual leader and cultural master, wise in all the ways of knowing as well as the living-dying-living systems of life.

As the appearance of the rising morning sun enters into the living world from the East (childhood) so ,too, does the potential of the Ngunza Nganga.

As the sun reaches the mid-day apex of its full heat and radiant energy (adulthood), so,too, does the Ngunza Nganga.

As the sun begins to set and diminish in the evening and lose its radiance and strength

(elderhood), so, too, does the Ngunza Nganga.

Finally, as the sun disappears below the Western horizon , only to return, reborn in the East( Ancestorhood) so, too, does the Ngunza Nganga.

Fu-Kiau explains that this cycle, of the living-dying-living processes, reflects the basis for man’s cultural and spiritual transformation to “becoming” and “being.” Thus equipped with the inner knowledge of knowing, that the “skin is not the end”, man is prepared for all of life’s stages, rites, and passageways between the triangulation of time, space, and location. 

As the light is always there in the on-going beginning, so shall it always be there in the re-occurring end.

Let The Circle Be Unbroken.

To be continued…..