peter
IT is 2am. The night is about to die. I am failing, dismally, to put my mind to sleep. It too, is failing drearily to put me to sleep. The engagement between the two is intellectually fierce and yet silent.
The silence is eerie, ominous and unyielding. Dogs have fallen silent, except for one quite some distance away. It probably has seen the early bird that is hoping to catch the fattest worm. The witchy owl is also quiet, uncharacteristically silent. Perhaps rats have filled its stomach to quiet levels.
The only noise here is one between my mind and myself.
My mind and I do not agree on the owl and its deafening silence. When the two do not agree, none will go to sleep. I toss and turn. My mind does the same. There have to be some answers, and yet they do not come that easy. The emotional embrace of yesterday night comes back fresh in my mind and in me.
What is the meaning? There is no sign of the two of us ever agreeing. The picture is vivid, and the meaning as clear as muddy and murky water. It is an image of two men in some warm and epic embrace and reminiscences of yesteryears.
It is Mahubo, yes, Dambisa the son of Mkhatshana okaMafu. He was that illustrious warrior who in the company of others of similar mould, created and sustained the Ndebele State and Nation.
Hearty and indebted gratitude oozes effortlessly from the mouth of my mind. Indeed, this is the singular theme of a conversation without words. Some conversations go on without words. Actions sometimes speak louder than words. This is often the case when my mind and I seek a solution to a vexing question, where an answer eludes both of us. Sleep usually hates these confrontations and chooses to stay away of the battlefield lest blood splatters all over it.
I have observed that a given theme is tackled at some time. A few years down the line, the same theme is revisited, albeit with stronger, sharper interest and better understanding. Knowledge is spirally accumulated within the ever-expanding cycles of human mental effort. The spiral represents that idea.
It is perhaps different in my case in that when this happens the hunt for solutions results in unending mental tussles.
It is back to Stonehenge and seeking to understand it. When the jigsaw puzzle does not fit, my mind and I do not rest. I cannot control my mind, nor can it control me.
This is what happens when a topic eludes explanation and interpretation. The Stonehenge in the Salisbury Plain is being described as a sacred megalithic monument. But why? The question begs for an answer.
What is it that constitutes sacredness? What would have happened when a sacred place is said to have been desecrated? I think hard, deep and wide. Spirit must be at the centre of this overwhelming and sleep-repelling philosophical question. This must be the case as far as Africa knows.
Can Spirit exist outside of the human mind? Think about the celestial attributes of Stonehenge. Yes, it has some alignments that are part of my intellectual engagements these days. The circle of upright stone pillars. There is the first alignment of the rising sun (longest day in the year), the summer solstice represented by the north-eastern entranceway.
This runs to the south-western entranceway representing the sunset (shortest day of the year) during the winter solstice.
The problem I have between my mind and me is why the archaeologists are not telling us about the significance of the alignment. They see it, but will not say it. Why? In a situation like this, my mind and I engage searching gears that ensure the duo does not go to sleep. Yes, the morning sun on this day shines on a stone pillar.
They call it the Heel Stone, just outside the circle of the Stones (sarsen sandstones quarried from the Marlborough Plain). In line with the Heel Stone is the Slaughter Stone. The third and last stone is the Altar Stone. The three are aligned to the morning sunrise on the Summer Solstice.
The Altar Stone is within a Horseshoe of Trilithons (a series of two uprights and a horizontal lintel joining them at the top, mortice style as in carpentry). These names of the three stones are the starting point. There must have been some slaughtering of animals for sacrifice on the Altar Stone, on the day the sun shone on the Heel Stone. Most likely, there were libations too that were presented. Who was being presented with these offerings and libations?
The answer lies there, in the of bluestone and one of sarsens. My mind somewhat calms down. I follow suit. Spirit! I hear my mind shout. I shout in response to the Master. The mind is boss though at times I challenge the boss.
I know there are creations that have taken place in this area. Bones of the dear departed. That is the Spirit within the Holy of Holies where the sun shines on the longest day of the year. Spirit is at the centre, physically and metaphorically. Therefore, everything around here complements and reinforces Spirit.
Spirit is energy and Spirit has energy, that indestructible and most abundant phenomenon in the world. Energy is more ubiquitous than matter. It is power and it is a force. While it is intangible, its results may be material and physical. Think of lightning that Africa is able to harness, concentrate and launch with ritual power and force to physically destroy a tree or some targeted individual.
The bones from the cremations are meant to attract Spirit. Once upon a time Spirit and bones resided one in the other. They were a unit. The bones were placed within the Holy of Holies to attract Spirit. Here, at the centre of Stonehenge, it all starts but does not end. Spirit is the centre within the centre of special stones. Bones are said to have been removed from burial mounds for use during rituals and returned to the bodies.
Only a few or perhaps even one spiritual person, able to communicate with Spirit, accesses the Holy of Holies through the revealed secrets and keep those holy secrets of the communication and this is the basis of his power-the ignorance of others who do not know what he does, lest he loses his power.
Therefore, after all, it is the presence of Spirit that imbues sacredness to a holy general site and the specific spot within the Stonehenge.
This is where the energy (hence the rituals take place during the longest day of the year, it is the day of maximum energy/potency) and potency needed to power the communication process between the living and the Spirit. Communication is not feasible in the absence of energy.
Energy comes in numerous forms and can be transformed from one form to another. The sun powers the communication process within the Holy of Holies and hence the all-important alignment between the Altar Stone and the sunrise on the Summer Solstice.
In the absence of energy, my communication and commiseration with Dambisamahubo okaMafu would not have materialised. When seemingly intractable issues begin to disentangle, my mind somewhat calms down and I follow suit.
It is becoming clear that sacredness thrives on recognition by man playing some central role. A Spirit existing outside of the human mind’s recognition and agency will not make it.
Sacredness is a condition that is unthinkable, indeed beyond comprehension, in the absence of a human mind. If that were the case, how are we to conceptualise desecration? Is it a situation when the Spirit has deserted? Why would a Spirit desert in the first place? Is it a question of the site no longer complementing the presence of Spirit?
When human bones are removed, the centrality of Spirit is destroyed. When the alignment with the celestial bodies is no longer existent, Spirit is no longer centred. When the underground geophysical attributes no longer endure, Spirit deserts. A sacred site is a mediated position among several aspects, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial. However, above all, there is the Human Mind with its worldview and cosmology.
Can Spirit exist independently of the Human Mind? Can something exist outside of my believing mind? My mind will not rest until it finds some answer. Similarly, I will not find rest or sleep when my mind is not at ease as a result of persistent searching without arriving at some answer.
When the Mind and its thought no longer recognise or believe in Spirit, the Spirit ceases to exist. Can God exist outside of believing minds? A site that is no longer perceived as sacred cannot be said to be sacred. Can I therefore argue that sacredness is a factor of the mind? What I know is that my mind is unsettled until it finds an answer.
In addition to the solar alignment during the summer solstice, there is also the alignment involving the moon. This is the alignment linking the northern major moonset and the diagonally opposite southern major southern moonrise.
Essentially, there are two important alignments both of which, in my view, are about available energy from two cosmic bodies, the moon and the sun. However, in reality, the sun matters the more as the moon thrives on reflected energy from the sun. The sun and the moon are so positioned that when the former is not visible the latter continues, albeit on a smaller operational scale, to provide energy at night when the sun is invisible where the ritual site is located.
It may all be beautiful speculation, but one that sets my inquisitive mind and me at rest.
The duo does not require concurrence from other non-compliant duos. What my duo sees the others may not see. When I see Dambisamahubo okaMkhatshana, others may not see him. So, it is with our perceptions of sacredness and desecration. The likes of Descartes, Plato and Aristotle pushed back the horizons of knowledge.
The vistas of knowledge are today available to us. Their experiences led to their failure to send their minds to sleep. Knowledge comes at a cost.
Here ends the duel between my mind and myself. In the next article, we revisit the celestial mythologies from the various African communities. The cosmic bodies are the enduring themes, till the return to the stars.
Online Reporter