Know ThySelf: Core Beliefs that I Live By
There are principles I do live by: 42 Negative Confessions
Challenge The Why Behind My Personal Belief System (DECONSTRUCTION):
I have been on a deconstructing and decolonizing journey for the last 12 years. I am huge on warnings because I don’t like getting surprised when I read. I want to provide you, as readers, with the same respect:
I am not an Atheist, I am not Christian, nor am I Muslim, or of any of the other faiths. I do consider my self a spiritual being on a journey. I am constantly listening, learning, growing and evolving, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”. I am a firm believer of once you learn new information whether you agree with it or disagree in the moment you must sit with it and let it process.
Over the last 12 years I have been deconstructing, literally picking apart everything I personally believe about the religion I was apart of for close to 30 years. I have challenged my core belief systems pertaining to leadership, and even the concepts of what it takes to create and be a part of a community. Only this year, in year 12 I have start the reconstruction process, of rebuilding my core belief systems.
“Construction: The building of one’s faith
Deconstruction: The challenging of one’s faith
Reconstruction: The formation of new paradigms”
I have implement this process through out my journey and I call it : shut up. learn up. then engage. What this means is I listen to information, and if it does not immediately resonate with me I SHUT UP, and allow myself to think about the information and let it process. I have learn to think about things without always immediately have an opinion. After I let the thoughts wash over me I began to research to find if it is true or false. If it is false it goes to the trash bin of my mind. If it is TRUE and I don’t want it to be. I sit with it until I am ready to move forward in that TRUTH.
There is power is silence and listening. How will you learn unless you have ears to hear? How will you grow and less you learn? How will you “become”who you are to be unless you grow? We are unlearning things that have been taught to us via church, school and social norms put upon all of us by western society. I say all of this because how I PERSONALLY believe you may not agree with and dear reader that is your prerogative.
While I am embarking on my decolonization journey by myself, these life mantras are in my head, and I just live by them. Now that I am training Lady J, I know many of these will end up on her wall.
One of the questions I have received is: How are you teaching your child to be a “moral” person?
My response to that is that if you are only a moral person, so you can go to heaven, Elysium, reincarnation, or any other form of afterlife, then you are not a moral person.
For example, let’s take lying: When I say I don’t lie, it is not because I am afraid I may not get into heaven or the Deity may not be happy with me. I don’t lie because I am a person of integrity. I won’t lie because I mentally do not plan on keeping up with that story and then telling more stories to cover for it. I won’t lie because it may cause HARM to me. Nor do I want to trigger the law of sowing and reaping into motion in my life. I know someone I do not want walking down my street is ,Karma I do not need her waiting on me to fuck up so she can give me double for my trouble.
I do not lie because my life may cause HARM to someone. I try my hardest not to even tell white lies. If I misspeak and I catch it, I try to correct myself because I don’t want my good to be spoken of negatively. I would rather shut my mouth, say it, or use a little honey as I tell you the truth. It is my job as a communicator to figure out which method of communication is best for the moment. YES, sometimes it is the harder path, but I would rather live as my authentic self than live a life full of skeletons.
Give credit where credit is due:
My mother is a devout Christian, and we had Bible study almost every day until I was 17. While raising me, she had books, coloring books, audio tapes, and video tools that she used to help me have a strong moral base. My father is RIDICULOUSLY disciplined. My old man is almost 70 and has retired twice over. I know no man who matches his work ethic and authenticity.
As I have been on this journey of self-discovery, I have taken Christianity through the sifting pan, separating the wheat from the chaff and figuring out what goes and what stays. You will find scriptures from the bible that I have chosen to keep as part of my core belief system and personal code.
*** When you are looking at ethics codes and laws almost every civilization had these in place.
I want to provide a note for historical context: several WRITTEN law codes predate the 10 commandments. Whether it is the:
The Code of Urukagina,
Code of the Nesilim (The Hittite laws)
The 42 Negative Confession of MA’AT:
Rebuilding Me(RECONSTRUCTION)
The 42 Negative Confession of MA’AT:
I was asked about what I am learning about Ma’at, the Egyptian and Sudanese Goddess of Judgement. If you believe in the Bible story of Moses being the adopted son of an Egyptian princess, then you are also aware of the 10 commandments. According to the Bible the Jews lived amongst the Egyptians for 400 years as an enslaved population.
“Egypt and Sudan was the conception of “ma’at”, which roughly translated refers to “justice”, “truth”, or simply “that which is right”
If you know anything about Egyptians, then you have heard of the mystery schools in which scholars, princes, or any educated member of their society attended. They also allowed others from other countries to attend, i.e., several of the Greek philosophers, scholars, and intellectuals that we all know and learn from to this day.
If you have learned the 10 commandments, then you have received an introduction to the 42 negative confessions of Maat. This is where I challenge Christianity: My theory about Christianity is simple: choose what story we are going to believe.
For those who believe that Moses was born, rescued, and raised by an EGYPTAN princess. Then we must agree that he was trained in the ways of Egyptian royalty and religion. When you line up the 10 commandments and the 42 negative confessions, you will find STRONG similarities. However, what I like about the 42 negative confessions is that in the morning you state what you will not do, and in the afternoon you state what you did not do. When you read the confessions, it is all about doing no harm to yourself, others, or the environment.
One principle that is part of my core values is Do No Harm and when I was looking for a way to encompass that the 42 laws Of Ma’at encompassed it in a way form me that was simple, concise and was self-focused.
These are my thoughts,
Shanté
© 2023 Shanté Nixon. All rights reserved
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Hey Ladies,
This post is a combination of what you both ask to see ;) : Toni The Talker Toya Qualls-Barnette
Resources and Sources:
http://f5webserv.wright.edu/~christopher.oldstone-moore/Hamm.htm
I want to share a post from: Katherine Myrestad
