Emotions are the feedback from th heart [the mind] that is having a certin experience in the world at a given moment. How that feedback is expressed is dependent on the person's level of consciousness, values and experiences. This is why, Kajangu noted previously, the Africans sought to have a "well-designed" double, because only well-designed doubles (logically, carefully crafted, intelligent, wise minds) can stem the tides of life's challenges. The pursuit of perfection (nfr; love) involves, among other things, the attempt to build a double that will survive beyond death. In the
Egyptian Book Of Amenomope, Amenomope says: "The heart/mind of man is a gift of God. Beware of neglecting it" [i.e., its cultivation] .
As stated by the great Egyptian sage Ptahhotep: jn rh sm b3.f m smnt nfr.f jm.f tp-t3 "A wise one cares for his b3 by establishing goodness in it on earth". By becoming enlightened on Earth, the double (ena, b3, ori) seals its immortality and becomes an ancestrl spirit (3hw) that can be used by the living for enriching life on earth. In other words, one becomes an Osiris (Wsr, Asar, WaShil, Mujilu). Only foolishness [Egyptian isft "evil"; Isizulu uzibuthe "the spirit of conflict"] can distort the construction of the double
The double is what becomes the ancestor after death. The ancestor after death. the ancestor is a consciousness and the ancestral realm is the "collective consciousness" of all human beings according to African theology.
The above digram represents the sun's apparent movement around the earth. Sunrise is in the east (V2) and sunset is in the west (V4). The human-being is also a living sun (symbolized by the small circles) and our cycle of life goes in a similar trajectory as the apparent movement of the sun around the earth. The diagram is divided into 2 primary demarcations: the top-half representing life on earth [ku nseke < nza "world, earth"; also nza a mwini "world of sunshine/light" ] and the bottom representing the ancestral realm [ku mpemba < mpemba "white clay/ chalk"); white is the color of the ancestors). The bottom portion of the diagram is also known as ndoki, which is the knower of man's principles and systems of n'kingu ye bimpa higher levels. the kindoki or science of higher knowledge'. The manipulation of these n'kingu and bimpa principles and systems permitted, say the Kongo, to assist the ndoki to become a winged person, a flier. The kikongo dictionary has the meaning for ndoki as "witch, sorcerer" . We can see here this association with "knowledge"[sacred/magical] and "flight" and our Egyptian word b3. I interpret this mean an active and powerful "imagination" as well a deep knowledge of the universe and the ability to bend matter. A witch [ndoki] is simply someone who can imagine something and translate their inspirations into experiences because they know the laws [higher sciences] that will allow for them to do so.
Fu-Kiau expands on this as he notes:
"In the spiritual world the kundu, kindoki, is the central and most important element in this unfathomable world. This element is made up by the experience based on bibulu (b) including [the] human being, the simbi (s), i.e,. ancestral experience, and on mpeve (m) , i.e., soul-mind experience. In this case kundu or kindoki is the lived and accumulated knowledge."
Fu-Kiau is confirming that the ancestral world consists of the collective human and ancestral experiences, which is therefore the mpeve "soul-mind" experience" [the collective b3l unconscious realm). The musoni stage of development [V1] is the formation process stage of all life. This aspect of the cosmogram relates to both the physicl birthing process [the womb] and ideological development [the mind].The "ancestral realm" is in reality the "cosmic collective mind" and it is from this pool of inspiration that we draw from to find solution to the problems we are currently facing. whene discover new solutions, these experiences are then added to the collective pool of wisdom, which is accessible through the mind [i.e., the spirit > b3 > ori). It is considered a dark realm , and as Fu-Kiau notes regarding the concept of the "V" as depicted in the diagram above :
The "Vee" is not only a human experience , it is found everywhere in nature as well as in the universe. It is the most primitive form that emerged from the depth of the first matter, "the dark matter" [ndobe/piu], which is the "printing room" of all realities, not only visible and invisible, but material and immaterial as well. A "printing room" for realities that were and realities to come. It is the printing room inside where all great ideas, images and forms emerge to be impregnated in our minds. Thereafter, we create them as realities.
The "V" is what I call "context", whose left and right edges represent the extremities of a concept [i.e. positive & negative forces]. One can also consider the extremes the edges of a perspective. The more narrow the "V", the narrower the perspective. The wider the "V", the wider the perspective [the more knowledge one has, the more one can see.] The merging point at the base of "V" is what Fu-Kiau calls the " the dark matter" or "printing room," which is none other than the cosmic mind [the mind of God, the law (s) of th Universe]. Remember the hermetic teaching, " The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental ". Our individual mind is but a spark of the greater inferno of the cosmic mind.
The Kikongo word ndobe is a variant of ndombe [, andombe] "blackness". This word has a variant ndombo "papyrus mat" [when used to sleep on] . The ndobe/ndombe is the "blackness" we are surrounded by when we look into the right sky and when we go to "sleep". By going to sleep we go into the ancestral realm nightly. The ancestral realm nightly. The ancestral realm is not "out ther" but "inside" of us: i.e., the heart, the core, the mind > jb , b3, PAA *lab- , ndobe [Kikongo ntima, moyo, mbundu "heart".)
Similar attitudes cn be seen among the Dagara people of Burkina Faso as it regards the underlying consciousness that undergirds the visible world. As told to us by Malidoma Some in his work The healing wisdom of africa : finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual and Community:
"Indigenous people see the physical world as a reflection of a more complex, subtler, and more lasting yet invisible entity called energy. It is as if we are the shadows of a vibrant and endlessly resourceful intelligence dynamically involved in a process of continuous self-creation. Nothing happens here that did not begin in that unseen world. If something in the physical world is experiencing instability.....Therefore, people go to that unseen energetic place to try and repair whatever damage or disturbances are being done there, knowing that if things are healed there, things will be healed here.
The people of the Kongo have a saying as it regards travelling to the land of spirit.
Kani ka bwe, kana ku lumoso-ku lubakala-ku n'twala-ku nima-mu zulu evo mu nsi ukwenda, vutukisa va didi I yand . ""No matter what, you may walk leftwards, rightwards, forwards, backwards, upwards or downwards, you must come back to the [didi] core/center" Kongo Proverb.
According to Bantu tradition, we are "Vertical- Horizontal" beings; we stand "upright", we think, reason and ponder before moving "horizontally" on the earth to meet the challenges of the instinctive world. The horizontal world is the main ground to all learning. Moving horizontally serves one purpose and that is to learn from one's environment. We are not born with knowledge. According to the Bantu, we explore and collect data from our experiences in the world. We shelve this information in our consciousness, like living computers, for future use at will. The muntu [person] has two planes of motion in this universe. On the horizontal plane he can move forwards, backwards, leftwards and rightwards. But for true self-knowing, he walks inwards [didi- inner world]. This is the location of his true self, the essence of his being, his connection to source and ancestors. The Bantu believe that muntu is nothing unless he discovers how to walk towards this 7 direction. The journey towards the didi makes us "thinking-acting-beings," doers, masters [nganga] to ourselves.