Darkness & Light
During the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia there were two divisive debates: One to determine congressional representation per state, and the other over slavery. Some delegates argued against slavery. For them the Declaration of Independence was a sacred vow. These delegates conceived their new nation as home to the radical ideal of human equality.
However, the mythological narrative that underpinned the U.S. Constitution is in this quote from John Rutledge, Delegate of South Carolina and eventual Supreme Court Justice, “Religion and humanity has nothing to do with this question (of continuing slavery). Interest alone is the governing principle with nations… If the Northern States consult their interest, they will not oppose the increase of slaves, which will increase the commodities of which they will become the carriers.” (The Convention Debate of 1787; NYT 11-24-1860)
The sanctity of property over morality as a governing principle prevailed. The U.S. Constitution was created with the value system of an empire. And yet the delegates were, largely, devout Christians. In fact the American colonies were often founded by religious sects. So then, how were devoutly religious men able to dismiss the souls of “Blacks”, women and other races?
For one, there was a deep psychological drive in European Christianity rarely, if ever, discussed. Beneath the lust for property of the Constitutional delegates was a stronger, collective unconscious, Western Christian, mythology. Although they had dithering opinions on the importance of morality, every Constitutional delegate held identical viewpoints on the value of the words white and black. They were all possessed by the prevailing ethos of the day. The values inherent in the words white and black had been concretized by centuries of habitual use. In the English language, and in Western Culture more broadly, the word white had long meant upright, pure, favorable and not harmful. The word black meant the opposite of these psychic values, even demonic and evil. Therefore, in 1787 it was habitual, psychologically natural, to denigrate those referred to as “Black” people. And this facilitated the process of condemning Black people to generational, permanent, slavery. The obvious but little discussed power of the term white supremacy is the centuries old mythology of the word white. This mythology cannot be amended by changing law or economic policy. It is ingrained in our storytelling, and this must be addressed.
Even less discussed is the unbalanced preference given to the word light over the word darkness. Light was elevated in status over darkness long before white was elevated over black. Light came to be associated with God, and Darkness with evil. But darkness was not always evil. In the West African Ifa religion The Darkness is the infinite, unmanifest, female force of life creating. Many Native American traditions also consider Darkness, and Black, as the realm of the deepest life force mysteries.
It is worth noticing how common it is among the war-oriented conquering empires of human civilization to worship sun gods. And these gods - Rah, Zeus, Apollo, Jehovah - are almost exclusively male gods of martial power. Among early empires, the Roman Christian Empire stands unique; beginning with Emperor Constantine, the Christian Caesars and Popes eradicated the female divine mythology. As Roman Christianity conquered tribal Europe, the older earth and mother goddesses were eradicated. In the Protestant movement, the removal of the female divinity from the Christian system became complete, including even the Virgin Mary. Persecution of female healers as witches was epidemic in Protestant Europe.
By this process, over the last two thousand years, goddess worship was eradicated. Simultaneously, by the time of Britain’s Elizabeth I and the transatlantic slave trade, “God” was spoken of exclusively in terms of light, like a Sun God. Darkness was unilaterally evil. Incidentally, demonizing “Darkness” is illogical prejudice. In the act of prayer and meditation we close our eyes, and enter darkness, to seek reprieve from the problems and griefs of our material world. Death, illness, starvation and material lack are all physical issues of the world of light. We seek relief from these material world afflictions - through love, courage, faith and prayer. These are all invisible forces - concealed in The Darkness, spirit unrevealed.
The mythology of black and darkness has been imprisoned inside stories of horror and evil in Western Culture and the European languages. And this “dark is evil” storytelling is consistent across Western mythology, in film, literature, art, music and television, regardless of the creator’s race or gender.
In fact, light supremacy is the core ethos of the Western European empires. The Roman empire claimed they brought the light of civilization to savages in darkness. In his book Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad talks of the pre-Roman tribes of Briton. As he sails the Thames, gazing at London’s lights, Conrad’s character Marlowe says, “And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth… I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here… sailing up {the Thames} past forests, {and these Briton} savages… the darkness… the savagery, the utter savagery.” In this description it was the Britons who were savages in darkness. Later Marlowe goes on to use dark savagery to describe African natives.
However, this “light” that the Roman and other Christian Western European empires brought to conquered tribal people was, simply, an evangelization of their empire building: a materialized theology. Thus, the material world became the more valued reality. Simultaneously, Soul-based rituals were derided as ignorant superstitions. Colonization broke people of their soul-driven way of life and spiritual slavery, or material deification, followed.
Natives worldwide had three choices over the colonial age: elimination, expulsion, or indoctrination into material deification. And so, Materiality has ascended poisonously over the modern age of the colonial empire light-worshipping culture. Is this coincidence? That a light-worshipping culture which demonizes the word Darkness — a word which best represents the unrevealed, un-manifest, spirit — becomes over-balanced toward materiality?
Deification of white and light has created a worldwide state of mind - Light Supremacy - that is more that a white skin color issue. As Fred Hampton famously said, “We will have Negro Imperialists.” And it is critical to remember: European natives were colonized first. They are the first broken and first indoctrinated. But other peoples followed. And yet this is not an irreversible condition…
Fortunately, American Black Slaves were unique. They emerged from bondage with an increased soul that has birthed a worldwide culture of rebellion. The enslaved Blacks of the American South exited slavery with their primordial African soul strengthened in spiritual force.
This is evidenced in the singular nature of the Black American Slave song of the fields, as derivations of it exist in every country on earth. For a century, young souls have been lifted by Jazz, Blues, Soul R & B, Rock-n-Roll, and Hip Hop. The power of the Beatles and the Stones was born inside the Black Slaves of Mississippi and Louisiana. The song of Black American Slaves rules wherever it stands on earth.
Our artistic company, Black University, proposes a new mythology of the word Darkness. In our mythology, the ancient goddess of unrevealed life spirit, The Darkness, has been rescued and rebirthed through the fathomless service of the Black American Slaves. Darkness is life-creating force. This concept represents a tectonic shift of colonial mythology. Fearful reaction to this redefinition is, in itself, proof of its power and necessity.
This is not, simply, a reversal of the binary system. The Darkness is not the opposite of the light, the Darkness includes the light. The Darkness should mean, once again: the feminine force life creation. The All.