Sykes - Blackbutterfly Soul Songs

Blackbutterfly
Soul Songs Dr. Queen Shamala Sykes BLACKBUTTERFLY SOUL SONGS Copyright 2017 Dr. Queen Shamala Sykes. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. iUniverse 1663 Liberty Drive Bloomington, IN 47403 www.iuniverse.com 1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677) Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them. Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery Thinkstock. ISBN: 978-1-5320-2538-9 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-5320-2539-6 (e) Library of Congress Control Number: 2017909055 iUniverse rev. date: 11/10/2017 Dedication First, a heartfelt dedication goes to my ancestors, the Creator and my soul who led me from darkness into light. This book of soul poetry is also dedicated to my grandmother Queenie Graham Miller, the Graham, Miller, Davis and Smith families and all their descendants.

I honor my mother Mamie Lee Miller Davis, who was my first teacher. She encouraged my love for reading, writing, learning and soul songs. I also recognize all family members and experiences, which caused me to dig into life and daily question its activities. A special acknowledgement goes to my daughter Chef Yealang Jarrice Odutola Fayemi Smith. I honor her for choosing me to be her mother. She has been in lockstep with me on my spiritual path from the beginning.

Her birth catapulted my life into undreamed directions. Yealang made me grow up quicker into my powerful self. I recognize my spiritual teachers and the attendant communities who participated with me in my individuated personal soul journey, especially Meri Ka Ra, Chief Priest Obafemi Ifayemi and Sensei Eugene Imai. These seekers and speakers of truth provide the instruction and motivation in my life that inform my soul journey. I salute the sistafriendqueens who claim our queenship together in sacred spaces And the beloved masculine world community who help us hold up the world! I give thanks to Dr. Maxine Thompson, a widely acclaimed author and editor who, from the very beginning, taught me how to show and tell my stories.

Attending the Saturday Literary Writing class under Lorene Calhouns leadership gave me the courage to take my writing public. Kudos go to Dr. Shari Randolph, who assisted me in submitting a marketable product and Mercedes Brown, who offered her head and heart to me during the whole process. I render overflowing love and glowing amazement to Sheila Shaw for her insistence that we are eternal souls-never born and never die! I am grateful for iUniverse Publishing and their editorial staff for their patience and commitment to this writing project. Lastly, I honor Granville Arnold Hakim Ifatokoun Fayemi Sykes, my lead cheerleader, most avid supporter and now deceased husband, who made his transition July 19, 2013. I appreciate the love, encouragement and nurture we shared for eighteen years.

My soul flourished in the safe, loving space where I could heal, write and paint, uninhibitedly. Contents Foreword Liba tion For African peo ples Nothing important happens without a liba tion An honoring of the ancestors who came befor e us And made it possible for us t o be For this very important poetic offe ring It is my pleasure to provide a liba tion. To our first ancestor, that hidden one who, though hidden, manifests in all things as all things, that God/Goddess idea in the universe by any and all names. We pour libation As! To our ancestors, first people on the planet mothers and fathers of all mankind, flashpoint of the human family. We pour libation As! To our ancestors, builders of the first civilizations from the Deep South to Kemet, leaving unmistakable evidence of these great civilizations along the way, carving instructions on the walls of temples and tombs so we will never forget. We pour libation As! To our ancestors of the first exodus who, after millennia took all tenets of civilization: the sacred sciences of language, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, astronomy, geology, music, and spiritual principles-out of Africa and peopled the world.

We pour libation As! To our ancestors who chronicled the first global human experiences that became our collective lives, the discoveries, the joys, the redundancies, the sagas, the rejoicing, the obstacles, the dancing, the trials, the inhumane treatment, the enslavement, the singing, that learning that all things come together to become the mosaic that is life, who became Mbongi- the praise singers-singing the praises of life in its full spectrum. We pour libation As! To all of you who are privileged to experience this poetic offering, to read the words, to vibrate at their frequency, to absorb the light and love that they are. We pour libation As! To our children and those yet to be born, who are the living will and testament of the ancestors, the repository of all we have learned, all we have experienced, all that we are, who carry the imprint of the first ancestor, and will call our names for all eternity. We pour libation As! As! Aso! Thelma Cameron 2014 Preface Who AM I? I was not born nor do I die I AM a hologram of the Souls desire To bring to Earth the spiritual plane Paradise on Earth to rule again I AM the conduit full of love Expressing Gods will for the above Conscious of the need to surrender The illusion of life gone forever I AM waking all the Souls Caught in the web of liesunfolds Being present when the veil is lifted As Truth of Self is Divinely gifted Big Change is happening as expressed By Divine Masters knowledge that now exist Mystery Schools are open wide No more secrets to hide I and my Father are ONE Spoken by a Master of Spirit well done I AM and Mother Mary come forth To give divinity a feminine course Gods and Goddesses are We all As We recognize ourselves anew I AM not the body with a name I AM Divinity playing a different game This world Being a Co-creation Allows the Human vibration to manifestation Seeing the Self on a conscious level I AM the spark at the Quantum level God said each ONE of Us will hear The Truth of existence on this sphere I AM made a contract coming to Earth Paradise was the Energy to give birth On awakening at Eighty-five I AM is very strong and very alive The light is magnificent in its Truth As the words are magnified in the youth. Goddess Sheila Shaw Energy V oice Introduction When I was twelve years old, a multicolored butterfly landed on my extended right arm. We exchanged soul secrets and I fell in love with the butterfly and its soft fluttering wings.

For my 50 th birthday, my gift to me was a butterfly tattooed on the same arm. My grandson Malik argued with the tattooist about my pain and my discomfort, Leave my grandmama alone! Malik and I had not learned the no pain, no gain principle in life. I became intrigued with the butterfly as the mystical creature continued to show up in my life. What did it mean? My search for truth about the mysteries of life led me to the Guidance Church of Religious Science Metaphysical School. Metaphysics deals with any activity outside or beyond everyday knowledge or experience. A burning desire to know about the esoteric (secret, hidden) symbolic nature of life, signs and symbols characterized my life questions.

Like, Who am I?, What is my purpose?, What is the soul?, Why cant I tapped into my talents? and What is that voice speaking in my ear that seems to know things about me that I dont know? I soon discovered that the butterfly, an ancient symbol of the soul, is connected with transformation and renewal. Studying the concept of the soul and the butterflys metamorphosis, I recognized that we all have a soul. And like the butterfly, we are all on a path of re-birth and re-awakening to a new creation. I realized that awakening to the soul is similar to the changes that the butterfly experiences as it births itself. A butterfly has four stages in its life cycle: the egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis and the butterfly. Although the butterfly goes through these stages to become a butterfly, the inherent nature of the butterfly follows its souls course of development.