A lot
of people have substituted the return of Jesus Christ, with eclipses, planetary
alignments, and all kinds of other external occurrences as catalysts for worldwide
change. It's all the same cum, just on a different face.
Still many are walking around
with their eyes tightly closed to the truth, or prancing around with eclipse sunglasses waiting for something big, eventful, and spectacular to happen to them.
The truth of the matter is that if you're making
significant changes in your personal life for the better, you’re not looking for
makeup from the heavens to transform you into a god or a goddess. Once today’s
eclipse has come and gone, a lot of people you know will begin waiting for the next celestial event to get
hyped about. They’re waiting for PEOPLE, PLACES and THINGS to transform them with
no effort on their part.
Cosmic
welfare doesn't exist, and even if it did, it wouldn't be the answer to
building spiritual wealth. The best answer is work and long-term investments.
To take stock of your life, you have to open your eyes and see things as they are with no filters.
The
archetype of the Black man singing romantic songs of love, sex, and pain has
become well cemented in the minds of the global populace through the musical
efforts of Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Isaac Hayes,
Teddy Pendergrass and several other soul icons.
These
legends were the torch bearers for an older tradition that venerated chivalry
and celebrated the transcendental love shared between men and women through nurturing,
music.
For the Western world, this began with
al-Futuwwah (The Defenders of Virtue), a Sufi order that spread fromthe so-called “Middle East” and West Africa
during the Middle Ages toinfluence
European Christian institutions like the Knights Templar. The related Holy
Grail lore of Europe’s brave Christian knights mirrors the Sufic Bowl of Virtue
which is to be enthusiastically cleaned with a man’s tongue and finger. Read up on the fraternal code of Sufi mystics.
Al-Futuwaah
also set the cultural framework for thetroubadour tradition in Southern France, Italy, and Spain. The
troubadours were the medieval composers of romantic ballads that were dense
with erotic metaphors and laced withspiritual imagery and clever colloquialisms of sensuality. The Teddy
Pendergrass song “My Latest My Greatest Inspiration” is a fine example of this concept
in a more modern context.
As
UCLA professor Barbara Fuchs points out in her book Exotic Nation:
Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain, the Moor was
regularly depicted in novellas as an authority on romance who often challenged
the love interests of the less adept European white malein pursuit of love. Fuchs uses the term “Maurophila”
in reference to the European obsession with, and tendency to fetishize, all
things Moorish in art and literature.
And just
for the record what we colloquially understand as “romantic” has nothing to do
with traditional “roman antics” as some imaginative individuals who are
dedicated to demonizing all European words have postulated. Real Roman antics
involve pedaphilia, pederasty and men beating women into submission through
brute force. This is obviously not what I’m talking about in reference to romance.
Innovative
wordplay is cute, but as teachers giving people who are not in the know a
historical context for the social trends they are witnessing in the present
time, we must be willing to sacrifice some of our imagination and creativity
for the sake of truth and historical accuracy.
Not
all of the troubadours of medieval Europe were Moors. But just as New Edition
set the template for white boy bands that came after them like New Kids on the
Block, The Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC, the Moor set the tone for the masculine,
but sensitive, singer of love songs.
Nearly
a thousand years later the image of the masculine Black man who brought a
spirit of sexiness and romance wherever he went was severely damaged in the
1990s with the popularization colorful gangsta rappers who told us through
their rhymes that they didn't care much for the women they were having sex
with.
Even
then, the troubadour legacy lived on through more contemporary R&B acts
like 112, Dru Hill, Jagged Edge, Tank, Raheem Devaughn, Jaheim, R. Kelly and
Usher who were all commercial successes in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Nearly 20 years removed from that era, R&B music sales for male artists are
way down.
Although
The Weeknd is pegged as a fixture in the R&B genre he's emerged as more of
a pop superstar who at times expresses the same sentiments of indifference
towards women as rap super thugs, albeit through hypnotic melisma
vocalizations.
Jaheim
seems to have squandered a lot of the juice he had after he appeared on social
media looking like he rinsed his hair in hot dinosaur egg yolk. R. Kelly, the
self-proclaimed “Pied Piper of R&B” is a creepy 50-something-year-old man who
is still being accused of luring underage girls who see him as the one they
gave their hearts to.
Usher,
whose Confessionsalbum went diamond, is fighting off allegations
that his hit “Let It Burn” was all about the herpes he supposedly gave his
lovers. I’ll never forget watching a crackhead with a severely cracked voice
singing that song on a subway train when it was still a hot single. The guy was
so awful that he sounded good. Pain and misery never sounded more soulful. Chris Brown is a young, major talent who is
regularly spiraling out of control. There is a death energy around him. He
needs help.
As a
keen observer of popular culture, I don't see any young Black men who are pure
R&B singers getting a serious push in the music industry to take the place
of the aforementioned individuals while having a similar impact.
For
young women who are currently between the ages of 18 and 35, there doesn't seem
to be any commercially relevant Black male R&B singers who are carrying on
in the chivalric tradition of the troubadour.
A man
who completely allows himself to be vulnerable declares his invincibility. The one
who is weak and feeble will do everything in his power to make people think
that he is rough and tough. This is done as a deflection tactic to protect his truly
tender nature. The most ruthless and audacious men I’ve encountered are quite playful
and smile frequently.
There
are many compelling arguments to explain the absence of the masculine, yet
emotionally evolved, Black male singer in American pop culture. Some arguments deserve
more of our consideration than others. What I also know is that love is what
has always brought Black men and women together to create life in its many
expressions. Like Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway once asked us: Where is the
love?
If there is no soundtrack present to magnify
and enhance the love between young men and women, does it mean that love is no
longer real to them? If so, it's only because Black America is losing its soul.
The biggest symptom is that too many of its children love things and use people
when they could be loving people and using things.
If they are receptive, the youth must be shown how to be less possessed by their possessions and be shown
healthy ways to have powerful, memorable experiences with human beings that do
not involve deadly mind-altering chemicals or electronic devices. This may
involve a regular interface with nature before they are teenagers.
I remember
being a youth in elementary, junior high, and high school having crushes on
girls and acknowledging how my thoughts of them included, yet extended
beyond, sexual gratification. Looking back on it, those feelings gave me an early
reference point for the spiritual experiences and conceptualizations that I
later developed in my adulthood. It bothers me that a lot of youth may never
know what that level of purity is because that keen sense of intimacy and
introspection is not encouraged in their lives through audible art.
Love
is an organic experience that may lead to orgasmic revelations for participating
men and women.This energy cannot be
cultivated among people whose primary reference points for interpersonal communication
is snapchat, pornhub, and the Instagram DM box.
Either
we expose our youth to the enchanted world of romance and beauty through music,
poetry and visual art, or we witness the tragic death of the troubadour legacy.
Chivalry isn't dead, but is most definitely on life support.
Adika Butler is a journalist, chef, creative consultant, and cultural philanthropist. He is also a Free Thinker, student, practitioner, and writer on the occult who expounds upon the subtle life sciences that underlie occult teachings and current events. As a Matthew Henson of the mind, Adika's mission is to go where few men have gone before. His exploratory scholarship includes, but is not limited to, the study of: ancient history, lost civilizations, Cosmology, Astro-Theology, Social Engineering, Psychology, Word Sorcery and the universal themes that serve as the foundation for all world religions. He shares his personal discoveries on Mind Glow Media, his website dedicated to the "soul" purpose of Opening Eyes and Illuminating Minds.