"Rumours cropped up in Addis Ababa that even Ras Tafari's trusted personal counselors were terrified of HIM, reluctant to shake His hand or gaze directly upon His stark features with its pointed nose, sparsed beard, and penetrating, almost black, eyes, all framed by wild, bushy hair.
Many of his countrymen were reminded of the biblical prophecy that after the Last War is fought a King of Kings out of Jesse's roots would be crowned in the land of David, a man whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose hair is like wool and whose feet are black like burning brass, and that in due course that greatest of all Kings would vanquish Death and proceed with the last Judgement, toppling the thrones of Babylon, and throwing all pretenders to temporal power and their deluded followers into the Void.
Queer tales began to circulate about Tafari's boyhood, the most notable concerning His supposed ability to speak to animals. During His youth, it was claimed, He had on several occasions been conversing in the bush with leopards and lions, the fierce jungle beasts becoming docile at His feet...
Further is was said that as a young student TafarI was quite bright and competent at His lessons, but that He had truly astounded the priests with the depth of His knowledge concerning religious and mystical matters. Not only could He quote freely from the Kebra Negast, but also from the Book of Kufale, the Book of Enoch, the Shepherd of Hermas, Judith, Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, the Matshafa Berhan (Book of Light), the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, the Book of Eden (secretly deleted from Genesis during the Dark Ages), all thirty-one books of the Hebrew Bible, the twenty-one canonical books of the New Testament and numerous other apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works.
According to one story, a local priest in Harar had visited the young TafarI shortly after the death of His father and asked Him where He had gained such vast knowledge. TafarI replied that much of it had come to HIM at the moment of His baptism, conducted according to tradition on the fortieth day of His life. The priest who presided at the ceremony had opened TafarI's eyes with the first touch of holy chrism, and everything that ensued was as comprehensible to the infant as if He had been an adult. The priest pronounced His surname, he remembered, and next His baptismal name, and then of course he blew softly in TafarI's face to drive off the evil spirits. At that instant TafarI claimed, He felt Himself enveloped by a golden glow, and as the priest began to anoint HIM, water touching His forehead, breast, shoulders and all of the other thirty-seven presscribed places, He felt His knowledge increase filling HIM up like a vessel and endowing HIM with a great sense of clarity about Creation and the final purpose of man.
However, in the weeks afterward the knowledge and this special sense of lucidity seemed to ebb away. When did it return? the priest inquired. When the birds and the beasts and even the insects began to greet HIM and speak to HIM, reminding HIM of what He already knew, TafarI replied. Which was the first creature to speak to HIM? TafarI requested a sheet of paper and some pastels and began to draw, with extraordinary facility, a picture of a bird. It resembled a dove, but with exotic, multicolored plumage. The priest was about to ask TafarI what sort of bird it was when he was dumbfounded to see the bird fly off the page and out through the nearby window, disappearing into the sky.
Word of the late Governor's strange boy spread rapidly but discreetly through the network of Liqe Kahnat (chief priests) in the provinces, and it is said that they arranged several secret meetings with HIM to question and perhaps catch HIM in what they supposed might be blasphemous mischief or pagan magic. At one of the meetings TafarI is said to have made it plain that He was well acquainted with rare manuscripts of Abba Aragaive and other Coptic monks known as the Nine Saints, who enter Ethiopia in 480 A.D. and founded the first monasteries in Tigre province. He also revealed that He was well acquainted with the occult applications of Urim and Thummim and the Mezuzah, as well as the use of the magic words germatria and notarikon in Egyptian necromancy and also of the magical names Adonay, El and Elohe. He exhibited familiarity with the Cabalistic doctrines, the writings of Gilgamesh, the pagan rituals surrounding the worship of Isis, of the serpent Arwe, and of the Abyssinian gods of Earth (Meder), Sea (Beher) and War (Mahrem), as well as the arcana of astrology and numerology. But most importantly, TafarI exhibited to the priest His understandings of the central messages in the Egyptian Book of Dead and the Egyptian Book of Two Ways.......
At one point, an old abmnet (abbot) allegedly asked to examine TafarI's palms. He saw that there were stigmata there, and that the lifeline circled back upon itself in an emblem of infinity. TafarI whispered a word in the abbot's ear, and all color drained from the old man's face. He left the room, apparently in shock, refusing to return or speak with his colleagues.
TafarI concluded His final session with these scholars and holy men by recounting as vividly as if He had witnessed the events HIMSELF, the story of how King Solomon of Jerusalem had come to know and woo Queen Makeda of Sheba. For uncounted hours, or so it is maintained, the holy men listened with rapt attention, astounded by the young boy's intimate familiarity with these ancient events, without the slightest interruption on their part. TafarI spoke slowly, careful not to skip over any detail, whether it concerned the aspect of a sunrise on a given day and the weather that followed, the architecture and interior design of palaces and the squalor of slaves' hovels, the stinging, chafing dust in the city streets and the heat waves shimmering up from the vast desert basins in the late afternoon, or the dress, speech, manner and even diet of one of the venerable figures who appeared in His narrative. Descriptions of emotions were handled with particular respect, the complexities of various key events were unhurriedly unravelled, and all of it was deftly woven into a tapestry of utterly arresting discourse.....
Humbled by the force and beauty of TafarI's recital, the priest gradually grew jealous and greatly suspicious of the wealth of uncanny detail with which the youth had embellished the biblical stories. They demanded to know the sources of His information.
Instead of replying to the question, TafarI addressed a monk who had served in the Cathedral of Azum, where the Ark is kept. TafarI described to him in hushed tones the Kedusta Kedussan, the Holy of Holies or inner sanctum where the Tabbot - the Ark - is kept, and then recited various inscriptions wriiten upon it. Close to fainting with the shock of what TafarI was disclosing, the monk is said to to have covered his ears to shut out these blasphemous revelations, and he and the rest of the priests hurriedly dispersed.
Later, they made a solemn pact among themselves to do everything within their means to keep the young TafarI from ever gaining power in the land. He was too dangerous, dangerous beyond belief!
****Excepts from the book "Catch a Fire" by Tim White*******
Brother Nyah Japhet,
I man remember this mans reasoning before when InI was burning out the weeds from the wheat, the I said
"Did you ever think about, why HIM never just said straight and clear I AM NOT GOD? Why he alwas answered such questions parable-like?"
This is truly a thought for those of nuke warm temps to think about. Also native root you cannot deny history and its events such as when the vatican returned to full power in 1929 as Chruch and STATE and only a year later His Majesty was crowned to symbolically notify Rome that the Great One has come, and that He is the Earth Rightful ruler not the poop.
Really its this simple. You are on a Rastafarian based message board so coinsidently named, jah-rastafari.com. it seems you are not a Rastafarian, or are you one of those "rastas" who don't belive in Rastafari? (kinda like vegetarians who eat chicken, they aren't vegetarians)
|
|
