Categories
Spiritual Poetry

Time Will Tell

Time
will tell
master
over hell
all matters
under
His spell
change
each cell
of illusional
Chanèl
He rings
next bell
a different
smell
I feel
out the well
form the best
tempest
can’t quell
wheather
like water
that fell
opens
a hard shell
reaching
who dwell
trying to repel
the death
pell-mell
that fake
won’t sell
more
truth
shall rebel
endures
what excel
only that
He compel
to accept
Haile Selassie
the First
Amlake Amalekt
knells
the fact
impels
Mikaièl
to kill
the rats
angèls
of Gebrièl
bring
news of arts
what befell
to the part
of the infidel ?
Will forget
the carousel
of Noel
cannot stand
the medicine
of Rufaièl
the discipline
the prophet
foretell.

Categories
Berhane Selassie (Bob Marley)

I&I Turn Not from it to the Right Hand or to the Left

“But I neither go right nor left. I go straight ahead. I neither can unite P.N.P. nor J.L.P. The two organizations set up to fight against one another. This is why it is called politics. But we don’t business with politics. We the black people have a root. We are not talking about JLP or PNP. We are talking about our real heritage. We are talking about Rasta.”
Interview with Basil Wilson, 1978
Categories
Spiritual Poetry

Cannot Overthrow I&I

“Gamaliel, one learned in the law, warns Israel of their attitude to the apostles and their teaching. ‘Refrain from these men,’ he says, ‘and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it.’ And so we see today the Bible with its wonderful message reaching the remotest parts of the earth.” #QHS

Who Am I
to disturb that belief
which johannes guy
blind and stiff
could win my pride
even the priest
of jewish remind
won’t cope with
something so wide
they never seen
Jah say the time
is now and here
I’ve read the sign
they have reached
remotest sides
with Gospel script
modern lines
woudn’t admit
ignorant crime
in global lit
literary shine
education the key
Gideon shrines
will open quick
master is time
history picks
by judgment tides
those who resist
with bias to inquire
they still insist
to lead the fight
I faith persists
in this
eternal fire.

(Taken from our poetical work “Jah Seh The Bible”)

Categories
Haile Selassie I - Testimonies

Dimetri Papapouleas, Head of the University of Athens – 1924

Athens, 19th August 1924

Your Highness!

It is in the midst of Athens University that the soul of Greece is being revealed. This evening we are pleased to welcome the representative of a people tied to Greece by inseparable ties and by a friendship that is based on ancient historical traditions.

Your Highness’ presence amongst us is apt to strengthen and to renew those memories of 1600 years.

Two Greeks, the sons of Meropius the merchant, Frumentius and Aedesius, were taken prisoner at the Ethiopian seaboard and thus entered the country. They founded the Church of Ethiopia by teaching the country’s inhabitants and by becoming apostles of the faith.

Your Highness, the affection which binds the two countries together began at that time. In the year 325 Athanasius, the great bishop of Christian Greece, bestowed at Alexandria the name of founder of the Church of Ethiopia upon Frumentius and did so with great glory. And he also anointed him bishop of the Ethiopian Church.

Again, in a different context, Heliodorus of Emesa refers to these historical memories in the book of romance which he wrote. In this book he presents the Ethiopian king’s daughter as beautiful and comely.

The Ethiopians were very well known to Homer and to Herodotus who refers to them in his history and to Strabo who speaks about them a great deal in his geography. By virtue of these old traditions the kings of modern Ethiopia have always cultivated true friendship with Greece. Above all, Emperor Yohannes and Emperor Menelik have uttered words of sincere affection for our country in exchanges of letters with the Greek Government.

Your Highness! Our brothers who live in your country are always telling us with feelings of deep gratitude of the welcome and friendship they have encountered among your people. This goes so far that it is virtually granted to them to be like brothers. We are very glad, therefore, to receive today as guest amongst us the representative of this people.

Greek writers, who have described the details of their journeys and whose books are read with benefit, have emphatically shown the extreme natural beauty of Ethiopia. They have described the different kinds of air currents, trees, and leaves as well as the beauty of the sun which, through its light, reveals the beauty of the country.

Your Highness! For a long time now the Greeks have considered everything that is good for your country as their own advantage. Each time they find an opportunity they affirm the thoughts of friendship which they have for the kings of Ethiopia and for the people.

This feeling does not only arise from the friendship which you have for us. What we have achieved in our past history and by our character is due to our respect for the supremeness of learning and complete love of freedom to the point of heroism. Therefore, it is not at all a strange thing for us to consolidate our friendship for the Ethiopian people through the study which our history affords us.

We are aware that Ethiopia’s success in guarding her independence at all times arises from the mountains which have been given to her by nature and which separate her from all the other African countries. It is proper to say that Ethiopia has been the bastion of Christianity for more than a millennium among the savages and pagans in the arid desert. Homer said of the Ethiopians that they excelled above others. Diodorus speaks of their virtue. He admires their fight for their freedom.

At the time of Alexander the Great and his heirs Greek culture had entered Ethiopia and had opened a new road of civilization. It left written monuments (a map) which demonstrate its progress. The Ptolemies and the Byzantine kings desired the Ethiopian people to establish a basis and to extend their rule up to the Red Sea. When Byzantium fought with the Persians, it threw into the battle the might of the Ethiopians. Your Highness’ country was a crossroads and meeting point of the civilized nations in the Mediterranean and Indian areas. Since the Greeks were at that time held in great honour in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian kings are said to have known the Greek language.

According to those who have studied the history of the Ethiopian Church, in the fourth century this Church, strong in its faith, was doing everything that was necessary to enable the Christian religion to spread over all the distant lands in Africa. But the rise of Islam and its constant and progressive growth greatly weakened the strength of the Ethiopian people as Islam defeated, by the force of the sword, the countries in North Africa.

But eventually, defending themselves with the heroism which derives from their nature, the Ethiopians overcame the might of the Muslims. They built once again the Church of Aksum at the place to which the Muslims had set fire. It may be said that the rebuilding of this Church is a great good fortune and luck for Ethiopia.

By the intelligence of its kings and rulers since the last century, this country has once again taken the road of renewal. It is this road of renewal that is leading this beloved and courageous people towards national unity in equality.

The University of Athens, at this place where the leaders of the Greek people are assembled, greets the courageous ruler of the Ethiopian people, the son of Makonnen.

The Greek people request that you will accept their best wishes for the prosperity of the Ethiopian people as well as their firm resolve for a progressive strengthening of the ties of friendship which exist between the two nations.

 

Categories
Berhane Selassie (Bob Marley)

The 12 Tribes are the Original Astrological Signs

O’BRIEN: “Do you believe in astrology, Bob?”

MARLEY: “No Rasta! I believe in the 12 tribes of Israel, which them change and call astrology. Astrology is up there. And then say God is up there. Seen? But where them get astrology from, and the ideas of astrology is from the 12 tribes of Israel, which every man have by tendency. Not by Roman god, but by the sons of Jacob. So man find him root. Cause plenty people say I’m Aquarius—a Roman god—but you check Jacob’s 12 sons and you find the tendencies.”

Bob Marley, Interview with Glenn O’Brien, 1978

Categories
Haile Selassie I - Prophecy

The Birth of His Majesty – Raining King

So Waizero Yeshimabeit was cosseted at Ejarsa Gora until her time came, and that was not until the first heavy rains had broken over the valleys. As the midwife dragged him clear, Tafari’s first yelps were drowned by a spectacular cannonading of thunder and a torrential downpour; a good enough omen, in a land where rain is always welcome, for the women to raise their voices in praise as the babe’s lips were moistened with ritual butter, for all the rifles in the village to let go a ragged fusillade, for the cattle to be killed and tej and talla to be made ready, and for the feasting to begin.”
(Taken from “Haile Selassie. The Conquering Lion”, L.Mosley, 1964)
**********************************************
“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.” (Psalm 72, 6)

 

Categories
Haile Selassie I - Prophecy

The Birth of His Majesty from Yeshimabet Ali

It was among these people, at Ejarsa Gora – and not, as most record books have it, at Harar – that Lij Tafari Makonnen, later to become Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, was born on July 23 1892.
In May each year, the boy’s father, Ras Makonnen, Governor of Harar, took his family and retainers to Ejarsa Gora to escape the stuffiness, the typhoid and other disease which stalked the streets of the walled city of Harar at this time of the year. Here on a green hillside that looked down on the fertile valleys, he had built a large mud-and-wattle house with a refinement that was unusual in Ethiopia at the time (…). In 1892 he came early because his wife, Waizero Yashimabeit, was with child and he hoped that the fresh breezes and clear air woud help her pregnancy to go well. She was the wrong mould for shaping children, and eight of her offspring were stillborn or had died from the diseases lurking in Harar for susceptible infants. So this time she and her baby must be given every chance.
For Ras Makonnen wanted a son (…) So Waizero Yeshimabeit was cosseted at Ejarsa Gora until her time came (…) Ras Makonnen had the son he craved, and there was raw meat, heady drink and two nights of singing, boasting and wenching to celebrate it. (…)
Less than two years later, Waizero Yeshimabet was pregnant again, and this time she died in child-birth.
(Taken from “Haile Selassie. The Conquering Lion”, L.Mosley, 1964)
**********************************
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.” (Revelation 12, 1-6)
“Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 54,1)
“Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring”. (Revelation 12, 17)

 

Categories
Haile Selassie I - Life and Works

Princess Asfa Yilma 1936 – The Daily Life of the Emperor

“THE DAILY LIFE OF THE EMPEROR

There is probably no ruler in the world who has so hard a task as the Emperor Haile Selassie. He is the head executive of every department in the State, one of the few rulers who can say with truth: L’Etat, c’est Moi ! Many observers have born witness to his constant devotion to duty and have pictured him in time of peace working a sixteen hour day, while in time of war he goes frequently for forty-eight hours or more without sleep. Lately, indeed, some of those close to him have been afraid that he was overtaxing his endurance, but his sleep, though scanty, is of satisfying depth and he rises after only a few hours completely refreshed.

This is a gift of special interest since many great administrators have possessed it. So also is the fact of his extreme frugality at table. The food which is served is of the highest quality, but the Emperor is always sparing, especially in the consumption of meat dishes, while as far as wine is concerned although he has a cultivated palate and a very respectable cellar he is moderate to a degree. His mind, which he he works to its utmost, is never clouded; his eye is always clear, his hand always steady. At heart he is a lover of ease, meditation, and aesthetic pleasures; but he is unswerving in his devotion to duty.

Between the hours of four and five in the morning he is called by his personal servant, who ofter finds the Emperor already awakened and in prayer. Having completed his devotions he passes at once to his study where the Ministers of State attend him. The first consideration is news. There are reports from every seat of government which is connected to the capital by telegraph; there are the verbal messages of runners who have been sent by faithful chiefs who are watching the Emperor’s interests in the more isolated districts; and there are confidential reports of happenings in and around Addis Ababa. Any replies which may be necessary are at once dictated, the Emperor glancing through the completed drafts and sometimes making additions and alterations in his own neat hand. (…) He has made himself as it were the centre of a sensitive network of nerves. When anything happens he feels it. Pain is transmitted. Then later comes the knowledge of what caused the pain. That is perhaps the best way to describe a state of affairs rather puzzling to the European mind. (…)

But to return to the Emperor’s study. The orders for the day are given. There is now an interval while the Emperor drinks coffee, consumes bread and fruit and glances at the latest issue of his newspaper ‘Light and Peace’, the leading article of which is possibly his own handiwork, written with scrupulous weighing of words last night after a day of exacting duties. (…)

One of the sights on which the visitors never fail to remark is the lions of which there are many round about the palace. Often the Emperor strolls in his gardens accompanied by two playful cubs. (…)

Early in the afternoon the Emperor lunches sparingly, perhaps entertaining European visitors, and they enjoys a deserved rest. This respite is usually brief, however, for there is an endless round of inspections awaiting him. His troops, his schools, his hospitals – all these need his personal attention. Though he has twenty ministers they are really secretaries rather than executives. The Emperor is active head of every department.

Those who know him are surprised at his varied knowledge. Books come to him from Europe on every subject and he never ceases to amass facts. Before the war cut short all his civic endeavours he had begun to study botany in search of methods by which the productivity of his country might be increased. (…)

During the eary evening he consults with his financial advisers, comparing the records of tax returns and enquiring the cause of fluctuations. He has rapidly absorbed the principles of sound economics and understand very well the theory of taxation. In his early years as ruler he did not sufficiently oppose the principle of taxing imports, especially luxuries, as much as possible. It was the old tradition of ‘squeeze’. In the years prior to the war a very great change was observed by those familiar with the country. While the need of money still necessitated the imposition of dues the Emperor’s enquiries were directed to schemes by which these might be lessened and in private conversation he revealed himself as a Free Trader, saying that it was the ceaseless erection of barriers to trade by governments who should rather bend their efforts to removing them that had caused the world slump.

Dinner may be a ceremonial meal with many visitors and elaborate courses or a comparatively brief affair if the Emperor is not entertaining and has work to do. In the event of a State banquet, or even entertainment on a much less scale, all the conventions of Europe are strictly observed. Invitation cards of plain design but excellent quality all bearing the royal crest in gold are delivered with due formality well in advance. The menu is printed sometimes in Amharic only, but often with the normal French names with which the European is perfectly at home. The guests assemble in a long anteroom and when all are present the Emperor appears to head the procession to the table having first received the salutations of the party and having spoken a few words of welcome to the guests.

The Swiss chef is a master of his art. It is his duty to taste all the food which comes to the royal table. The imperial family are not often together but when the only remaining princess dines with her father she wears a simple Paris gown in the most perfect taste. (…)

For all State occasions the gold plate purchased during the visit to England is used. Champagne is the wine most in favour, but though it is plentifully supplied by tall footmen in red coats and white breeches who are trained to perfection and stand behind every chair, the Emperor’s glass is not often refilled. Frequently when the banquet is ended he goes straight to his study, lights the large reading lamp which stands upon his desk, and works there till morning guarded only by a single servant who stands outside the door.

The Emperor is air-minded. When he first visited Aden in 1923 he asked to be allowed to make a flight and did so in a seaplane while his suite held their breath. (…)

No one who has given the Emperor frank and disinterested advice has ever been forgotten by him. It may be some time before the opportunity offers, but always there is kindly and adequate recognition of the help received.

The Emperor has always been very accessible to foreigners and journalists have never had any cause to complain of his treatment of them. (…)

His relations with the Empress Manen are an index to his simple, unchanging character. He married her twenty years ago before he began his struggle for the throne and has never had cause to regret his choice. Sha has been a loyal helpmate in countless ways of which the outside world knows little, and it is perhaps most to her credit that where she could not help she has not hindered. (…)

The Emperor shows her great respect, and by his considerate treatment of his wife and his high moral standards has set a fine example to his people. Even those who like him least can have no ground for criticism in his marital life. In the midst of pressing affairs Haile Selassie would always give priority to a letter from his wife and he would deal with her requests with generosity and with scrupulous attention to detail. (…)

The Emperor loves clocks. He knows that they measure the most important thing in life. He knows – and to his cost – that he is almost the only man in Ethiopia aware of that fact. He realises, too, the importance of training everybody to the use of the clock. In modern Ethiopia time is money. (…)

That is the great personal tragedy of the Emperor – he can foresee so many consequences to which his lighthearted warriors are blind, and he cannot explain to them the reasons for his actions.

(Taken from “Haile Selassie Emperor of Ethiopia”, Princess Asfa Yilma, London 1936)

 

Categories
Haile Selassie I - Prophecy I&I Rasta

The Name of Ras-Ta

It has been written in the Revelation of John about the people of Christ in His Second Coming:
“And they shall see his face; and HIS NAME SHALL BE IN THEIR FOREHEADS.” (Revelation 22, 1-4)
According to the same holy book, the people of Christ had to be sealed in their foreheads with a Taw ተ:
“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have SEALED the servants of our God in their FOREHEADS.” (Revelation 7, 1-4)
“And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark (TAW) upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary.“ (Ezekiel 9, 4-6)
Taw is the supreme “Sign” (The Sign of the Cross). “Sign” is said in Geez “T(e)(e)m(e)rt” ትእምርት with initial and final Taw. Being the origin of our common “x”, it is the archetype of the “Mark”, and that’s why we also say the word “Tattoo”. Taw is the last major letter of the Geez Abugida Alphabet, and it is also interpreted as “The Seal”, MahTem ማኅተም.
What is prophetically described in the Revelation of John, was already been performed with Moses, when he ordered to sign a cross on the frontdoors of the houses of Israel, with the blood of the sacrificed lamb :
“And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12,13)
Liberation from Egypt was allegory of the Ultimate Liberation of I&I from Babylon in these last times, through many plagues.
This “Taw/T” sign on the center of the forehead is an open Third Eye of Mind, through which the Rastaman sees and knows the true Nature of His King. It is the Cross of the Ethiopians, marked upon the Third Eye brow as we commonly see among them, as they are the Chosen people.
So I&I His people bear His “Terrible” and “Dreadful” Name, TEFERI ተፈሪ, that was revealed by the prophet:
“For I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.” (Malachi 1,14)
That name is a Taw ተ in our Foreheads. “Ras” means “Head”, and “Ta” means “Taw”, so I&I “Ras-Ta” according to the prophecy. His Majesty assumed the title of Ras on 27th of September, the Feast of the Cross/Taw ተ, giving the name “RasTafari” to I&I movement in this Apocalypse.
We bear it like a crown of “Dread-locks”, in a “Tam”, for “Ferhate Egziabhier”, “the Fear of the Lord”, is the last Crown Spirit among the Seven Spirits of God described in Isaiah 11,2:
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;”
Rasta is also interpreted “Ar(e)st” አርእስት “Heads” as it is written: “they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20,6); and “R(e)st” ርስት “Heritage”, as it is written: “ Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5,5)
R, S and T are the last 3 major letters of the Geez Abugida, so the name RASTA is prophetically read as “the Seal of the Alphabet”, and must be revealed in these very last times.
Categories
Haile Selassie I - Testimonies

The Chicago Defender – 8th of November 1930

CORONATION OF RAS TAFARI MARKED WITH SPLENDOUR
The oldest kingdom in the world has just crowned its 334th ruler. Sunday, at daybreak, the coronation ceremony that made Ras Tafari Makonnen Emperor Haile Selassie I, Lord King of Kings of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of Judah and the elect of God, was performed amid the splendors of the old world that transformed this city of 60.000 into something approaching a page from the ‘Arabian Nights’.
It was such a scene that has not been witnessed in many centuries in Africa, and rarely if ever before in any other part of the world.
By this ceremony, that has its beginning three weeks ago, when the new ruler with his wife, Princess Waziru Menen, opened into the ancient period of prayer that has marked the coronation of new Ethiopian rulers for centuries past.
Then, following a series of ceremonies of lesser importance, the ras and his princess prepared themselves Saturday afternoon for an all night vigil in the Cathedral of St. George, where they remained in one long, continuous prayer for strength to rule their people justly, until the break of dawn Sunday morning when, led by the priests and high priests of the kingdom, Ras Tafari and Princess Waziru passed through a long line of bowing subjects to the newly built coronation hall where the Coptict archbishop of Ethiopia placed a crown of gold and jewels upon the head of Ras Tafari.
‘This crown shall be the crown of thy glory’, chanted the archbishop in a clear voice and in the picturesque language of Ethiopia, and the emperor answered, ‘I am the least of thy brehren’.
(…)
Absolute quiet reigned throughout the town during the ceremony, Although 300,000 souls had crowded into a territory that normally housed and fed just 60,000, there was the peace and quiet of an ordinary Sunday morning. The voices of the archbishop and the emperor could be heard clearly by the throng outside the hall (none but priests and high officials of state were admitted to the ceremony). Then when the last word was spoken, and the new emperor, mighty ruler of the Lions of Judah, arose from his kneeling position before the altar, a mighty cheer went up that rebounded against the three hills upon which Addis Ababa is situated,, 8.000 feet above sea level, and sent roaring echoes into the jungle. Cymbals and drums that had remained quiet during the ceremony took up their jubilant heating, and voices once again resumed their hurrahs for their master.
Out upon a raised platform, the emperor greeted his subjects in the order of their importance. First came the rasses of Ethiopia’s 30 states, many of whom were bowing in complete submission to the King of Kings of Ethiopia for the first time in their lives. Then came the priests and other high churchmen, followed by dignitaries of foreign countries. The Duke of Gloucester, son of the king of England, led the delegations of foreign countries. (…)
Ethiopia is one of the most unique and picturesque countries of the world. The country is believed to have been founded more than 2.000 years before the birth of Christ. The reigning house of which Ras Tafari comes was founded, according to authentic history, when the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon to seek advice from him about the country.”