Customer Reviews

African Religion Vol. 1, Anunian Theology and the Philosophy of Ra

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The five stars are to be seen in the light of this specific book for itself, not in combination with other books by Muata Ashby. A lot of Egyptian based, yet universal minded mystical knowledge is in this book, yet the repetitive nature of its content with other of the author's books (and within itself) is very intense.

Originally written in 1997, I read the 2001 edition with the title: "African Religion Vol. 1: Anunian Theology". However, the original title seems to have been: "Anunian Theology: The Mysteries of Ra". As Muata Ashby's books change title liberally, this book has obviously been known as "Anunian Theology: The Mystical Philosophy of Ra Religion" and "Ra Religion of Ancient Africa - Anunian Theology", plus "The Mystical Philosophy of the Priests and Priestesses of the Ancient Egyptian City of Anu". This edition now has been installed as the introductary book of the 5-part "African Religion" series. Which is actually a series exclusively on ancient EGYPTIAN theology, concerning its five main variations based on five cities. Actually not quite: Instead of the listed Aton theology by the Pharao Akhenaten/Akenten, which gets briefly touched in Volume 1 as well, one part is rather on Osiris/Asar in general. The author suggest to read his 3-part "The African Origins" series (also available as a single book) first, with volume 1 of the latter series elaborating on how ancient Egypt influenced Africa at large. It isn't easy to find Volume 2 of the African Religion series, most likely for having been changed in title again. I strongly suggest this would be the last part of yet another mini-series: Egyptian Yoga II: The Supreme Wisdom of Enlightenment. In any case, the next parts are African Religion Vol. 3, Resurrecting Osiris: The Path of Mystical Awakening and the Keys to Immortality and African Religion Vol. 5, The Ancient Egyptian Mysteries. Which I list here as well, for amazon currently lists some of them without the prefix of "African Religion". So much for enlightening the potential confusion with this series by Muata Ashby, which has driven me crazy for a considerable time...

Anunian refers to the city Anu aka Heliopolis, the "City of the Sun".

Besides the usual mystic knowledge provided by Muata Ashby (i.e. the "individual" identification with God/Allah/energy etc, which is the one and only thing that exists), this part gives a special information on the Anu-variation and general spiritual sources for today's global/Western terms and concepts such as the terms "Ma(ma)", madre, etc.; why hell is conceived to be beneath the surface of the earth and what sort of sin leads there - or the original concept of hell. Oftentimes it becomes clear that succeeding generations/cultures in Europe and beyond only overstood part of the original spiritual concepts and therefore decadenced one or the other element of religion to something different, even the opposite. Also the origin of the term "Milky Way" is not to be found in Greece, but in Egypt. As a RastafarI I found the following concept interesting: "When chaos in the form of evil [i.e. belief in separations leading to e.g. destruction and persecution] and unrighteousness threaten to destroy society God incarnates in human form in order to show humanity the proper way to live." The author is also revealing why "the American Dream" of seeking a special person to love, a thing to own and to achieve this or similar goals by "if I only do more, I will get that" as illusory and in fact unspiritual.

Not everything in this book is to be taken at face value. Even though the author differentiates between ritual and funerary pyramids, he suggests the Unas Pyramid (famous for its best surviving pyramid texts) would be a burial pyramid. Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt strongly disagrees. Muata Ashby considers Moses' monotheistic concept as simple in relation to Akhenaten, whereas Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus convincingly suggests, both are in fact the very same person.

As for the Do-It-Yourself publishing of Muata Ashby's books, this one has few slips by comparison. The most common one in this one is the doubling, even tripling of the very same pictures within a few pages, at least one time obviously being the wrong one, the other just representing needless page filler repetitions.