EBONY-REKA Ebony-ReKa is the applied healing component of Afro-Energetics, 'Ebony’ means Black its traditional African origin and ‘ReKa’ is its spiritual energy source. The main applied inspirational healing component of Ebony ReKa is Hoodoo an eclectic holistic evolving healing practice. When our African ancestors were forcibly brought to America as slaves they arrived with an extensive body of healing knowledge; an intact system on the use of roots, herbs, animals, and natural elements grounded on spiritualism that’s rooted in Ancient Egyptian Heka passed down to Akans, Bakongos, Yorubas, and other African cultures.
For 246 years (1619 - 1865) our enslavement in America damaged who we were as Black people and forced us through racial oppression and economic exploitation to do for white people serving their political-financial interests and pleasures. Indeed Black folks were pathologically damaged spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
To counter or reverse this imposed racist induced sickness our Ancestors used a traditional African healing practice that would be known as ‘Hoodoo’, a New Afrikan new-world Ebonic name of an African healing tradition that enslaved Africans retained – ‘African Retentions’. Hoodoo is derived from the African Akan term for medicine ‘Ndu’ (oohn-dooh), but it is also influenced by the Bakongo tradition of 'Dikitisa Ngolo Lendo' the art of regenerating healing power. Hoodoo as New Afrikan reflects its syncretistic African ethnic-national spiritual retention blend of *Akan, *Bakongo, *Yoruba, *Fon (Vodun), and *Mandinka (Sufism).
Hoodoo was debased by Racist slave laws along with propaganda attempted to reduce it to mere superstition or demonize it as ‘Black magic’. Through persecution Blacks were taught to fear the self-healing tradition of Hoodoo. According to Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald, a major component in Old Tradition Hoodoo was the liberation and resistance of Blacks from enslavement.
Since the reconstruction period until today Old tradition ‘New Afrikan’ Black Belt Hoodoo has been commercially marketed, exploited, controlled, co-opted, modified, and often fabricated primarily by ‘white outsiders’ (white Wiccans, New Agers), who make money selling lucky charms, gambling number books, and other snake oil products. Many Blacks who are unconscious and disconnected from their own culture and history buy these superficial Hoodoo items. Unfortunately, the holistic healing practice of Hoodoo which healed so many of our Ancestors on slave plantations has been reduced to superstition and trinkets.
Ebony-ReKa is a dynamic modality intersecting between the psycho-emotional dimensions of Black experience and the energetic dimensions of our beings. Our emotions and psychological states are directly expressed within our energetic body. Ebony-ReKa recognizes the emotional energy held by individuals and relieves the individual of a discordant emotional landscape through active listening and energetically assessing, identifying, and working to effectively address the somatic energy body that so often holds and maintains emotions that no longer serve the individual.
Ebony-Reka Adinkra Power Symbols
There are 4 main 'Adinkra' symbols from our African 'Akan' Ancestors that are used in Ebony-Reka healing and each has a profound meaning and power of its own. These symbols should be approached and used with a high amount of understanding, reverence, and respect. Only advanced master Ebony-Reka practitioners should use them after they have learned how to do so appropriately.
Ebony-Reka healers use these special Adinkra Power Symbols to open up and balance the body’s energy centers and to increase the strength of the vital life force. The Ebony-Reka symbols represent specific properties functions of energy for healing and spiritual enhancement. Using these Adinkra Power Symbols during a Chakra Assessment or Biotherapy Attunement session are meant to shift an individual’s consciousness towards the particular meaning behind each symbol.
The Power Symbol: The power symbol is known as ‘Tabono’, it means strength, confidence, and persistence. It is used when more powerful flows of energy are required to heal or when facing difficult challenges. This energy can also be focused within a specific area of the body to promote healing there. This symbol can even be used to create a protective energy field around an individual when s/he is exposed to a lot of negativity.
The Peace-Making Symbol: The Peace-Making symbol ‘Mpatapo’ means reconciliation, this symbol can be used to forgive, bring harmony, and promote healing. This symbol can also be used to heal relationships and to release negative emotions that can lead to blockages in the energy centers. Feelings like grief, guilt, and anger can be released with the help of this symbol.
The Distance Symbol: The Distance Symbol ‘Sankofa’ means to go back to the past in order to build for the future; it is primarily used when long-distance healing needs to take place. This symbol can be used for hindsight and to send healing energy to anyone anywhere; it is able to cleanse the past, present, and future, knowing no boundaries of space and time.
The Heart Symbol: The heart symbol ‘Akoma’ means love and faith, it’s of course associated with the heart; it is used to heal this energy center by cleansing it and removing negative energy from it. Emotional disorders can be cleared away with proper use of this symbol. Heartache, sadness, and anxiety are some of the most common emotions that can be removed by using this symbol.
The Master Symbol: The Master Symbol ‘Adinkrahene’ means authority, greatness, prudence, firmness, and magnanimity; it is the most powerful one in all of Ebony-Reka; it is the 'King' of all the Adinkra symbols.It is associated with intuition, peace, and enlightenment. Plus, this symbol is able to tap into the aura of a human being, right down to the level of the soul. By getting to this deep level, a practitioner can heal a person in a variety of ways, thanks to the ability to access the source of all physical, mental, and emotional ailments. Therefore, this symbol can only be used by the most advanced practitioners known as ‘Nganga’ – a Bakongo word that means an experienced ‘Doer’. An Nganga is someone who is highly knowledgeable, respected, and culturally-competent; who has put in work to enhance the lives of the community and to maintain balance. They have insight to know what’s going on inside an individual and the community; they have the eyes and wisdom of the Ancestors.
Seven African/Yoruba Power Chakras
The Seven African/Yoruba Power Chakras known as 'Orishas' are our energy centers in nature and in ourselves; they are the openings for life energy to flow into and out of our aura. They don’t only exist as a powerful hierarchy, but they rule over different domains of energy.
Their function is to vitalize the physical body and to bring about the development of our self-consciousness and self-realization. They are associated with our physical, mental, and emotional interactions.
There Are Seven Major Yoruba Chakras:
1. Shango - Root Chakra warrior deity; divinity of thunder, fire, sky father, represents male power and sexuality.
2. Yemoja - Reproductive Region divine mother, divinity of the water and loving mother of mankind, daughter of Obatala and wife of Aganju. Her domain is all body of water but mostly an estuary, where the river meets the sea. One of the most important Orisha on the Yoruba pantheon.
3. Oshun - Navel Region divinity of rivers and waterfalls, love, feminine beauty, fertility, and art, also one of Shango's lovers and beloved of Ogoun.
4. Ogun - Heart Chakra warrior deity; divinity of iron, war, labour, sacrifice, politics, and technology (e.g. railroads, tools, man-made objects).
5. Obatala - Throat Chakra- Orisha of peace. An arch-divinity, father of humankind, divinity of light, spiritual purity, and moral uprightness.
6. Orunmilla - Third Eye Chakra divinity of wisdom, divination, destiny, and foresight. Orunmila is the Orixá and Ifá is the divinatory system from which he talks through.
7. Orl - Crown Chakra Ruler of the head, refers to one's spiritual intuition and destiny
The Seven African/Yoruba Powers exists on different levels of consciousness or planes of existence. Just like a ladder have seven rungs, with each one taking you a step higher. When you reach the top, you can see all the other rungs that you climbed to get there. They work, much like a hierarchy, where a person becomes more powerful with every step. The higher you climb up the ladder, the more you gain self-enlightenment and self-mastery.