Oddessy of Bataou Part One
Night Fire: Oddessy of Bataou Part One
The struggle between forces of evil and forces of good still impresses the human being who is in search of the true face of things. The Kemetic civilization has continued its work of stimulating the will to search for enlightenment of consciousness within the individual and to advance towards Gods. The person who has accepted the opening of his eyes can only see everywhere he looks the manifestation of two principles that are antagonistic, one leading to the destruction and the other ...? Hmmm!
I was saying that the human being who accepts to open their eyes will see. everywhere they look the manifestation of two principles that are antagonistic, but each one taken separately will lead to the destruction of life. But all together they create a condition that is favorable to life. I would like to suggest the importance of the question about the nature of the good and the nature of evil. The ideas that have been advanced on the preceding lines are difficult for our emotions to accept. If the good as a principle destroys like evil, the human being simply will not know where to turn. For us, the bad is evil because it does not contain good and the good should not contain evil. According to Kemetic civilization, on the side of the being that is wondering if the good and evil can inhabit the same territory there is a question of the model...yes, what we call the perfect model, the world that we want to reproduce, the reason we brought to our existence.
It is clear that if a human being wants to enter the world of the Gods, it is the world of the Gods that conditions his perception of good or evil. In this case everything that takes us further away from the seventy seven commandments is considered evil. Corruption of the body and the spirit will then be what we must avoid. The sacred then must be protected from evil. The same logic surrounds the objective that we set for our lives. The human being who believes that everything ends with death will not find a logic in the fact that we must be born if we must die; his model then wil be made of the pleasures of the senses, his motivations, and his reasons of living. And the "now" will be the most important aspect of his concept of time.
The story I'm going to tell comes from the initiatic texts from the deep land of Itoure in the Valley of the Nile. A version of that text fell in the hands of the archeologists and they named it "The Two Brothers". The Odyssey of Bataou is a sacred text that comes to complete the Holy Drama. The Holy Drama teaches us among others the struggle between Seth and Heru and how in one way or another the conflict between Seth and Heru carries with it all the aspects of the world we can observe. The Holy Drama presents two different entities fighting to reign the world; and the human being as a powerless observer finds himself forced to watch his house. destiny being played like on a chessboard between two entities from which we perceive one as favorable and the other as unfavorable. The Odyssey of Bataou presents in reality the same story but in a way that exposes the nature of the forces as present, and the nature of the relation between the good and evil and the way that Il is completely independent from human logic. At the end of this story we will understand that the destiny of a human being is played between two entities and from these entities one maintains the perpetual presence through the principle of indestructibility and cannot be hurt in any way. The other maintains the perpetual presence through a principle of regeneration, meaning they die and are easily destructible, but they always regenerate.
Bataou and Inipu were two brothers of the same mother and the same father. They grew up as every young man in the Kemetic culture, with a pronounced sense of moral and spiritual value and also with the sense of family. Bataou was the younger brother, and as a younger brother, he allocated to Inipu all the respect and consideration an older brother deserves. In the Kemetic culture, the older son is also called Baba, and is considered as a younger dad by his younger brothers and sisters. He replaces the family father if this one dies; his role in the family structure is so important that he can be considered a dad by his younger siblings.
Bataou was living with his older brother and since Inipu was married, Bataou considered the wife of his big brother as a mother. The relationship between Bataou and Inipu was the simplest according to the culture. He was farming and raising cattle for his big brother. A typical day for Bataou was determined by the season; in times of inundation, he spent his time searching for grazing land for the cows. He always wakes up before sunrise and after his ablutions and prayers to the Gods and ancestors, he gathers in the wooden plate that he has made by himself the leftovers of the previous nights' meal. He serves a big gourd of fresh milk and goes with the herd. Bataou never comes back before sunset. After his meditations and his dinner. he spends his nights in the barn. Bataou was not only a very good herder, he was also a very good farmer. In the seasons of labor and the harvest, he always takes the herds to the grazeland near the family farm and then farms until sunset. After that, he brings part of the harvest that he carries on his head and walks slowly with the herd towards the house.
Bataou was serving his big brother and his wife as he would have done for his mother and his father. He never complained, but in contrary, he has learned to enjoy the fact that he was the reason why his big brother could enjoy an easy life. For him, if his brother was happy, it was he Bataou, who was happy. The smile of his big brother expresses his...etc. When his big brother wanted to get married, it was him, Bataou, who gathered the dowry; it is him that went to help the inlaws in their farms... Bataou was a brother.
One day while Bataou and his big brother were in the farm, this one sent him back to the house to bring a bag of seeds for planting. Bataou took the direction of the house. When he arrived, he saw the wife of his brother on a chair fixing her hair. He walked around her and went straight to the grainary. The wife of his brother was observing him from the corner of her eye. She stripped him with her eyes. When Bataou lifted the bag and placed it on his head, the wife of his brother approached and talked to him with an admiring tone: "You just lifted a bag full of grain!" She then adopted a seducing attitude and said, "Do you know that you are stronger than your big brother?" "Look at your muscles.' she said while touching his arms and shoulders and chest. "I would like you to put down this bag. I want to sleep with you," she whispered in his ear. Bataou was stupefied. His mouth was wide open. The woman thinking that Bataou was thinking of her proposition added: "If you accept to sleep with me, I will sew new clothes for you, I will make a perfume for you, I will give you everything you want." Bataou received that message like a slap in the face. He then got angry and said, "Mother! Why are you doing this with no feeling of shame? You know that your husband is not only my big brother, but he is like a father to me. And because of him, you are like a mother to me!" While he was talking, one could see on the face of Bataou an expression of pain, deception, or disillusion. He continued, "You should be ashamed for doing this to my brother; for the love of my brother, I will not tell him anything if you promise not to do it again..." The woman quickly followed in a sort of desperation. "I promise, I promise! I don't know what came over me. Maybe it is Seth. It is the force of evil. Forget everything I said."
Bataou then carried his bag out of the house and walked towards the farm. On the path to the farm, Bataou could not stop rethinking what he was considering as an incident. The wife of his own big brother just made the most evil proposition to him. To sleep with the wife that he has learned to consider as his mother? He, who has sacrificed his life, his ambitions, and even his own desires, to help his brother build a family... while Bataou was walking, one could see him very absorbed by his thoughts. He was talking to himself from time to time and with his free hand he was making sudden gestures just to manifest his anger. But against who? The wife of his brother? Suddenly, his life has been turned upside down. He has learned to love the wife of his brother as his mother, and before today, he had always thought that she loved him as her son. She has always served him good food and every time he comes from herding she has always used the chance to wash his dirty clothes. Bataou always saw in these actions the fact that she was his brother's wife and the fact that she was showing a maternal love toward him; but today...
Bataou could not help but feel the feeling of betrayal. Would he have betrayed his big brother? If while he was helping them to build their family. the wife of his brother was perceiving him as an object of temptation. Why, then, is it so hard to maintain peace among humans?
While he was walking, the question about what he should do stayed without answer. He cannot tell his brother: "Hey, guess what your wife just asked me!" This could lead to the destruction of the same family he has spent his life protecting. And somehow, if the wife could make such a suggestion to him, who says that she will not turn that against him? This would have placed his big brother in a very difficult situation. Who will he choose to believe? No...no..he must maintain his silence as he promised to the wife of his brother. He lifted his eyes towards the sun like if he was going to pray. The rays of the light passed through his tears and added to his surprise: he has been crying since he left the house. He tried, then, to wipe his tears. When he reached the farm, he set the bag of seeds at the feet of his big brother and took his hoe and continued farming with a bowed head.
…To be continued in the next issue..
