Happy Kemetic New Year
The Sidereal Calendar is based on the cycle of the Septet Star (bottom left of photo) of the Orion Constellation. The Septet Star has the most stable rhythm of all the stars we can perceive.
WHAT DO YOU THINK of when you hear the word time? Do you think of H.G. Wells and the “Time Machine”, the movie “Back to the Future,” “The Time Travelers Wife,” or some other fantastical reference to this notion of “time?” In truth, we usually do not think of time unless we are running out of it or have some other important event in our life that is related to it. Obviously, this notion, “time,” is important to our existence. Yet we hardly give it a first, let alone a second, thought. We live our lives according to seven day weeks and twelve month years, but we don’t question where the names of those days and months come from. Perhaps something is wrong with that. Perhaps our lack of desire to think about time is not as accidental as we may like to believe.
No doubt we have some idea of what time is because so much of our life is dominated by this concept. We have a time to wake up, to be at work, to eat, to sleep, to workout, to go to sleep, etc., according to a schedule. The tragedy of our existence is that we do not take the time to ask ourselves one simple question, “why?” Why do I do what I do, day after day, week after week, and so on and so on? In fact, who do my daily routines really serve; what is the agenda of the so-called directors of my life, my boss, supervisor, teacher, etc.? The truth is we march to the rhythm of a beat orchestrated by those that may not care about how the march affects us, as long as we are doing it in accordance with their directions.
What this all means is that we need to think more about the concepts that we are not directed to think about. Why? Because just as a con-man wants to distract you from the truth to take advantage of you, so to do those that want to distract you from thinking about the basic concepts that
you build your life around. A human being living in this manner is vulnerable to the manipulations of others. He is vulnerable based on the fact that reality is no longer the foundation for his understanding, so how he thinks about life is subject to another human’s agenda.
Our modern lives are dictated by the time measurements set by this system.
We accept the way the concept of time has been presented to us because it is all we have ever known. When we hear the word calendar, there is only one picture that enters our minds. It’s the picture of the only calendar that we have ever known or used. However, the calendar we use marks time like a prisoner making hatch marks on a prison wall, counting down to the day of his “freedom.” Isn’t that what we do to track our progress from our weekday imprisonment until the “freedom” of the weekend activities? What reality is this calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, based on? The answer is that it is not based on reality. The modern calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, is based on the political agenda of other humans.
A system of dividing time should be related to events that govern our lives. In the M’TAM School, we teach that if you want to know the true intentions or agenda of something then you must look at its origin, the reason why it came into existence in the first place. The original calendar, the Kemetic, Sidereal Calendar, is based on astronomical certainties. This calendar measured a cosmic rhythm. A rhythm involving the path of the Septet or Sirius star, a 1,461 year long rhythm. This is the most stable astronomical rhythm observable to human beings. It tracks the alignment of the Septet, with our Sun, the Earth and the moon, called the Heliacal Rising. This event signifies a period of great energetic disturbance that lasts an entire year, at the end of which the cycle of 1,461 years begins again. The Sidereal Calendar accounts for the time between one Heliacal Rising and the next. This cycle is known as a Neter (God) Year or Great Year. Our ancestors passed down records that span over 100 Neter Years. Within this large cycle, there are many other smaller cycles and rhythms that signify other important events. It is the rhythms of these small and large events that traditional people have based their day-to-day activities on for thousands of generations. This is what it means to live in harmony with nature. To live by the natural cycles of existence.
What we consider to be a year, according to the Gregorian Calendar, is known traditionally as a seasonal year. This is because it contains one cycle of the seasons within it. Although this cycle is fairly predictable and significant due to the weather changes that it measures, it is unstable compared to the Great Year. Even so, it has become a common unit for measuring time. According to the Sidereal Calendar seasonal new year is also based on the rhythms of the Septet Star and occurs when the Septet Star rises at approximately the same time as the sun. Our ancestors understood that it is not a coincidence that this period (September 10th or 11th) marks the beginning of the rainy seasons and hurricane seasons in the tropical regions of the world. We celebrate this knowledge that allows us to harmonize our activities with the realities of the world and the universe. We celebrate our connection to the something larger and more stable than ourselves. Let us commit to returning our lives to these realities and free ourselves from the confinement of colonial politics. This new year, let us commit to living in harmony with our home, Earth.