Navigating The Uphill Journey
The new graduate, Hatikaheru Nejitef (center) with M’TAM teachers Bouimen Kamenthu (left) and Nekhitem Kamenthu (right)
The journey of initiation is a very difficult path with very positive results. It forces a person to confront personal weaknesses and to be honest in life. This article celebrates the achievement of the graduation of the Nejitef generation on the 9th of Kpekhan, year 413. This generation started as one of the biggest classes in the history of the New York school. By the time of the graduation, there was only one initiate left. Today we are congratulating this sole initiate, Hatikaheru Nejitef, in reclaiming his ancestral culture, as well as his steadfast dedication and persistence.
Hatikaheru explains, “I did not know anything about spirituality or what the school was about, I was just accompanying other friends to a class. The first time I stepped into the Earth Center I felt this amazing peaceful energy that I never felt before, and I kept going back every week. The knowledge I have been receiving from day one is priceless. The application of this knowledge took me from a very dark place where I was doing a lot of negative things in my life that would eventually lead to my death. After I started using the tools given to me in my initiation, my life and the life of those around me improved.”
There are 3 classes that The Earth Center offers: Medu, Ka’at Ibi and Sounnt. Each class is held on a weekly basis and is 2 hours long. Medu is commonly known as the Hieroglyphic language written and spoken by the ancient Egyptians. It is thought to be a dead language, but this is untrue. It is still alive in traditional cultures living today, and is understood to be the original language of humanity. The first hour of the class usually consists of a lecture covering diverse topics in the realms of history, values, culture, society, spirituality, philosophy and psychology. The second hour focuses on technical exercises to learn the Medu language itself.
Ka’at Ibi is an original system of postures, movements, breathing and meditation. These exercises are practiced for the health and balance of the initiate. Like the Medu class, the first hour consists of a lecture portion covering many of the topics mentioned above, but with an emphasis on understanding traditional spirituality. The second hour focuses on learning the Ka’at Ibi exercises.
The Sounnt class focuses on training the initiate to become an apprentice healer. The entire class consists of a lecture which aims at teaching the initiate how the body works from a traditional perspective, myths of the medical system, as well as learning to diagnose health issues.
The graduate is told his initiatic name by Nehez Meniooh, Director of The Earth Center.
The focus of these three classes is to educate people who were born in these modern times back into the ways of our Ancestors and become preservers of life, rather than destroyers. Today’s modern culture and social systems are educating people to be employees and consumers rather than human beings and preservers. The results of this negative approach is obvious when we look at the world around us today. All three of these classes demand a lot of time, discipline, and study that includes homework assignments.
The initiation presents a wonderful challenge to us as humans brought up in the modern era. It challenges us to reorient our thinking process, our notions of self and ego, as well as our behaviors. Although initiation is challenging, it is seen as a great cultural treasure because the pursuit of building positive qualities is always an uphill journey.
Like with building muscles and working out, a human being must get out of their comfort zone in order to build strength, progress and grow. This is the same principal in initiation when it comes to all areas of life. There are many challenges that the initiate faces in this process.
When confronted with facing their personal weaknesses, the initiate has the opportunity to face these things and progress, or to value their weakness more than their education, and therefore decide to step away from the challenge. Sometimes the person's motivations for being in the initiation are questioned, and they are forced to be honest about their real reasons for being there.
When they awaken at the root of their reasoning, sometimes those reasons are stable, sometimes those reasons are weak. If they realize that those reasons are weak, they can either make an effort to evolve their reasoning and reorient themselves, or they can simply say; “this is not what I’m looking for”, and leave.
Sometimes people lose sight of the reality that the initiation is a personal journey and that it has to do with themselves, their evolution, and their growth. They may become distracted by people around them, personality conflicts, social drama and they will leave because of what other people around them are doing. They leave because of these external reasons.
This generation originally started off with about 30 initiates. Hatikaheru Nejitef was the only initiate able to stay the course of his initiation and to face all of these challenges. He did so with great discipline and persistence, always keeping his focus on the initiation, and away from distractions and excuses. He has consistently extended himself to serve the community in any capacity that he was capable of at a moment's notice.
His first name Hatikaheru means; “Manifestation of the Soul of Heru”. This name identifies him specifically. Heru is our Ancestral Neter (God) who was born fragile and vulnerable, yet continues to rise and fight for the preservation of good. He is the God‐Child of the Neteru (Gods) Wsr and Aishat, our Ancestral God‐Parents. Humans most closely identify with Heru because we find ourselves in this same situation of fragility, fighting towards the “Good”.
His generational name Nejitef means; “Defender of the Father”. This name is normally shared by all those in his same generation, but in his case he was the only one to graduate, and is therefore the sole holder of this generational name. The "Father" in this case is Wsr, the Neter that personifies "Goodness", and whose legacy Heru is fighting to defend.
It was a long journey that took him 3 and 1⁄2 years. We are very happy and proud to introduce and welcome Hatikaheru Nejitef into the Kem community. He has made the deepest commitment possible for a human being; a commitment to his personal evolution and quality, as well as to the upliftment and enlightenment of humanity. We wish him the best on his journey of reclaiming his Ancestral heritage.