As Maya Angelou said in her poem “The Human Family,” “we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” Yet history shows a complex set of challenges that have been directed at Black families. In honor of the National Black History Month theme from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, we discuss who represents the Black family, how do we identify its members, and how diverse it is. These sessions explore the ideas of African scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop who describe “race” as it is commonly examined as a false scientific concept that is really best studied as Cultural Identity. The major factors of Cultural Identity are historic, linguistic, and psychological. As Diop says, our challenge is to overcome the ideas of cultural aggression.

All healing processes depend on a natural process from God to be effective. There is a interesting connection between the word “nature” and the ancient Egyptian wore “ntr.” The ancient word is translated as god or divine. When I think of natural healing, I think of divine or Godly healing. I believe that all forms of healing rely on the natural, divine, and Godly processes to achieve the wholeness we seek in body, mind, and spirit. This session looks at a message from our Supreme Father Marshall L. Davis, Sr. the urges us to use a natural pathway to health. It tells us to learn more about the healing techniques that will lead us to balance, harmony, and lasting health.

Selfishness poisons the corrective power of Divine Righteousness. From a tenet that was given to us by our Illuminated Supreme Mother Mildred Miller, we should strive to “be without self-righteousness” to achieve our highest goals in life. From the Hebrew word for righteousness (tzadek) we can surmise that the Kingdom of God and his righteousness is meant to correct and vindicate our hearts, minds, and souls. When we think about using the protection and armor of God to drive spiritual evils from our pathways to success, we should know that the breastplate of righteousness was a vestment worn by priests, not soldiers. In this discussion, we question whether the tools given in Ephesians as the “Whole Armor of God” are really holy, priestly tools, rather than simply military armaments.

The speech of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. generally known as “I Have A Dream,” has several very important themes to strive for and to live by. The “dream” he alludes to in the speech outlines principles that he describes elsewhere as “the Beloved Community.” This community is a society that is based on a brotherly love related to the Greek word agape. The speech also says that this type of community is presented in the Emancipation Proclamation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence as a promissory note to all people. The pathway to letting freedom ring for all people is to reject the triple evils (Poverty, Racism, and Militarism) from our society. This discussion looks at the power of non-violent tools to resolve the inevitable conflicts that challenge the Beloved Community.

Under the auspices of Capricorn, we look at what the goat can teach us about life. We discuss the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat mentioned in the Bible. These concepts help us to find the best direction for our life ambitions. We encourage having a mountain climbing attitude like a goat. It is amazing how well adapted the mount goat is to climbing steep peaks. As an inspiration phrase, we look at the word goat as a reminder to Go At the higher ideals in life. 

Our January message from our Supreme Father Marshall L. Davis, Sr. urges us to recognize God as a comforting maternal force in our life. God is Infinite and Eternal. Therefore, God is both beyond our concepts of gender, and totally inclusive of them. We believe that the commandment to honor your father and mother includes both aspects of the one Omnipresent Lord of All. When Genesis says that people were created in the image of God, it says male and female created him them. Many religious orders find ways to incorporate the miraculous maternal principles in their traditions by including traditions such as the comforter, the Holy Ghost, the immaculate conception of Mary, the three mother principles of the Kabbalah and the ying and yang. This discussion focuses on the miracles that follow recognizes the maternal qualities of the one great Lord of All.

When a young lawyer asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor,” the master relates the parable of the good Samaritan. The parable suggests that our neighbor is those who associates with us in a loving, caring way. This discussion looks at the Hebrew word for neighbor, and expanses the words meaning to be a relative, spouse, coworker, friend or associate that is mutual concerned about our wellbeing. From Her Holiness of Blessed Memory, the Illuminated Supreme Mother Mildred Davis Miller, we also were taught to look at our “five bodies” as neighbors. Our five bodies are the physical, emotional, astral, mental, and spiritual bodies that are place in our care by God. She also gave the temple a holy tenet to make our neighbor rejoice in thee.

Many symbols used in celebrations and parables teach us lessons about spiritual psychological holders of divine inspirations. Jesus the Christ provides one example of these holders of new spiritual principles in his parable of wineskins. Although we can find wonderful principles in old concepts, new ideas often need space to grow and expand. For Jesus, the old traditions of the church were not suited for his new principles of life and love. As we fact new concepts in these trying times of viruses, political unrest, and outdated racial attitudes, we need to weave new principles to deal with life challenges. This discussion also looked at the manger in the Christmas celebration as a lowly holder of a new divine child.

New and better world philosophies can be compared to weaving new garments for our hearts and minds with spiritual celestial cloth. From the 56^th Chapter of the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, this session discusses how old ideas become outdated. At these times for change, even the angels work to help mankind form new principles to make life better for all people. Yet, because old ideas get in the way, people must work to weave a better pathway for our lives. As we discuss the process of weaving new philosophies, we also discussed ancient symbols of Christmas and how firm foundations can help us weave a better whole for all.

One of the twelve tenets of the Spiritual Guidance Temple of Truth is to complain not against another for anything that happens. These tenets were given to us by Her Holiness of Blessed Memory Illuminated Supreme Mother Mildred Davis Miller during the founding of our organization. This discussion compares the tenet to the words of Jesus the Christ who said why look at the speck in someone else’s eye and not attend to the beam in your own. Although it is often easier to blame others for problems, we see around us, the quick solutions that come from passing the blame seldomly produce a lasting solution. Instead of looking only at who is the blame, we should look at identifying the root of the problem. This will save us from getting rid of the person and still not resolving the problem.