Ausar Auset Society
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The Ausar Auset Society is a Pan-African religious organization founded in 1973 by Ra Un Nefer Amen. It is based in Brooklyn, New York, with chapters in several major cities in the United States as well as international chapters in places like London, England, Toronto, Canada and Bermuda, West Indies. The organization was created for the purpose of providing members a societal framework through which the Kemetic spiritual way of life can be lived daily and functions as an international body[1] teaching various disciplines to students around the world. The organization provides afrocentric-based spiritual training to the African American community in particular and to the African diaspora in general. The religion uses elements of Ancient Egyptian religion such as the Tree of Life (Paut Neteru) as the basis of its cosmogony and philosophical underpinning. It seeks to reunite the traditions of the founders of civilization into a spiritually empowering way of life that aims at the awakening of the Ausar principle (the Divine Self) within each individual.
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[edit] Classes
All classes are taught with the intention of organizing the society’s members into a community whereby the ageless wisdom of ancient African cultures can be lived on an ongoing daily basis. The fundamental premise is that for a people to grow spiritually and function together as a harmonious and productive group, they must encounter the spiritualizing forces during their day to day interaction with life and with each other. Classes taught are based on the Ausarian theology of ancient Egypt and are heavily steeped in indigenous traditional African cultures (i.e., Akan, Yoruba, Bantu, etc.) as well as the wisdom teachings of ancient civilizations dating from the early historical periods of Kemet, Kush, Indus Kush, Canaan, Sumer and China. Some of the classes taught include Kemetic philosophy (cosmology), meditation, ritual, divination, yoga, qi gong, nutrition, herbalism, homeopathy, astrology, African history and culture, as well as other disciplines indigenous to ancient cultures from around the world.
[edit] Organizational Structure
The Ausar Auset Society has patterned its government on the traditional African Kingship structure which has been officially recognized by the Asantehene (King of the Ashanti) of Ghana. This system is built around a hierarchally organized group of officials whose titles include King, Queen Mother, Priest(ess), Chief(tess) and Elder. A major point of emphasis of traditional African Kingship is that the King had to also qualify as the Chief Priest. This model has also been incorporated into the organizational structure of Ausar Auset Society and seeks to ensure that the leadership are highly spiritually trained individuals of impeccable character. Each Ausar Auset Society branch or study group (Hesp/Nome) replicates the society's structure established by Ra Un Nefer Amen in New York and falls under the leadership of either a Paramount King, Paramount Queen Mother, or Chief(tess) who has his/her own hierarchy of officials and autonomy over their respective region.
[edit] Ausarian Religion
The Ausarian religious system has at its essence the establishment of an intimate relationship with God. It teaches that the realization of the God consciousness is the highest purpose of life on earth. Its fundamental tenet holds that since Man (men and women) is made in the likeness of God, we also share the same divine attributes qualitatively, although not quantitatively. That is, we all have the potential of Omnipresence, Omniscience and Omnipotence, just not in the same magnitude. With the exception of sages, these qualities remain dormant until awakened through spiritual cultivation. Since, according to the Ausarian religion, Man is not bound to the frailties of the flesh and is therefore incapable of transcending human limitations, each and every experience in life can be viewed as an opportunity and vehicle for spiritual development that will eventually lead to the realization of the indwelling divinity. Thus, the Ausarian religion promotes the use of every life experience as a means of bringing an individual's divine attributes to the forefront of human existence as the normal way of addressing all issues in life. Hence, the individual must live by Ma'at (Divine Law) while interacting on the physical plane, thus making one's body, one's life even, a fit vessel through which God's divine attributes can be of service to all creation all over the world.
According to the Ausarian theology of ancient Egypt, the symbol for realizing the divine potential is Ausar (Osiris by the Greeks). A means through which this realization can be achieved is through meditation which is symbolized by Auset (Isis). These principles are embodied in the story of Ausar. In the story, the Supreme Being manifested itself in the world as Ausar, who rules through adherence to the divine law of Ma'at. Ausar’s younger brother Set becomes jealous and murders him, cuts his body into several pieces and usurps the throne. Ausar’s devoted wife Auset gathers the parts of her husband’s dis-membered body and magically conceives their son, Heru (Horus). Heru eventually overthrows his evil uncle Set with the aid of Tehuti (the deity representing Wisdom) and reclaims the throne, and thereafter rules the land of the living while Ausar rules the land of the deceased (underworld). A version of the story can be found in The Egyptian Book of the Dead, or more correctly translated the title would be Becoming Awake[2]. There is also a version of the story in Awakening of Osiris: The Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, along with The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts and the Book of Knowing the Creations of Ra and Overthrowing Apep form the scriptural frame of reference for Ausar Auset Society teachings.
According to the teachings of Ausar Auset Society, success in life comes from bringing one's thoughts, feeling and actions into harmony with the laws by which God has structured the world. Central to the Ausarian religious system are the 11 Divine Laws which have been extrapolated from the Tree of Life. A full explanation and analysis of each of these Laws can be found in Amen's book Ma'at, The 11 Laws of God. An important theme of this book is that the essence of these 11 Laws must be programmed into the Spirit of the individual through specific meditation techniques. Impressing these Laws upon the spirit will ensure that an individual's identity is with his or her true Self when he or she is confronted with a challenging situation rather than with the false self-image that gives control over to the emotions.
Another important concept that is integral to the teachings of Ausar Auset Society is that Man's entire Being is a composite made up of the Self and the Not-Self, as both are required in order to exist in the physical world. An individual's true identity, however, is the Self which consists of Consciousness and Will (Not-Self consists of Energy and Matter) as there is no energy or matter in Man's true Self. Since Spirit is considered Not-Self, Man's true Self cannot be Spirit. Also, every thought, emotion and sensation belongs to the Not-Self and generally represents a manifestation of the Animal Spirit in Man. The Animal Spirit, along with the Mental Spirit and the Divine Spirit, represents a triune view of Man's Being. The Divine Spirit, which is pre-programmed with Divine Law, corresponds to Man's true Self while both the Mental Spirit (Man's intellect and reasoning ability) and the Animal Spirit correspond to the Not-Self. Therefore, failure to control one's emotions, for example, represents a submission to the animal part of Being as well as a waste of one's Life Force.
[edit] References
- Amen, Ra Un Nefer, Metu Neter Vol. 1, 1990
- Amen, Ra Un Nefer, Ma'at, The 11 Laws of God, 2003
- Amen, Ra Un Nefer, Metu Neter magazine, vol. 4, no. 1, 1994
- Amen, Ra Un Nefer, I Ching Spiritual Counselor Commentary Booklet, 2006
- Asante, Molefi and Mazama, Ama, Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Sage Publications, 2005
