Table Of Content

More praise for Sacred Woman “Queen Afua is an extraordinary healer, teacher, mother, and keeper of our legacy. Through Sacred Woman, she has given us the sacred tools we need to live our lives in this new century.” —HAZELLE GOODMAN Actress “Just when I thought I was all alone, I found myself walking with a group of conscious women who were taking sacred steps and speaking sacred words. We were on our way to Queen Afua’s Global Sacred Woman Village. Come with us, there’s Maat—balance and order —there.” —ERYKAH BADU “Sacred Woman offers profound wisdom to all who seek healing and transformation.… Queen Afua is a national treasure.” —BOB LAW Author, radio personality, and vice president of WWRL The contents of this book are merely for the purposes of education and information. This book is not intended to serve as a substitute for medical supervision. If you are seeing your doctor, by all means continue to do so. A One World Book Published by The Random House Publishing Group Copyright © 2000 by Queen Afua/Helen O. Robinson All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. One World and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. www.oneworld.net Grateful acknowledgment is made to Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., and Harold Ober Associates Incorporated for permission to reprint an excerpt from “Harlem” from Collected Poems by Langston Hughes. Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001012345 eISBN: 978-0-307-55951-7 Historical Adviser and Research Consultant: Sen-Ur Hru Ankh Ra Semahj se Ptah v3.1_r1 Cover Title Page Copyright PREFACE: PREPARING TO ENTER THE GATES — SACRED WOMAN TRAINING PART I: THE ANCIENT WAYS Chapter 1: Khamitic Nubian Philosophy PART II: WOMB WISDOM Chapter 2: Gateway 0: The Sacred Womb Chapter 3: The Spirit of the Womb Chapter 4: The Care of the Womb PART III: THE NINE GATEWAYS OF INITIATION Chapter 5: The Commitment: For All Women Who Enter the Nine Gateways Chapter 6: Gateway 1: Sacred Words Chapter 7: Gateway 2: Sacred Foods Chapter 8: Gateway 3: Sacred Movement Chapter 9: Gateway 4: Sacred Beauty. Chapter 10: Gateway 5: Sacred Space Chapter 11: Gateway 6: Sacred Healing Chapter 12: Gateway 7: Sacred Relationships Chapter 13: Gateway 8: Sacred Union Chapter 14: Gateway 9: Nefer Atum: The Sacred Lotus Initiation Appendix A: Sacred Woman Products and Tools Appendix B: Biographies of Sacred Woman Ancestors, Elders, and Contemporaries Notes Dedication Other Books by This Author Acknowledgments Illustration Credits PREFACE PREPARING TO ENTER THE GATES- SACRED WOMAN TRAINING Ring … ring…“221-HEAL. This is Queen Afua. May I help you?” The sister on the other end of the phone began to weep. “I’m so frightened. My doctor told me that my ovaries are dead.… I’m only twenty-nine years old, and I feel like I’m going through menopause. What am I to do?” she pleaded. Ring … ring…“221-HEAL. This is Queen Afua. May I help you?” A sad, quiet voice said, “The gynecologist I just saw tells me that I have to have a hysterectomy. I’m only thirty years old, with one daughter. I was hoping to get married again and have more children. In 1982 I was diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease and regenerating fibroid tumors. The tumors didn’t cause me any major problems for six or seven years, but now they’ve grown. What can I do? Do you think you might be able to help me—in a natural way? I don’t want to lose my womb.” Ring … ring…“221-HEAL. This is Queen Afua. May I help you?” There was a deep sigh from the caller. “Hello, Queen. I guess I’m finally ready to try the natural way—nothing else has worked. I’m getting heavy bleeding, with only about ten days between my periods. In between I’m in constant PMS, and a screaming lunatic with my family and coworkers. I just can’t go on this way.” As the Founder and Director of the Heal Thyself Center, and a Holistic Health Consultant, Colon Therapist, Polarity Practitioner, and Lay Midwife, I have experienced a Natural Living lifestyle for more than twenty-five years, and I have guided thousands along the Path of Purification for more than twenty years. But nothing in my experience as a Minister of Purification and a Nubian Khamitic Priestess of the Temple Nebt-Het, initiated through the Shrine of Ptah, could have prepared me for the epidemic of womb disasters that began to appear at the Heal Thyself Center. The issue of African American women’s health has always been one of my primary concerns. I know how chilling the statistics are. There are more than 550,000 hysterectomies performed each year in the United States. Yet, as Dr. Michael E. Toaff, creator of the Alternative to Hysterectomy Web site, comments, “In the vast majority of these cases, the indications for surgery are benign, non life threatening conditions. Only 10% of hysterectomies are performed for cancer.” Due to this widespread practice, the National Black Woman’s Health Project’s Public Education and Policy Program has highlighted the following issues among its top priorities for African American women’s health: “Reproductive health and rights issues such as high rates of breast and cervical cancer and STD’s; and excessive hysterectomies.” Their efforts are critical when we consider the fact that “by the age of 60 more than one-third of the women in the United States have had a hysterectomy. An article on indications for hysterectomy found that African American women and women with male gynecologists are more likely to undergo hysterectomies.1 Research has also shown that “African American women are more likely than white women to have a hysterectomy, are hospitalized longer, and are at a higher risk for complications and death. Based on 1986 to 1991 hospital data from the State of Maryland, researchers found that African American women are 25 percent more likely to have a hysterectomy than are white women the same age. The study also indicated that African American women undergoing the same procedure are more likely to experience complications, remain hospitalized longer, and have a higher risk of death than white women.”2 Judgment Day Is Every Day—as Our Ancestors Have Told Us Many of the health books on the market today convey a sense that we need only to treat health as an accessory, one that we can buy at a department store, just as we’d buy a pair of earrings. Well, it’s simply not true. We get confused by our consumerist way of thinking, which says that if only we have this car, or that brand-name clothing, or this stereo system, or that house—all things outside of the self—then everything will be fine. But you can’t buy good health, no matter how much money you have, what kind of possessions you have, how many degrees you’ve earned, what job title you hold, or what neighborhood you live in. You have to plan and cultivate good health. You have to commit to good health. You have to live good health because it comes from the inside out. It comes from what you bring to your life: positive, empowering thoughts, prayers and affirmations, uplifting company, and high-quality, life-giving foods. To have excellent health you must invest time and energy into the transformation of your Sacred Body Temple. And once you’ve acquired excellent health, you must maintain it vigilantly. That’s the true divine challenge—one that you can and must meet. THE STATE OF YOUR WOMB REFLECTS THE STATE OF YOUR LIFE The womb is the gateway of all human life. When the womb is honored and respected, she becomes a channel of power, creativity, and beauty—and joy reigns on earth. When her voice goes unheard, unanswered, denied, the womb becomes a vessel of disease. The collective state of women’s wombs reflects the condition of the world. When so many women’s wombs suffer from tumors, cysts, frigidity, and heavy menstrual bleeding, when so many women experience sexually aggressive acts and unnecessary hysterectomies, then disharmony covers the earth. The condition of women’s wombs also directly reflects the condition of women’s minds, spirits, and actions. The womb is a