Earth Crowns: The Culture and Art of HeadWrapping

“Head-gear is a seal of protection for the two temple doors – the crown and third eye chakra. Some cultures realized the spiritual significance of this, while others continued the tradition of head-gear, justifying it as work or fashion-related. Nonetheless, whether or not societies have been conscious of the highest purpose of head-gear, throughout history both men and women have embraced the idea of covering the crown and third eye chakra.”
― The Impeccable Warrior of Light by Peace Mother Geeta Sacred Song

Head wrapping or the adornment of one's head has been a cultural component of our lives since the beginning of time.  Both men and women have engaged in this practice for a multitude of reasons.  In these modern times, women cover their heads for religious regulations, because of a medical condition, for re-appropriation of  feminist concepts, as part of their fashion aesthetic, because their hair is considered ugly, and many other reasons that are both empowering and dis-empowering depending on the context of the person.  However, our spiritual development has been most aligned with this aspect of our lived history.  I am defining spirituality here as the study of oneself by engaging in scientific questioning and mathematical verification.  It is this way that can truly get us to study the inner (SELF) so that we can understand the outer (EARTH-UNIVERSE).  By questioning and verifying we can get to the true answers that we have about all that surrounds us.  For this to be most optimal, we must rid ourselves of mystery and belief.  Belief only leads us to place fault, credit and responsibility to something or someone that is unseen when all that is caused is by the Son of Man, which simply means the reproduction of the mind through the children that we have. The children will bring knowledge, wisdom and understanding that were previously unknown to the family.  In this manner, children enrich the reality of the community and subsequently of the world. 

Panther's Tail Crown (Front Side Zig-Zag Twist)

It is only when we start to look outside of ourselves that we are led into mysterious rationales.  So, the Buddha becomes a God rather than just a figurative representation of enlightenment, a man who has reached an understanding about himself, that he is the true and living God.  Allah becomes a mysterious being/force who we must submit to while the sciences and mathematical computations that lead us to the answers of the Black man being God are erased from the culture and are long forgotten in our Andalusian past. Amplifying this state of confusion are the misappropriations of our teachings by the Greeks who mythologized and erroneously added aspects to our teachings that lead to further mysterious thinking. 

Silver Lake Crown (Looped Side Bow)

Europe needed laws to prevent chaos and dismantling.  Their refusal to bear witness that they should just strive to be righteous individuals while living under the Black Gods (the Black man in leadership positions) of our great civilizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, brought them to destroy us, but that left them with no God.  So, they created their own white god who watched over them from the sky with, of course, the laws and teachings derived from the wisdom that was taken from Africa, Asia and Latin America.  And there is tons of evidence to proof this, as some of the first religious figurines of Christianity were black.  Ishakamusa Barashango, in his book "Afrikan People and European Holidays: A Mental Genocide" writes,

"...make very clear what we mean when we refer to the Europeanized Jesus.  In this designation, we are talking about something or someone that is distinctively different from the original Messiah, Jesus ben Joseph, the King of the Jews...Jesus, the Afro-Israelite did live...Jesus was as Black as midnight and dedicated to the cause of independence.  On the other hand, you have the mythological Jesus a co-opted bleached out version of the original, with blond hair, blue eyes, genteel and effeminate" (62-63).

 So, here you have the mystery concept of a white God with the mis-adapted laws of our people and what does it eventually lead to?  Christianity and the Bible. A made up religion that not only would keep some order but give spiritual meaning to whites who couldn't take ownership over their own divinity as they had none, for their nature is in direct contradiction to all that is.  Christianity would also be a tool that could be used to enslave all the indigenous people of the world so that they can forget their own power and ability to propel spirituality without mystery.  Christianity would justify European colonization.  Christianity would propel us to lose the knowledge of our true selves.  And this is what we have today. 

However, a little trip back towards consciousness and you are able to slowly get back the pieces to your true self and history.  By gathering knowledge and extracting the Blackness out of it all, we are able to connect to our current lives to gain wisdom and reach understanding.  The understanding would then allow us to properly apply ourselves to live a culture in accordance to our mind and this would bring forth the power of who we are into an Equality where all Black families are able to exchange/learn from one another and in this sense we are able to reaffirm our true nature as God and Earth to continue building, all whilst destroying that which is not needed, to born our creations which fuel our society.  As Sunez Allah says, “Creator Creates Creation…Creator lives in his own Creation.”  This is our true purpose devoid of desire, fame or glory.  It simply just is and how nice it tastes, how beautiful it looks, because it just is...

 

Frida Crown (Looping Zig-Zag)

Looking for the Black in the Research

For Original women, it entails a process of decolonization (gaining knowledge).  It is said that history is written by the winners.  This literally means the people who have oppressed us.  This is why when we read about colonization we have easier access to the excerpts of diaries by the conquistadores and not the Tainos/Arawaks.  However, this should not stop us in finding the truth.  To do this we simply extract the black out of it all.  This is how I learned Argentina is not truly white but indeed Black and not just because there is evidence now that they literally erasing the African component from the history through mixing and other measures.  This is just a part of it.  It was through tracing the Blackness of the so-called Spaniards and Italians that settled there, as well as learning the indigenous peoples (i.e. Gauchos) of that territory that allowed me to have a complete look at the Blackness of Argentina. This is extracting the Black from the history.  This is knowledge.

When I embarked on re-discovering who I was, of learning what it meant to be the Earth conceptually I also referenced the wisdom of our people, of Black scholars who broke through the Eurocentric framework of pseudo-scholarship to shed light on the unknown aspects of our history.  It ranged from consulting our scholars who focused on ancient history, such as Ivan Van Sertima, Wayne Chandler, to those focused on my immediate history like Silvio Torres-Saillant and Ginetta Candelario.  So there was research out there that was written by Black scholars about our Black history.  This supplemented my history.  This was also the knowledge.

Olive Oil Crown (Frontal Diagonal Half Twist)

Deconstructing Headwrapping in the Bible

I come from a Black cultural reality where Christianity played a big role in the oppression of my people.  Through Christianity we were able to justify European oppression while losing ancient wisdom passed down orally by the elders to certain designated youth that would retain these "secrets."  In the book “I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala,” Rigoberta Menchu has described just how this occurred within her people,

“When you reach the age of ten, your family and the whole community holds a meeting.  It’s very important.  There’s a ceremony as if we were praying to God.  The discussion is very important because, as I said, it initiated me into adult life…I’m no longer a child. I become a woman.  So in front of my parents, in front of my brothers and sisters, I promised to do many thing for the community…I felt responsible for many things and my mother let us into many secrets, telling us to try and do things the way she had” (49).

“Then the couple who are getting married…make a new pledge to honour the Indian race.  They say it is the duty of each one of us to reproduce the earth and the traditions of our ancestors, who were humble…After that they ask for forgiveness from their parents and for help with bringing their children up in Indian ways, remembering their traditions, and always remaining true to their race no matter how much trouble sadness and hunger they endure.  And the parents answer: ‘Generations and generations will pass but we will always be Indians.  It is our duty as parents to keep our secrets safe generation after generation, to prevent the ladinos learning anything of our ancestor’s ways’…The White Man who came to our country. We must not trust them, white men are all thieves. We must keep our secrets from them” (67-69).

Christianity trickled down through all sectors of society and while it was the official religion of the colonizers, it was a bit more gray for the African and indigenous people.  At first, it was just used to mask the true religion being practiced (i.e. Vodoun), but later its ideals became ingrained into the fabric of the philosophical framework of the lives of our Black and Brown people.  Therefore, everything is validated through the principles and teachings the Bible has, but the strength of these principles in people's lives varied depending on their place and role in society.  In this case, when self-proclaimed Caribbean Christian women, of Brown and Yellow shades, express their racist ideas as it pertains to Africanism and head covering, they have forgotten a very important passage of their holy book. 

Corinthians Chapter 11, Verse 2-10 states,

"Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.  3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God.  4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonors his head.  5. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.  6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn.  But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. 10 For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head..."

As one is supposed to belief in the Bible on face value, the ideas in the above passage are quite mysterious.  I do not believe in anything yet each line fact checked and analyzed without belief it comes into perspective.  The chapter starts off by God talking but not a mystery God; rather, it is the Black man telling white civilization to remember what he has taught them.  It is not new for many Black men and people to have come up to Europe to help advance and aid their civilization(s).  There are many examples throughout history, most currently the Moorish Empire of 700+ years in Spain and Southern Italy. This means that head wrapping was taught to Europeans, specifically the women and upon the making of their Bible, this aspect is incorporated.  In this chapter the reference to Christ is simply just a convoluted way of saying God.  Christ is used here to retain the mysterious aspect of God.  By erasing Christ, you are simply left with God and God is that Black man that taught about the role of head covering as it relates to man and woman.  Woman's nature is towards the world and we can prove this by examining her role throughout centuries in our societies.  She is the nurturer, fueled wisely by her emotions and is intimately connected to the land.  Man's nature is towards the mind, a logical thinker, and the propeller of all reality.  So, when a woman covers her head she is honoring, as well as centering the spiritual-energy that is the mind.  She is also symbolically showing her connection to the infinite aspect of the unknown of the mind as she is an independent thinker and is the complementary (not separate) aspect to God.  By covering once she's met her God, she is saying that her mind is now intimately connected to another.  Energy is real and we absorb energy.  When a woman decides to be with one man she is denying the possibility of retaining energy from any other man.  For those other energies, as positive as they might be, don't reflect the aim of her man/God for her family.  Only if God allows it can she then open herself to receive approved energy from other men.  The head wrap then symbolizes that all ideas, thoughts, and way of life of her family are a reflection of the teachings of her man, and how her own ideas are retained for furthering and enriching life for her family. The head wrap centers her energy and shows her role as the propeller of life.

Of course, none of this is mentioned in the Bible, the church as well as other sects of Christianity that interpret chapters to meet their own aims in manipulating the truth and uphold the idea that God is a mysterious being and/or force that governs our reality.  But what I have written is not up to interpretation, for it is based on the timeless universal laws of the Black man and woman and how that correlates with our nature as Man and Woman, Creator and Creation, God and Earth.  Although books clue us into this metaphysical component of our ancient history, it doesn't outright say or further explore it because the great respected scholars that have uncovered our ancient rich history are actually religious.  It doesn't discredit their work in showing and proving that indeed all of civilizations come from a Black foundation, but it hinders the understanding of the knowledge and wisdom the people of that time dealt with.  

 

Ranchera Crown (Horizontal Sided Zig-Zag Twists)

Headwrapping in Antiquity

What is undeniable is that head coverings are older than the European religions of Judaism and Christianity.  In ancient Nubia & Egypt, ancient Latin America and ancient Asia you find head coverings of all kinds and for different purposes.  Within the indigenous Mayan tribes it is precisely their clothing and head covering that allows people to distinguish one tribe from another. These elaborate styles of headwraps all had a meaning, a time to wear them and sometimes it denoted your role in society. Headwrapping also varied by region (like today) depending on the weather patterns of that region.  Attracted by the elaborate hair wraps, Europeans sought to mimic and make adapted styles of hair covering like hats and wraps. They had already copied and tried to recreate hairstyles from the South, but these were only possible with the addition of weaves and instruments that could curl up their hair as best as possible.  Ancient African and Asian women served as the models for the creation of a head covering culture in Europe.

However, the underlying understanding guiding head covering in the culture of our people is our role and our mathematical laws that govern nature.  For example, adding on to a classic build, the Planet Earth travels at a speed of 1,037 1/3 miles per hour.  When we break down the miles by using the principles of Supreme Mathematics and Alphabet we are able to extract the principles this number is trying to show us. Therefore, when we take 1,037 1/3 and break it down into its singular dimension of 1, 0, 3, 7 and the fraction into 13, we start to understand that 1 is man, 0 is woman, 3 understanding, 7 is God who is 13 Master and Controller.  This means that the speed of the Earth is controlled by the mind of the original Black man.  It is his determined regulation of the universe that allows for the steady speed of the Earth to travel.  Our role is infinite.  We let the knowledge pass through us to get to the understanding that God controls the universe.

What we were naturally living out in ancient times become set or rules and laws for European societies and religious groups.  These European religious groups use our teachings as a way to continue to propel their societies without chaos and disaster.  This natural way of living was implemented as rules because without them European society would again crumble.  These rules become bonded by religion.  Head covering, therefore, becomes a requisite for women to honor their God who they see as not existing on Earth, but rather outside of it.  Illiteracy in Europe was widespread and only the high priests of the Christian religion, who actually wore hoods as head coverings, had access to reading materials.  Head covering also created a division between religious women and pagans, who are seen as savage and uncivilized because they reject the notion of organized religion or who head cover, but see religion as limiting in their rights as women who can do whatever they want. They head cover in the name of feminism.  In this sense, religious covered women are holy and civilized, thus superior.   

Daisy Crown (Looped High Twist)

3/4ths & Headwrapping in Modern Society

For the religious African American or Latina woman today, the contradiction of being religious and not covered is real and it further reinforces that this religion is not the natural way of life for our people.  So, Corinthians is revealing and liberating in that we are able to see that Christianity has been a tool to keep us enslaved.  The church doesn't teach such a pivotal aspect to women's nature and role in society.  We can be uncovered and have sex with many people, giving our energy freely to people that will just put it to waste, receive energy from confused and traumatized people whom have not yet healed, yet we can go to church every Sunday seeking forgiveness from a God that we can't ever see.  This is truly a mis-education of what culture and freedom represents for our people.  What we need to realize is that what we call religion is actually our philosophical backbone that dictates our way of life.  Realizing our Earthly nature and our true relationship with God can bring us into a culture of head wrapping that is in accordance to that reality. 

"1. Why isn't the devil settled in the best part of the planet earth? (1:1-14)"

The planet Earth has best and worst parts.  Geographically this refers to areas where the land is most fertile and diverse crops grow all year long vs colder areas where the land must be harvested according to the season, where crops grow best in a corresponding season.  Best and worst parts also refer to how the Original man is able to use the Earth not only in cultivation, but in the growth of society.  The worst parts of the Earth have been those that are industrialized, where savagery runs rampant and people lose connection to the land. Deforestation, mining, damming rivers, animal hunting, all contribute to making worst parts of our Earth.  Being that the Earth belongs to the Original man he is able to make best parts out of the Earth whenever he decides to settle.  White society has shown the opposite, able to make a best part into a worst part and some of our people have started to do the same in their attempt to mimic European models (i.e. Chinese and Japanese).  This shows that the Original man has the capacity to make best and worst parts.  There were times where the Original man chose the best part of the Earth for himself, and knowing/seeing the nature of the grafted to be wicked they were designated to the worst parts because the Original man did not fix it up for them to inhabit.  They would have to try and learn it themselves.  But that's when Musa came to teach them.  In a relationship, when God teaches a woman to live in accordance to her nature, the true and living Earth, he is making his best part.   Therefore, when a woman covers her head, as well as the sexualized parts of her body, she is saving the best part (her mind, her reproductive organs) for God to continue to fertilize, shape and mold for the deepening of the black mind through the children.  It is a privilege for someone to see those best parts and only the maker and the owner (your partner) can see that. 

Dressing in 3/4ths, where the head covering is an important component symbolizes and keeps us connected to our true nature of Earth, as the planet is covered in 3/4ths water.  Head covering then shows us the way which we come to understand God.  Through the symbolism of water as wisdom (the brain is actually made up 75% water), the head wrap accentuates the concept of wisdom because it is an actual application of our way of life.  Meaning the headwrap itself represents wisdom as it covers our heads-already covered by water-traditionally symbolic to wisdom. 

Ocean of Silver Petals Crown (Horizontal Half Twist)

The Art of Head Wrapping

Head-wrapping is an art because it accentuates the beauty and femininity of a woman.  This art is the result of the expression of the feminine divine the counterpart to God.  Each individual crown brings out the inner being of the woman who has created it and used it to adorn and cover her head. 

Western media has focused on the covering of Muslim women and portrayed it in a negative light, sending the message that Muslim women are oppressed through what they wear.  This is farthest from the truth.  Women who have not adapted Westernized ways of dressing, love their hijab and embrace it fully. They know the beauty embedded in the head garments and how that adds a new dimension in their development as women.  Just like birth adds a new level of wisdom, head wrapping brings you into a new state of understanding yourself as a women through the concept of beauty. 

Not only do you have the media's negative propaganda against Muslim women's head garments but also a part of the American ideological fabric is the existing racist ideas that anything African is backwards and primitive which includes head-wrapping.  So, while you see African women wearing their beautiful fabrics in everyday life, mainstream American society looks down upon it.  These racist dominant thoughts exist as a way to discredit ancient wisdom on beauty and womanhood, so that they can portray the white feminist stance on women's liberation through dressing.  Western expressions of beauty entails showing one's hair and body, and you find proof of this in earlier times with a law in 1800s Louisiana, while the majority of women of color are still enslaved, women were prohibited from exhibiting their natural hair in public.  The white man has always lusted for the Original woman and particularly her hair he found exotic and intoxicating. This was a threat to self-imposed superiority of the white woman.  Of course, there were other sectors of white people who thought of black hair as ugly and unruly and wanted them to just hide it away.  As a result, Black and Brown women were forced to wear head-wraps.  What resulted, however, was unprecedented.  Turns out women came up with these elaborate styles of head wrapping that arguably made them look prettier and enhanced aspects of their facial features that truly brought out their femininity. This must have angered white women whose model of beauty was based on showing more. 

Garden Crown (Frontal Side Beret)

What this teaches is that head-wrapping is an art as not all women can wear one head-wrap the same.  Beauty, like flowers, is diverse and women carry and exhibit beauty uniquely.  While head-wrapping is the cultural expression of our universal nature as Earth, it is an artistic representation of our unique physical beauty.   From my own personal experience, I've come to realize there are two major components for head-wrapping.  The first one is what it represents and how it can be related to the world.  The second one is the technicalities in how you made the head-wrap.  The first one reveals the understanding, so for me it encapsulates aspects of the Earth herself.  I might make a wrap that looks or captures the essence of a lake when it's frozen, or a garden, or a time of day like a sunset, so that's what it's named.  It's named after that aspect of the Earth that it most resembles and captures.  The way in which I made the head-wrap, like how I folded, or looped or zig-zagged parts of the fabric or scarf used in the head-wrap is what entails the second component. This is the technical aspect.  In today's age, since we are reclaiming and re-learning the knowledge we have lost, the technical aspect is important because it is important to understand how you made a particular design.  However, Black people create infinitely, so there are still methods of creating crown/head-wraps that have not been explored yet.  It's interesting because the only time I've seen things get labelled and categorized to uselessness is in westernized society.  It makes sense since so little has been innovated in society they need to know, step by step, how something is made. Their need to replicate is great so they can make something off an existing foundation.

Supremely, the art of head-wrapping is 1) The Concept/Theme of the Crown and 2) How you made the Crown. When combined, you are exhibiting to the world an aspect of who you are through the act of covering, accentuating your being to show your unique beauty.  Head-wrapping truly is an individual art embedded in the cultural practice. 

 

Orange Sunset Crown (Diagonal Wide Looping)

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Cited Works

Barashango, Ishakamusa.  Afrikan People and European Holidays: A Mental Genocide Book I.  Washington, DC: Dynasty Publishing Company,  1979.  Print.

The Holy Bible, King James Version.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: World Publishing, 1986.  Print.

Burgos-Debray, Elisabeth (edited).  I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala.  London & New York: Verson, 1998.  Print.

Lost Found Muslim Lesson #1 (1-14).  120 Degrees.  New York, Allah School in Mecca.  Print.

Lost Found Muslim Lesson #2 (1-40).  120 Degrees.  New York, Allah School in Mecca. Print.