More Optimal Definition & Meanings
Tabu (Taboo) means behavior that is against the laws of the group. The group is the extended group as defined by its totem. Tabu is the same thing as illegal. (AE1 32/42, 55/65, 60/70)In a lost sense of the word, Tabu also means that which is sacred.
Furthermore, that which is law and sacred is a form of covenant among totem members, including the other creatures, elementals and spirits of the totem. This is the nature of what “law” means in a fuller sense. A law is a covenant with self, other humans and the rest of the extended self, including that which is divine. It is a stretch of illusion to think most human laws today meet the more optimal meaning of law and tabu. This is why most human laws facilitate disharmony, evil discrimination, evil manipulation, mental illness and things that foster the suboptimal. Along these suboptimal lines, tabu is related to “keeping tabs.” Likely this phrase has come down to us as a form of keeping track of tabus. Every totem member was taught tabus as soon as they could understand; however they were only taught at the child level. Another level of more mature, wiser understanding of totem tabus was taught upon initiation into pubescence. (AE1 82/92)
Some Of The Countless Forms of Tabu From Then To Now
1. No sex until pubescent. (AE1 60/70) 2. No sex during the five days of menstruation. (NG2 275/283) 3. No eating of other totems unless bartered for. 4. No eating of one's own totems except on special occasions. This is a later change from the freedom to eat one's own totem anytime except when supplies were low. (Churchward: Origin 31-32/510 ) 5. No breaking of any bone of an animal sacrifice. (Churchward: Origin 480/510) 6. No totem member can abstain from eating the totem mother whether human or another animal. (AE1 73/83) 7. No eating a red calf or red maize or cow or swine or cow's milk or sow's milk. All of these are tabu because they represent either the prepubescent female, pubescent female or Mother. (AE1 82/92)Commonly known is the Muslim tabu against eating pork, but the origin of the tabu is not commonly known, not even among Muslims. It's not that swine is an unclean unhealthy animal, it's because the swine represents the mother. Muslims, as followers of Abraham, copy a lot from Judaism which also includes hidden references to the mother. (AE1 456/466) 8. No eating the female of any animal. 9. No eating fruit of the tree of knowledge [sexual knowledge of the mother]. (AE1 83/93) 10. No exposure to wind, sun, earth or rain during the first menstruation because the elemental soul of life might impregnate you. (AE1 135/145) 11. Feet should not touch the ground for the highest respected humans who communicate with deities. These highly respected humans are seers, prophesiers mediums, medicine-men and women, sorcerers, magi, spiritualists, wizards, shamans, exorcists, etc. (AE1 168/178) 12. In various totem groups (cultures) there are stories regarding the first man and woman creating problems due to breaking tabu.a) Floods are caused by the first female who did not keep the secret of the water source. The first man ate the forbidden fruit. This brought death into the world which caused paradise to be lost. (AE1 265/275, 444/452)
b) Death came into the world because Kumu and Lalo ate the forbidden breadfruit. (NG2 385/403) 13. No polygamy. Throughout human existence, even if all males were married to one female, there would still be a lot of unmarried women because there are always more women than men. Polygamy was and is a social necessity when all parties are aware and in agreement. (Diop: Barbarism113/127) 14. No visiting graves. (Churchward: Signs 199/605) 15. No graves and crop cultivation on same land. 16. No planting food in your front yard because that's just ugly and uncivilized. 17. No using plants for healing without government approval. 18. No building your own home without government approval. 19. No digging a deep hole in your yard to get water. 20. Home is your business unless its a home business. 21. No letting me put poison in your children with a variety pack of vaccines, then no letting you send your kids to school to get more poison in their minds. 22. No doing a thousand different things without government approval and annual extortion fees. The core of our cultures, customs, traditions, beliefs, religions, values, morals, philosophies, ideologies, contexts, concepts, definitions and meanings. is all tied with tabus and totems, which are all tied into our understandings of nature as self and nature as all else.
Ultimately, Tabu became Maat became Taboo. These three words mean law. Today we simply use words such as laws, rules, regulations, restrictions, ordinances, prohibitions, sins, forbidden things, off limits, untouchables, negative confessions, admonitions to maat and other synonyms. (AE1 362/372) Along with Totems come Tabus, then along with Totems come the origin of the notion of law to regulate human behavior. Most of us today think we are far removed from totems and don't practice it in any way, yet we claim to obey the law. We can't shake totemism because it remains with us like a shadow, in sync with our every thought and every behavior. References:
BB; NG1; NG2; AE1; AE2 Churchward, Albert, "The Origin & Evolution Of Religion," George Allen & Unwin Ltd., (London:1924) Churchward, Albert, "The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man : The Evolution of Religious Doctrines from the Eschatology of the Ancient Egyptians," George Allen & Company/E. P. Dutton & Company, (London/New York:1913), Second Edition, An authorized facsimile of the original book, and was produced in 1969 by University Microfilms, A Xerox Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. Diop, Cheikh Anta, "Civilization or Barbarism, An Authentic Anthropology,"Chicago Press Review, (Chicago:1991), Translated from the French by Yaa-Linga Meema Ngemi, First published as “Civilisation ou barbarie,” Presence Africaine, (Paris:1981)
