Mel Hopkins

BINGO!!! Yes to keep others out of it... I'm always reminded of the mythos of "naming rights" if you have the right to name the thing you can own it... No sirree, social constructs will not contain us...

College, as I've learned doesn't do the job it intended...which is to teach us how to learn, unlearn and relearn. It is more of an apprentice shop-light for the field you've chosen as a vocation. Sort of like a school for monomaths vs a school for polymaths. Once I figured that out, I chucked all that I learned in college and returned to the mechanics of what I learned at Tech (which does teach you how to learn (or at least it did when we attended)). All this to say, the study quantum mechanics, which isn't for kids per se, even if you're a mathematical genius, because you have to live and observe for it to make sense is about as close to an explanation of spirituality - then any other discipline. That is, since we no longer study natural philosophy. It's sort of like how classical physics' law of conservation "thermodynamics" allows you to understand the nature of god as an energy. In fact, if you put the two together, energy that can't be destroyed or created - and we are all energy vibrating at different levels - then magick makes sense from a quantum mechanic POV... Want to know at what level you're vibrating? Just look around you, we attract what and who we are...because that's our vibratory level. I majored in EE at Tech and we were constantly playing with the oscilloscope making sine waves. For some reason I remember that your input is the same as your output. Now I have to go look that up LOL

this might not be accurate - It's been my experience youtube will remove copyright content in a bat of an eye but you have to file a notice.

@Delano You knew it was coming ... "a ritual designed to “bind Donald Trump and all who abet him.” #Feb24 #magicresistance A Spell to Bind Donald Trump and All Those Who Abet Him (version 2.0) To be performed at midnight on every waning crescent moon until he is removed from office. The first ritual takes place Friday evening, February 24th, at the stroke of midnight. This binding spell is open source, and may be modified to fit your preferred spiritual practice or magical system — the critical elements are the simultaneity of the working (midnight, EST—DC, Mar-a-Lago, and Trump Tower NYC time) and the mass energy of participants. https://extranewsfeed.com/a-spell-to-bind-donald-trump-and-all-those-who-abet-him-february-24th-mass-ritual-51f3d94f62f4#.ozssncesn

I agree. I don't believe anyone can teach anything. The first step to learning, however, is AWARENESS... if you aren't aware something exist, learning cannot occur. The same can be said for spiritual enlightenment - no one can teach it; you can only become aware there's a path. BAM!!! Yep, I never been to a Beyonce concert and I have one album because it contains a song me and my daughters would sing on road-trips. But when it comes to business, I'm fascinated as to why some make it and others don't . So I study the successful and this is exactly what I gathered from her "meteoric" rise...Like you've written, The lesson is from the Girl Scouts motto "BE PREPARED"

Bwhahahaha!

Absolutely agree! We shouldn't confuse the two! One is the entertainment business... I, however, believe in the power of AND... AND in business there's still a chance for enlightenment. For example- Moses, Cleopatra, Jesus, Thor, et al. were not blue-eyed Europeans but that did not stop Hollywood from sharing the mythology while enlightening all those who went to see Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, King of Kings and most recently Thor ( who is actually the much older Shango, the Orisha God of thunder and lightning). It takes a large platform to get a message out to those who don't know their history. Remember how many people were on the Egyptian KMT Hotep research kick? Those folks only scratched the surface but at least they no longer believe Egyptians were Europeans, (at least not origin). So now you can only imagine how many young black women have now moved towards West Africa to find out the history of an even older group of the Canaanites - the Yoruba people. BTW, This is win for authors of black books both fiction and nonfiction...If you read some of the reviews for my novel published in 2006 - most didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about. Yet I spoke of the very things in my book that Beyonce is now promoting through her visual music. She's educating the market for those of us who write about African mythology... Heads Up: Twins babies (Ibeji) are sacred & magical in the Yoruba religion so expect more symbolism from Bey once she deliver her twins. As for wikipedia - Maybe the Beyonce' mystique doesn't want the public to see that she's more than just the public face to her empire but after doing so quick sleuthing - Parkwood Entertainment is owned by Beyonce and here's why - Parkwood's attorney is Brad Rose who is also listed on her website as the contact for Parkwood entertainment for any copyright infringement. Rose is the attorney also listed as Beyonce's licensing company BGK Holdings, Inc's attorney and also represented her along with his other clients ( yes the usual suspect crew Kanye, Rihanna, Jay Z and Pharrell ) in a lawsuit against eleven paris .. It would be a conflict of interest for Brad Rose to represent Sony in anything AND Beyonce therefore Beyonce owns Parkwood Entertaintment - But here's more behind the scenes look at why Beyonce is the fronting her own company... From FastCompany "The core of Beyoncé’s business is Parkwood Entertainment, a relatively small operation perched on an upper floor of an unremarkable office tower in an unglamorous neighborhood just south of Times Square. Parkwood’s employees quietly guide an enterprise that has an enormous impact: from music to film to ancillary businesses such as the exercise-clothing line Ivy Park that she recently debuted in collaboration with British retailer Topshop. Beyoncé is the CEO and has been known to sit in on meetings and walk from office to office to query her deputies on details of upcoming projects. "There’s nothing that happens in that organization, either businesswise or artistically, that Beyoncé doesn’t fully sit on top of," says former HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo, who helped negotiate the Lemonade TV special. (Beyoncé and her team declined to speak on the record.) Though Beyoncé’s label, Columbia Records (a subsidiary of Sony Music), is a partner in Parkwood, the company still approaches business like a startup, leveraging its scale in all kinds of ways."

Not my feelings on Beyonce personally but on Beyonce, the singer, songwriter, producer, entertainer and business woman. Here's my story - in the late 80s I was in a girl music group, Flexx... It was a struggle and I can't tell you how many bad contracts folks tried to get us to sign. So bad that if we signed we would've been shaking our asses but broke. Now that's pimpin ish. Plus we were cute so there was the casting couch everywhere you looked. We ran from the best of them back in the day. By the time, we got our record deal we aged out and one of our members got killed. So to see a woman who looks like me and my group members make it to the top of the game - is nothing but "hallelujah" My feelings on Beyonce are attributed to her business acumen. Plus I love a good story and she controls her narrative. Case in point, she released her last album exclusively on her husband's streaming music service for 24 hours - did this cut into her sales? Not sure but music reports from Billboard to the New York Times did stories on the availability of her album on other outlets. It was that serious to them. Last I read, Tidal will have exclusive streaming rights of Lemonade for awhile. It seems Sony and Beyonce are working together ... from the CEO's mouth in 2015. Ever since Destiny's Child there's seems to be a rule (thanks to Matthew Knowles I suppose) if you sing the song you get writers credit. That is unusual in the music business but her deal is even sweeter. Beyonce also gets publishing credit too and producers credit. According to these copyright infringement cases it seems that folks come after Beyonce not Sony. So It seems she does have some control over her music catalog. Also, there are few artists who are presidents of their own corporations that employ hundreds and contract and launch careers of others. Beyonce is president of Beyonce, Inc and she founded Parkwood Entertainment LLC which is the label that produces video, films, shows, music on the Sony label. There's Beyonce Touring, Parkwood Touring, Ivy Park clothing and currently she's in a legal battle to trademark her children's wear company "Blue Ivy Carter". She helped launch one for her mother House of Dereon ...and it seems the list is growing ... Now correct me if you know of any other black woman (singer) who controls her music empire...Ok there's Rihanna who is said to own her masters now and I'm proud of her too! These young women are in control of their craft and professional image and as a woman who had a small taste ofthe music business, I'm glad to see young women stepping up and controlling their professional destiny. By the way, Chrisette Michelle recently said she is also the master of her domain.

@Delano Thank you...I'm processing all the time. I might have something different next week lol

kind of like Catholicism but you didn't hear that from me

Because those platforms are NOT AALBC.com I never understood why we would expect to find our breakthroughs outside of our community. I only need to look in my own backyard, literally, to find a remedy for menstrual cramps. (Dead nettle grows in my backyard ) In fact, I spend my time posting here and looking for ways to make this website of record - so that we can produce breakthrough... My next step is asking for a AALBC press pass so I could bring enterprising content... maybe others can do the same? Just a suggestion.

@Cynique you always challenge me to seek clarity! Thank you so much! Of course, I put my best foot forward with anyone I meet. Kindness and respect goes a long way... What I can't afford in this lifetime is seeking outside validation for the life given to me. When I said I don't seek the acceptance of white people; it's because I don't allow anyone to tell me who I am or what role I shall play. I tell others what role I shall play in their life and they can decide "Yes" or "no" . I was looking at my professional recommendation letters, the other day and I realized they have the same theme - " leader with an attitude" white folks code for uppity negress. It is what it is. I never felt like I needed my life validated. And yes, living like this has positive, negative and a lot of heartbreaking consequences. When I was younger, many called it hubris. If I believed I could do it; I did it. Now that I'm older it requires a lot of courage to continue to live this way. I may cry a lot, but I sleep well. I think the black community's pathological tendencies come from allowing others to invalidate us. It's as if we believe we are the illegitimate children of America and Africa and we're doing everything while failing miserably to gain legitimacy. It's as if we (black Americans) are waiting to do our version of Sally Fields' Academy Award acceptance speech "You like me, you really like me". Although it is so cliche, we have to learn to like ourselves first even if our validation never arrives.

@Delano, I didn't want to get into this...so glad you did. I had to check myself first to see what was aggravating me about @Troy 's comment... there's so much to unpack that it spills over into the other discussion thread about black's being normal dysfunction et al.... but yes, it is validation of the three stages of woman - "maiden, mother, crone" (remember the Blue Ivy-Beyonce-Miss Tina hologram?) Beyonce's whole career and music has used this Leitmotif... EXCEPT she uses the motherland's symbols instead of the eurocentric version. It traverses the scale of the mythology of ancient Canaanites (north, south central west africa)...it is why some call her practices the illuminati because many don't know our own ancient magical practices ... She is using her whole career as a backdrop to tell the story of the black woman.. It's mythology set to music. hahaha!!!

"individuals with a specific interests or out of necessity that make the breakthrough" as Jenifer Lewis said in "In Living Color" "That just proves my point"! Clearly you haven't been on wordpress dot com or Quora. J/K Seriously though, I've been researching polymaths and monomaths; so I think the ratio is much lower than you give credit. We have more 'specialists' today than ever in history. If this country is actually divided it's by autodidacts, academics and a minority of folks who are clueless.

Or spiritual development must come first in an effort to understand what physical demands are actually necessary. The more I focus on my spiritual needs; I find I need a lot less... In fact, I've recently noticed that I mentally spend money that I don't have... because I'm CONSUMED with thoughts of what I WANT ... notice I wrote "want" and not "need". Without spiritual development I don't think we'd notice and would forever be in CONSUMPTION mode.

BLOG ALERT!!! Maybe as a collective, disparities in the black community harm us but not as individuals because we all have different perspectives. One perspective; not all of us exist for outside acceptance and approval For example, I don't "dress up" my black in an effort to be accepted or even appreciated by the white majority. Frankly I don't give a damn if they accept me or not. I do me...and if I seek any approval it's from family, friends, associates, acquaintances and in that order. My cry is don't physically harm me because of your bias. Now if this is your point, FlareonDon, then yes harming indirectly by one's community member is a challenge. I have been harmed by black people who have been hurt by the system. Sort of trickle down hate brought on by racism, if you will. After reading the article, I noticed one thing missing from the argument. It's usually missing in all arguments of this nature...Most people never ask or answer "Why were some Africans enslaved in America"? (Noting that many Africans came willingly and were free as in never a slave) While it is reported that all the colonies/ later states participated in African enslavement - the states that abandoned the practice early were the states that didn't benefit from it. - So answer why were some Africans captured, brought here and enslaved? I've read one perspective on why some Africans were enslaved...and why they were all but shunned after their services were no longer required or legal. Once you answer "Why" then they rest of the "most hated" story makes sense. Once you answer the why - then you like most successful African-Americans will use that answer to your benefit. stop copying me!

Beautifully stated!

And now his book is cancelled... https://www.yahoo.com/news/publisher-cancels-milo-yiannopoulos-book-dangerous-223646571.html "Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint announced Monday that "after careful consideration" they had pulled the book, which had been high on Amazon.com's best-seller lists and was the subject of intense controversy." Welp now we know you can say practically anything except endorse pedophilia! We've finally found the deal-breaking threshold for provocative shock-and-awe speech.

@Pioneer1Nothing is wrong with personal gain! Are you kidding me? LOL! In fact, if I shift perspective "raising the level of consciousness" or vibration, as I stated IS personal gain. I want to live in a world where everyone shine's their light. So there, I guess everything is personal gain because what I'm actually saying is I don't want to be distracted by folks bitching and moaning Still when I cast spells in the past it was for monetary gain, or a smooth going in a relationship, or something that I really didn't need to cast a spell for. All I needed was to focus. As I got older I realized that I just needed to be what I was seeking (so to speak) ...Whenever I "vibrate " at the level of what I want - it comes to me. Even if I concentrate on something that I know a friend of mine is into, it causes them to call me. Magick is just that simple ... "be what you seek" - It's that simple but it sure ain't easy!

@Pioneer1 Yes. I heard about the book first - I have many sources but if I had to point to one source I'd say it was my google alert that is set to "Black Women" . so yes, I had the pleasure of hearing about Margot Lee Shetterly's book before I heard of the movie. Old Journalist tricks are hard to break and I'm a information junkie. BTW, I disagree with your assessment about general public, and academia - it's usually individuals with a specific interests or out of necessity that make the breakthrough and bring information into the mainstream. I even read the flint water crisis was brought to light by a homeowner , a woman named " Leeanne Walters"

I can believe it. I've learned during this last year that you really have to engage as a super end-user to fully appreciate the nuances of this website. Once one is familiar with the nuances then and only then can you see how exploit them to make it easier to attract even more traffic.

@Delano Yep this is exactly why I gave up casting for personal gains sometime ago. I began working on raising my vibrations instead. Thank you, though! Now my focus and goal is getting others to raise their vibration so that we can shine bright in this world...

You'd lose. The movie is based on the book.

The juxtaposition of this statement with your closing (Bey and Obama) proves "Yes we can!"... Our next step is to figure out what to lie about that would raise the profile of the Black American collective.

@Pioneer1 someone heard your question AND answered it! How cool is that? Here it is... From Freedom’s Journal to the NNPA, Black Press Is Still Relevant "Margot Lee Shetterly, author of “Hidden Figures,” said if not for the archives of the Black Press such as the “Norfolk Journal and Guide” and the “Pittsburgh Courier” the inspiring story of the Black women geniuses at NASA would not have been possible to tell. If not for the “Florida Sun” in Orlando, the story of the great training in science and technology happening at Bethune-Cookman University – one of the nation’s historically Black universities – would go untold and unnoticed."