All These Things… We Know

We know that chi is everything, and that everything is chi. The stars that light up the night sky and the sun that lights up the day—all is chi. The ground we walk on, the tree and the wind, the fire and the sea—even quiet rocks that never speak—all is chi. From the beginning until the end, chi was, is, and will always be. It cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed and reborn, from eon to eon, world after world. In its singular form, we have named it Chi-ukwu: the great energy from which all worlds are born.

All these things…. We know

We know that there can be no interaction without motion and no motion without vibration, so we believe in mmuo, spirit, emanating through every chi at different frequencies. Sometimes, this movement is obvious, as in the birds that soar across the sky, the leopard that springs up a tree, or a man releasing a bowstring at a rabbit. Other times, these vibrations are quiet, unseen, as in the growing of a tree, or in the gentle bonds between all the droplets that form the ocean and all the pebbles that form the rocks. Where we see chi, we see mmuo—in the planet that travels around the sun, and the moon that follows along on the journey. Nothing is truly dead, only vibrating at different frequencies, whether stone or man.

All these things… We know

We know that we are not here by mistake, that legs were made for walking and eyes were not made for listening. We know that behind the actions of chi and mmuo, there is a great intelligence. We have called this intelligence Agwu—the divine mind of all existence—and we symbolise it as the great python that eats its own tail. Agwu is divine wisdom, intelligence, and intuition. Agwu is revealed to the chosen so that they might translate it to earthlings through afa—language. This is why nothing is more precious to us than the words we speak and the spells they cast. The tongue is the greatest in the world.

All these things… We know

We know that all separation is an illusion. We know that we are One, divided into many free beings, each vibrating at different frequencies—as are the worms that eat the ants, and the birds that eat the worms. Some have been here once, some many times, others are yet to come. Some come because they must, others because they choose to, a few because they are sent. But we are all the same: agents of chi, animated by mmuo, covered in anu, flesh, and directed by agwu, psyche. So we are neither energy, spirit, mind nor flesh. We are all these things, all at the same time.

All these things… We know

We tell the children these truths in stories so that they may learn, hoping that when they are wise, they will understand. We tell them that in the beginning there was a great mother spirit, mmuo agwu, whom we symbolise as a mother-python called Nne Eke. We tell them that with her was a great seed of infinite potential, chi-ukwu, which we symbolise as an egg. The story goes that the mother python, Nne Eke, wrapped herself around the chi-ukwu as soil wraps a seed, as the womb wraps the child. And so, after the process of incubation, when agwu was applied to all things, the water broke, and there was the world as we know it: uwa. It is easier to remember mother and seeding and birthing than to understand energy, spirit, and mind.

All these things… We know