Episode 5

full
Published on:

16th Jun 2024

The Black History of Astrology

In this episode of Confidence by the STARS podcast, hosted by Dorrissa Griffin, Esq., special guests Tamerri Ater and her father, Mathu Ater, delve into the rich connections between African history and astrology. Tamerri, known as the Astrofashionista, discusses her unique journey and her brand 'Gift of the Nile,' which fuses ancient Egyptian rituals with modern wellness products. Mathu Ater, an expert in Egyptology and African history, provides an extensive historical context, explaining the deep roots of astrology in African culture and its integration into Western traditions. Together, they emphasize the importance of acknowledging Black contributions to astrology and share personal narratives that highlight the significance of African spirituality in contemporary practices.

Episode Chapters:


00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome


00:32 Guest Introductions: Tamerri Ater and Mathu Ater


03:44 Tamerri's Journey with Astrology


09:13 Mathu Ater's Insights on African History and Astrology


17:53 The Connection Between African History and Modern Astrology


30:07 Mathu Ater's Personal Story and Name Origin


41:48 Anecdotes and Personal Stories


42:34 The Influence of Ancestry and Spirituality


42:57 Black Astrology and Its Origins


43:56 Integration of Mesopotamian and Kemetic Astrology


45:57 Cultural Impact of Colonialism and Christianity


47:07 The Evolution and Global Influence of Rap Music


49:52 Astrology's Interconnection with Religion


51:52 Astrology in Ancient Africa


55:07 The Birth of a Wellness Brand


01:08:56 The Importance of Black Contributions in History


01:16:33 Closing Remarks and Future Endeavors


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Tamerri Ater

Tamerri Ater, MBA (AstroFashionista) is a Certified Professional Astrologer, Reiki Practitioner and Founder of Gift of the Nile, spiritual wellness products, rooted in Ancient Egyptian ritual. She is also a Senior Astrology Editor for Astrology.com and Horoscope.com. For over 15 years, Tamerri has advised thousands of people on how to align with their soul’s destiny, career path, and improve and attract healthy relationships and partnerships. Tamerri used astrology to guide her career as a Beauty Product Development Professional, and often collaborates with global brands and media outlets. She has a B.A. In TV Production from Loyola Marymount University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

@astrofashionista on Instagram

Tamerri 's Website

https://thegiftofthenile.com


Mathu Ater

Mathu Ater: BA from Cal State LA, and MA from Pepperdine University. He is affiliated with the National Organization of Minority Architects, Los Angeles chapter. Mathu was an 11-year architectural apprentice to the late Lester Oliver Bankhead, Architect, and was a student of the late Dr. Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan since 1981; he made his first trip to Kemet/Egypt with Dr. Ben in 1985. Mathu is uniquely qualified to speak on architectural and religious themes as his over 30 years as an architectural and graphic media specialist facilitates a fresh and uncommon approach to the study of Egyptology and History. Largely because of the efforts of Dr. Ben, Mathu along with Ashra Kwesi founded “African Minds United,” in LA in the 1980s. Additionally, he taught “The Glory of the Black Race” at the University of California at Irvine. Mathu has designed many buildings around greater LA including a recording studio for Snoop Dogg and the home plans for the late legendary producer, John Singleton.

Mathu's Facebook page


Dorrissa Griffin

@cosmusicapp on Instagram

Connect with Dorrissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorrissagriffin/

https://podcast.cosmusic.app/episode/black-history-of-astrology

#FathersDay #Juneteenth #BlackHistory #Kemet #Egypt #Astrology

Listen to Confidence by the STARS

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Copyright 2024 Cosmusic LLC

Transcript
Dorrissa Griffin:

Okay.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Welcome to the Confidence by the STARS podcast.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I'm your host, Dorrissa Griffin, astrologer, attorney, and app developer.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I'm also your horoscope hype woman.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I'm here to help you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Make the best out of your astrological journey.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And today I have with me two amazing guests.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I'm so excited to have the both of them on.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I'm going to introduce them one at a time and I hope that you'll

Dorrissa Griffin:

understand why they're so special.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So, first I would like to introduce Tamerri Ater, MBA.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She's also called the Astrofashionista.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She is a certified professional astrologer, Reiki practitioner,

Dorrissa Griffin:

and founder of Gift of the Nile, spiritual wellness products

Dorrissa Griffin:

rooted in ancient Egyptian ritual.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She is also a senior astrology editor for astrology.

Dorrissa Griffin:

com and horoscope.

Dorrissa Griffin:

com.

Dorrissa Griffin:

For over 15 years, Tamerri has advised thousands of people on how to align

Dorrissa Griffin:

with their soul's destiny, career path, and improve and attract healthy

Dorrissa Griffin:

relationships and partnerships.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Tamerri used astrology to guide her career as a beauty product development

Dorrissa Griffin:

professional and often collaborates with global brands and media outlets.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She has a BA in TV production from Loyola Marymount University and an MBA

Dorrissa Griffin:

from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I also have the amazing pleasure and honor to introduce you to world renowned expert

Dorrissa Griffin:

in Egyptology and African history, Mr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Mathu Ater.

Dorrissa Griffin:

He holds a BA from Cal State, Los Angeles.

Dorrissa Griffin:

and an MA from Pepperdine University.

Dorrissa Griffin:

He is affiliated with NOMA, the National Organization of Minority

Dorrissa Griffin:

Architects, Los Angeles Chapter.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Mathu was an 11 year architectural apprentice to the late Lester

Dorrissa Griffin:

Oliver Bankhead, and he was a student of the late Dr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yosef A.A.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ben-Jochannan since 1981.

Dorrissa Griffin:

He made his first trip to Kemet, Egypt with Dr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ben in 1985.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Mathu is uniquely qualified to speak on architectural and religious themes as

Dorrissa Griffin:

his over 30 years as an architectural and graphic media specialist facilitates

Dorrissa Griffin:

a fresh and uncommon approach to the study of Egyptology and History.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Welcome Mr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ater and Tamerri!

Tamerri Ater:

Excited to be here.

Tamerri Ater:

Finally get

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes,

Tamerri Ater:

this done.

Tamerri Ater:

I guess the timing worked out better, right?

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes.

Dorrissa Griffin:

The timing worked out so perfectly!

Dorrissa Griffin:

I couldn't have planned it.

Dorrissa Griffin:

We wanted to really have something around Black History Month, but we have a second

Dorrissa Griffin:

opportunity with this coming Juneteenth to be able to talk about things that

Dorrissa Griffin:

are so important in terms of astrology and its connection to Black History.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I remember when I asked Tamerri to come on, she was

Dorrissa Griffin:

like, I would love to do this.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I'm so excited.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Let's go.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And then when I hit her with the question, she was like, pause.

Dorrissa Griffin:

You need to talk to my dad because he really can give you the tea on all of

Dorrissa Griffin:

these questions about Black history.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So I was like, yes, let's do that.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So the fact that we get to have him on and it's the special moment with

Dorrissa Griffin:

Father's Day coming up, I think this is just so So incredible.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So yes, the timing is absolutely perfect.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So I'm gonna kick it off.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I would love for you guys to tell me about your journey with astrology,

Dorrissa Griffin:

your journey with African history.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I mean, I really.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Wanted to make sure that I gave you, the opportunity to really let the world

Dorrissa Griffin:

know what it is that you are bringing here in terms of your expertise.

Dorrissa Griffin:

But I would love for you to talk more about that journey

Dorrissa Griffin:

for yourselves individually.

Tamerri Ater:

I'll go.

Tamerri Ater:

I'll start.

Tamerri Ater:

You want to start or me start?

Tamerri Ater:

Okay, I'll start because my journey really starts with him.

Tamerri Ater:

So, when I was born, I was tell this story because it's so important.

Tamerri Ater:

Baba Doye, who's one of my Dads' best friends and he's, I guess,

Tamerri Ater:

an honorary Godfather to me.

Tamerri Ater:

Ashra Kweisi is my Godfather, which we'll get into, but he did my naming ceremony

Tamerri Ater:

and my name, Tamerri, is beloved land.

Tamerri Ater:

It's an ancient name for Egypt or Kemet.

Tamerri Ater:

So Egypt is a European name, but my name was a name for Egypt or another name.

Tamerri Ater:

He got it from Dr.

Tamerri Ater:

Ben's, one of Dr.

Tamerri Ater:

Ben's books, who you mentioned in his bio.

Tamerri Ater:

But yeah, so at the naming ceremony, which I found out later,

Tamerri Ater:

Baba Doye, who conducted the ceremony, read my natal chart.

Tamerri Ater:

And it's one of those things that I knew that astrology was talked about there.

Tamerri Ater:

Like, cause I was born under the sign, the bull Taurus.

Tamerri Ater:

And I couldn't really wear red growing up, which, Baba Doya had made like

Tamerri Ater:

recommendations, like put me in yellows.

Tamerri Ater:

And, and so there was things that, we adhere to.

Tamerri Ater:

And I remember when I was in second grade.

Tamerri Ater:

My friend Milan Wiley, I always shout her out.

Tamerri Ater:

She asked me my Zodiac sign and I was like six years old and I didn't

Tamerri Ater:

really even know what that was.

Tamerri Ater:

And I asked my Dad and I remember just that kind of like opening up the world.

Tamerri Ater:

And so I've, astrology has just always been a part of my life.

Tamerri Ater:

And then when I was 13, we had a family tragedy and I lost my Mom to suicide.

Tamerri Ater:

And so that obviously really affected.

Tamerri Ater:

All of us, the entire dynamic.

Tamerri Ater:

And I think it was one of those things, and it's weird because

Tamerri Ater:

I've never told this story with him sitting right next to me.

Tamerri Ater:

but it was one of those things where we didn't really talk about it.

Tamerri Ater:

And for me, being the firstborn and internalizing everything, it really

Tamerri Ater:

came, manifested as like anxiety and depressive, depression for me,

Tamerri Ater:

which people didn't really know that.

Tamerri Ater:

And so I learned more to like achieve and like, you know, be the cheerleading

Tamerri Ater:

captain and the president of the dance team and just all the things.

Tamerri Ater:

And just, I put all of my energy into like work and achievement and people

Tamerri Ater:

know that that is not a true way that you feel you get fulfilled in life.

Tamerri Ater:

Like those accolades will not fulfill your soul.

Tamerri Ater:

So when I graduated college, I worked in an office in Beverly Hills and

Tamerri Ater:

my boyfriend at the time, like I was going through a lot of things

Tamerri Ater:

and I would share it with him.

Tamerri Ater:

Like he kind of knew what was going on, but the Astro Twins, they're

Tamerri Ater:

celebrity astrologers Ophi and Tally, their manager worked in my office and

Tamerri Ater:

they're like, Oh, they're coming in.

Tamerri Ater:

Cause they lived in New York.

Tamerri Ater:

And I was like, Oh, I love astrology.

Tamerri Ater:

And so then when they came in there, she was like, Oh, we'll

Tamerri Ater:

have them do a reading for you.

Tamerri Ater:

They looked at me and they they were like, you're either a Taurus

Tamerri Ater:

or a Scorpio and I'm a Taurus sun, but I have a Scorpio rising.

Tamerri Ater:

And I like, I was like, okay, how did they do that?

Tamerri Ater:

Cause this was not even before, like, this was before they even

Tamerri Ater:

got to the, to the reading.

Tamerri Ater:

So anyway, I, at that point I really became obsessed.

Tamerri Ater:

Like, like my first books that I got, I think from the Grove, the

Tamerri Ater:

Barnes and Nobles, probably when I was with him, cover to cover.

Tamerri Ater:

I started reading all these books on like how to actually read natal charts.

Tamerri Ater:

and it was a hobby.

Tamerri Ater:

So I was like, just got on my friend's birth times.

Tamerri Ater:

And so this was 2005.

Tamerri Ater:

So quite a while, a while ago.

Tamerri Ater:

And after a while, my Capricorn boyfriend was like, well, you

Tamerri Ater:

should start getting paid if you're going to be doing this for people.

Tamerri Ater:

And I didn't think anybody would pay for astrology, which is crazy now

Tamerri Ater:

at the time that we were living in.

Tamerri Ater:

And I was like, no, so it took me quite a while to, to actually,

Tamerri Ater:

say, well, I'm actually going to get paid for my services.

Tamerri Ater:

So that was, you know, I was even doing readings for coworkers cause

Tamerri Ater:

I was working in beauty and product development for different brands.

Tamerri Ater:

And in 2015.

Tamerri Ater:

actually launched my business, like with the website that my

Tamerri Ater:

Scorpio boyfriend designed for me.

Tamerri Ater:

And I, uh, you know, my first clients were really like my

Tamerri Ater:

coworkers, like people that I knew.

Tamerri Ater:

And so organically it just started to kind of grow and by word of mouth.

Tamerri Ater:

And I started doing collaborations with like, Beauty brands, because

Tamerri Ater:

I was already in that space.

Tamerri Ater:

So people would have like launch parties and I would do like readings there.

Tamerri Ater:

And so it became a part of me where I just started including it in my portfolio.

Tamerri Ater:

Cause I'm like, well, I'm just going to show up authentically as myself.

Tamerri Ater:

And when I look at my natal chart and the placements that I have, Taurus sun,

Tamerri Ater:

Scorpio rising, I have Mars, Saturn, Pluto and Scorpio Rising, all that water depth

Tamerri Ater:

energy opposing this Taurus, which is really about material goods and Mercury

Tamerri Ater:

and Taurus, and I have an Aquarius moon.

Tamerri Ater:

So it's like incorporating the physical love for beauty and aesthetics with

Tamerri Ater:

the more spiritual deeper work.

Tamerri Ater:

So I was able to kind of learn how to live my chart.

Tamerri Ater:

But it was like a long process.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, this has been almost a 20 year journey for me at this point,

Tamerri Ater:

but it really started with my Dad and, his connection to, African

Tamerri Ater:

spirituality and history and it all kind of organically happened.

Tamerri Ater:

I didn't plan any of it.

Tamerri Ater:

It just was written in the stars, I guess.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes, absolutely.

Mathu Ater:

I have to begin at the beginning.

Mathu Ater:

And Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Yosef, Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan was the guy that taught me about

Mathu Ater:

ancient Kemet, taught Tamerri Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

And so,

Mathu Ater:

one of the things that struck me about Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben, when I first heard him say, "We came from the beginning of the

Mathu Ater:

Nile, where God Hapi dwells at the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon."

Mathu Ater:

I said, wow, that's, that's profound.

Mathu Ater:

So, I was a student of architecture and I was taking geology.

Mathu Ater:

And I began to find out about the Great Rift Valley in Central Africa.

Mathu Ater:

It's a huge rift with two major mountain ranges on either side of it.

Mathu Ater:

Surrounding a lake called, we call it Victoria today, but they call it Mwanza

Mathu Ater:

was the lake that they actually called it.

Mathu Ater:

And so, these two mountain ranges have the tallest mountains in Africa.

Mathu Ater:

19, 000 for Kilimanjaro.

Mathu Ater:

Over 17, 000 for Rwenzori on the opposite side.

Mathu Ater:

So, there are mountain ranges on both sides of the lake.

Mathu Ater:

And so, when I found out through Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben that the ancient Kemetu or Egyptians said, We came

Mathu Ater:

from the beginning of the now.

Mathu Ater:

I had to look into that with more detail.

Mathu Ater:

I'd done architecture.

Mathu Ater:

I worked on hillside houses, designed hillside houses.

Mathu Ater:

And so I was really attuned to the idea of topography.

Mathu Ater:

So people look at Africa at a map.

Mathu Ater:

They don't realize anything about the topography, the terrain of Africa.

Mathu Ater:

Then you see Africa.

Mathu Ater:

It's a big place.

Mathu Ater:

But when you look at the topography, that's very important.

Mathu Ater:

So that's one of the things that I I focus on because of my architectural background.

Mathu Ater:

Whenever I look at a map, I want to know about the topography, topographic

Mathu Ater:

features in the map, in the map.

Mathu Ater:

And so what I found out was that when you leave Cairo in Egypt, which is right at

Mathu Ater:

the Mediterranean, and you go up to now, you have to go up, not down, you go up.

Mathu Ater:

And as you go up, up, up, you get to one point in the South Sudan

Mathu Ater:

where there's a very steep rise.

Mathu Ater:

all the way up and it takes you directly to the equator.

Mathu Ater:

And Africa is divided in half.

Mathu Ater:

It's four points really.

Mathu Ater:

North, East, West, and South divides Africa.

Mathu Ater:

So, when you get to that point,

Mathu Ater:

that is the point.

Mathu Ater:

This is very important to you all who study astrology.

Mathu Ater:

At the equator, when you leave the Mediterranean, the most dominant

Mathu Ater:

feature in the skies is the North Star.

Mathu Ater:

And as you go up the Nile, when you get to the equator, as soon

Mathu Ater:

as you cross the equator, the North Star disappears from sight.

Mathu Ater:

And there's a whole new other topic of stars on the other side of the equator.

Mathu Ater:

But from the equator down to the Mediterranean, the

Mathu Ater:

ruling is the North Star.

Mathu Ater:

And the North Star

Mathu Ater:

is the goddess Isis.

Mathu Ater:

And so, one of the things they called and this is where this

Mathu Ater:

is where astrology starts.

Mathu Ater:

Julius Caesar had a son by Cleopatra.

Mathu Ater:

Cleopatra was the last queen of the Ptolemy dynasty, which

Mathu Ater:

is a Greco Roman dynasty.

Mathu Ater:

And so, she was the last queen.

Mathu Ater:

And she had a son by Julius Caesar.

Mathu Ater:

And eventually Caesar was assassinated.

Mathu Ater:

And he wasn't the ruler for very long.

Mathu Ater:

And the next king or ruler was a guy called Augustus.

Mathu Ater:

Augustus Caesar.

Mathu Ater:

He became the ruler.

Mathu Ater:

And under Augustus, he had a guy named Marcus uh, Apollio.

Mathu Ater:

Uh, um, his architect

Mathu Ater:

for Augustus was the same architect for Julius Caesar.

Mathu Ater:

And he wrote a book called the Ten Books on Architecture.

Mathu Ater:

And that book became the first book Europe ever had on architecture.

Mathu Ater:

And it was based upon what they had learned in Kemet, in Egypt.

Mathu Ater:

The Ptolemies were the dynasty there and Cleopatra was the very last Ptolemy king.

Mathu Ater:

And so it was under Sosogenes.

Mathu Ater:

He was a priest who would Augustus and Cleopatra that introduced astrology as

Mathu Ater:

we know it today to the Western world.

Mathu Ater:

And the Egyptians, or the Kemetu, have founded two major sites.

Mathu Ater:

One place called Edfu, and the other place called Dendera.

Mathu Ater:

Dendera was devoted to the mother of all mother goddesses, Het-Heru Hathor.

Mathu Ater:

And so Ha ha ha.

Tamerri Ater:

Product named after Hathor.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah, that's right.

Mathu Ater:

It's named after her.

Mathu Ater:

She was a mother of mothers.

Mathu Ater:

She was a mother of Isis, before Isis.

Mathu Ater:

And then Heru, Horus.

Mathu Ater:

Edfu was devoted to Heru.

Mathu Ater:

The Temple of Horus at Edfu.

Mathu Ater:

Those are the first two sites that these Africans founded when they came down

Mathu Ater:

from the equator from Central Africa.

Mathu Ater:

And they got to the border of what we call Nubia in Egypt today.

Mathu Ater:

They began to build the first sites for Edfu and Dendera were the

Mathu Ater:

first two sites that they built.

Mathu Ater:

And they went on down to now until they got to Memphis called Men-nefer.

Mathu Ater:

When they got to Men-nefer, that's when they began to establish the

Mathu Ater:

civilization we call Egypt today.

Mathu Ater:

And so, there's a man named Imhotep . Everybody listening to this or any

Mathu Ater:

other podcast, any, should know Imhotep . Imhotep means he who comes in peace.

Mathu Ater:

He was the first great recorded Murket.

Mathu Ater:

That's what they called the architects, the Murket.

Mathu Ater:

M U R K E T.

Mathu Ater:

The Murket, Imhotep was a father of architects, really.

Mathu Ater:

He had a father too, but we don't know much about his dad, but we know about

Mathu Ater:

Imhotep because she's been to his site.

Mathu Ater:

And she took a picture standing in front of his pyramid.

Mathu Ater:

And that was the first pyramid built in Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

And what he did is he took a series of tombs called mustaba, flat tombs, and

Mathu Ater:

he stacked one on top of the other.

Mathu Ater:

And he experimented some more and stacked some more on top of it.

Mathu Ater:

Until he got the first pyramid in Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

And it set the precedent for all the pyramids that were later built.

Mathu Ater:

Now, we don't have time to go into all of that.

Mathu Ater:

So, I just wanted to make sure that I touched on that because This is where

Mathu Ater:

we had the beginning of astronomy.

Mathu Ater:

Because eventually the Greeks would come in.

Mathu Ater:

Everybody wanted a piece of Kemet, Egypt.

Mathu Ater:

They all wanted a piece of it.

Mathu Ater:

It was the most learned people.

Mathu Ater:

These black, they call them the black people.

Mathu Ater:

That's what they call them.

Mathu Ater:

The god Heru.

Mathu Ater:

Min Heru, look, he's on the back of my chain.

Mathu Ater:

He has an erect phallic.

Mathu Ater:

He was jet black.

Mathu Ater:

Look it up.

Mathu Ater:

Don't believe anything I say.

Mathu Ater:

Min Heru was jet black.

Mathu Ater:

And he was from the South Sudan and from the South.

Mathu Ater:

And he became the symbol of the kingship.

Mathu Ater:

So every king that became the king, Ramesses the Great, Thutmoses, Ramoses.

Mathu Ater:

All these kings became kings of Kemet...

Mathu Ater:

Queen Hatshepsut.

Mathu Ater:

They all had a ceremony where they had to go before Min as the ruler

Mathu Ater:

and the very symbol of the kingship.

Mathu Ater:

Min is a very symbol of the kingship.

Mathu Ater:

And so this is what Europeans have frightfully decided to

Mathu Ater:

keep from us and hide it as a secret, but Min was jet black.

Mathu Ater:

All you gotta do is Google Min, and you'll see he's black.

Mathu Ater:

Even white folks got him as black in Google and so forth.

Mathu Ater:

So this is the beginning of astronomy begins with Cleopatra.

Mathu Ater:

It started with Julius Caesar.

Mathu Ater:

He was the first one to adopt the Kemetic or Egyptian calendar.

Mathu Ater:

and he, it he was assassinated.

Mathu Ater:

And then Augustus came along afterwards, continued that project,

Mathu Ater:

and he's the one who introduced the Kemetic Egyptian calendar with

Mathu Ater:

Sosigenes, into the Western world.

Mathu Ater:

So through Greece, the Ptolemies, they got the calendar.

Mathu Ater:

And so the calendar that we use today was taken all over the

Mathu Ater:

Mediterranean by the Romans.

Mathu Ater:

And so they had a ceremony called the Navagium Isidis.

Mathu Ater:

It means the launching of the ships of Isis.

Mathu Ater:

And so everywhere the Romans, every March 5th,

Mathu Ater:

The Romans would go down to the seashore at the Mediterranean and they'd inaugurate

Mathu Ater:

the navigational period and the one that led the helm of the ship was Asset.

Mathu Ater:

And so,

Mathu Ater:

the Navagium Isidis was the launching of the ships of Isis.

Mathu Ater:

And that was a whole Roman navigational period throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

Mathu Ater:

And one of the places they ended up in was a place called

Mathu Ater:

Londonium, which we call London.

Mathu Ater:

The other one, of course, most important, one of the most noted one is Paris.

Mathu Ater:

And so the Navagium Isidis covered that whole area from

Mathu Ater:

France all the way to England.

Mathu Ater:

And so the Romans built basilicas everywhere they traveled.

Mathu Ater:

They set up basilicas everywhere they went.

Mathu Ater:

And those basilicas were the architectural design and innovation that began with

Mathu Ater:

Imhotep . She's been to a site.

Mathu Ater:

Imhotep , 5, 000 years ago.

Mathu Ater:

That's 3, 000 years BCE before the current era.

Mathu Ater:

Imhotep designed the world's first basilica at Saqqara.

Mathu Ater:

And that basilica set the example for all the basilicas that you

Mathu Ater:

see in the world especially so

Mathu Ater:

with St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's Basilica.

Mathu Ater:

St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's Basilica, and we have a drawing submitted that I show the old St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's, the present day St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's.

Mathu Ater:

And at the bottom, I have Karnak, which is Hatshepsut called

Mathu Ater:

Waret, the Temple of Waret.

Mathu Ater:

That was the first basilica design in that, in, in terms of having

Mathu Ater:

an influence on the Western world.

Mathu Ater:

And so the Romans took that.

Mathu Ater:

When they closed, when they shut down all the Kemetic Egyptian temples,

Mathu Ater:

drove the priests into isolation, slavery, and all the rest of the

Mathu Ater:

things they did to the priests.

Mathu Ater:

They took the design of Karnak, Hatshepsut, Waret.

Mathu Ater:

And that became the fountain and the very figure and the foundation for St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's Basilica.

Mathu Ater:

Nobody in the world that I know of has put together a presentation like

Mathu Ater:

the one you're seeing right now.

Mathu Ater:

Where I have old St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's, the present St.

Mathu Ater:

Peter's, and Karnak one after the other.

Mathu Ater:

And I show the atrium, which is the open court.

Mathu Ater:

You walk in.

Mathu Ater:

She's been in that open court.

Mathu Ater:

You walk into the first court at Karnak.

Mathu Ater:

It's open and there's a big statue of a column done by her brother named Taharqa

Mathu Ater:

right there in the middle of that court.

Mathu Ater:

And off to the right, there's a guy named Ramesses III in that court, and

Mathu Ater:

I took a picture of myself, and it's in this book, of me standing in front

Mathu Ater:

of that temple done by Ramesses III.

Mathu Ater:

When I took that picture in 1985, Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan declared that this man was a black King.

Mathu Ater:

He was a black king, Ramesses III.

Mathu Ater:

He over and over again said that.

Mathu Ater:

All these years later, the DNA study has come out and it shows that

Mathu Ater:

Ramesses, not only Ramesses, but most of the kings and queens of the 18th

Mathu Ater:

Dynasty, their DNA can be traced back

Mathu Ater:

to Uganda.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah, yeah.

Mathu Ater:

What they used to call when I was a kid, Deepest, Darkest, Blackest Africa.

Mathu Ater:

That's where, Rameses III, King Tutankhamen, all the kings of

Mathu Ater:

the 18th and 19th Dynasties, including Rameses the Great.

Mathu Ater:

Their DNA can be traced all the way back to the equator and beyond that.

Mathu Ater:

But they've spent all this time lying to us, writing books,

Mathu Ater:

Textbooks, misinforming our people about the blackness of the K'metu.

Mathu Ater:

K'met means black.

Mathu Ater:

That's what it means.

Mathu Ater:

It means black.

Mathu Ater:

And so the K'metu means black people.

Mathu Ater:

You have figures of a man and a woman behind the figure of K'met,

Mathu Ater:

which is the black land symbol.

Mathu Ater:

And you have a man and a woman behind it.

Mathu Ater:

Those two symbolize in plural.

Mathu Ater:

commit to the Black people.

Mathu Ater:

That's what it represents.

Mathu Ater:

So astrology

Dorrissa Griffin:

That's amazing.

Mathu Ater:

starts with the commit to the Black people with Julius

Mathu Ater:

Caesar, Cleopatra, and Sosogenes, the priest, who introduced that

Mathu Ater:

calendar to the Western world.

Dorrissa Griffin:

That's wow.

Dorrissa Griffin:

That's amazing.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Go ahead.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Absolutely.

Tamerri Ater:

I was going to say also, that's astrology

Tamerri Ater:

as we use it today, right?

Tamerri Ater:

Like,

Tamerri Ater:

Roman and Greek gods.

Tamerri Ater:

But if we think about what astrology is, which is really using the

Tamerri Ater:

stars as a guide to either foretell something or to get information about

Tamerri Ater:

yourself, all the temples in Kemet, are aligned to positions of the stars.

Tamerri Ater:

It's all there.

Tamerri Ater:

So it's really within their civilization.

Tamerri Ater:

And this was prior to that.

Tamerri Ater:

So if we really want to go back, there's that right before we started

Tamerri Ater:

actually reading what a natal chart.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah, if you look at the

Tamerri Ater:

Karnak during the winter,

Mathu Ater:

if you look at the winter solstice, yes.

Mathu Ater:

Karnak and Queen Hatshepsut's temple, On exact alignment.

Mathu Ater:

Now one is on one side of the Nile.

Mathu Ater:

The other is on the other side of the Nile.

Mathu Ater:

And so the western side of the Nile is a place of burials.

Mathu Ater:

That's where they bury their dead.

Mathu Ater:

That side of the now is symbolic not of Kemet, of Egypt itself.

Mathu Ater:

That side of the now is symbolic of what we call the land of pun.

Mathu Ater:

The land of Punt was the ancestral lands to the south.

Mathu Ater:

And so there's been a lot of dispute about the actual location, but now

Mathu Ater:

I know that the actual beginning of that point is at the equator.

Mathu Ater:

And that's what they call it.

Mathu Ater:

Egyptians called committed to call the Great Horizon.

Mathu Ater:

The Great Horizon is the equator.

Mathu Ater:

That's called the Great Horizon.

Mathu Ater:

And so, Akhet.

Mathu Ater:

Akhet is the symbol of the equator when the sun is at the equator during the

Mathu Ater:

spring and summer, before the summer.

Mathu Ater:

Now, Peret is my sign.

Mathu Ater:

I'm a Libra.

Mathu Ater:

It's when the scales are equal and balanced again.

Mathu Ater:

When the sun is back to the equator and then it's balanced

Mathu Ater:

again, that's we have Peret.

Mathu Ater:

That's where, that's the period of judgment.

Mathu Ater:

That's the period of darkness.

Mathu Ater:

All the things that take place during that particular time are the opposite of what

Mathu Ater:

takes place during the spring equinox.

Mathu Ater:

And so, I've got symbols of all this stuff, The Dendera ceiling, they have

Mathu Ater:

a picture of Het-Heru and they have her at the, sitting at the balances

Mathu Ater:

where the, goddess Nut that's draped over, and they got two mountains.

Mathu Ater:

This is in the temple of Dendera

Mathu Ater:

. Tamerri Ater: It's on my wall.

Mathu Ater:

He brought it, he gave me that.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah.

Mathu Ater:

From Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah.

Mathu Ater:

And so right there, right there you have, two mountains.

Mathu Ater:

That was a very ancient way.

Mathu Ater:

You gotta understand that this, we're talking about people doing

Mathu Ater:

stuff thousands of years ago.

Mathu Ater:

That was the way they were able to illustrate.

Mathu Ater:

I was an illustrator, delineator for Boeing, for McDonnell Douglas.

Mathu Ater:

I did it as a profession.

Mathu Ater:

outside of what I was doing in terms of architecture,

Mathu Ater:

that was another whole field.

Mathu Ater:

And so this whole idea of, how they illustrate it was a very primitive

Mathu Ater:

form, but it's very accurate.

Mathu Ater:

So that's what I've been able to do in my books if I ever get these books out.

Mathu Ater:

It showed that what they had illustrated was truly accurate.

Mathu Ater:

And that right there at the Great Rift Valley around what we call

Mathu Ater:

Lake Victoria in Yonza, where that lake is, there are two big mountain

Mathu Ater:

ranges on both sides of the lake.

Mathu Ater:

And that's what they were trying to illustrate at the Temple of Het-Herut.

Mathu Ater:

Hathor Het-Heru.

Mathu Ater:

She comes from God's land.

Mathu Ater:

They tell you that in all the texts.

Mathu Ater:

Heru, he begins at the equator.

Mathu Ater:

That's where the balance of day and night takes place at the equator.

Mathu Ater:

So, all the things that they have illustrated and delineated

Mathu Ater:

architecturally, philosophically, and scientifically, all align.

Mathu Ater:

Like those buildings, Queen Hatshepsut's building and Karnak are exact

Mathu Ater:

alignment at the Winter Solstice.

Mathu Ater:

They're in exact alignment with each other.

Mathu Ater:

And they didn't celebrate Christmas, but that was the Winter

Mathu Ater:

Solstice they were celebrating.

Mathu Ater:

That was before Christmas.

Mathu Ater:

I don't want to take your

Mathu Ater:

time.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Listen, when wisdom is being dropped, when

Dorrissa Griffin:

wisdom is being shared, you learn to just sit and soak it up.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I just appreciate you taking us through that whole journey,

Dorrissa Griffin:

Mathu, and really helping us to understand, like, even just the name

Dorrissa Griffin:

Tamerri and what that symbolizes.

Dorrissa Griffin:

For the study of history, history, and particularly the study of astrology, how

Dorrissa Griffin:

it's tied together, the whole point about the architecture of taking us on a journey

Dorrissa Griffin:

from the Mediterranean all the way down to the Nile to the equator and helping us to

Dorrissa Griffin:

understand that at the equatorial point, that's where we have the North Star.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And that's where we're able to start the journey of mapping out the sky

Dorrissa Griffin:

and That connection with astronomy and astrology and how that whole history

Dorrissa Griffin:

is encapsulated in the journey of the Kemetic people is encapsulated

Dorrissa Griffin:

in how we understand astrology today.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Like that was a beautiful way for people to be able to get a

Dorrissa Griffin:

full picture of what that means.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I love having the 50, 000 foot level and then we can, dive a little bit deeper

Dorrissa Griffin:

into more of the details as we go along, but just understanding like your journey

Dorrissa Griffin:

and clearly your passion for this, Mr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ater, and how important it is for us.

Dorrissa Griffin:

as people who unfortunately don't have as thorough of a connection with our

Dorrissa Griffin:

history as African Americans in, in this country, being able to have people

Dorrissa Griffin:

who have that command of the subject and that experience and who've actually

Dorrissa Griffin:

been to the continent and been to these places and have firsthand accounts.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's gold, quite frankly.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so I'm thrilled to be able to hear you speak about that.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I love that you gave us

Mathu Ater:

In fact, let me, let me say how I got my name.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes.

Mathu Ater:

I got my name in 1983.

Mathu Ater:

Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben.

Mathu Ater:

Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben is a Betta Israel.

Mathu Ater:

He's an Ethiopian Jew.

Mathu Ater:

He was born in Ethiopia as a Jew, as an Ethiopian Jew.

Mathu Ater:

And his people lived up around the area in, around Lake Tana.

Mathu Ater:

That's way up in the mountains of Ethiopia.

Mathu Ater:

That's where his people were from, the Betta Israel.

Mathu Ater:

And then in 1983, he went back there with, her godfather, Asra Kweiss.

Mathu Ater:

And he came back.

Mathu Ater:

to L.

Mathu Ater:

A., and I didn't know it at the time, but we were at a Kwanzaa

Mathu Ater:

gathering at his house in December.

Mathu Ater:

Now he wasn't doing it, probably August or something like that.

Mathu Ater:

But December, when he walks up to me, when we're at Kwanzaa, everybody's

Mathu Ater:

sitting around having a good time.

Mathu Ater:

And he walks over, he says, Mathu.

Mathu Ater:

I said, what's that?

Mathu Ater:

He said, that's your name, brother.

Mathu Ater:

He said, this priest sent that name to you from the highlands

Mathu Ater:

of Ethiopia around Lake Tana.

Mathu Ater:

And I had another brother with me.

Mathu Ater:

I was showing him around L.

Mathu Ater:

A.

Mathu Ater:

doing Kwanzaa.

Mathu Ater:

And one of my cousins, Doreena Pleasant, she was, she was on crack.

Mathu Ater:

My sister was on crack.

Mathu Ater:

And she remembered, I hadn't seen her probably about two years, she

Mathu Ater:

remembered I used to always talk about Africa when I was in high school.

Mathu Ater:

And I get a call from her out of nowhere.

Mathu Ater:

She says, There's a brother from Africa.

Mathu Ater:

She said, Africa, that I'd like for you to meet.

Mathu Ater:

And she gave me his phone number.

Mathu Ater:

I said, well, this is weird.

Mathu Ater:

I haven't heard from her in like a couple of years.

Mathu Ater:

So I called him up.

Mathu Ater:

And the brother's name was Awan Rizik Ater.

Mathu Ater:

And the brother had been in the United States.

Mathu Ater:

He worked for Chevron Oil.

Mathu Ater:

And he was from the South Sudan.

Mathu Ater:

And I was showing him around doing Kwanzaa.

Mathu Ater:

So when I got to Kweisi's house.

Mathu Ater:

That's where Kweisi's house, where Godfather's house.

Mathu Ater:

When he said, Mathu.

Mathu Ater:

Awan Rizik Ater, he had so much joy from me showing him around Kwanzaa.

Mathu Ater:

He said, I would like for you to have my name, Ater.

Mathu Ater:

Ater means high in stature.

Mathu Ater:

Mathu means worthy of the throne.

Mathu Ater:

So high in stature and worthy of the throne were the two names I received on

Mathu Ater:

the day I wasn't even looking for a name.

Mathu Ater:

They both came to me on the same day and that's how she got her name,

Dorrissa Griffin:

That's beautiful.

Mathu Ater:

That's where it came from.

Tamerri Ater:

South Sudan, near Abu Simbel.

Mathu Ater:

South Sudan.

Mathu Ater:

It's even further than that.

Mathu Ater:

It's all the way to where the Nile flows out of Uganda and empties

Mathu Ater:

into an area called the Sioux.

Mathu Ater:

It's a large, it's a large area for reeds, papyruses, and lotus flowers.

Mathu Ater:

So it's a huge, huge swamp, the whole area.

Mathu Ater:

It's created by the now overflowing from Uganda, and it splashes down

Mathu Ater:

in the area called the Sioux.

Mathu Ater:

I had an illustration, and we'll be able to show you that illustration, where the

Mathu Ater:

Temple of Karnak was really built as a model of the trip from the lower Egypt,

Mathu Ater:

And what they did is they stepped the floor of the temple up and they

Mathu Ater:

stepped the ceiling of the temple down.

Mathu Ater:

So when you get to the end of the temple architecturally, you reach the place

Mathu Ater:

where heaven and earth comes together.

Mathu Ater:

The lowest point of the ceiling and the highest point of the floor or together

Mathu Ater:

in the place called the Curry Cha Chamber, which is the Holy of Holies,

Mathu Ater:

the most sacred place in the temple.

Mathu Ater:

The Holy of Holies is a place where the ceiling of the temple

Mathu Ater:

and the floor are closest together.

Mathu Ater:

And when you get to that point, you'll reach what we call the

Mathu Ater:

Atlanta Punt, what we call Uganda.

Mathu Ater:

Tanzania, Central, Des, Central, Deepest, Darkest, Blackest, Africa.

Mathu Ater:

That's what that temple Karnak represented.

Mathu Ater:

The trip.

Mathu Ater:

And that's what Hatshepsut, Queen Hatshepsut called it.

Mathu Ater:

She called it the Temple of Creation is what that temple was representative of.

Mathu Ater:

And there was a more appropriate fact, the temple

Mathu Ater:

The Temple of Notre Dame, it comes right out of, out of that whole scenario of the

Mathu Ater:

temples of Karnak and the Pope's temples.

Mathu Ater:

I wanted to read this because this kind of speaks value.

Mathu Ater:

It's a book I've been writing called Our Lady, the House of Isis.

Mathu Ater:

I'm just now getting back to it, but this is a quote I have.

Mathu Ater:

"Her own name is considered by many scholars to mean 'throne', while

Mathu Ater:

to others when combined with Ma'at, it signifies 'ancient wisdom'.

Mathu Ater:

Every living being is a drop of her blood, to be protected under her wings

Mathu Ater:

in death and lovingly restored to life.

Mathu Ater:

Though the greatest danger to the church, she has never entirely lost her

Mathu Ater:

popularity and prestige in the west.

Mathu Ater:

Diana is the queen of the night for witches.

Mathu Ater:

Isis for Masons and Rosicrucians.

Mathu Ater:

Of the great Black Virgin cities of France,

Mathu Ater:

Lyons is devoted to Cybele, the patronist of Marseilles is Artemis.

Mathu Ater:

Toulouse of Pallas Athene in its very essence is the Queen of the

Mathu Ater:

South, home of the Gnostic wisdom school in the sixth century.

Mathu Ater:

It was left to Paris, Par es, Par es sut, from Paris, eventually the greatest

Mathu Ater:

of them all, to be selected by Isis,

Mathu Ater:

the greatest of the goddesses, as her sacred capital."

Mathu Ater:

Quote from Ean Begg who wrote a book called The Cult of the Black Virgin.

Dorrissa Griffin:

that's

Mathu Ater:

where your astrology starts.

Mathu Ater:

Notre Dame has a, has a, has a window right here.

Mathu Ater:

Astrological window.

Mathu Ater:

With Jesus and Mary standing right in front of it, symbolizing Isis and Horus

Mathu Ater:

going all the way back to antiquity.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes, I think that's a beautiful transition because I wanted to

Dorrissa Griffin:

talk about the connection, more deeply talk about the connection with Africa and

Dorrissa Griffin:

with astrology and even the conversation around, how that ties into many of the

Dorrissa Griffin:

things that we know as religion today.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So much of, that is based on, these these symbols, these themes, these deities

Dorrissa Griffin:

from African, ancient African culture.

Dorrissa Griffin:

You mentioned Heru and you mentioned Isis or I think it's Aset,

Dorrissa Griffin:

that's another name.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes, Aset.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So I think.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Helping people to understand how some of these things have evolved to

Dorrissa Griffin:

present day, but really understanding their origin more, more deeply.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So you took us to Paris, you took us to Notre Dame, the cathedral of Notre

Dorrissa Griffin:

Dame, and you pointed out one, the, the steeple or the, or the temple

Dorrissa Griffin:

itself of Notre Dame or the cathedral.

Dorrissa Griffin:

The church in Notre Dame, there is a symbol of Heru or Isis as some people

Dorrissa Griffin:

call and Asset, excuse me also Asset and Heru the son the little baby.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So can you go more into that and help people understand kind of like

Dorrissa Griffin:

that connection and that foundation?

Mathu Ater:

More so than any other people.

Mathu Ater:

The sun is the most prevailing element that we know of because

Mathu Ater:

in Africa, the sun is everything.

Mathu Ater:

And so, the king of Kemet was called the Son of the Sun.

Mathu Ater:

That was his name, the Son of the Sun.

Mathu Ater:

And Heru, of course, Heru is the Sun.

Mathu Ater:

And so, when you look at Min Kamutef, the black symbol of the king, King Min,

Mathu Ater:

Min Kamutef was Heru, was a form of Heru.

Mathu Ater:

He was a form of Heru, the Sun God, as we call it, in

Mathu Ater:

contemporary terms, the Sun God.

Mathu Ater:

And so, when Hathor, Het-Heru, was the house of Horus.

Mathu Ater:

So you see the symbol of Het-Heru.

Mathu Ater:

And the house where the sun is born, they saw it as the equator,

Mathu Ater:

where the great horizon was, where the sun balanced out day and night,

Mathu Ater:

equal day and equal, equal night.

Mathu Ater:

That was the great balance at the equator.

Mathu Ater:

And so her room was everything in terms of that.

Mathu Ater:

That's why Akhenaten took the name Akhet as his name.

Mathu Ater:

Akhet, again, that's the sun.

Mathu Ater:

And so he kind of simplified it a bit.

Mathu Ater:

He got a lot of people pissed off about it, but nevertheless, his stance

Mathu Ater:

on morality and that kind of thing was very instrumental in developing

Mathu Ater:

contemporary thinking about religion.

Mathu Ater:

I've lectured on these subjects many, many times over many, many years.

Mathu Ater:

And so we'll have to come back and do something later.

Tamerri Ater:

What is it?

Tamerri Ater:

Uh one.

Tamerri Ater:

The one lecture is Africa, the mother of the Christian Church or

Tamerri Ater:

something.

Mathu Ater:

The Egyptian

Mathu Ater:

temple.

Tamerri Ater:

Egyptian temple.

Mathu Ater:

The Egyptian temple.

Mathu Ater:

Mother of the Christian Church.

Tamerri Ater:

You can find that on YouTube.

Mathu Ater:

I'm sure it's an old lecture, but it's still good.

Tamerri Ater:

Right.

Mathu Ater:

Things have advanced, people have advanced, people

Mathu Ater:

have learned more over the years.

Mathu Ater:

And so as time goes on, it's important to replenish those

Mathu Ater:

things and do that kind of thing.

Mathu Ater:

So I just, Those, all those lectures somebody else put them on.

Mathu Ater:

I didn't put any of those lectures on YouTube.

Mathu Ater:

That's a compliment to me from other people that enjoyed the works I was doing.

Mathu Ater:

So all those lectures Imhotep, a lecture on Imhotep on Egyptian Temple.

Mathu Ater:

I lectured on Mexico.

Mathu Ater:

I traveled all over Mexico.

Mathu Ater:

The Pyramids and Temples of Mexico and identify the similarities and

Mathu Ater:

the proximity of things in Mexico in association with the Nile Valley.

Mathu Ater:

It took me years.

Mathu Ater:

It took me about seven trips to Mexico to do that.

Mathu Ater:

I had a tour in 2003.

Mathu Ater:

I had a group go to Mexico to see the Pyramid of the Sun

Mathu Ater:

and the Pyramid of the Moon.

Mathu Ater:

The alignment of the Moon Pyramid

Mathu Ater:

perpendicular to the Sun Pyramid.

Mathu Ater:

So they have all these alignments and so forth.

Mathu Ater:

So there's a lot of similarities in ancient architecture.

Mathu Ater:

So those are the kind of things I was focused on.

Mathu Ater:

And so I'm 68 now.

Mathu Ater:

I'll be 69 this year.

Mathu Ater:

So I'm trying to make the most out of what I've got to work with now, so.

Mathu Ater:

These are, these people here, like this one here, she's gonna have to take some

Mathu Ater:

of this stuff, and go on, move on with it.

Mathu Ater:

So, that's not leaving.

Mathu Ater:

I'm leaving for them.

Mathu Ater:

My son Taharqa, my son Taharqa, same way, he's very knowledgeable.

Mathu Ater:

I once had a high, he had a teacher in middle school that came to

Mathu Ater:

see one of my lectures at a place called The Good Life on Crenshaw.

Mathu Ater:

She came in there to see that lecture and it was her mind was blown.

Mathu Ater:

She said, let me know whenever you do that lecture.

Mathu Ater:

So I ended up having my son ended up having her as a teacher.

Mathu Ater:

And we were always talking, we went out a couple times.

Mathu Ater:

And then she called me one day and said, Why your son,

Mathu Ater:

Taharqa, had to be in my class?

Mathu Ater:

Every time I say something, he corrects me.

Mathu Ater:

So this is, my son was with me when Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben ended up flying me to lecture with him in Washington, D.

Mathu Ater:

C.

Mathu Ater:

My son Taharqa was with me.

Mathu Ater:

When Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben saw my lecture on Imhotep, Dr.

Mathu Ater:

Ben was so impressed with that lecture, two months later I

Mathu Ater:

was lecturing with him in D.

Mathu Ater:

C.

Mathu Ater:

So these are things that I, like I had no control over that.

Mathu Ater:

I had no control over the names.

Mathu Ater:

These are things that just happen.

Mathu Ater:

And so if the ancestors want you to have something, you'll get it.

Dorrissa Griffin:

That's beautiful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I believe that I'm so grateful for this opportunity to learn and to share

Dorrissa Griffin:

this information with so many people.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I believe that when the ancestors are ready for you to have a lesson,

Dorrissa Griffin:

that's when it's going to show up.

Dorrissa Griffin:

That's what you'll get to learn.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so I'm just excited about this.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I really wanted to focus on like helping people understand and Just how black

Dorrissa Griffin:

astrology actually is like it's one of those things that I think so much

Dorrissa Griffin:

of what happens in society today gets divorced from its origins for so many

Dorrissa Griffin:

reasons colonialism being one of them.

Dorrissa Griffin:

White supremacy being one of them, but I think it's important whenever you

Dorrissa Griffin:

have the opportunity, especially on occasions like the subject of Juneteenth,

Dorrissa Griffin:

we know that Black history is 24 7 365, but when it's highlighted, when

Dorrissa Griffin:

it's in the It's important to make sure that we use that opportunity to

Dorrissa Griffin:

point things back to the source to the origin and apply proper recognition

Dorrissa Griffin:

and give credit where credit is due.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so I just want people to really understand like the origins of it.

Mathu Ater:

There's something I think that should be mentioned as important

Mathu Ater:

is that when they built the Greeks, No, the ies, they rebuilt a lot of

Mathu Ater:

the temples that were ruins in Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

We had massive invasions of people time after the Persians came in, excuse

Mathu Ater:

me, all kinds of people invaded Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

And so, when they built Dendera and Edfu,

Mathu Ater:

some of the things, the items from Mesopotamia, some of the astrology from

Mathu Ater:

there was integrated with the Kemetic.

Mathu Ater:

, and so that's where Dendera has the combination.

Mathu Ater:

of elements.

Mathu Ater:

Now this is very important though because there were black

Mathu Ater:

people also in Mesopotamia.

Mathu Ater:

This was long before the Babylonians.

Mathu Ater:

We had you know, we had black people there.

Mathu Ater:

And when I, when my brain gets moving so fast, man Sumerians,

Mathu Ater:

Sumer, from Sumer, Sumerians and people like that, they were black, black people.

Mathu Ater:

And so over the years what eventually came to be the astronomy of

Mathu Ater:

Mesopotamia, when time was integrated with the astronomy in Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

And so a lot of the stuff that we have today is the, the sum total of the

Mathu Ater:

two that was put together at Dendera.

Mathu Ater:

and at Edfu in particular.

Mathu Ater:

Those two sites in particular.

Mathu Ater:

I want to make sure I mention that because there are astrologers

Mathu Ater:

out here who know that.

Mathu Ater:

Who know that Dendera and the Temple of Hathor and all those temples that we

Mathu Ater:

have throughout Kemet that were rebuilt.

Mathu Ater:

They were rebuilt by Black Egyptian priests and they were built under

Mathu Ater:

the governance of the Ptolemies who were a Greek population.

Mathu Ater:

And they were there for about 300 years in Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

And so Cleopatra was the very last one.

Mathu Ater:

And she is the one that introduced, with Sosogenes, the Kemetic

Mathu Ater:

calendar into the Western world.

Mathu Ater:

That's how it got introduced there.

Mathu Ater:

So, I just wanted to make that distinction.

Tamerri Ater:

I think it's also important to mention culture in general.

Tamerri Ater:

And, like, when you look at different African civilizations, It's culture.

Tamerri Ater:

There's not a separation from the way you eat, the music you

Tamerri Ater:

listen to, your spirituality.

Tamerri Ater:

It's all a part of the culture.

Tamerri Ater:

And when you think about colonialism and the introduction of Christianity,

Tamerri Ater:

and I'm not here to rag on Christianity at all, because I know

Tamerri Ater:

there's Black people, there's so many of us, our family included.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah, most of our family are Christian.

Tamerri Ater:

That was really a deconstruction of the culture in a separation from the culture.

Tamerri Ater:

So when we think about the spirituality that we were practicing in our native

Tamerri Ater:

land, that included deities, which is a direct connection to the gods of

Tamerri Ater:

ancient Egypt, wHathor you're in Ghana or, West Africa, if you're in, Africa.

Tamerri Ater:

East Africa.

Tamerri Ater:

There, there's so many similarities between the cultures that can't be

Tamerri Ater:

ignored because it's the same continent.

Tamerri Ater:

They're very different, but they all have a similar origin.

Tamerri Ater:

And so I think a lot of it is just the, colonialism, the spread

Tamerri Ater:

of, Christianity as we know it.

Mathu Ater:

I like

Mathu Ater:

to use rap music as an example because rap was started by black folks.

Mathu Ater:

Curtis Blow and all those cats like that.

Mathu Ater:

They started rap.

Mathu Ater:

So now you got Eminem.

Mathu Ater:

You got all these different people who are rappers.

Mathu Ater:

But, the the synthesis of what we call rap today comes from a basic configuration

Mathu Ater:

that was created by Black people.

Mathu Ater:

And that goes back, that goes all the way back to soul

Mathu Ater:

music, , to New Orleans, to jazz.

Mathu Ater:

Those are all art forms that Black people used to express themselves to help

Mathu Ater:

them overcome the difficult conditions that they experienced during slavery.

Mathu Ater:

So the creativity of Black people was what emanated from the

Mathu Ater:

struggle that we had to deal with.

Mathu Ater:

And so rap is no different.

Mathu Ater:

It came out of that same need to survive from a difficult situation.

Mathu Ater:

But rap is universal.

Mathu Ater:

You got white folks in England singing rap.

Mathu Ater:

You got white people in Davenport, Iowa, all over the place doing stuff.

Mathu Ater:

But the foundation of it, just like with Kemet, because black people,

Mathu Ater:

that's where it starts, you know?

Mathu Ater:

And it's just no way to argue with that.

Mathu Ater:

And, you know, my people, look, Christianity, Christianity

Mathu Ater:

exists because Kemet existed.

Tamerri Ater:

Right.

Mathu Ater:

The churches of, of Christianity, I've shown that

Mathu Ater:

with the Vatican and the Karnak temple that starts with Kemet.

Mathu Ater:

So going to church...

Mathu Ater:

You wasn't going to church until Karnak got started.

Mathu Ater:

When, I don't know if you not, maybe not old enough to remember, but Johnny

Mathu Ater:

Carson, I used to watch The Jo today.

Mathu Ater:

I watched Jimmy Kimball.

Mathu Ater:

. When I was coming up, I watched Johnny Carson.

Mathu Ater:

Johnny Carson used to have his turban.

Mathu Ater:

He had this little skit.

Mathu Ater:

He'd have a turban on and he'd have a letter.

Mathu Ater:

And he put the letter next to his turban, and then he'll psychically decipher

Mathu Ater:

what's in the letter, that kind of thing.

Mathu Ater:

But his name, when he did that, was called the Great Karnak.

Mathu Ater:

That was what he, go look it up.

Mathu Ater:

Look up Johnny Carson and the Great Karnak, and you'll see him with that

Mathu Ater:

little envelope sticking into a turban.

Mathu Ater:

Karnak, it showed you the power of Karnak.

Mathu Ater:

That it was still prevalent, even when Johnny Carson came up with his

Mathu Ater:

He was the original talk show host.

Mathu Ater:

Merv Griffin.

Mathu Ater:

Those guys were the original talk show hosts.

Mathu Ater:

But he had Karnak with a turban and a letter showing the power and

Mathu Ater:

majesty of Karnak in his expression of being a wise man on TV when

Mathu Ater:

he's cracking jokes, you know.

Tamerri Ater:

And last point about that.

Tamerri Ater:

Astrology is so interwoven within Christianity and I think, well, there's,

Tamerri Ater:

there was a time where Christianity, where astrology no longer served.

Tamerri Ater:

That like priests were astrologers.

Tamerri Ater:

There was no separation when we're talking about the history of astrology.

Tamerri Ater:

And we're not just talking about in Kemet or Egypt, we're talking

Tamerri Ater:

about just in general in Europe.

Tamerri Ater:

And so with the spread of Christianity, if you go walk through the Vatican, if

Tamerri Ater:

you go to any, I was just in Columbia, you will see the astrological symbols.

Tamerri Ater:

all throughout churches.

Tamerri Ater:

They're there in wide open.

Tamerri Ater:

And it's so funny that those are the, some of the people that fight it the

Tamerri Ater:

most, just don't understand that it's integrated within the history of it all.

Tamerri Ater:

And it's right in front of their face when they go to church,

Tamerri Ater:

especially Catholic church.

Tamerri Ater:

So there is, I hate that there's a separation.

Tamerri Ater:

Like you don't have to, you can be Christian and And use astrology as a tool.

Tamerri Ater:

You can be Muslim.

Tamerri Ater:

You can have any type of religion.

Tamerri Ater:

It's not a religion.

Tamerri Ater:

It's a tool that is used for me personally to help navigate my

Tamerri Ater:

life and understand myself better.

Tamerri Ater:

And so I just wanted to make that point because.

Tamerri Ater:

There's always that contention that people that don't understand it.

Tamerri Ater:

It's like, well, it's interwoven in your religion.

Tamerri Ater:

You just haven't taken time to really study the history.

Tamerri Ater:

That's why history is so important.

Mathu Ater:

Some people run you out of the church and call you the devil.

Tamerri Ater:

Right.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm like, there's the four big signs right there, Taurus, Scorpio,

Tamerri Ater:

Aquarius, and Leo right in front of your face on your stained glass.

Dorrissa Griffin:

wow, that's really powerful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yeah, I think that having that understanding of how so many things

Dorrissa Griffin:

are intertwined and, we may not be aware of them, but we're still

Dorrissa Griffin:

in some ways impacted by them.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so taking the time to really understand that and having people

Dorrissa Griffin:

such as yourselves to really help us get those connections and understand

Dorrissa Griffin:

those things is really amazing.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And, we've talked a lot about How astrology is connected

Dorrissa Griffin:

to things in the present day.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I would love to take a step back and like see how astrology was used

Dorrissa Griffin:

in those times in ancient Africa.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Like, was it more so, what we have like today where it's more of this

Dorrissa Griffin:

introspective kind of focus and It is driven by a need to necessarily

Dorrissa Griffin:

understand oneself, or did it have more of an agricultural focus

Dorrissa Griffin:

or just a focus on just really understanding the heavens in general?

Tamerri Ater:

A lot was mundane astrology, which is like the study of everyday,

Tamerri Ater:

just understanding life around you.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm just speaking generally, but I'll look and go.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah, well, building, building, astrology,

Mathu Ater:

all those are related, man.

Mathu Ater:

Agriculture is all related.

Tamerri Ater:

The rising

Tamerri Ater:

of Sirius, when the flooding of the Nile happened.

Tamerri Ater:

Um, so it was a lot to understand.

Tamerri Ater:

It was the topographical, geographical, astrological, and

Tamerri Ater:

topographical, geographical, astrological, astronomical.

Tamerri Ater:

No, as, what am I missing?

Tamerri Ater:

Geographical.

Tamerri Ater:

Geographical.

Mathu Ater:

Lemme get myself.

Mathu Ater:

Geographical geological.

Mathu Ater:

Geological topographical.

Mathu Ater:

And astronomical.

Tamerri Ater:

Astronomical

Mathu Ater:

topography is the terrain.

Mathu Ater:

And so the geology is actually spread and the lay of the land.

Mathu Ater:

And so the astronomical is the most important part in terms of

Mathu Ater:

where we sit in this universe.

Mathu Ater:

And so in Kemet, they knew about Mars, and they knew about planets, and they

Mathu Ater:

had all that mapped out in tombs.

Mathu Ater:

You know, there were no Europeans with no

Mathu Ater:

knowledge like that when that

Mathu Ater:

happened.

Mathu Ater:

None.

Tamerri Ater:

The journey of Ra.

Tamerri Ater:

So that's like such an important, the reason they believe the sun rose

Tamerri Ater:

and set was because he was going on this journey to fight Apophis,

Tamerri Ater:

or Apeth, to fight the serpent.

Tamerri Ater:

And because he was victorious, we had sunlight every day.

Tamerri Ater:

So that alone is the

Mathu Ater:

place that took place.

Mathu Ater:

That's what the horizon, that's where it took place.

Mathu Ater:

The battle between Horus and Set.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Wow.

Mathu Ater:

these are the things I've covered for years, man.

Mathu Ater:

I got books I've written, but I just haven't been able to get them out.

Mathu Ater:

Hopefully now I'll be able to get them out.

Mathu Ater:

I got my first one coming out.

Tamerri Ater:

I think the main difference is it was just a part of survival.

Tamerri Ater:

Now we use it as a separate tool.

Tamerri Ater:

Like

Tamerri Ater:

more psychological, but when you're in a minute, a time where there's no

Tamerri Ater:

electricity and you can see the stars and like, it's just a part of life.

Tamerri Ater:

It's just is.

Tamerri Ater:

And so, that's why it's called mundane astrology.

Tamerri Ater:

Astrologers call it that, but it's just, it's ingrained in your life.

Mathu Ater:

When you go to Kemet at night, you see stars

Mathu Ater:

everywhere.

Mathu Ater:

You, you see stars you never knew existed and you can see

Mathu Ater:

it's like a blanket of stars.

Mathu Ater:

It's like something you've never seen before.

Mathu Ater:

Because you're under the spotlights of L.

Mathu Ater:

A.

Mathu Ater:

and the traffic lights and lights, they blur everything.

Mathu Ater:

You don't even know there's stars up there.

Mathu Ater:

When you go to a place like that, when she's been there,

Mathu Ater:

she, you can see the stars, man.

Mathu Ater:

And you say, wow, this is why stars were so important.

Mathu Ater:

Cause you can see them, man.

Mathu Ater:

They're like big lamps in the heaven.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yeah, that's really powerful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I love that that, Tamerri has really been able to take a lot of

Dorrissa Griffin:

what it is that, that she's done with her experiences growing up.

Dorrissa Griffin:

As well as her experiences with traveling to Egypt and with being able

Dorrissa Griffin:

to do a lot of the things that she's done and put that into her branding,

Dorrissa Griffin:

put that into, her whole company.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Like, I just think that's really powerful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I would love to talk more about that and talk about why it was such a an

Dorrissa Griffin:

important part for you to make sure that that was represented in your business

Dorrissa Griffin:

and how it is that you, through your products, help people to bring a little

Dorrissa Griffin:

bit of that into their day to day lives.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah, I always just follow the signs.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm very driven, but I, at some point I just let things happen.

Tamerri Ater:

And I think that's when the magic of life really happens.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm actually listening to this.

Tamerri Ater:

That's about surrender.

Tamerri Ater:

And so for me, I always thought, Oh, I might have a product line.

Tamerri Ater:

Cause I worked in beauty.

Tamerri Ater:

I was making products for everybody else.

Tamerri Ater:

But I didn't want to just like slap a Zodiac sign.

Tamerri Ater:

I had that opportunity to partnerships.

Tamerri Ater:

Hey, let's make a Zodiac collection.

Tamerri Ater:

And that always felt really inauthentic to me.

Tamerri Ater:

There was no connection.

Tamerri Ater:

So it just, I got a download about the healing aspect.

Tamerri Ater:

Cause you know, through it, with Astrofashionista, I'm always

Tamerri Ater:

talking mainly to women in these intimate one on one sessions.

Tamerri Ater:

And people are like, after the session I give this information and some

Tamerri Ater:

of them are still wanting stuff.

Tamerri Ater:

They either want, you know, I need a therapist.

Tamerri Ater:

I need to recommend them to, or, Some sort of tool.

Tamerri Ater:

And so the way that I live my life and I'm really about ritual.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, I grew up, I didn't realize how important it was that, we celebrated

Tamerri Ater:

Kwanzaa, we prayed to our ancestors, we had libation, like all of these

Tamerri Ater:

things were ingrained in my upbringing.

Tamerri Ater:

So I really felt, I still feel connected to it.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm always burning incense.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm always like, scent, all of that is super important.

Tamerri Ater:

It was important in Kemet, like that was a big part, like

Tamerri Ater:

he's more of the history part.

Mathu Ater:

The diameter,

Mathu Ater:

the diameter of your knowledge.

Mathu Ater:

Is equivalent to the circumference of your activities.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah.

Mathu Ater:

If your knowledge consists of one book, your

Mathu Ater:

diameter is a small diameter.

Mathu Ater:

So if you got the Bible, the Holy Quran, you got the Torah, you got

Mathu Ater:

the Book of Coming Forth by Day, the Book of the Dead, and you got all

Mathu Ater:

these books, you see you got a much larger circumference of activities.

Mathu Ater:

So you can't just sit around talking about, I goes by the

Mathu Ater:

Bible, I goes by the Bible.

Mathu Ater:

You got a very small circumference of activity when you do that.

Mathu Ater:

So, yeah.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Powerful message.

Tamerri Ater:

Oh, what I was saying.

Tamerri Ater:

That's a great point.

Tamerri Ater:

Cause basically he, I was exposed to a lot of different things.

Tamerri Ater:

And so, for me, I got the connection to provide a tool for

Tamerri Ater:

healing through product, because that's what I know how to do.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm really good at scent and sensory.

Tamerri Ater:

The Taurus, I love beauty and aesthetics.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm a perfectionist and I, the, the Egypt, it just came.

Tamerri Ater:

I was like, It just came to me one day.

Tamerri Ater:

I said, I'm going to connect that because that's my other love.

Tamerri Ater:

That's the thing that I grew up in.

Tamerri Ater:

I've, it's, I was around it my whole life, my name.

Tamerri Ater:

And then when I asked my brother, I gave him the idea.

Tamerri Ater:

He said, Gift of the Nile.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm like, Oh yeah duh, like I was trying to come up with some name.

Tamerri Ater:

He's like, it's Gift of the Nile.

Tamerri Ater:

And I said, that's it.

Tamerri Ater:

So it just kind of all organically.

Mathu Ater:

That's who you are.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah, Sagittarius.

Mathu Ater:

That's who you are.

Tamerri Ater:

Sagittarius brother.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah, so.

Mathu Ater:

You were born with that.

Tamerri Ater:

It just came together, and as I was working on it, and I was

Tamerri Ater:

like, I could tell, cos I've always been into, the history part is important.

Tamerri Ater:

My brother is a history buff, too, Sag.

Tamerri Ater:

For me, I was always interested in the mythology.

Tamerri Ater:

I loved that part.

Tamerri Ater:

I loved the stories, story of, Isis, Asset, and Osiris, and Heru, and Asar.

Tamerri Ater:

I was always drawn to that.

Tamerri Ater:

So for me, that integration with the products was like what I was drawn to.

Tamerri Ater:

So, yeah, the story just came together and I started working on it.

Tamerri Ater:

And I said, I'm just going to put, this out.

Tamerri Ater:

And at the same, at the time I was applying to business school at

Tamerri Ater:

UCLA and I wrote about that in my personal statement that I wanted to

Tamerri Ater:

build this global wellness brand.

Tamerri Ater:

And that's kind of how it was born.

Tamerri Ater:

So it was very organic and very authentic to me.

Tamerri Ater:

It's something that I feel like is my point of difference.

Tamerri Ater:

It can't be replicated.

Tamerri Ater:

A lot of people have aromatherapy.

Tamerri Ater:

That's not a new concept.

Tamerri Ater:

I didn't invent it.

Tamerri Ater:

But this is my take on it.

Tamerri Ater:

And it also incorporates both of my, my parents, my dad's influence on me.

Tamerri Ater:

And my mom is the healing aspect.

Tamerri Ater:

I would say if I could have helped her, I would have, you know, and I

Tamerri Ater:

think that's why I do the, I know that's why I do the work that I do

Tamerri Ater:

and why I experienced that because I'm supposed to be my executive coach.

Tamerri Ater:

She came up with three words for my, Purpose, Leader, Healer, Teacher,

Tamerri Ater:

which I knew my purpose, but she summed it up in those three words.

Tamerri Ater:

And so to me, that's, it was easy for me to do something

Tamerri Ater:

that's authentically myself.

Tamerri Ater:

And it's the thing I'm most passionate about and it doesn't feel like work.

Tamerri Ater:

It's fun to me.

Mathu Ater:

Her mom would be so incredibly proud of her right now.

Tamerri Ater:

Capricorn.

Mathu Ater:

Uh, yes, she's a Capricorn

Mathu Ater:

The things she's been able to achieve, man, and the circumstances

Mathu Ater:

under which she's been able to achieve them have been remarkable.

Mathu Ater:

So, yeah, I have no doubt about it that Sherry Ater is very pleased

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes.

Mathu Ater:

of her daughter.

Tamerri Ater:

She talks to me all

Tamerri Ater:

the time.

Mathu Ater:

No question about it.

Mathu Ater:

Mm

Dorrissa Griffin:

love that journey.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And, I got to witness a part of that.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And, the whole conversation as Mathu was speaking, Mr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ater was speaking, I was like, envisioning the Instagram post that Tamerri did where

Dorrissa Griffin:

she was going to, the different temples.

Dorrissa Griffin:

You were traveling on the Nile on the boats.

Dorrissa Griffin:

You had a particular instance where you went into this perfumery, this

Dorrissa Griffin:

shop where there were all these oils and authentic Egyptian oils.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And you were having this experiences there.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I was just following you along this journey on Instagram.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And as I mentioned I don't think I usually do a better job of this,

Dorrissa Griffin:

but when I usually start a podcast, I talk about how I know a person.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I think we talked about it before we started recording.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So just to give people a little bit of a background, I had the beautiful

Dorrissa Griffin:

pleasure of meeting to Tamerri.

Dorrissa Griffin:

In 2020, during a business mastermind course that I was taking and in it, we

Dorrissa Griffin:

had like this networking session with other cohort members and a friend of hers

Dorrissa Griffin:

Toussaint, I forget Toussaint's last name, but he was in one of the cohorts with me.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And he at the networking event, when we were talking about, our

Dorrissa Griffin:

different businesses, our business being Cosmusic, which is an app

Dorrissa Griffin:

that will create a personal theme song based on your astrology.

Dorrissa Griffin:

He said, Oh, you're going to do astrology.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I have to tell you about my friend, my friend Tamerri.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She's an astrologer.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She's been doing astrology since I can remember ever since I met her.

Dorrissa Griffin:

She does all this other great stuff and beauty.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And if you're interested I would love to introduce you and connect you to.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so that's how I got the pleasure of meeting you through

Dorrissa Griffin:

this business mastermind that Paul Paul Brunson was putting on.

Dorrissa Griffin:

He's like this famous matchmaker that a lot of people know.

Dorrissa Griffin:

But he also does a lot of business.

Dorrissa Griffin:

He has articles in the business journals I forget the name of them now, but he

Dorrissa Griffin:

does a lot of stuff in business journalism and with black enterprise as well.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so he was putting on this cohort and Toussaint helped me get connected to you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so it's just been so wonderful being able to watch your journey.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And you've just been so open with giving me different tips and advice.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And of course, seeing what you're doing astrologically and helping people along

Dorrissa Griffin:

their journey has just been so powerful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So when I saw you in Egypt and And I saw you in this perfumery and I was like,

Dorrissa Griffin:

you need to pay attention because she's probably getting ready to do something

Dorrissa Griffin:

and whatever it is, you want it.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I was just blown away.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So let me just fangirl out just a little bit.

Dorrissa Griffin:

This is her product.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's not, I don't have the best camera, but this is one of many.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And when I tell you that the Gift of the Nile.

Dorrissa Griffin:

is unlike any other aroma experience that I've ever had.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's, it is luxury personified.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Hello Taurus.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It is definitely something that has a spiritual aspect to it because when you

Dorrissa Griffin:

spray the scents, the olfactory is such a powerful it's very primordial, and I don't

Dorrissa Griffin:

think people really understand how much of that there are two parts of us that we

Dorrissa Griffin:

can't really close our ears and our nose.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So it's really impactful for us to be able to have

Dorrissa Griffin:

something that's aromatherapy that we can, we can spray, we can smell

Dorrissa Griffin:

and all of them have Kemetic names.

Dorrissa Griffin:

All of them have a connection to Kemetic deities.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And it's just really powerful to be able to add this to my personal ritual journey.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Every day in my meditations, like, It is amazing.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So I'm going to let you talk about it, but I really just had to give you your due and

Dorrissa Griffin:

to know that I'm now being in the presence of the man who made so much of this

Dorrissa Griffin:

possible by infusing his journey with this beautiful history that we have as African

Dorrissa Griffin:

people to be able to share that experience and just to give you your flowers,

Tamerri Ater:

Thank you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

it's really amazing.

Tamerri Ater:

a lot to me.

Tamerri Ater:

Thank you.

Tamerri Ater:

Thank you.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, you said it best.

Tamerri Ater:

It's really products.

Tamerri Ater:

I, one of the things in my, my deck, my presentation deck is the world has

Tamerri Ater:

enough beauty products where people need is healing and I'm a beauty girl.

Tamerri Ater:

Don't get me wrong.

Tamerri Ater:

That's my, one of my loves, but I really think if people took time to.

Tamerri Ater:

We're in such a busy time.

Tamerri Ater:

So it's important to have those rituals for yourself.

Tamerri Ater:

It's important to meditate.

Tamerri Ater:

It's important to take, to breathe.

Tamerri Ater:

People forget to breathe.

Tamerri Ater:

It's important to take a walk.

Tamerri Ater:

And these are simple things that are free for us, right?

Tamerri Ater:

And so my products really are designed to help you on those journeys.

Tamerri Ater:

I call it micro moments of peace throughout your day.

Tamerri Ater:

And that's really what it is.

Tamerri Ater:

So you were holding up the aromatherapy mood and body mist, the ma'at.

Tamerri Ater:

That's for overall balance,

Dorrissa Griffin:

Yes,

Tamerri Ater:

one of the most important goddesses, deities of, Kemet.

Tamerri Ater:

And so, I have Hathor, I have a Hathor love collection which is not only

Tamerri Ater:

about romantic love, it's self love because right after I launched the

Tamerri Ater:

collection, I decided to get a divorce.

Tamerri Ater:

So, everything that I use, I, It's authentic.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm not just putting things out there for people to buy.

Tamerri Ater:

I live and breathe by it myself.

Tamerri Ater:

And it helps me.

Tamerri Ater:

So everything that I do, I want people to feel the way you described how you feel.

Tamerri Ater:

So that means I'm doing something right.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah.

Tamerri Ater:

So thank you for that.

Mathu Ater:

Well, beloved, I've been so, impressed with this program,

Mathu Ater:

it's certainly been a pleasure and an honor to be in your presence

Mathu Ater:

and with Tamerri Zamaih Ater.

Mathu Ater:

, it's you.

Mathu Ater:

It's good to see the young people are continuing to carry on this tradition that

Mathu Ater:

we have and that we've had from others.

Mathu Ater:

, going back to my father and my mother and all the things that I had to

Mathu Ater:

deal with when I was a little kid.

Mathu Ater:

And she never met her grandmother, but she met her grandfather and she loved her

Mathu Ater:

grandfather and her grandfather loved her.

Tamerri Ater:

Virgo.

Mathu Ater:

Yeah, so we do what we can do, man.

Mathu Ater:

Whenever we can do it.

Mathu Ater:

So, it's been my pleasure with you.

Mathu Ater:

being with you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Mr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ater, I really appreciate your time and I can wrap things up with Tamerri.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I just wanted to say thank you so much and I have appreciated everything.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I'm going to go back through this and soak up some things that you said, and

Dorrissa Griffin:

I may have some follow up questions on like how to make sure I'm citing things

Dorrissa Griffin:

correctly and spelling them correctly, but I greatly appreciate you joining us

Dorrissa Griffin:

on the Confidence by the STARS podcast.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I look forward to staying in contact at least.

Mathu Ater:

Definitely.

Mathu Ater:

You got some photographs so she can help you integrate those into, into the

Mathu Ater:

format of how you put that together.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Okay.

Mathu Ater:

So, it's been my pleasure.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Thank you!

Mathu Ater:

I'm gonna get up before I won't be able to stand up.

Mathu Ater:

I love you, daughter.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Aw, that's so sweet!

Mathu Ater:

That's my gift.

Mathu Ater:

Since she, when she first came out, when she was born, the day she was born,

Mathu Ater:

she got the nickname Scooter, because she was already scootin We went to see

Mathu Ater:

her for the first time, she was scootin already had her head up in the air,

Mathu Ater:

and she'd already had a bowel movement.

Mathu Ater:

I knew she was gonna be special.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Beautiful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

so much, Mr.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Ater.

Dorrissa Griffin:

But yeah, I only have, like, I have, like, maybe a couple more questions, to Tamerri.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Where do you think we would be without the contributions of

Dorrissa Griffin:

Blacks in astrology and astronomy?

Dorrissa Griffin:

How different would you see the world?

Dorrissa Griffin:

How different do you think the world would be without those contributions?

Tamerri Ater:

very different.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, it's hard to say, but there maybe we wouldn't have those things.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, that's the only thing I can.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, maybe we would.

Tamerri Ater:

It might have been just a different

Tamerri Ater:

set of people.

Tamerri Ater:

That the world is not does not belong to any particular group.

Tamerri Ater:

So that sounds very, you know, egocentric, but I think it's more important

Tamerri Ater:

to acknowledge that people should recognize our contribution, because

Tamerri Ater:

that's one of the things like my dad mentioned that they, the history and

Tamerri Ater:

them trying to erase it.

Tamerri Ater:

And it's been, this is not a, this is nothing new.

Tamerri Ater:

If you go to Kemet, they've knocked noses and lips off of statues to not show

Tamerri Ater:

the African, clearly African features.

Tamerri Ater:

This has been intentionally done to, to keep the agenda that Black

Tamerri Ater:

people are inferior going, right?

Tamerri Ater:

So I think it's more important to talk about, And that's why

Tamerri Ater:

we're, we're not saying these things just to be, to say them.

Tamerri Ater:

The reason why my dad keeps emphasizing these were Black people

Tamerri Ater:

is because they've tried to deny it.

Tamerri Ater:

And that in turn has affected our entire race of children who don't understand that

Tamerri Ater:

they come from a line of greatness, that they are smart, that they were teachers.

Tamerri Ater:

We come from a line of teachers.

Tamerri Ater:

Kemet was like the Harvard of the time where people came to study there.

Tamerri Ater:

, and Africa in general was a beautiful.

Tamerri Ater:

And, luscious and still is resourceful place because people are still trying

Tamerri Ater:

to take our resources from there.

Tamerri Ater:

So it's just, whatever narrative that's being made it's

Tamerri Ater:

important for us to reverse it.

Tamerri Ater:

And now I realize how important it was.

Tamerri Ater:

Why?

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, I was raised very, very, pro-Black.

Tamerri Ater:

Like that was ingrained in me from a young girl.

Tamerri Ater:

Like you are Black.

Tamerri Ater:

This is beautiful.

Tamerri Ater:

People want to be Black like and it was a reverse brainwashing that

Tamerri Ater:

I realized that my dad was doing because he knew I would go into the

Tamerri Ater:

world and I would be told otherwise.

Tamerri Ater:

And so that was it all makes sense.

Tamerri Ater:

So I think it's more important to talk about.

Tamerri Ater:

Why we are always saying I'm Black, we have to shout it

Tamerri Ater:

because no one else believes it or they don't want us to know it.

Tamerri Ater:

And we're already as a race behind and we, it wasn't always that way.

Tamerri Ater:

So that's why our history is so important.

Tamerri Ater:

Because we're just trying to get back to a level playing field in this modern day.

Tamerri Ater:

And it's to know where we came from is important.

Tamerri Ater:

Can

Dorrissa Griffin:

Absolutely.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's absolutely essential that, we take the time to understand and we, we

Dorrissa Griffin:

have examples and we have information and access to information that

Dorrissa Griffin:

can help us elevate our knowledge.

Dorrissa Griffin:

. So, I loved having this conversation with you and your dad.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's just a great conversation.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's been such a joy and I really hope that the viewers and the listeners

Dorrissa Griffin:

understand like how powerful this information is, how amazing it is to

Dorrissa Griffin:

be able to talk with someone who's knowledgeable, who's experienced and even

Dorrissa Griffin:

someone who embodies the very essence of a lot of this rich African, ancient

Dorrissa Griffin:

African history that we have and to be able to engage and to share this.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's just like Truly a gift.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I love the fact that, on the topic of gifts one of the stories that I

Dorrissa Griffin:

really resonate with in my understanding and exploration of Egyptology and

Dorrissa Griffin:

Kemet and the Kemetic history.

Dorrissa Griffin:

It's the story of the Magi and how they came and they gave these gifts to Heru and

Dorrissa Griffin:

they were all different little blessings.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And I feel like we all have our own journey and we all need things along

Dorrissa Griffin:

that journey to help us, to bless us, to help us, be able to grow.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so that's what I like to call the three whys and I would love

Dorrissa Griffin:

to know if there are gifts that you've received along your journey.

Dorrissa Griffin:

They can be sayings that you have come across that have helped you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

They can be people, what I call sages that have been helpful to you, or they

Dorrissa Griffin:

can be sounds, things like movies or even something, that it's very, very

Dorrissa Griffin:

mundane that have been gifts to you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

So just three of those, they can be one of each or however you want to go about it.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah.

Tamerri Ater:

I mean, I've, it's been so many blessings that I've received.

Tamerri Ater:

I would say people has been a big one.

Tamerri Ater:

WHathor it's like, the Astro twins, me having to work in their manager's office,

Tamerri Ater:

like that was definitely a divine thing.

Tamerri Ater:

Or People that like bosses that I've worked with that's really, that

Tamerri Ater:

really supported me in my career.

Tamerri Ater:

I don't know if there's like this one defining, but I

Tamerri Ater:

have that a lot in my life.

Tamerri Ater:

There's a lot of synchronicity around me.

Tamerri Ater:

And I think everybody has that ability, but it happens so often for me that

Tamerri Ater:

I don't believe in any coincidences.

Tamerri Ater:

So I think the people that I meet are a big one.

Tamerri Ater:

There's the one thing that I'm really trying to lean into is presence.

Tamerri Ater:

And I fight with that every single day.

Tamerri Ater:

There's this journal that I had.

Tamerri Ater:

I've gotten years ago, actually.

Tamerri Ater:

It's just a book and it says life is a journey, not a destination.

Tamerri Ater:

I used to plan my business stuff in this journal.

Tamerri Ater:

Maybe almost 10 years ago.

Tamerri Ater:

And I'm always constantly trying to remind myself of that as a achiever and someone

Tamerri Ater:

that's always chasing the next thing.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm tired, and I don't want to live in that.

Tamerri Ater:

I want to really I've always wanted like inner peace has

Tamerri Ater:

always been really my goal.

Tamerri Ater:

So I'm constantly chasing, trying to accept whatever I'm going through

Tamerri Ater:

at the moment as like, really.

Tamerri Ater:

Surrender and trust that it's happening and live in that time.

Tamerri Ater:

So that would be the second thing.

Tamerri Ater:

The third thing I guess would be my, my family, I would say.

Tamerri Ater:

And I think family dynamics are always complicated for everyone.

Tamerri Ater:

No one comes, I don't know people that have a perfect family.

Tamerri Ater:

If they claim, please write and let us know.

Tamerri Ater:

and so, our family is no different.

Tamerri Ater:

I feel like there's been so many gifts through it, but I've had so

Tamerri Ater:

many tragedies surrounding family outside of my mom, just so much there.

Tamerri Ater:

But I think that lineage, like I think to, Be born with my dad as my

Tamerri Ater:

father was like a big gift for me.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah, I feel a lot of burden and responsibility around him.

Tamerri Ater:

Like sometimes we have, I have a North note in Gemini in, Southnode

Tamerri Ater:

and Sag, and he has Southnode in Gemini, Northnode in Sag.

Tamerri Ater:

So we have like this past life thing.

Tamerri Ater:

I think maybe it was his mom at one point.

Tamerri Ater:

I don't know.

Tamerri Ater:

You know, that gets like a little new agey, but there's just that special,

Tamerri Ater:

there's a thing there that I'm very grateful for because obviously what

Tamerri Ater:

he's poured into me is so much of who I am and that I still carry.

Tamerri Ater:

I'm not trying to run from that part of myself.

Tamerri Ater:

I think, you know, and I think I'm like the exact blend of both of my parents

Tamerri Ater:

and their skill sets and who they are.

Tamerri Ater:

Like I, I am that.

Tamerri Ater:

I could see that in both of them.

Tamerri Ater:

So I, that would probably be the third thing.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Beautiful.

Dorrissa Griffin:

I love that.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Tamerri, it has been Such a pleasure to be able to talk with you and to hear

Dorrissa Griffin:

your journey, to absorb the wisdom and knowledge and information from your

Dorrissa Griffin:

dad, and to just have the opportunity to learn from you and to share.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And so thank you so much for being a part of the Confidence by the STARS

Dorrissa Griffin:

podcast, I would love for you to share with the listeners and the viewers how

Dorrissa Griffin:

they can stay connected with you in any special things that you would like for

Dorrissa Griffin:

them to know to be able to continue.

Tamerri Ater:

Yeah.

Tamerri Ater:

If you thank you for this opportunity.

Tamerri Ater:

If you want to reach me for an astrology reading you can reach

Tamerri Ater:

me at Astrofashionista.com.

Tamerri Ater:

That's exactly how it's spelled astro and then fashionista.

Tamerri Ater:

That's where you can book an astrology reading.

Tamerri Ater:

If you want to try Gift of the Nile for yourself, you

Tamerri Ater:

can go to TheGiftoftheNile.Com and shop the products.

Tamerri Ater:

And I don't know if I have anything.

Tamerri Ater:

immediate on the horizon in terms of, you know, just look out for more

Tamerri Ater:

products and sign up for my mailing list.

Dorrissa Griffin:

You also have a podcast.

Tamerri Ater:

Oh yes.

Tamerri Ater:

The Astrology Chronicles.

Tamerri Ater:

And that is on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

Tamerri Ater:

And yeah, just follow me on Instagram or social media at

Tamerri Ater:

Astrofashionista and Gift of the Nile.

Tamerri Ater:

Just keep in touch.

Tamerri Ater:

That's probably the easiest way to, to hear what I have got going on.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Fantastic.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Well, yes, we definitely want you guys to connect with Tamerri.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Is there any place that we would be able to connect with your dad or,

Dorrissa Griffin:

I mean, he's mentioned a couple of times he has some books in the works,

Dorrissa Griffin:

so I would love to know more about those things for him.

Tamerri Ater:

He's on Facebook, okay?

Tamerri Ater:

Like all the elders.

Tamerri Ater:

No, I'm just, I'm like joking, but I'm not joking.

Tamerri Ater:

So if you really want to reach him.

Tamerri Ater:

Find him on Facebook.

Tamerri Ater:

He'll be on there.

Tamerri Ater:

Um, other, I need to like, there needs to be, I have his domain name.

Tamerri Ater:

We need a whole relaunch of his brand.

Tamerri Ater:

That's a whole thing in itself, but his books, he's actually been working on

Tamerri Ater:

for a very long time and I've seen it.

Tamerri Ater:

They have them.

Tamerri Ater:

He has about three of them.

Tamerri Ater:

So I don't know which one, I think one that's going to be released first is

Tamerri Ater:

on Imhotep . So if you follow me, you'll probably hear about it because

Tamerri Ater:

obviously that'll be a big thing for me as well to be able to promote that.

Tamerri Ater:

But yeah, if you really want to reach him, go to Facebook and

Tamerri Ater:

send him a message and look at it.

Tamerri Ater:

Go put them on YouTube.

Tamerri Ater:

A lot of people have put his stuff from years ago on YouTube.

Tamerri Ater:

You can watch a lot of his, older lectures and get some of the knowledge in in

Tamerri Ater:

more time, there's more time on those.

Tamerri Ater:

So, I know he talked a lot here, but yeah, those lectures are more thorough.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Fantastic.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Well, yeah, we will absolutely do that.

Dorrissa Griffin:

And again, thank you so much for coming to Confidence by the

Dorrissa Griffin:

STARS and it's been a pleasure.

Tamerri Ater:

Thank you.

Dorrissa Griffin:

Awesome.

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About the Podcast

Confidence by the STARS
Astrology for Personal Growth & Empowerment
Do you feel held back from your true potential? Amid this societal chaos, are you feeling unsure about your path to self-fulfillment? Welcome to 'Confidence by the STARS,' an astrology podcast that unlocks the secrets of your zodiac sign and provides astrological insights for personal growth and empowerment.

Host, Dorrissa D. Griffin, Esq., Founder of Cosmusic, is your personal horoscope hype woman. Overcoming a traumatic brain injury through the transformative power of music and astrology inspired her deep revelation: A unique process-based approach to astrology she calls the STARS method. The STARS method goes beyond understanding your sun, moon, and rising signs – it uses astrology to transform your daily life by empowering you to feel Seen, Tuned In, Accepted, Responsive, and Successful (S.T.A.R.S.).

Let's be real—the world's a mess. Jobs are shaky; the future fills us with worry and self-doubt whispers in the shadows. Now, imagine replacing life's uncertainties with a sense of destiny. With the STARS as our guide, we’ll navigate these complexities using astrology as an actionable roadmap for your everyday life.

‘Confidence by the STARS’ explores the intersection of self-improvement, astrology, spirituality, alternative health, music, and art. We will share insights and guidance to help you unlock your full potential.

Whether you're a seasoned astrology enthusiast or just beginning your journey, 'Confidence by the STARS' is your guide to self-discovery and empowerment.

Follow 'Confidence by the STARS' right now by tapping the plus button on this podcast. Then, tune in on Sundays, weekly, starting January 28th, 2024. Discover the confidence and clarity written in the STARS for you.

To learn more, visit https://podcast.cosmusic.app.

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About your hosts

Dorrissa Griffin, Esq.

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Founder for Cosmusic, and Host of Confidence by the STARS Podcast.

Cosmusic LLC

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