Portia ☥ The Sacrificial Webs Of Deception
The controversy over the casting of a Black female in the role of Ariel for The Little Mermaid gave me pause for a number of reasons. I have continually asserted that Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People have so many rich stories to tell that have not been told. I cannot bare to see another white fairy tale with a Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant cast and crew. Beyond that soap box issue, is the story of The Little Mermaid as a very subtle, sneaky Portia style web of deception because of its appearance of empowerment. Let’s first dive into the story. The main character is Ariel, a mermaid who lives in an incredibly beautiful underwater world, but her fascination with the human world causes her to devalue her culture. The power of the Portia spider is that it uses the appearance of weakness as the deception to lure in and ambush an unsuspecting spider in its own home. Ariel’s likeability distracts us from recognizing her unresolved trauma. Eckert Tolle speaks eloquently about this concept of the pain body in relationships and how we are often attracted to people because we share the same collective pain or that we trigger/are attracted to each other's subconscious reactions to unresolved trauma. The pain body attraction shows up in relationships between/with Pages and Knights.
It was a confusing, yet beautiful time. It was like my mind was expanding and I could see things that I had not been able to see before. When I left there, I was a former street hustler imbued with the desire to bring about revolutionary change. Not just for Black people, but people of the world. ☥ ☥ Pete O’Neal ☥
So, we get lured into Ariel’s story because we also may feel bored with our lives and think that another existence is better than our own. Because her father doesn’t raise her to connect with the truest part of herself and forbids her to intermingle with the human world without providing an explanation or relevant context, she becomes attracted to what she doesn’t understand. This disconnection from herself fosters subconscious self-hatred and causes her to seek fulfillment in a different species. From a distance Ariel watches, becomes attracted to and falls in love with a prince and is willing to give up elements of her physical appearance, her world, culture and even her voice to be with him. We watch this story in early childhood when our parents haven’t taught us to connect with the truest part of ourselves and when we are inundated with images that make us feel as if we are not enough. At this point in our development, we don’t even recognize that we have a pain body so we are easily drawn into and can relate to Ariel’s story. In this way, we have become the prey of the Portia spider without realizing that we’ve been entangled within its web of deception. The sacrificial webs of deception are difficult to spot because of hard-wired thoughts and behaviors that have inadvertently become us and are continually reinforced through fairy tales, advertising, multimedia and our social environment.
Ariel is so determined to be with Eric, the prince, that she makes a deal with Ursula who offers to make Ariel human permanently if she is able to receive a kiss of true love from the prince. However, Ursula also wants the prince and uses deception to distract and manipulate Eric. So many of the characters, including Ariel, are using deception and manipulation to get what they want (a sticky, invisible social program that traps children) instead of connecting with the truest part of themselves and being led by their innate intelligence.
As long as we keep reaching outside of ourselves for satisfaction/love/fulfillment, we can be manipulated and drawn into other people’s drama. We can spend the rest of our lives chasing and reaching for something that cannot satisfy us because we have sacrificed the truest part of ourselves for the illusion of happiness.
Ariel gets the prince in the end, but she loses herself. Unfortunately, she could be several decades into this relationship before she realizes what she's lost. As we celebrate her love story, we don’t realize that we’ve created or strengthened an emotional addiction within ourselves caused by self-hatred.
The Portia webs of deception are covertly sneaky because they cause us to willingly sacrifice parts of ourselves, believing that we are achieving something that will make us happy.
Bolas ☥ The Bait And Switch Webs Of Deception
The Bolas spiders capture male moths by releasing sex pheromones that resemble the female moth. Having baited the moths with the pheronomes, they swing a sticky mass of silk to capture the moths as they fly into the trap. Pheromones are chemicals that can affect behavior because they mimic hormones which triggers an emotional or social response within a person that seduces them into the trap. At the age of 18, William O’Neal was tracked, manipulated and recruited by the FBI to spy on the Black Panther Party For Self Defense and deliver intel which led to the assassination of Fred Hampton. In exchange for the intel he provided, O’Neal was offered a monthly stipend, gifts and a promise that his felony charge for stealing a car would be dropped. The tragedy of this story is that William, who was driven by a fear of incarceration, was too young and inexperienced to understand psychological manipulation (or recognize the seduction), see the covert affirmations of self-hatred or realize how he had been baited to turn against leaders who were working to educate and liberate people just like himself. This covert seduction technique is used on Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People continually to sabotage the progress of our civil rights movements. Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People with criminal records (either legitimate or trumped-up) or with a certain amount of unresolved trauma are profiled, because of their emotional vulnerabilities, and become targets because they can be more easily seduced into the trap. The power of the bait and switch web of deception is the lure of the bait which feels irresistible either sexually, emotionally or socially. By the time the switch occurs, the prey has been captured with no physical or psychological way out. Upon realization of the gravity of his actions, William O'Neal committed suicide.
Many Black Americans have been lured into the Bolas bait and switch webs of deception because our strong desire for freedom and self-determination can blind us to the hidden pheromones embedded within the bait. It’s not because we lack intelligence or common sense. We tend to get lured into the bait because, through self-hatred and other forms of psychological manipulation, we have been strategically distracted away from our innate wisdom and we do not understand the true process of transformation. We lack this understanding despite the fact that it is all around us because we are oppressed to the point of living in survival mode. We see the caterpillar eating, getting fat and spinning its cocoon, and we see that this process cannot be rushed. Yet, we don't see how this applies to the process of transformation in our stressful lives. Although most butterflies and moths remain in their cocoons for about a month, it will not emerge unless the environment can support its new life. In other words, if the environment becomes harsh for whatever reason, its innate intelligence will keep it inside the cocoon for as long as three years if necessary to ensure its best chances for survival. The process of transformation is dependent upon what is happening in our natural environment. We want transformation, but because we don’t understand the process, our minds run amok, our emotions become imbalanced, and our actions become driven by unresolved trauma. It is during this point that a bait that appeals to us emotionally can lure us into a trap that “feels” impossible to escape.
Even in war, people don’t take glee in the death of people. ☥ ☥ Pete O’Neal ☥
When we observe the Jim Jones tragedy from the outside, we can’t imagine how anyone could get lured into a religious cult. The fact remains that of the more than 900 people who died in Guyana during the mass suicide, 276 were children and over 600 were Black People. We’ll turn to nature once more to help us wrap our minds around how these Black People got from civil rights protests to death by psychological manipulation. The Bolas secrete pheromones to attract its prey and then fishes for those who fly into the trap. Jim Jones adopted a Black child and fought so strongly for civil rights that he received a Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian award for his efforts. Through the church, Jones found the family that he longed for during his youth and was able to build and sustain wealth. Though he may have had good intentions, his actions were driven by unresolved trauma instead of connection to Spirit. There were very few white people who were putting skin in the game to push for the civil rights of Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People who were being targeted by the police, oppressed in every possible way and programmed through the educational and multimedia systems. The opportunity to go to another country and not have to deal with the incessant attacks on our mental, emotional, physical, social and financial lives, was very attractive to the Black People who followed Jim Jones and there seemed to be no real benchmarks for trust established because trust was “implied” through his past actions.
We need a very strong pause here, because benchmarks for trust need to be specifically outlined, defined, established, enforced and sustained. It is not a one-shot deal. Our benchmarks for trust cannot be driven by emotional exhaustion or racial fatigue. They need to grow and evolve with us. This is our protection against psychological manipulation, but it can only work if we can 'see' past our unresolved trauma.
Unresolved trauma can blind us to the point that nothing and no-one can reach us because we have become emotionally addicted to the rush of energy that comes from “belonging,” and we do not believe that better options exist for us. People with unresolved trauma are easy prey for the Bolas webs of deception. We get lured into the trap through seduction, emotional manipulation and/or an offer that appears to fill the emptiness of something unresolved within ourselves.
Transcending The Webs Of Deception
We have so many untapped options available to us that will prevent us from being trapped. Though I will offer a few suggestions here, I caution us to rely solely on our innate intelligence. My suggestions are intended to ignite the light inside of us that leads us to our own personal truth. Only then can we see with vision that is clear enough to know what suggestions serve our highest good which leads us on a path to the truth. The truth may come through me but cannot be accepted unless it is questioned and vetted by your innate intelligence. In our society, as soon as we find some leader who speaks truth, we blindly follow that person, forgetting that they are human and in their own process of healing. We cannot drop our minds and bodies off on other people to carry us. We must be our own salvation. In this way, we educe the God inside of us and we hold each other accountable to respecting benchmarks for trust which acts as a check and balance strategy that protects us from subconsciously or intentionally manipulating each other and encourages introspection ☥ personal growth. For example, in the midst of speaking correction to a trusted mentor, they may receive that correction, but also pinpoint and reflect back to me a form of self-hatred that I hadn’t spotted within myself. This causes me to self-reflect and self-correct.
In this way, iron is sharpening iron and we are helping each other to grow. Our society often idolizes people, making them our salvation which is harmful to everyone and prevents us from sharpening and holding each other accountable to exemplary benchmarks for trust.
Transcending The Webs Of Deception (continued)
☥ Allow iron to sharpen iron. My work with 393Films has consistently been an iron
sharpening iron experience. WolfHawkJaguar is one of the first people that I’ve worked
with who had the courage to come at me with the full force of his personal truth. I’m
highlighting this example, because at the time, I was a funder which could have
tempted him to hold back, agree with me or present what he thought I wanted.
However, that was never the case, and our joint projects continually improved because
of this dynamic. For example, I would come to a meeting with a well thought out idea
that I was excited about, and he would listen, then carefully explain how/why that idea
would not fly. I then would come back with another idea, and we’d go back and forth
until we came up with something that works. Though we had some friendly knock
down drag out “fights” they were fights in the light and not attached to a competitive
battle of wills. Neither one of us had ego attached to this process because we wanted
what SPIRIT wanted and realized that our ideas were just the beginning of the
discovery process. When we let go of ego, SPIRIT can come in and level up whatever
we do. But if we are attached to being right then we become blinded to the greater
possibilities. I share these examples because when I speak of unresolved trauma
driving our actions, I mean ALL of our actions. When we allow iron to sharpen iron, our
unresolved trauma gets “outted” in small doses so that we can reflect, heal and
transform.
☥ Pay attention to thoughts and actions of self and others. If a person says something to
you that gives you pause, call it out in the most compassionate way possible such as
(using your own verbiage that feels natural to you) Interesting thought, how did you
arrive at that conclusion?
☥ Resist the temptation to make decisions when feeling emotionally charged. This
includes excitement and euphoria. Take some time to ask yourself, why is this a good
idea for me? How will I hold myself and this person(s) accountable to benchmarks for
trust?
☥ Study cycles and transformation within your own body. Pick any part of your body and
simply observe how it changes over time. For example, when you trim your finger or
toe nails, watch how it changes each day. You can also do this with a cut/wound,
shaving, etc. Over time, you will begin to see that there is a process and intelligence
that weaves everything together. Once you see the process, you can then tap into the
intelligence which will never lead you in the wrong direction. Then, choose something
in nature to study and notice the similarities between transformations within your body
and within nature. It can be something as simple as a rock, an ant, a plant, etc.
☥ Monitor and investigate your strong reactions. They are an important communication
device used by your body to alert you to something that requires your attention. It
could be unresolved trauma, a self-sabotaging habit or even a warning that you may
be developing a health issue.
These examples are just a tiny taste of all the options that are available to us, but if we take the time to investigate these options, they will inevitably lead us to another world full of exciting possibilities. We don’t have to fear manipulation, but we do have to recognize that it will continue to happen. For example, anyone who speaks of spirituality outside of Christianity is in danger of being labeled satanic or as a Satanist. This is because colonizers do not understand and, therefore, cannot control people who practice other forms of spirituality. I saw this first hand with an all assault attack on the Santería practitioners in Miami. I don’t remember exactly what set off the attack (which included punitive actions from law enforcement), but at one point, there were so many negative news reports that the only reason why I wasn’t terrified by Santería was because I had a Cuban hairdresser who was an avid practitioner. Her behavior was not in alignment with the social programming being leashed on the public. I have known her family for as long as I lived in Miami, and I had many conversations with her about her religious practice. We laughed at the irony of the attacks because one of the main reasons why they were considered to be dangerous and satanic was because they sacrificed (slaughtered) chickens during certain ceremonies before consuming them.
This is one of the issues that Charles Chestnutt (an extremely light-skinned Black man who could have passed for white if he wanted to) spoke of in his book, “The Marrow Of Tradition,” in which the traditions of Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People are demonized, while similar traditions of white people are celebrated and even forced on the general public. If we examine what is really happening, we see that unlike the Santería practitioners, who prayed over the free range animal before consuming it, in the colonizers' quest for high profits, they developed factory farming, which injects chickens with growth hormones and their mass production processes are so harmful that they must also use a large amount of antibiotics to keep them alive until they are slaughtered (sacrificed). When we use antibiotics in this way, bacteria become resistant which can lead to … well, a pandemic. We have to call out these types of manipulation because they keep us from healing and evolving as a society. As we become more self-aware, we will more easily identify, disrupt, dismantle and rise above it. The solution is embedded within each problem that we face. Let's endeavor to be relentless seekers of the solution.
Through knowledge sharing, volunteerism and community service, and amidst great resistance, the Black Panther Party For Self Defense endeavored to dismantle these webs of deception. However, they were not a perfect party and some of the cracks that existed in their foundation are included in the “cautionary tale” of Stanley Nelson Jr.’s documentary. Sustainability ideas that could have strengthened the foundation the party includes:☥ Mental, emotional and physical self-care built into the infrastructure of all aspects
of the internal and external work of both the party as a whole and each individual
member of the party + continual practices infused within daily activities that facilitate
the healing of unresolved/acute trauma
☥ Strategic actions that are driven by innate intelligence and centered in spirituality
☥ Benchmarks for trust that are designed to vett new members and smoke out
infiltrators
☥ A series of strategies built into the foundation of the organization to protect its
members from imprisonment, given the fact that they were continually being
tracked/targeted
☥ Continuing education that includes transformational leadership skills, financial
management, legal policies/practices, international knowledge sharing, monitoring
As we evolve in consciousness, we must analyze our past without judgment and self-correct. We become stronger as individuals and as a community by transforming the cracks in our foundation into wisdom. We do the hard work of examining our environment to see if we built our foundation on solid ground. If so, our newfound wisdom fills the cracks and strengthens the foundation. If not, we must do the hard work of breaking up the foundation and rebuilding it from scratch ☥ on solid ground. If we allow ourselves to be caught up in the nostalgia of an era without critiquing and self-correcting, then no matter how diligently we work, our efforts will fail.
It’s like a boomerang of love, if you put that love out there, if you put out positive intentions, if you honor the ancestors and the Orisha, it’s gon’ come back to ya’ll. Even if you don’t know anything about the Orisha or you haven’t learned how to bring honor to your ancestors, as long as you putting something good out, some love and our motto at UNACC, that’s the United African Alliance Community Center, is 'sharing knowledge for community development' and all of that comes out of our background as panthers. ☥ ☥ Charlotte 'Mama C' Hill O’Neal ☥
Our Journey To Radiance ☥ Black Panther episode features the woke, warm-hearted wisdom of the warrior woman of peace Charlotte Hill O’Neal a.k.a. “Mama C.” We learn about the true history of the Black Panther Party For Self Defense and of her remarkable journey from Kansas City, KS to Algeria to Tanzania and on to be a global Warrior Woman of Light ☥ Love.
Pete and Charlotte O'Neal founded the United African American Community Center UAACC, a non-profit community based NGO, in 1991 for the purpose of providing programs and projects for the enrichment of the Arusha community, both urban and rural and also to promote closer cultural ties to communities in America and around the world. The name was later amended to United African Alliance Community Center to better reflect the more global focus of the center's concentration and outreach.
In 1972 Pete and Charlotte came to Tanzania. They became African American pioneers in their ancestral homeland, and built their homestead on the slopes of Mt. Meru in Imbaseni, a rural village in the heart of the traditional homelande of the Wameru tribe.
UAACC is based in Imbaseni Village in the heart of Wameru homeland outside of Arusha, Tanzania. We are situated between two majestic mountains, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa and Mt. Meru, the third tallest! It's a place of serenity, beauty and joy! ☥ ☥ www.uaacc.net ☥
Check out our Journey page to download and share the combined chapters as a MP3 file.
Once a panther, always a panther - that spirit of volunteerism and community service - it hasn’t gone anywhere. ☥ ☥ Charlotte 'Mama C' Hill O’Neal ☥
We didn’t flee, we escaped. It was a systematic, laid out plan with the brothers and sisters in the modern-day Underground Railroad. ☥ ☥ Charlotte 'Mama C' Hill O’Neal ☥
One of the things that has kept me uplifted is the music - the arts. ☥ ☥ Charlotte 'Mama C' Hill O’Neal ☥
I don't know what you might've heard But we ain't going nowhere ... but up Got a whole squad dressed in all black Got the streets on notice ... what up? They want us in the same place Ain't nobody ever gonna really change nothing but us Hello, this is r(E)volution, get on up ☥ ☥ Sa Roc ☥
☥ The journey begins in ☥ as us ☥ new thoughts + new actions = new world ☥
Epilogue ☥ Your Treasure Map For Self-Care
Thank you for taking the time to actively engage in your own self-care. If you have ever spent time at a hammam ☥ steam room ☥ sauna, you will notice that it is a comfortable space because you are wearing minimal or no clothing and you can just be yourself. However, after a short time, it starts to get hot, and you begin to sweat.
This is a good thing because you are helping your body to eliminate toxins. If you want to detoxify your body correctly you will:
☥ Breathe slowly and deeply to help your body adjust to the intensity of the heat.
☥ Sip water every 15 minutes to stay hydrated.
☥ Have a piece of fruit ☥ pumpkin seeds ☥ favorite healthy snack available.
☥ Take a shower after excessive sweating.
☥ Go into a cold room/take a cold plunge/cold water rinse off to cool down before doing
another sweat and to stimulate your lymphatic system.
☥ Go for a walk in nature, spend time in meditation ☥ contemplation, have a healthy meal
and give your body some time to complete the healing process (which could include
sending you messages through your intuition about your next steps).
As you journey through ☥ interact with the blogs ☥ other content on phyllishubbard.com, you might have an insight that causes you to suddenly feel mentally ☥ emotionally “hot” -- which could show up as:
☥ “Ah-ha” moments
☥ A hop-in-the-bed-and-cry-yourself-to-sleep or fetal position crying time of intensive
self-care
☥ Intense feelings of anger/regret about something in your past
☥ Disorientation caused by the realization of truth
☥ Strong reactions such as heightened senses, vomiting; an urge to release emotions
such as yelling/screaming, going outside for fresh air/to take a walk, punching a
boxing bag/pillow; a feeling of tightness in the chest, etc.
If you find yourself having a strong reaction, I encourage you to flow with it while helping your body to release mental ☥ emotional toxins by using the same five self-care strategies listed above for releasing physical toxins. Your body talks to you all the time, but unconscious adherence to social conditioning can mute its messages.
Strong reactions are your body’s way of letting you know that there is a deeper issue requiring your attention.
Keep revisiting the content ☥ utilizing the five self-care strategies until you no longer experience the strong reaction, release fears and have identified ☥ transformed ☥ removed the root cause of the issue. You will find additional strategies throughout this website that you can add to your mental health self-care toolkit.
Self-Care Sustainability Suggestions
☥ A Cross-Cultural Healing Haven – read this blog to understand the purpose of
phyllishubbard.com and the meaning behind its organization ☥ symbols.
☥ Revisit the content periodically and make a note of if/how your perceptions have
evolved.
☥ Check out the other pages on phyllishubbard.com:
☥ Home - Watch the videos. Click on the images in the Spiritual Guidance section.
Each image has a story that might assist your self-care journey. Learn about
other spiritual practices.
☥ About - Learn about my background ☥ reasons for co-creating
phyllishubbard.com
with Spirit. Explore healing through the image carousel and videos.
☥ Shop ☥ Kamitology - Purchase and download vital tools for your personal growth
☥ development.
☥ Reclaiming Our Humanity - Help us develop and disseminate video courses.
☥ Rise TV - Practice breathing and movement exercises and deepen your
understanding of healing through the experiences of community members.
Check back periodically to discover new/re-experience the content.
☥ Journey - This is your invitation to own the journey to radiance. Experience the
journey and download healing resources to share with your friends, family and
community.
When you share healing, healing comes back to and flows through you.
About Sharing ...
During my first presentation to an all-Black audience, I introduced 20-year-old research on the hazards of sitting. I presented the research because I noticed that people sat for way too long at convenings and realized that the information was not disseminated to Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant communities. I was determined to intentionally include this research, often surprising participants by getting people up to stretch. After more than 13 years of intentional work, Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People are just barely beginning to normalize conscious movement. We still have a long way to go, and it is important that we share what we know as much as we can to prevent the disenfranchisement of wellness information to Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant communities.
Please do not keep phyllishubbard.com to yourself. We will not co-create a better world until we heal our current, past/childhood traumas. We will not love others until we learn to love ourselves.
Copy/Paste Version Of A Full Citation Example:
Hubbard, P. S. (2020, September 27). Journey To Radiance ☥ Black Panther III ☥. PHYLLISHUBBARD.COM. <https://www.phyllishubbard.com/post/journey-to-radiance-black-panther-iii>
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