The Season of the Ancestors!

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) 

Symbols Of Ancestar Offerings

List of 13 Popular Day of the Dead Symbols & Colors

10/18/2014

You might recognize pumpkins, black cats, candy corn, witches and Horror movies as symbols of an American holiday known as Halloween. But do you know the meaning and all of the symbols associated with the Latin American holiday, Día de los Muertos? 

Jump ahead to these sections:

6 Day of the Dead Symbols and Their Meaning

7 Day of the Dead Colors and Their Symbolism

The “Day of the Dead” might seem similar to Halloween in many ways, but it’s a very different type of holiday with its own symbology, rituals, and traditions. Here, we’ll go over the most popular Day of the Dead symbols and colors, and let you know what they all mean. 

6 Day of the Dead Symbols and Their Meaning

Día de los Muertos takes place on November 1st and 2nd of every year. The holiday originated in ancient Afrika, and migrated to South America, Central America, and Mexico, amongst indigenous groups like the Olmec, Aztec, Maya, and Toltec. This celebration of The Ancestars lasted through out the fall months beginning with the Autumnal Equinox.

When the Spanish arrived to these South American areas, the rituals associated with the Day of the Dead became intermingled with the Religious demands of the Catholics and much like Santaria, new traditions were created. The two Catholic Spanish holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day lent even more symbology, and the Political Protest and rallies against the Ruling Elites began to form. At Amen Ankh Akademy and Urban Farm, we choose to return to the 3 month Celebration ending in Umoja Karamu celebration feast of Afrikan American History!

The symbols below are all associated with the holiday known as Day of the Dead as it’s celebrated today. 

1. Ofrenda 

The ofrenda is the central component of any Day of the Dead celebration, and it’s one of the holiday’s most recognized symbols.

Ofrenda refers to the offerings which are laid out on a temporary altar during the Day of the Dead celebrations. These altars serve as places for families to honor their loved ones. The ofrenda features pictures of the deceased, as well as items that belonged to them. 

During the celebration, family members bring items to the ofrenda that will help the deceased along their journey. 

Every ofrenda contains gifts to represent the four elements: water, wind, earth, and fire: 

Water. For the element of water, family members leave a pitcher of water at the ofrenda so the spirits can quench their thirst. 

Wind. To represent wind, the family traditionally brings papel picado, a type of traditional paper banner, to the ofrenda. 

Earth. Food traditionally represents the element of earth. In particular, it’s common to bring bread for the spirits, in the form of Pan de Muerto. Pan de Muerto is a soft, round type of bread that’s often decorated with bone-shaped designs.

Fire. It’s common for families to light candles at the ofrenda, often arranging them to form a cross. This represents the cardinal directions and is thought to help the spirits find their way. 

2. Papel picado

As mentioned above, paper banners known as papel picado can be seen at any Día de los Muertos celebration. 

These brightly colored, delicately perforated paper banners decorate the ofrenda altar, as well as local businesses, homes, and marketplaces.

The banners often feature carefully-cut patterns to represent departed loved ones. They represent wind and serve as a reminder of the fragility of life. 

3. Skulls

Many people worldwide are familiar with sugar skulls, which are another of the most recognized Day of the Dead symbols. 

To those who are unfamiliar with Día de los Muertos symbology, a skull might seem like a morbid gift. 

But the brightly-decorated calaveras de azucar, or sugar skulls, instead act as a lighthearted reminder of life’s cyclical nature. Families often leave sugar skulls on the ofrenda of children who have passed. 

4. Skeletons

Hand-crafted skeletons, or calacas, also take center-stage at most Día de los Muertos celebrations. The skeletons are funny and friendly, rather than scary. Families traditionally dress the skeletons to represent their departed loved ones. 

4. Butterflies

In Mexico, the first monarch butterflies arrive for the winter each year on November 1st. Because this pattern coincides so closely with Día de los Muertos, the people of Mexico began to believe that monarch butterflies carry the souls of the departed. 

Monarch butterflies are a common Day of the Dead symbol, and you’ll often spot decorative butterflies taking center stage on many altars. 

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5. Flowers

Flowers play a central role at most Día de los Muertos celebrations. They decorate most of the altars and serve as part of an ofrenda. Some flowers have meanings that are specific to their color or variety. 

A flower that’s orange or yellow in color, known as cempasuchil, represents the sun, love, and the shortness of life. 

Families often craft wreaths of flowers to place on their loved ones’ graves. 

6. Dogs

You might wonder why you often see hand-crafted skeletal dogs decorating the altars and graves at Día de los Muertos celebrations. 

Dogs are an important symbol in Day of the Dead culture since they’ve long been thought to guide ancestral spirits to their final resting place. 

7 Day of the Dead Colors and Their Symbolism

Text about Day of the Dead with an image of a candle in the background

Día de los Muertos is one of the most colorful celebrations you’ll find, in Latin America or worldwide. But not every color holds the same meaning when it comes to the Day of the Dead. 

A few select colors, listed below, represent key aspects of the holiday. These are the colors that you’ll see decorating Day of the Dead festivities and altars most often. 

1. Yellow

The color yellow represents light. According to ancient Aztec tradition, light is what guides the spirit of the departed along its journey. During Día de los Muertos, it’s common for celebrants to leave trails of yellow marigold flower petals to guide their loved ones’ spirits towards the ofrenda. 

2. Orange

The color orange is similar to yellow in symbolism but slightly more specific. Rather than representing the concept of light, the color orange is symbolic of the sun. The Mexican marigold flower also appears in orange variants, which families use to “light” the way for departed family members towards their altars. 

You can also spot the color orange around a Day of the Dead celebration in the form of painted or hand-crafted monarch butterflies. 

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3. Black

The color black is a pre-Columbian symbol that references the Kingdom of the Dead, Mictlan. Black symbolizes death at modern Día de los Muertos celebrations, but it can also be used to accentuate and highlight brighter colors. 

4. White

The color white represents the sky, hope, purity, and innocence. It also represents the belief that a soul gets a clean start, or a blank slate, after death. 

Celebrants often bring white flowers to the altar or use white paper banners and other decorations. 

5. Pink

Pink represents the joyous qualities of the Day of the Dead celebration. It creates an air of celebration and positivity. You can often observe pink as a primary color on costumes, decorations, and dresses.

Pink also celebrates the belief that family members will one day reunite with their departed loved ones. 

6. Purple

As a counterpoint to the color pink, purple represents pain, grief, and suffering. The symbolism of purple is a later influence of Catholicism, wherein purple symbolizes sadness and mourning. 

Families often light purple candles in their homes or at altars during Day of the Dead celebrations to acknowledge their feelings of loss. 

7. Red

The color red signifies the blood of life. For Christian celebrants, the color red might represent the spilled blood of Jesus Christ. For celebrants who aren’t Christian, red simply represents the blood that gives life to people and animals. 

Day of the Dead Symbolism

The Day of the Dead is a time for celebrants to remember departed loved ones with positivity and festivity. Instead of a day of mourning, Día de los Muertos helps communities maintain a healthy relationship with death and overcome fears of the afterlife. Unlike acknowledgments of death in many other cultures, Día de los Muertos is unique in its festive and uplifting spirit.  

It’s important to keep in mind that Day of the Dead symbolism can differ from community to community. While one community might hold strong Christian or Catholic beliefs, another might not. And that difference will have a big impact on how they view certain traditions, colorful symbols, and more. 

But the symbols and colors described above are the generally-accepted versions of Day of the Dead symbols, and how most communities view them. So the next time you encounter a Day of the Dead celebration, you’ll be able to pick out the specific symbols and representations you might not have noticed before. 

You G.R.O.W.W. Girl: Teach A Girl- Heal A Nation!

We must embrace our Girls. Love them, feed them healthy foods, clean water, positive activities and exercise, and positive values, knowledge of self and Identity.

IMHO We must focus on cultivating the inside of our girls and women, more than the outside. This is why I established a parent and girls group called "You G.R.O.W.W. Girls." We are souls having a human experience. Our Ebony girls will grow to be the mothers of our next generation.

"We must teach our youth true knowledge of self. to empower them with a legacy of wealth." Nuta Beqsu Amen-Ra

We must teach each of our young girls their self-knowledge - to understand the power of their bodies, as a sacred temple of life, and to return their self-esteem and self-respect, not only for each individual girl and her family but for her nation.

At Amen Par Ankh our Motto is: Teach a Girl- Heal a Nation.

We Celebrate Life with a group called You GROWW Girls. G.R.O.W.W. Stands for Gaining Resilience, Opportunity, Wellness, and Wealth. We teach young women how to live virtuously and Practically. How to withstand and endure with resilience, the test, and trials of life. As we teach young women about the natural world, domestic engineering, arts and crafts, healing therapies, Financial Literacy, and Consumer savvy, We will also apply STE-A-M as we learn about, Technology, computers, biology, and ecology. Our young girls learn Plant Identification of herbs and food nutrition. Teaching them to grow their own foods and learn about their own health and wellness. We Invite you to join us and support our youth. Feel free to Contact us for our women's circles and study groups.

If you would like to volunteer or assist or enroll your young girls between the ages of 8 and 18, please Contact: Queen Ma Nuta Beqsu: 816-281-7704 or email us: amen.parankh@gmail.com

http://nuta-ankh.blogspot.com/2014/04/ankh-kemetic-womb-of-mandkind-and.html?spref=fb

I am a natural Woman and love It! Love and accept me as I am.

https://nuta-ankh.blogspot.com/2014/11/all-sistars-and-queens-out-there-must.html

REAL SOLUTIONS
*We must Re-Member that we are Divine Souls having a human experience

*We must know that our bodies are the sacred temple of our soul and a vessel for the holy spirit of life. *As Indigo women, our bodies hold the sacred cradle and womb for our children and all future generations. *We are the children of a collective universe, and we have a higher state of divine purpose and consciousness. *As Black Women- WE are the Original Womb of All Humans. We are the Eve on this Planet

*The greatest thing we can do for our bodies is to make them into a Spirit temple and use them to glorify our higher selves.

Many are under the spell of sexual immorality and addictions. We live in an addictive world of consumerism. We are conditioned to covet, desire, and consume. We are trained to exploit ourselves for capital to Consume depreciating personal property, instead of *Accumulating Appreciating Assets. Often what we get in our chasing of consumables, is not what we had in mind at all, in our acquisitions. Sometimes we don’t even know what we want.

*Many sacred texts exhort the sacredness of the body temple.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? ...therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Using the word “temple” to describe our body as a dwelling, conveys the idea that our bodies are the shrine, or the sacred place, in which the Spirit not only lives, but is revered, and honored. Therefore, we must acknowledge that we have human rights and choices on how we behave, think, speak, eat. What we let into the temple through our eyes and ears becomes critically important as well, for every thought, word and deed we expose our bodies to.

There are many people who have only or always known reprobate behavior. They may have been orphaned or lived in the death style of toxic chemicals, toxic foods, and dysfunctional parents or guardians. Many may have been traumatized from an early age, often witnessing traumatic experiences from the womb. There are many people who have only known generational trauma.

We must choose to live in inner peace and health.

Instructions to “get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice; Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other...” (Ephesians 4:31-32) is also a mandate for healthy living.

When we live by the Spirit, we will no longer gratify the desires of a destructive dysfunctional nature. (Galatians 5:16).

These phrases are not only good for our soul, but for our health and wellness too. We are all connected. Many of our fears, anxiety, worry, anger and heartache directly affect the major organs that cause us to be prematurely diseased.

As Afrikan Americans, we are dying more from what we put in our mouths than murder and gunfire. So it is imperative that we practice healthy eating of balanced meals that include fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Fresh air and exercise should also be practiced as a discipline of our body temple. living naturally and close to the earth is the healthiest way, far away from a worldly disconnect from nature.
It is also important to practice good hygiene. In most cases of sexual promiscuity, illegal drug use mixed with poor hygiene, lack of exercise and connection with nature, often leads to premature illnesses and death.




Moving as women into virtuous living is a step in the right direction. Creating home cottage businesses, growing our own foods, practicing culinary arts and crafts are positive and rewarding. We must be leaders and examples for our children to break the cycle of exploitation of our youth.

It is important that our young Black Princesses know their value, worth, and purpose and that they have self-esteem and knowledge of their cultural history. We must return our women to be the Queen Mother Goddesses that they truly are before the world and the earth.

(c) All rights reserved. No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author; Nuta Beqsu Adenike AmenRa

I am available for Lectures, Libations, Griot Spoken Word Presentations, KMT Wedding, Birth and Ascension officiant, Salutations and Blessings for new beginnings, Home and Businesses, Afrikan Storytelling, Conferences and Workshops Contact: amen.parankh@gmail.com or amen.ankh@live.com Phone: 816-281-7704
A lot of men don't know how to relate to a natural woman who is intelligent, vegetarian, conscious of her values, and Identity- who are African conscious. Natural Women are often considered an intimidation or threat by a lot of Black Men. Women must live in a patriarchal system. The Mass Media has a powerful effect on the masses of people. Many men are acculturated to be attracted by superficial attributes first before they consider character.

We Must Embrace Our girls with High Self Esteem and Knowledge of Self! This is why African Centered Education is so vital! Many black parents destroy their daughters because of their child's complexion and hair texture. WE MUST CHANGE THIS! The Clark Doll Study (using Black and Caucasian dolls,) was a devastating reminder of the death blow of damage that Racism and patriarchy have delivered to the psyche of our young girls...

 I have heard young men say that that they prefer light-skinned, or mixed-race women because they want their children to have "good hair." Women often dress to appeal to the whims of men who have low intent and expectations. They are used to seeing women in the mass media, and entertainment arenas, with the tinsel town, weaves, drama, attitude, and Reality TV type illusions... With music videos, that are normalizing materialism, strip clubs, pornography, and homosexuality, in the minds of our young men and girls. It is our Black men who are buying into the Mass Media. They are disrespecting our Black Mothers and girls. In this patriarchal system, men have double standards. They want to "sew their wild oats," looking for one type of woman, yet, they are rare to make a commitment... Many men are infatuation junkies, who are too immature to move forward into a mature commitment. There is a lack of accountability and failed morality and character in our adult behavior. Our Adolescent Men and women used to be a part of a group of private societies, where cultural knowledge was passed down from generation to generation and we held a tribal council for accountability. We must return to our own ways of life.


Yet, In contrast, I often think about the devastation caused by strict patriarchal religions, and belief systems, that expect Women to completely cover themselves, and blame our Girls and women for men's temptations, and that we are cursed all the way back to Eve... I remember we are living in a racist patriarchal society. Within this society's racist history, Black girls were raped and accused of provoking their abuse, just because we are more physically developed and endowed than Caucasian women... (Black Venus Hottentot- Saartje Baartman,) To speak of Maafa Syndrome, in the choices of some women to Identify with a racist people, for the hope of inclusion or semblance of success on the job is significant. #AmenAnkh #YouGROWWGirls

The Secret of the Third Eye

There is a sacred Secret in your brain. The sacred is known as the 3rd Eye. The 3rd Eye was recognized by the ancients known as KMT the Children of the Sun. The western world identifies this as a gland called the Pineal. The Pineal gland is the only light-responsive part of the body. It is shaped like a Pineapple or Pinecone. Most western anatomy books have described the pineal gland as an archaic stone that serves no purpose. Yet this Pineal gland is found to be active and subtle in Melanite peoples. 

The "Secret" is Secretions.  The Pineal Gland Secretes Melatonin at sunset and Seratonin at sunrise. 

 Yet there is a way to activate your pineal gland with Guaranteed supernatural results.

I'm going to show you how to do it in this video the first thing to know is that there's never a time when the body is not influencing the mind and there's never a time when the mind is not influencing the body. They are one and the same. That's why it's called the Mind-Body Connection.

So the majority of people's thoughts are connected to certain feelings that influence very specific hormonal centers in the body. For example, if you think an angry thought you're going to release Cortisol, a chemical that activates your adrenal system.  You're going to begin to activate those Survival Systems in your body if you're suffering, or if you feel stress, pain, or you feel guilty.  You produce a different biochemical reaction, producing very specific hormonal centers to be activated for every thought and emotion. So most people's thoughts and feelings are taking most of the energy of those thoughts and they're storing them in the lower energy centers of their body. Now these energy centers are the centers for survival.  That's why when you are afraid or you're nervous you have that feeling in the pit of your guts when something bad happens. When you feel in the pit of your stomach you're constantly living in survival mode; in fight or flight, and of course, this is very destructive and it's a very uncomfortable way to live but it's how most people have actually survived, and the state they live in in the majority of their lives. In these lower energy centers, one of the dangers, when you're in survival mode, is your thoughts and your feelings are only activating from these lower survival centers so the majority of the Mind and Body energy is stored and trapped within These lower survival centers but if you can liberate that trapped energy into the brain you can activate your pineal gland and have very profound mystical experiences. 

I'm going to share with you a technique that I've used to have a total out-of-body experience that absolutely changed my life and gave me the knowledge to things I never would have been able to tap into. It's important to understand exactly how this process works now what's really crazy is that the brain and the spinal cord are protected by a cerebral spinal fluid. This liquid is all around your nervous system. This process pumps this fluid up and down the spinal column actually every 12 hours. 

Now the word secret comes from secretions. The sacred secret of the universe is that this sacred fluid that moves through your spinal column can actually be directed and pushed into your brain to have profound effects on your pineal gland. The crazy thing about this cerebral spinal fluid is that it's made up of proteins and salts in a solution and science tells us that proteins and salts in solution have an electrical charge of a positive and a negative, and using this technique, you actually accelerate those electrically charged molecules in the spinal fluid now. 

According to physics, when you accelerate a Charged molecule you create an invisible field called an inductance field. Now the dictionary definition of inductance is: a property of an electric circuit by which a changing magnetic field creates an electromotive force or voltage in that circuit or nearby circuits.  So these charged proteins and salts in the spinal fluid that you charge electrically from this technique build their own magnetic fields with their own electrical force that can influence other things like your pineal gland. When that happens these lower energy centers of survival in your body starts to break up the trapped energy, and instead of staying stuck in that lower energy- energy is released chemically from a state of constant stress or fight or flight, and it's now being drawn up through the nervous system into the brain. It moves right through the nervous system right up into the brain and it hits the pineal gland.

 now the pineal gland is a very specific gland that makes serotonin and melatonin. When that Spinal Secretion energy strikes that pineal gland, all of a sudden it begins to produce a very strong chemical reaction that alters your brain wave patterns and causes very lucid and mystical experiences! This is why it's called your third eye. 

5:40

now I know that this is a lot of

So the pineal gland sits right here. Here's a picture based on the third ventricle of your brain what's really fascinating is that there's a new form of Biomineralization that's been studied in the human pineal gland that consists of small calcium carbonate crystals. There are little crystals and

pineal gland has been called a neuroendocrine transducer with physio-electric properties.. let's break down those words. The word physio-electric is derived from the Greek words faisin which means to squeeze or press and fizo which means to push so when you do this technique you're pushing electrically charged cerebral spinal fluid up into the pineal gland exerting stress and force against it. Since the pineal gland contains these tiny calcite crystals made of calcium, carbon and oxygen, the physioelectric effect is when these crystals it produces its own electrical charge and it expresses as an electrical effect and this is what causes mystical experiences. . This is EYE AM LIGHT ENERGY and basically, this technique helps you exert pressure against the pineal gland and these little tiny crystals that produce a resonant electromagnetic field and all of a sudden the pineal gland becomes a little multi-dimensional antenna and just like an antenna the pineal gland has the capacity to become electrically activated and then it generates electromagnetic fields that can tune into information outside of this dimension in the exact same way that an antenna pulsates a rhythm of frequency to match the frequency of signals that are coming in the pineal gland receives information that is carried on invisible electromagnetic fields. Since all these frequencies carry information once the antenna can connect to the exact signal of the electromagnetic field it converts that signal into a meaningful picture or message. 

Now look around your environment presently. It is filled with TV, radio and Wi-Fi waves that all have different frequency ranges of invisible electromagnetic energy. You can't see any of it with your eyes but they're still there. 

So for example the antenna that picks up a range of frequencies carrying a signal to your TV is transduced into a picture of light photons on your TV screen. When you tune into FM radio you're tuning your antenna to a specific electromagnetic frequency. Information on that frequency range is carried and then using the antenna it's transduced into a coherent signal which is the music you hear right but we don't say it quite like that I'm transducing the antenna in order to get R&B we just say oh man this is a good radio station... So the pineal gland does the exact same thing once activated with this technique I'm about to give you the frequency from the quantum field. 

You can access information that is no longer available to you from third-dimensional reality. You're going to access that information from the quantum field and the brain is going to begin to transduce that frequency, carrying information into very profound imagery you're going to have a full-on sensory experience without your senses and it's

If you could use the exact same muscles right now the contraction muscles that you use for elimination in the lower muscular centers of your body and you lift that energy up through your pelvic floor. Those exact muscles are the ones that you're going to use to start to break up that trapped energy in the survival centers of your own body so what you can do is just touch your finger to your belly button so it gives you a place to start to focus on. As you close your eyes you're gonna breathe in and out and each time that you're inhaling and exhaling you're going to contract those abdominal muscles and as you're breathing in through your nose while you contract those muscles this act is starting to pull that energy that's been trapped and stuck. We want our energy to go right to the top of our head. Tap at the place between my third eye, right between my eyebrows you can take your fingernail in there.  You could press in there or you could tap lightly so as You Close Your Eyes in and out you can put one other finger on the place between your belly button and as you breathe in out you contract those muscles. I like to imagine each time I'm inhaling and exhaling I imagine my spinal column almost like a tunnel of light energy and I'm moving that energy up into my brain through the galactic tunnel called my spinal column.  When you follow this energy up through your lower abdomen up through your chest up into your brain up through your throat each time you exhale. I imagine this energy releasing out of my third eye you can see it vividly when you close your eyes if you're tapping here with each exhale you're pushing that energy out and it works like a pump that's pushing this cerebral spinal fluid up in inhaling and exhaling relaxing and each time you do this you start to feel that energy build more and more and more and more now when you do it I recommend that you just get some nice music use that or get some nice meditation music and for five to ten minutes you just keep repeating this simple process bring your attention right down over to your belly button put your finger there your other one there Contracting those muscles and with each inhales and exhales imagine that energy moving out through your spine and up into your brain this process of moving that energy in that spinal fluid and opening up that trapped energy is what moves this fluid compressing it just a little bit each time into those crystals in your pineal gland each time you do this you start to move that energy more and more like almost like a calcified faucet that starts to open up and open up and open up and if you do this for 5, 10, 15 minutes every single day you hit a point where you really start to feel that energy striking in your brain trying to get this energy out and through this process relaxing my shoulders bringing that energy up imagining it really imagine that energy moving through your spinal column and out and once you get to that point what happens is you see a bunch of light energy now I imagine my Consciousness moving with that light energy almost like it's a cloud that carries me and I hit a point where I was just in another dimension and when I was in this other realm once I felt all that energy really move up through my spine. I saw exactly what I was supposed to do with my life I was really concerned about my life. and I saw in this experience my future. Suddenly I no longer had any fear. You can get this profound vision and that's why it's called your third eye because you're releasing this imagery this profound interdimensional energy that causes you to see pictures in the exact same way that energy is transduced to show light photons on your television screen. So I encourage you to give this a try.