2012

Hi, this came to us via Eliza Starbuck:

Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij (is a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide) of the Eagle Clan. Carlos initiated an investigation into the different Mayan calendars circulating. Carlos along with his brother Gerardo studied with many teachers and interviewed nearly 600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge.

Carlos found out quickly there were several conflicting interpretations of Mayan hieroglyphs, petroglyphs, Sacred Books of ‘Chilam Balam’ and various ancient text. Carlos found some strong words for those who may have contributed to the confusion:

“Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It’s just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed.”

“We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes.”

He continues: “Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human. We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions are converging now. There is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action.”

Carlos tells us: “The indigenous have the calendars and know how to accurately interpret it — not others. The Mayan Calendars comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles has proven itself to be vast and sophisticated. The Maya understand 17 different calendars such as the Tzolk’in or Cholq’ij, some of them charting time accurately over a span of more than ten million years.

Mayan Ancestors

“All was predicted by the mathematical cycles of the Mayan calendars. — It will change –everything will change. Mayan Day-keepers view the Dec. 21, 2012 date as a rebirth, the start of the World of the Fifth Sun. It will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy.”

At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world’s spiritual traditions.

Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the Earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration. Carlos reminds us: “This process has already begun. Change is accelerating now and it will continue to accelerate. If the people of the Earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way.”

The date specified in the calendar Winter Solstice in the year 2012 does not mark the end of the world. Many outside people writing about the Mayan calendar sensationalize this date, but they do not know. The ones who know are the indigenous elders who are entrusted with keeping the tradition.

Carlos tells us: “The economy now is a fiction. The first five-year stretch of transition from August 1987 to August 1992 was the beginning of the destruction of the material world. We have progressed ten years deeper into the transition phase by now, and many of the so-called sources of financial stability are in fact hollow. The banks are weak. This is a delicate moment for them. They could crash globally, if we don’t pay attention. Now, people are paying attention.”

The North and South Poles are both breaking up. The level of the water in the oceans is going to rise. But at the same time land in the ocean, especially near Cuba, is also going to rise. Carlos tells a story about the most recent Mayan New Year ceremonies in Guatemala. He said that one respected Mam elder, who lives all year in a solitary mountain cave, journeyed to Chichicastenango to speak with the people at the ceremony. The elder delivered a simple, direct message. He called for human beings to come together in support of life and light.

“Right now each person and group is going his or her own way. The elder of the mountains said there is hope if the people of the light can come together and unite in some way. We live in a world of polarity — day and night, man and woman, positive and negative. Light and darkness need each other. They are a balance.”

“Just now the dark side is very strong, and very clear about what they want. They have their vision and their priorities clearly held, and also their hierarchy. They are working in many ways so that we will be unable to connect with the spiral Fifth World in 2012.”

“On the light side everyone thinks they are the most important, that their own understandings, or their group’s understandings, are the key. There’s a diversity of cultures and opinions, so there is competition, diffusion, and no single focus.”

Carlos believes the dark side works to block unity through denial and materialism. It also works to destroy those who are working with the light to get the Earth to a higher level. They like the energy of the old, declining Fourth World, the materialism. They do not want it to change. They do not want unity. They want to stay at this level, and are afraid of the next level.

The dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed or overpowered. It’s too strong and clear for that, and that is the wrong strategy. The dark can only be transformed when confronted with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to unity, a key concept for the World of the Fifth Sun.

Carlos said the emerging era of the Fifth Sun will call attention to a much-overlooked element. Whereas the four traditional elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water have dominated various epochs in the past, there will be a fifth element to reckon with in the time of the Fifth Sun — that element is ‘ETHER’. The dictionary defines Ether as a “hypothetical substance supposed to occupy all space, postulated to account for the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through space.” Perhaps it could be defined as the “space between space”. I would suggest it could be manifest as the alignment of charged particles from our solar system (Sun), and our galaxy (Milky Way) surge. The Ether element represents spiritual energy.

“The element of the Fifth Sun is celestial. Within the context of Ether there can be a joining of the polarities. No more darkness or light in the people, but an uplifted unity. But right now the realm of darkness is not interested in this. They are organized to block it. They seek to unbalance the Earth and its environment so we will be unready for the alignment in 2012.”

Mayan Prayer

“We need to work together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and unity now, to confront the other side and preserve life.” “We are disturbed — we can’t play anymore. Our planet can be renewed or ravaged. Now is the time to awaken and take action. Everyone is needed. You are not here for no reason. Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a hard but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this moment in history.”

Carlos says: “The prophesied changes are going to happen, but our attitude and actions determine how harsh or mild they are. We need to act, to make changes, and to elect people to represent us who understand and who will take political action to respect the Earth.” “Meditation and spiritual practice are good, but also action. It’s very important to be clear about who you are, and also about your relation to the Earth. Develop yourself according to your own tradition and the call of your heart. But remember to respect differences, and strive for unity. Eat wisely — a lot of food is corrupt in either subtle or gross ways. Pay attention to what you are taking into your body. Learn to preserve food, and to conserve energy. Learn some good breathing techniques, so you have mastery of your breath. Be clear. Follow a tradition with great roots. It is not important what tradition, your heart will tell you, but it must have great roots.”

“We live in a world of energy. An important task at this time is to learn to sense or see the energy of everyone and everything — people, plants, animals. This becomes increasingly important as we draw close to the World of the Fifth Sun, for it is associated with the element ‘ether’ — the realm where energy lives and weaves. Go to the sacred places of the Earth to pray for peace, and have respect for the Earth which gives us our food, clothing, and shelter. We need to reactivate the energy of these sacred places. That is our work.” “One simple but effective prayer technique is to light white or baby-blue colored candles. Think of a moment in peace. Speak your intention to the flame and send the light of it on to the leaders who have the power to make war or peace.” Carlos reminds us this is a crucially important moment for humanity and for Earth. Each person is important.

He said the elders have opened the doors so that other races can come to the Mayan world to receive the tradition. “The Maya have long appreciated and respected that there are other colors, other races, and other spiritual systems. They know that the destiny of the Mayan world is related to the destiny of the whole world.”

“The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It’s not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It’s encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.”

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Greetings from Detroit!

It’s been a busy couple of months. Liz and I have been in and out of meetings in DC, New York and Detroit arranging the Circle Connection — a creative exchange to build relationships between students across borders. We’ve done lot’s of theorizing and introspection to lay the groundwork for an expansive program. But just like the purpose of the program, sometimes putting the talking on hold and getting hands-on is the best part. The students at the Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse in Detroit certainly had a good time making their circle scarves and we had a blast with them. Here are a few snapshots from my phone:





Love, Hope, Peace, Of Rags

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Nonetheless — Liz Ricketts BioFests

A beautiful mind is recognizable.

Imagination is my hero. Find how, feel why, forget what. Truth can always be translated. If work becomes a job you have become replaceable, u can change that. I am at home when I am happy to be alone and lost when I am alone to be happy. We can own things only when we understand that possession is reciprocal. With labels ideas become shorter, with names they become acts. Elevate those you admire and leave the pedestals behind. Crazy is not a four-letter word. Care not to judge.

When you feel alone, stop to celebrate the impossibility of that. Humanity is not an infection, do not sell or buy a cure. Technology is like a prosthetic limb; it always takes the place of something more human. When you sense, appreciate the ability. Technology is employable, people are performable. Intend to fulfill. You cannot bank on time, do not try to take, leave or transfer moments, it has no properties of equality. Map out your mental territory to belong. Trust togetherness. Everyone, no one, and anyone are not wholesome. Notice shadows. Fearing what you have kills what you want.

Nature versus Nurture is the never-ending fairytale; instead of excusing your story tell it! Curate your mindset, frame what u expose. Accept your silhouette, identify your perspective, and create your portrait. Be responsible to your gender identity. Live love, make partner. Sustain common sense. Parenting is a privilege. My craft is working with people. Love is a verb, respect its multiplicity. Remember prehistorically. Everyday is the occasion. Never be too scared to do a headstand!

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Connecting The Dots…(You and Of Rags)

At the end of this note I’m going to ask you for money. Many of you have heard me talk about how Of Rags raises money through the sale of clothes. So why should we need to ask for more? This is what I’m excited about! You have all played a part in helping Of Rags see our potential. Now it is time to fulfill that potential and answer the movement we have created. What does this mean?


Two years ago RAAM and I made a promise to you that Of Rags would be the shared experience between two parallel worlds. You put your faith and trust in us. While we challenged ideas of charity, sustainability, fashion, trade, value, waste, and necessity, the two distinct worlds from which RAAM and I came were still separate. Of Rags served as a place through which they could pass to reach one another, but there were no shared experiences. Not only was I getting tired of going back and forth between these worlds, but it was not really fair to you, was it? I had not asked you to invest in a company with endless possibilities that I alone would determine. I had asked you to invest in collaboration. Until recently I didn’t know what this looked like.

I had to refine my vision by slowing down, catching my breath and looking around with enough time to process all that I was experiencing. We were presented with so many exciting opportunities, but when I finally paused and looked at them all I realized that we must focus our energies on one thing.

As the Of Rags team grew to include conceptual director Liz Ricketts, our point of focus became clear. Over the past several months Liz and I have examined the vision with which Of Rags began—to connect individuals through the things they consume. We have designed a program to do just that. We ran a pilot with children in Brooklyn and Labadi Town. This showed us the way forward.

Now we must build what Liz and I have architected.

The Circle Connection sets the path toward realizing the vision we all share. In short, the Circle Connection is what Of Rags is meant to do. It is the change that we aim to create as an organization and that we know we must be a part of as individuals. What’s more, this next phase of the program also includes the construction of a community center in Labadi Town!

Here comes the call to action. The Circle Connection is set to begin on November 2nd in DC. This is two weeks away. Liz and I have scheduled time in classrooms at six schools here in the States, including Sidwell Friends and CentroNía in DC, and Cranbrook and the Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse in Detroit. We have made connections with fantastic institutions like MOCAD and the MoMA. But to carry out this program we must go into it with adequate resources. We need to hire Katie Radford as a full time team member. We need materials to run our workshops in each school. We need to travel between three cities and spend a month in Ghana. We need to build an extensive digital platform. We need your support. We are asking for help.

Make this happen. Give what you can and please rally your friends to do the same.

You can find out more information at circle.ofrags.com and donate directly at ofrags.com/donate.

Thank you is inadequate. Let’s celebrate this together!
-Branson

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Questions: answered!

How do the designers get their ideas for new graphics

RAAM is our head designer – he’s the one who paints all of the shirts and comes up with the basic designs. He has said he’s inspired by what he sees around him in his community. In a lot of our shirts, you’ll see trotros – the super-vans that are the basis of the public transportation system here. Those are my favorite. The patchwork shirts and dress come from scraps of cloth we collect from other designers that they won’t use – so recycling is the inspiration for that one!

How many shirts/clothes/etc can you make a day at the shop?

The biggest output here by far is shirts. The shirts can be tricky because it depends on the weather (say what?). If it’s sunny outside, RAAM can work on the hand-painted shirts because we can lay them in the sun right outside the shop to dry. So those days can be really productive since the painting doesn’t take as much time. I’ve seen RAAM bust out 15 painted shirts in an afternoon.

The patchwork items take a big longer. Many of them have portions that are painted or drawn on, so there are more steps. The shirts, logically, take less time than the dresses. The dresses are the most time-consuming pieces because the sizing is much more particular. We have pre-made patterns to make sure this is consistent.

What was the biggest surprise from working in the shop?

Ooh, good question! I guess I didn’t want to come to Ghana with many expectations because I had NO idea what I was getting myself into! However, I think the “biggest surprise” would be how intertwined into the community the shop is. People stop by and hang out all of the time. There’s a group of kids who are around and love having dance parties with me. It’s almost as if the shop just grew from the ground and it’s just a natural part of the scenery, if that makes sense. I didn’t expect it to not be this way, but I didn’t really think about it or realize how much the greater community would really impact my working experience.

And a personal question – what have you eaten besides joloff rice?

Hilarious. I actually did a food post, but we are having a ton of trouble with the photos loading onto the blog. This should be fixed shortly, so look for that soon.

But for now, a quick list of Katie’s favorite Ghanaian foods!

Fruit – Pineapple here is so juicy you need a bib. And super cheap. Coconut is also very popular and yummy.

Fufu and soup – quickly creeping up on jollof rice as my favorite local food. Fufu is a chewy dough you eat with soup – you kind of dip it in and use it almost like a spoon. I like light soup, which is a brothy spicy red soup. It’s good at any time of the day. You eat this with your hands.

Fried Yam- typically served with a pepper sauce for dipping. It’s like African french fries.

Fish- Usually served whole. My friend Eben will eat the eyes and brain, but I usually just stick to the meat. Tilapia is really popular, but I had Tuna the other day that was amazing.

There’s also a ton of restaurants we dine at. I’m in love with this Thai place in Osu, but I’ve been out for pizza a few times as well. Whenever I miss home, I get pad thai and it makes me soooo happy

 

Hugs and love and miles transcended,

K-Rad

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Consumer Quote of the Day

Well, I think we’re getting there. I think we’ve just lit the fuse on the rocket.
What’s really going to make the rocket take off is if a consumer start to embed
the story of other people who are being exploited to produce their lifestyles. If
consumers can start to absorb that, that story into their lives, and
more importantly amplify that story in the marketplace.

-Justin Dylan

 

Where do the products you buy come from? Who do those companies employ? There’s a new “Slavery Footprint” app for your smart phone to give you a glimpse. Learn about the Of Rags team so you know where you clothes are coming from when you shop OR.

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Have questions?

So I have been giving you my view from my experiences here, but I want to open up the forum here for you, my lovely readers, to participate. Have any specific questions about my trip? About Ghana? Any questions for the guys in the shop? Or any of the other lovely people I have met here? I want to know what YOU want to hear.

To ask your question, you can comment here or email me at katie@ofrags.com. Would love to share this with you as much as I can!

 

Hugs and love and communication,

K-Rad

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TOP 10 THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM MY GHANA TRIP (in 37 days)

1. “You’re invited” means “Come eat my food with me”.

2. You are pretty much always invited. Sharing is a huge part of the culture here.

3. Dance clubs in Ghana, just like in NYC, WILL turn you away for inappropriate dress. (I made the embarrassing fashion faux pas of not changing my flip flops into nicer sandals before hitting the town. Whoops!)

4. Satchet water, which is drinking water in bags here, is NOT safe for Westerners. Learned that one the hard way as well.

5. The languages here are so localized, that Ghanaians have to know several just to speak with people they interact with on a daily basis. My friend Alex listed 7 languages that he knows. Uhh… I have English and “Como estas?”

6. Tro Tros are a cheap way to travel, but you might have to push your way to get on one during the busy hours. I will upload a video of this later.

7. Jollof rice is still awesome, but the place next to where I live is the BEST.

8. It’s not being late- it’s being on “Ghana time”

9. The Ghana sun is intense and beautiful. Careful if you burn easy! Careful if you don’t also, you might end up with a ridiculous looking sunglasses tan (like yours truly)

10. More people should come here. It’s not the Africa you see on the news.

 

Hugs and love and more learning,

K-Rad

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Compassion Quote of the Day

I want to propose a final definition of compassion … for us to call compassion
a spiritual technology. Now, our traditions contain vast wisdom about this and we need
them to mine it for us now. But compassion is also equally at home in the secular as well
as the religious … the future of humanity needs this technology as much as it
needed all the others that have now connected us.

–Krista Tippett

 

Something interesting to think about. How are you connecting through compassion?

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People > Place

There are a lot of stigmas about Africa. We hear about the poverty, corruption, war, yada yada. And, yes, it’s true. Those things do exist here. But there’s a whole different side to all of the negativity we associate with this continent. There are the people. The “plumber joes” if you will. The human experience is a funny thing because there are so many things that tie us closer to each other that we neglect.

I saw a bunch of kids playing with a soccer ball by the shop the other day. They got carried away and the ball rolled into the street. The smallest one ran after it, and got scolded by an adult. They spoke in their native language, but I could hear the concern in his voice. How many kids do you know who get yelled at their parents for chasing a ball into the street? All of them! Doesn’t matter where.

About half an hour later, I watched the kids dancing. Each trying to outdo the other, shaking a little harder or faster, or doing a crazy spin, or lifting one leg, or jumping a little higher. We all embrace and cherish and (most importantly, of course) goof off with our friends. Doesn’t matter where.

RAAM took me out to hear reggae on the beach. We grabbed drinks and headed up front where everybody was dancing. The waves were crashing in the background, and we just jammed. A lot of the tunes were even familiar to me (Thank God for my Bob Marley phase). And I realized, everybody digs and relates music – and art for that matter. Doesn’t matter where.

Breaking those stigmas is like when you first realized your parents aren’t perfect. It’s kind of earth shattering. It’s that little lightbulb above your head. It’s knowledge. It’s awesome.

I wanted to come to Africa for something new. And while I could go on listing all of the things that make this place different from New York City or Richmond, Virginia (where I grew up) it’s more shocking and important to me to think about all of our similarities. Life here and life where I’m from are strangers if you focus on the details- the open sewers, fried fish on the side of the road, wild chickens roaming, the handshake if you read my previous post. However, take a look through the lens of our experiences and desires, and we are all people just trying to get by, making it work (thanks, Tim Gunn) the best way we know how.

Hugs and love and unity,
K-Rad

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