293 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
293 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
|
|
HISTORY & CATECHISM
|
|
of the
|
|
MOORISH ORTHODOX CHURCH
|
|
OF AMERICA
|
|
|
|
virtual edition
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* * *
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transcribed from the CRESCENT MOON PRESS
|
|
1986 Edition and updated by the editors
|
|
1992. no copyright
|
|
(all material may be freely reproduced)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Imprimatur & Nihil Obstat
|
|
|
|
USTAD SELIM
|
|
(Enforcer of the Law
|
|
&
|
|
Bishop-Exilarch of Persia)
|
|
&
|
|
ARIF HUSSEIN AL-CAMAYSAR
|
|
(Imam of Manhattan)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* * *
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A morning breeze
|
|
trails musk behind it
|
|
perfumes
|
|
from the street
|
|
where my love is
|
|
|
|
Yes, and the world wastes
|
|
while you sleep
|
|
The caravan is leaving
|
|
The sweet smell is dying
|
|
Get up!
|
|
|
|
Jalaloddin Rumi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moorish Orthodoxy is not a new religion. Historically it began with
|
|
the message of the American prophet Noble Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew
|
|
in North Carolina in 1886, raised by Cherokee Indians and adopted into
|
|
that tribe. At sixteen Drew began his wanderings as a circus magician,
|
|
which took him to Egypt where he received self knowledge and direction
|
|
from a priest, the last of a cult of High Magic practiced for centuries
|
|
in the pyramid of Cheops. This magus recognized the young American as
|
|
a reincarnation of a former leader of the cult, and saw him for the
|
|
prophet he was.
|
|
|
|
From him Drew Ali learned the messages of The Circle Seven Koran, as
|
|
well as much higher truths; he returned to America where he was told
|
|
in a dream to found a new religion "for the uplifting of fallen
|
|
mankind." He began the first mosque, or temple, in Newark --- but
|
|
because he and his followers refused to fight in World War I he was
|
|
forced to move to Chicago, where his movement, the Moorish Science
|
|
Temple, began to grow.
|
|
|
|
The Moorish Science Temple attracted mostly Black Americans. Noble
|
|
Drew however was no racist, though he held certain racial theories.
|
|
Blacks, he said, are Moabites or Moors, and under this identity he
|
|
taught pride to a race of oppressed sufferers. Moors are an "Asiatic
|
|
Race" --but so are many others. For example, Noble Drew identified
|
|
Celts as an Asiatic Race; later, when Whites of various sorts became
|
|
interested in Moorish Science, he identified all such as "Persians", a
|
|
sort of spiritual rather than factual identity. For Moorish Americans
|
|
Morocco is a "promised land"; this shows the influence of Garveyite
|
|
"Return" teachings, and provides an interesting link between Moorish
|
|
Science and Rastafarianism. Moorish Orthodoxy (despite its name) gives
|
|
all these teachings an esoteric significance. For us, "The Asiatic
|
|
Nation of North America" includes all who embrace some form of the
|
|
Oriental Wisdom, whatever their other affiliations, and "Morocco"
|
|
signifies their goal, "illuminated" consciousness.
|
|
|
|
In Chicago Noble Drew issued many Moorish Passports, and it is said
|
|
that some new converts, in the zeal of their newfound nationality,
|
|
began to grow less and less subservient in their dealings with the
|
|
oppressor empire ("Pharoah" or "Babylon"). This culminated in a full
|
|
scale attack on the Science Temple in which (despite the secret escape
|
|
route, an essential feature of all Moorish Science Temples) many of
|
|
the faithful were martyred, including the Enforcer of the Law, a man
|
|
whom Noble Drew had recognized as a reincarnation of Jesus.
|
|
|
|
Shortly thereafter (in 1929) Noble Drew prophesied the hour of his
|
|
death. He was "taken for questioning" by the Chicago Police and
|
|
brutally beaten, and died soon after his release.
|
|
|
|
After this, the Moorish Science Temple began to split into sects or
|
|
factions, one headed by Noble Drew's chauffeur, another by Elijah
|
|
Muhammed, who his his Moorish Science origins and taught a
|
|
pseudo-science of race hatred disguised as the "Nation of Islam".
|
|
Until Elijah's death, many Moors expected him to recant.
|
|
|
|
In the 1950's in the Baltimore/DC area, some white poets and jazz
|
|
musicians came into contact with the Science Temple and acquired
|
|
passports. They formed another offshoot of Moorish Science, the
|
|
Moorish Orthodox Church of America. At that early stage, the M.O.C.
|
|
was seen as partly Moorish and partly Eastern Orthodox, and there
|
|
existed certain ties with "Errant Bishops" of the Old Catholic Church,
|
|
Syrian Orthodoxy, etc. Some of these founding fathers drifted
|
|
eventually into Sunni Islam, others remained faithful to the M.O.C.
|
|
and friendly to the Science Temple.
|
|
|
|
In the early 1960's on Manhattan's Upper West Side, one of the
|
|
youngest of these, Walid al-Taha (Warren Tartaglia), jazz saxophonist
|
|
and author of -The Hundred Seeds of Beirut-, initiated some friends
|
|
into the Church shortly before his tragic death (in his early 20's).
|
|
A new Temple was established in a basement on 103rd street off
|
|
Broadway, along with a head shop "The Crypt", and a Moorish Science
|
|
Reading Room. The Church maintained a M.O.C. Motorcycle Club at
|
|
various neighborhood garages, and a campsite of 123 acres was acquired
|
|
in northern New York. Close ties were formed with the Ananda Ashram in
|
|
upstate NY. Members in Baltimore renewed ties with elders and
|
|
missionaries of the Moorish Science Temple, including the Moorish
|
|
Governor of Maryland, who ran a junk shop that smelled of rose attar
|
|
and woodstove smoke, and talked like a Persian poet from Alabama --
|
|
an echo, no doubt, of Noble Drew's own perfect Moorish Voice. Ties
|
|
were formed with the M.S.T. in Brooklyn, which provided copies of The
|
|
Circle Seven Koran, Catechisms, etc.
|
|
|
|
When the Ananda Ashram moved into Milbrook NY with Timothy Leary's
|
|
League for Spiritual Discovery commune, the M.O.C. also established a
|
|
presence there. The M.O.C. is proud of its heritage in the Psychedelic
|
|
Churches Movement of the 60's, when we shared many adventures in
|
|
Milbrook till the Empire banished its Celtic guru into exile and
|
|
prison. We still have a temple in Duchess County, where the church is
|
|
legally incorporated.
|
|
|
|
At that time the Church more or less abandoned all "Orthodoxy" (though
|
|
not the name) and found its true spirit in Sufism.
|
|
What interested us most was Sufism of various unorthodox varieties,
|
|
including Ismailism (the teachings of the Assassins). But many other
|
|
strains were woven into the M.O.C. in the 60's, including Advaita
|
|
Vedanta, Tantra, Neo-American-style psychedelic mysticism, Native
|
|
American Symbolism, and insurrectionist activism.
|
|
|
|
The 70's and early 80's in retrospect seem a rather dim period in
|
|
Church history. Members scattered around the world and interest waned.
|
|
The "New Age" bogged down in various Greed Therapies, guru-scams and
|
|
bland-outs. For a while only small groups in Manhattan and Dutchess
|
|
Co. kept a shadowy existence and continuity. Recently however the time
|
|
has become ripe for a Revival. New religions are appearing: Native
|
|
American rites, Neo-paganism, Anarcho-taoism, the followers of Eris
|
|
and others with whom we feel a natural affinity. We have launched a
|
|
new edition of our newspaper, The Moorish Science Monitor (quiescent
|
|
since 1967!) and many new conversions have resulted. The sudden
|
|
upsurge of interest necessitated this revised edition of the M.O.C.
|
|
pamphlet, out of print since the late 60's.
|
|
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
|
|
What is Moorish Orthodoxy? What is its "Catechism"? Many people have
|
|
converted to Moorish Orthodoxy simply on hearing its name or seeing
|
|
the photograph of Noble Drew Ali (frontispiece of the Circle Seven
|
|
Koran) -- later, however, they may wish to learn something of Moorish
|
|
doctrine.
|
|
|
|
In effect, there is none. Moorish Orthodoxy is like a mirror in which
|
|
each seeker beholds a beloved form, each one different. We have no
|
|
required ritual and no source of authority other than those the
|
|
individual imagination provides. We do however perhaps share a certain
|
|
"taste" or spiritual aesthetic.
|
|
|
|
Moorish Orthodoxy was founded originally to explore the esoteric
|
|
dimensions of Noble Drew's teachings, discovered in such passages from
|
|
the Circle Seven Koran as these:
|
|
|
|
"Now cease to seek for heaven in the sky;
|
|
Just open up the windows of your hearts and,
|
|
like a flood of light, a heaven will come
|
|
and bring a boundless joy."
|
|
|
|
"By the sweet breath of Allah all life is
|
|
bound to one; so if you touch a fiber of
|
|
a living thing you send a thrill from
|
|
center to the outer bounds of life."
|
|
|
|
"You are, each one, a priest, Just for
|
|
yourself."
|
|
|
|
"Allah and man are one."
|
|
|
|
"When man has conquered every foe upon the
|
|
plane of soul and the seed will have full
|
|
opened out, will have unfolded in the
|
|
Holy Breath. The garb of the soul will then
|
|
have served its purpose well, and man will
|
|
need it never more...and man will then at-
|
|
tain unto a blessedness of perfectness
|
|
and at one with Allah."
|
|
|
|
"I (Jesus) brought immortality to light
|
|
and painted on the walls of time a rain-
|
|
bow for the sons of men; and what I did
|
|
all men shall do."
|
|
|
|
The antinomian and egalitarian aspects of lines like these have
|
|
reinforced our position, in relation to all organized religion, of
|
|
heresy; in relation to all liberatory teachings and beautiful
|
|
imaginings we take up a posture of "rootless cosmopolitanism" that
|
|
seeks out universal spirit hidden anywhere, revealed in all cultures,
|
|
always occult and dissident, an "Invisible College" embracing East and
|
|
West but rejecting all official stultifying Consensus Reality. A Moor
|
|
might belong to any religion or none, "free either to take up a form
|
|
or not take up a form... not bound to any. Forms are for use, not to
|
|
make captives" (Hazrat Inayat Khan).
|
|
|
|
The idea of an American heretical Islam is one such form. We
|
|
appreciate the aesthetic of Moorish Science, of Noble Drew's unique
|
|
and prophetic mixture of Afro-American, Native American, Magical,
|
|
Oriental and Moorish symbolism and imagery. We admire his courage, his
|
|
martyrdom, his revolutionary stance against "Pharoah", his
|
|
Americanizing of the prophetic spirit (he always wore a Cherokee
|
|
feather in his fez). We reflect this aesthetic in our lives and
|
|
creative work. But we are not bound by it. Like certain esoteric
|
|
Javanese sects we reject the figure of the Master (guru or murshed) in
|
|
favor of the teacher. Anyone can be a teacher in relation to someone;
|
|
everyone has something to teach, something to learn.
|
|
|
|
To symbolize this attitude, all Moors are encouraged to create new
|
|
names and titles for themselves. The Moorish Hierarchy is self
|
|
appointed; anyone is free to print Passports, although the old
|
|
Manhattan Lodge possesses certain seals and procedures which converts
|
|
may appreciate. Popular titles include: Moorish Governor,
|
|
Metropolitan, Deacon, Vicar, Exilarch, Imam, Castellan, Papessa,
|
|
Contessa, Marshall or just plain Reverend. Moorish Science Temple
|
|
adherents often add "Bey" or "El" to their names, others favor other
|
|
traditions, and some use their own names. All Moors are entitled to
|
|
titles, however, since all Moors have "authority".
|
|
|
|
The Moorish Orthodox Catechism, then, consists of no rules or dogmas,
|
|
but only of adherance to the "Five Pillars" of Moorish Science as
|
|
listed by Noble Drew:
|
|
|
|
LOVE
|
|
TRUTH
|
|
PEACE
|
|
FREEDOM
|
|
JUSTICE
|
|
|
|
to which we add a sixth, "Beauty".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This bud opens into the red rose,
|
|
the nightingale is drunk for joy---
|
|
Hail, seekers! Lovers of wine;
|
|
wine for a thirsty world
|
|
like a slug under
|
|
the rock of repentance...
|
|
a rock smashed by a mere goblet---
|
|
and that is the announcement, the Miracle
|
|
|
|
Wine for the king! Wine for the slave!
|
|
this banquet was set for everyone,
|
|
drunk or sober, and when
|
|
the Feast is over and night grows up,
|
|
and the inside door of the Tavern springs
|
|
open
|
|
Low and High together will bow down
|
|
under the Arch of the World
|
|
to meet what...outside?
|
|
|
|
Hafez Shirazi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|