The awakening of Sleeping Beauty Part Three
Enter the Dragon

And reward them, for their steadfastness, with a Garden and with silk, Reclining therein on raised couches; they will see therein neither (excessive heat of) sun nor intense cold.�Surah 76, verse 12-13

The revival of the cultural arts among our people in America initiates a period of our reeducation and training in giving birth to a new standard of Truth, Freedom, Justice and Equality coming at the dawn of the new millennium. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad desired for our people to be fully developed in all of our natural gifts of the spirit which includes excellence in music, drama, theater and the cinema, jointly exhibiting high athletic dexterity, as well as attaining the highest achievements in academic accomplishments, making new discoveries in all of the arts and sciences of civilization. He taught us in the first stage of our awakening to separate ourselves from the old world�s immoral and corrupt society and from those ideas and images fostered by our former slave masters, which keep us a slave to satan�s world of desires. He taught us to create new images of our own in telling the greatness of our own ancient past and heritage right down to the modern times. He wanted to meet with our entertainers with the objective to encourage and guide us into a new cultural expression rooted in the Divine Creative Force and Power of Almighty God (Allah). He desired for us to build theaters across the country featuring productions that would reflect a high moral and intelligent society and civilization.

One of the most outstanding achievements in artistic expression within the Nation of Islam occurred in the 1960s production of Orgena, written, produced and directed by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Always being ahead of his time, he was a child prodigy in his musical performance on the violin and appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. He was also noted in his youth for having a splendid quality, high-pitched singing voice and later performed rhythmic renditions of calypso style music that connected to his classical training. In 1955, when he first accepted Islam, he devoted himself fully to the study of the divine teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and gave up his music career to become the Greatest Helper of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the Spiritual Resurrection of our mentally dead people. He never lost his musical gifts or talents; and at the age of 60 he performed Felix Mendelssohn�s famous Violin Concerto at Christ Universal Temple with extraordinary triumph under the musical direction and baton of Michael Morgan.

One never loses anything that Almighty God Allah blesses us to have by nature, we only evolve to a higher and more perfected expression of that gift through the sacrifices we make in life�s revolutionary journey.

In the example of the Artist Known as Prince, whose lofty thoughts and ideas have evolved into a new and more vibrant spiritual expression through the years of his musical genius; we must all strive to bring into fullness our unique cultural creativity to reflect true humanness and Godliness. The Cultural Revolution of our times must focus on the improvement of true family values and community development.

As I conclude this aspect of the story of Sleeping Beauty, we are once again reminded of the vision of Prince and our total vision as a people that we must be born again to see life through the eyes of a child. As we think of our youth and childhood with a renewed spirit, wonderment and joy, we grow and mature gradually into the image of our Divine Creator and Maker. In theater and lyric opera, we have three main scenes or stages manifested in the drama of life. We begin as nothing that can be spoken of in the beginning, as we are made by Allah from sperm mixed with ovum, imbued with the faculties of hearing and seeing and speech all being guided in its stages of development by the One God.

We may be thankful for life and its opportunities or we may be unthankful and ungrateful. "Surely we have prepared for the disbelievers chains and shackles and burning fire." Surah 76 verse 4. Those who are lucky and survive the challenges of life drink of a cup tempered with camphor�that Allah makes to flow in abundance for those who are generous and give food out of love for Him, to the poor and the orphan and the captive. It is to these that Allah wards off the evil of the day and causes them to meet with splendor and happiness. He makes them to settle down in the shadows of the garden eating of its fruits that are near, and round about them are made to go vessels of silver and goblets of glass, Crystal-clear, made of silver. And they are made to drink therein a cup tempered with ginger�Of a fountain therein called Salsabil. And round about them will go youths never altering in age: when thou seest them thou will think them to be scattered pearls. And when thou lookest thither, thou seest blessings and a great kingdom. The above verses of Surah 76 describe the beauties and adornment of paradise reserved for the righteous.

Seeing life through the eyes of a child brings us renewed growth and spiritual maturity. Prince has contributed greatly to this process and is to be commended for his charitable acts and deeds in uplifting and conveying spiritual messages in his music, by putting God in the forefront of the search, and longing for self-improvement. He is closing the gap between the young and the elderly, the child and the adult. This was exemplified in his concert on the night of June 13. Herein is a mathematical riddle to solve��study its rhythm and rhyme. The number 13 when resolved becomes 4. June is the 6th month in the Western Gregorian Calendar Time. The 6th month added to the 13th day equals 19; and 19 x 4 equals 76. It is in the 76th Surah of the Holy Qur�an, titled Al-Insan (The Man) in which we have cited the above passages of paradise, a heaven on earth, and of the kingdom to come. The number 76 is composed of 7 and 6 which added together equal 13; 76 is a multiple of 19 X 4. The mathematical message of our brother Prince computes "Love 4 One Another," his Charitable organization.

I found it rather surprising that my father�s slave name and the father of Prince is Nelson. In this continuous unraveling of coincidences, I further learned that he attended Central High School in Minnesota while I attended Central High School in Detroit, Michigan. It was even speculated that we might prove to be distant cousins. As a youth member of Central Congregational Church in Detroit, I remembered being cast in the role of the mother of Jesus pleading and weeping for her son at the foot of the cross. The imagery comes all the way down to all of the mothers of the world today who are pleading for our sons and children in today�s violent world. Always known as a revolutionary in my youth, my path crossed that of the late Revolutionary clergyman Rev. Albert B. Clegg, who later re-named his church the Church of the Black Madonna and subsequently changed his own name as well.

As we enter the New Millennium the heaven is opening, and according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, we have entered the Year of the Dragon. Returning back to Minneapolis several weeks after the seven day celebration, I attended a performance of the acclaimed Chinese Dance Theater in a work titled: Descendants of the Dragon. Once again the talented musician and teacher, Lily Yuan, child prodigy in musical skills on the ancient Dulcimer and Yanquin instruments, teamed up with a Chinese classical violinist who accompanied her along with her own son playing percussion. The trio presented a medley of Chinese traditional musical themes. The dragon as understood from the oriental or eastern perspective is traced back to a time of remote antiquity. The power, strength and vigor of the dragon makes it a formidable object to study. The dragon features can be traced to individual totems worshipped by Ancient Chinese Tribes. In one of the legends a magic dragon appears and causes a particular wife of a ruler to conceive and bear two sons, who were named Emperors Yan and Huang. It is stated in this legend that from these ancient sons of the dragon the Chinese Nation descended.

The image of the dragon, the serpent and the bird, appears to be classical icons used by many ancient member nations and tribes from Asia, to Africa and the Americas, with the inclusion of the Isles of the Caribbean and the Pacific.

We also find in the Scriptures beginning with Genesis that the symbolic serpent is endowed with the nature of being the most crafty and subtle of the beasts of the field. However, in its pristine power and force the Dragon represents the light of transformation and change. At the conclusion of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, the serpent takes on the form of a dragon who spews out of his mouth a great flood to destroy the woman who is about to give birth to a man child who is to rule with the nations with a rod of iron. The wings of an Eagle (Bird) are sent down to deliver her and the child who are conveyed to a place of safety. We may also note that in another version of the Sleeping Beauty Fairy-tale that the wicked fairy transforms herself into a dragon to oppose the entrance of the prince to the place where the princess and her people have fallen asleep.

Their awakening, followed by the wedding celebration, can only take place when the evil forces are put under the control of a Powerful Master, God who under disguise is manifested as God himself. Throughout the seven-day celebration of Prince, he was striving to restore his (our) dignity and his (our) freedom. This exemplifies that our nation�s struggle within a nation is to subdue and overcome the dragon (devil-serpent) by levitating to the flight of a bird or an Eagle into the heavenly abode.

The Universal Ballet Company of Korea in its second beautifully staged dance performance of the Korean Traditional Legend, Shim Chung, again repeats the scenario of the characterization of life struggle in which a more friendly type dragon king captures the daughter of a blind man who hurls herself into the sea escaping her captures finding a safe haven beneath the sea. In her longing to return to her father, she is helped by the mythical dragon king to return to shore and ultimately fill her destiny by marrying the prince of a certain kingdom. Once again we view the festivities of a banquet and marriage ceremony being performed to inaugurate the new reigning king and queen. Yearning to find her father, he appears among the invited guests many of whom are blind men, she recognized her father and embraces him The quality of her love breaks the spell and those who were blind can now see. These allegorical stories are certainly reminders of our own struggle in America to overcome oppression and our condition of being made blind, deaf and dumb to the knowledge of self and our God by our former slave master and their children to this day.

Now we are being Called to the Sound of the Million Family March through the Pivotal character and the Leading Voice of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. We must travel the distance of light and sound in our revolution (earth) around the sun added to the speed of thought, we must make haste in our journey back home. With the birth of a new world of thought, we are beginning to express a new and dynamic world of creativity. If the Black Family can come back to life and come together in this New Millennium seeing the world through the eyes of a child uniting our hearts and visions as one, we can become the (N.P.G.) New Power Generation producing A New Sound Of Our Awakening that will be heard around the world.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is making a Mighty Call throughout the land with his primary focus on saving the Black Family as the Instrument called by God to unite all other fallen family members to join on to our own kind in companies to become one Global Humanity.

"And when Abraham said, my Lord, show me how thou giveth life to the dead, he said: does thou not believe? He said: yes, but that my heart may be at ease. He said: then take four birds then tame them to incline to thee, then place on every mountain a part of them, then call them, they will come to thee flying; and know that Allah is mighty, wise." Surah 2 Verse 260