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InterviewsScholarThe Black Scholar Series

Ancient Future: An Interview with Wayne B. Chandler

“We’re universal entities. The way our DNA is coded, there’s nothing we don’t know. It’s a matter of locking into that body of information through the practices that our ancestors have left here for us to embrace to get at that information and to be able to work through your own inner truths, the innerstanding of your own inner truths. There’s nothing that’s more powerful than being able to contact and connect to sources within your own being knowing that, that source is going to give you an authentic direction regarding your own inner truth.”

Kentake Page was honored with an extensive interview with Wayne B. Chandler author of Ancient Future: The Teachings and Prophetic Wisdom of the Seven Hermetic Laws of Ancient Egypt. In this interview, Chandler shares information on his background, the meaning of the soul force, astrology, broadening our understanding of history and his meeting and time with Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.

Chandler is an inspirational speaker, practitioner and healer who has lectured throughout Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. He holds a dual M.A. in Photography and History from the University of California at Berkely and has completed extensive coursework in Ancient Egyptian Astronomy and Numerology through the California Metaphysical Institute in Berkeley, California, and in Anthropogenesis and Human Science through the Theosophical Institute in New York City. Chandler is also a martial artist with over 25 years of experience. He is trained in the system of Long Fist, and also has extensive training in the African based martial art of Capoeira in which he has been an instructor in both Washington, DC and Cleveland, Ohio for a total of 13 years.

Chandler sparring

Born in Washington D.C. and growing up during the tumultuous Civil Rights and Black Power Movement in the United States, Chandler does not confine himself to a specific birth date to establish age. According to Chandler, age “is an inaccurate perception. The reason people ask me about my age all the time is because I don’t move at or reflect the age that they would normally categorize for me as being and often various characteristics that come along with that particular category, most of which are aspects of debilitation and close-mindedness and other aspects of mental and emotional rigidity. When people ask me, ‘How old are you?’ I say, ‘Are you familiar with the Biblical character Methuselah?’ (They say) ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the oldest man in the Bible!’ I say, ‘Yeah, that’s my son…’”

Chandler’s father was a lawyer and his mother a social worker. His family including his brother, moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was young; however, he made frequent trips back to Washington D.C. where his friends were. As a child, he was drawn to the power of nature. He was thought of by other youth as eccentric, even odd and was labeled “Dr. Bug” for his interest in insects, animals and natural phenomena.

“I had a very profound attraction and an alliance with the natural world and what it produced. As a child I was always in fields, woods, swamps. I was always raising one kind of animal or another or going out catching turtles, frogs, tadpoles… Having prey mantis in my garden… climbing trees, just being really, really being deeply connected to the natural process of the world. So much so that I really didn’t have attachments to human beings. My love really was for the aspects that I found in nature because that’s what resonated with me much more so than the human component which surrounded me at various times. A lot of the times that I was developing as a child, I sought solitude in those types of places; fields, glens, in the woods, swamps and places where I was surrounded by nature.This is what really was a very developed and integrated aspect of my soul force. I just seem to have at a very early time a very deep and profound connection to the natural process of things.”

chandler young

As he grew older, Chandler took some time off of his studies in college to travel. He lived in the Caribbean for over a year and half and on his return to the USA, he became heavily involved in Cleveland’s burgeoning Black Power Movement.

“I became very involved in that particular movement much to the dismay of my parents and other individuals who just didn’t really get or understand the need to rock the boat… I had made inroads in that particular aspect of the movement, through the Black Nationalists and exhibited that in dress and speech. Some of my friends were in different parts of the country and they became more affiliated and associated with the Black Panthers movement. It was the time where all of those things were really coming to fruition and were having really quite a substantial impact on the political consciousness of individuals of my generation.”

Although his parents had concerns with his involvement with the Black Power movement they nonetheless provided Chandler with support.

“The way I was raised, I was given certain degrees of latitude where I could expand and the freedom of expressing my thoughts and refining and cultivating specific directions regarding my consciousness. My parents were more in play with respect to shaping and giving proper direction to how I express those particular dynamics … They weren’t really about stifling my growth patterns. But they were about making sure that the directions that I took, that I was clear in those directions [and that] those directions were thoughtful and not just reckless. They never tried to derail me from what it was I was attempting to do with establishing a political consciousness and a cultural consciousness. They were more concerned with how I moved through the world and present that to other individuals who may not understand where it was that I was coming from.”

Chandler’s study and thinking began to expand before and during the Black Power and Nationalist Movement toward bodies of information that tapped into his profound intuitive faculties. He delved into, as he calls it, “spiritual chronicles and philosophical treaty that gave me a deeper innerstanding of who and what I was and how the world moved… the more I looked inside, that was what needed to be refined. That’s where my true power was. My true power was an internal manifestation of what I can take and exhibit, project in an outwardly manner to influence my outward environment. It wasn’t about attaching myself to specific organizations or specific individuals who had their own agenda. Their agenda was not necessarily my agenda. I had to first discover my own path. I had to discover what my own agenda, my own purpose for being here. Not just connect or integrate with other individuals just because I was open to what it was they were saying.”

Chandler believes that studying history through a European lens, even African history through a European lens, can actually limit our understanding of the profound dimensions of our vast history. He explains:

“My perspective, in terms of how I look at history, is not Eurocentric… most African centered historians still use a very Eurocentric model to analyze history and you can’t really use that kind of model when it comes to getting at the very crux and foundation of what really generates our genius and creates our ingenuity when it comes to the various tiers of life. A lot of the things that really created the foundation, the spiritual philosophy of an African centered establishment, historical direction, are not embraced. We definitely have become masters at the academics in terms of academically knowing that this group of people were Black and they went here and they went there and they did this and they did that, they built this, they built that, but a lot of the finer elements that feed into what created the various glues and cements that held those civilizations and cultures together are omitted. We live in a culture that is deeply, profoundly to a fault very intellectual at the expense of a right brain dynamic… Our ancestors began with the establishing of inner self. Cultivating their inner resources and developing their own inner personal power before they stepped out into the world to apply and project that.”

Many of Chandler’s study and research can be found in his book, “Ancient Future: The Teachings and Prophetic Wisdom of the Seven Hermetic Laws of Ancient Egypt”. He shared with us on how this book came about:

“Doing Ancient Future was very easy for me because I used one book as a template that I was exposed to in 1970. I was exposed to a book called “The Kybalion”. The Kybalion was based on the Seven Hermetic Principles that govern and move throughout the entire fabric of the universe. That was one of my most favorite books. So, I just used it as a template to expound upon and go even deeper into these principles and make them more relevant to humanity and especially to Black people.”

Although Chandler in this book deals with powerful spiritual and esoterically concepts, he is solidly grounded in the rudiments of academic research that comes from his own background, including his time with famed historian Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.

Ivan_Van_Sertima

Ivan Van Sertima

“I met him at a conference. At the time I approached him, I just approached him because I had a very strong focus on ancient India and I approached him about doing something regarding ancient India and its spiritual traditions. He said, ‘Yes, you can write something.’”

“I worked with Van Sertima for 10 years. I wrote in the Journal of African Civilization for 10 years. In that particular realm, Ivan was one of my greatest mentors. He showed me and taught me the very specific equations that you need to present in order to make your theory impenetrable, unchallenged. He showed me and taught me how to build on top of whatever my particular historical direction was. He showed me how to build on that so that when I present that information in the way I need to present it, it cannot be challenged. It cannot be reputed.”

“Runoko (Rashidi) and I wrote more for the Journal of African Civilization than anyone. The thing that I learned from Ivan was how you frame your argument. How many basis you have to cover so that your information cannot be refuted. Probably my personal favorite was in Egypt Revisited and that particular piece was entitled ‘Of Gods and Men – Egypt’s Old Kingdom’.”

chandler with runoko

Chandler, Runoko Rashidi and Yiser Ra Hotep

“When I was writing for Ivan Van Sertima, we were all top scholars. We were really the best of the best. People would say, “Oh, wow he’s one of the best Black historians dealing with India or China or the Moors…” People might think that that is a compliment but it really isn’t. When you are categorized like that then you find yourself in a box and being in a box you have limitations. I never felt we were the best Black this or that… I just felt we were the best historical minds in this particular topic. So I would never refer to James Brunsen or Runoko Rashidi… I would never say Runoko is the best Black historian when it comes to the culture of ancient West Asia and India….I would just say he is the best historian period!”

It was Chandler’s due diligence and skill as a historian that led him to the a great historical find which many may be unaware of today.

“I wrote a piece on Hannibal which (Ivan Van Sertima) wrote me a letter which I still have, that he says he felt that that piece on Hannibal was the greatest contribution ever written to any of the journals.”

“It was an interesting story. My area of expertise was ancient India. I wanted to write about the Buddha and Ivan came to me, he called me one evening and he said, ‘What you going to write on?’ I said, ‘I’m going to write something on the Buddha.’ He said, ‘I need you not to do that. I need you to do a piece on Hannibal. Nobody is talking about Hannibal.’ Hannibal was one of the greatest influences in the ancient world.”

“In my mind I was like, ‘Ah man, Hannibal was like some kind of warrior dude… I ain’t interested in doing nothing on no Hannibal…’ But I said, ‘Ok, I’ll look into Hannibal.’ So I looked into Hannibal for about two weeks and then I got back to Ivan and I said, ‘Ivan I can’t find any information anywhere that says Hannibal was African. Everything that I have found, the pictures that I’ve uncovered through Greek sources, they all depict Hannibal as being whyte. He said, ‘What?!’ I said, ‘Yeah, they depict Hannibal as being whyte. He said, ‘I need you to go on. I need you to reclaim Hannibal.’”

“That’s what I did. I went in. I had French sources that I had to translate. I had Italian sources I had to translate. I went to this government agency that dealt with ancient coins. I found these coins which on one side had a face that they tried to say had the mahout, the elephant rider and on the other side was Hannibal’s most cherished favorite elephant called the surus. That was Hannibal’s favorite elephant. It was an Indian elephant. That was the elephant that Hannibal rode. They tried to say they put the picture of the elephant rider on the coin. That ain’t going to happen! There ain’t nobody of disrepute or insignificance (that) is going to be on a coin! That was the beginning. I broke it down. I completely put it out there and rewrote the history of Hannibal.”

“I uncovered the actual coin (with Hannibal on it). Now J.A. Rogers did a drawing of that because he was able to find the same coins but he did not have the technology at that point in time to actually take the pictures. So he drew the coin, but I found the coin and took the actual photograph of it. When you read the piece that I wrote, I broke it down in such a way that you can’t refute it. That’s how Ivan taught me to present all our arguments. He said write them in a way that they cannot be refuted and that’s what I did.”

Chandler is conscious of the serious challenges and conditions facing our people today. He predicts dire and major catastrophic events that will hit America’s financial institutions as well as an ongoing intense period of spiritual darkness attributed to the Kali Yuga or cycle of time (a concept or philosophy or science introduced by the Black people of ancient India).

“’What’s going to save us?’, ‘How are we as a people going to get out of this?’ The only thing that’s going to get us out of this is divine intervention. Because the downward spiral that we are on is moving at such an accelerated force that the amount of power and energy that it would take via the consciousness of humanity to slow that downward spiral and bring it to a halt and then turn it upwards so that we begin to spiral upwards in the other direction, out consciousness is not framed.”

“You’re talking about a level of refined developed consciousness that does not understand or recognize limitation. You’re not talking about one individual; you’re talking about a community effort.”

“It’s important to have a daily program that reveals to you the true nature of who and what you are. Through doing specific practices, whether it’s meditation, Chi Gong, Kemetic Yoga… you want to have a program that keeps you aware of who and what you really are based on the inner knowing of yourself. Not the outside cultural knowing that is trying to convince you that you are less than what you really are so that it can take advantage. You have to have a program in place that you move to and dance to on a daily basis that when you step out into the world, you’re armored and you’ve got tools to create the kind of realities in the world that you want to create because that is your birthright.”

It is this daily program that Chandler believes individuals can get glimpses of and develop their soul force. Chandler describes the Soul Force as:

“The soul force is that aspect that feeds into your instinctive, intuitive and psychic knowing. It’s the aspect of yourself that the culture always attempts to suppress and keep at bay because it’s the one element or aspect of your being that gives you the power to manipulate and control your three dimensional environment.”

Through his lectures, workshops, retreats and writings (including a forthcoming book called The Brighter Side of Darkness) Wayne Chandler is making his mark in helping individuals realize their potential and make lasting changes in their lives. When asked about his legacy and how he wants to be remembered he stated:

“I’ve allowed people to find that inner spark. That ancestral spark within them that they will always be able to count on in terms of divulging truth. This is one of the things our ancestors have always told us. We’re spirit beings. That’s what we are. We’re universal entities. The way our DNA is coded, there’s nothing we don’t know. It’s a matter of locking into that body of information through the practices that our ancestors have left here for us to embrace to get at that information and to be able to work through your own inner truths, the innerstanding of your own inner truths. Because there’s nothing that’s more powerful than being able to contact and connect to sources within your own being knowing that that source is going to give you an authentic direction regarding your own inner truth.”

Stay tuned for much more of our interview with Wayne Chandler as he shares with us deep insights on Black male/female relationships, Astrology, the Soul Force and much more!

For more information on Wayne Chandler his lectures, retreats and workshops, visit his website at http://www.waynebchandler.com/or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wayne.b.chandler.

Additional sources for this interview: http://alchemyinc.net/wayne-b-chandler/

 
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1 comment

David L. Head October 11, 2015 at 13:42

I love the Breath and Depth of Wayne B. Chandler insight….

Reply

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