Walking the Sacred Journey Beyond Limits, Rooted in God & Truth

(Part one)

“We built this system because faith is a living journey, not a simple answer. It is a sacred dance of light and shadow, earth and heaven, past and future. To hold the mystery, to teach the children, and to walk with God through all seasons of life, we needed a language, a rhythm, & a home for the soul, beyond the illusion & limitations of perception.” -Forefathers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Faith

I come from an ancient lineage children of awakened fathers, raised in a sacred village compound where faith, ritual, and ancestral wisdom were the very fabric of life. From a young age, I was nurtured in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition a faith that is more than religion. It is a living system of art, science, history, mysticism, and spirit, passed down across millennia to guide, protect, and awaken.

But my journey has never been about simple acceptance or conformity. By the time I was fourteen, I was already walking a path of fasting, prayer, arts, and sport, emotionally distancing myself from a family vision that sought to confine me within fear and control, as the environment around me was not safe. I chose instead to follow God, spirit, and my own truth, even when that meant walking alone.

I have traveled far across continents and cultures, through universities and global projects yet my soul has remained tethered to the land, to the compound that raised me, and to a faith that teaches me to be vigilant and sharp as a serpent.

Moment in time

I write this now during Filseta Tsom, the sacred two-week fast in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition commemorating the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary, whose feast is celebrated on Nehase 16 (August 22). It is a time of prayer, fasting, and deep spiritual renewal.

As I walk amidst the rubble and dust of the demolition of my neighborhood, Yeka in ancient Addis Abeba I feel the weight of history being torn down. People’s pasts, homes, and memories are being erased, seemingly to rewrite history. Yet, in this destruction, I see a divine opening — a space where the earth, world, universe, and humanity are evolving through chaos.

I am saddened by the poverty, desperation, and divisions that seek to distract from truth with lies, illusions, manipulations, micro-aggressions, threats, and rejection at every level. But I know discernment is our way forward as false prophets, corrupt institutions, and unworthy leaders roam rampant.

My Philosophy: Rooted in God, Love, and the Faith of Humanity
I have studied the religions of the world, not to separate but to understand their connections how each faith holds a piece of the sacred dance of existence. The Ethiopian Orthodox faith is my home a sophisticated blend of Judaic roots, early Christian theology, and African spirituality, wrapped in the rhythms of fasting, prayer, and cosmic knowledge.

Unlike the limited views of Western science or manmade philosophies like Descartes, which try to cage truth within reason alone, my path honors the fullness of being the seen and unseen, the light and the shadow, the eternal dance of earth and heaven.

This faith is a language not just words but rhythms, symbols, rituals that connect me deeply to God, my ancestors, and the universe. It teaches me that knowledge is not merely intellectual but holistic integrating spirit, art, science, history, and lived experience.

The Battle I Know: Between Ancient Roots and Global Upheaval
I am a young Ethiopian woman born into a time of unprecedented change one of the most turbulent chapters in Ethiopia’s long and storied history. The revolution of the 1970s and 1980s toppled centuries-old imperial rule, sparking violence and upheaval, resulting in the death of millions during the Red Terror and triggering the largest brain drain in Africa’s history. Thousands of brilliant minds fled the country, leaving a void that reshaped our nation’s identity and future.

Ethiopia, a cradle of civilization and one of the world’s oldest continuous nations, faced a reckoning a painful fracture between past and future, tradition and modernity. A country that had withstood colonialism’s grasp the only African nation to largely maintain sovereignty now grappled with internal chaos and forced reinvention.

My story is inseparable from this landscape. I was raised in a family compound that held the living memory of this complex past a fusion of ancient knowledge, religious heritage, and the demands of Western education. My fathers were awakened leaders of our community, visionary men navigating the delicate balance between honoring centuries-old traditions and engaging a rapidly globalizing world. Their wives, custodians of the feminine divine, bore the weight of managing households and community systems amid social upheaval, fighting quietly for respect and space in a patriarchal society.

Globally, the late 20th century was marked by seismic shifts: the Cold War’s end, the rise of neoliberal economic policies, and a worldwide surge in migration and diaspora. Many nations faced struggles similar to Ethiopia’s grappling with fractured identities, displaced peoples, and the erasure of indigenous knowledge under the weight of globalization and Western dominance.

In this world, our mothers and grandmothers carried a dual burden. Within Ethiopian society as in many cultures worldwide the feminine was often suppressed, forced into roles of silent suffering, shadow work, and control within families fractured by trauma and change. These women navigated complex webs of power, sometimes competing with their own children, and using force or manipulation as survival tools in a world that denied their full humanity.

As an empath, I deeply felt their pain but chose emotional detachment as a form of self-preservation and clarity. I learned to read beneath the surface understanding the masks people wore, the hidden wounds they carried, and the energetic forces at play. This inner knowing became my compass, guiding me through the complexities of family, community, and society.

Around me swirled the echoes of colonial legacies  Western institutions that often undermined indigenous systems, unchallenged religious rituals that silenced questions and fostered compliance, and social orders lacking the checks and balances needed to prevent abuse and decay.

Disrespect for spirituality and the soul’s truth bred unconscious enslavement not only in Ethiopia but globally. Across continents, indigenous and African diasporic communities witnessed the destruction of ancestral technologies and wisdom, especially the sacred feminine the spiritual warriors whose courage and strategy once balanced societies.

We lived under inherited codes demanding that we be "good girls" obedient, pleasing, and nice shackled by fear, doubt, and insecurity. These codes, whether Ethiopian or global, aimed to suppress rebellion and maintain the status quo.

This is the battlefield I know. A war fought not only on streets and in institutions but in spirit and soul  where ancestral wisdom battles against modern systems of control. It is a call to awaken, to reclaim our heritage, and to rise beyond oppression toward liberation for ourselves, our communities, and generations yet to come.

Continue in part two

By dutchess @deldeyoch