Constellating Blood Memory
Graveyard dirt from my Afrosalvadoran antepasados’ tumbas in Chinameca on their altar
When I first began seriously studying astrology, some of the events that I was most interested in analyzing astrologically were the charts of political events of my mother land El Salvador where I was raised during my first 7 years of this life. My relationship to this land and our history is the foundation of my human experience and identity in this life. In my journey one of the most important lessons I've learned from my teachers and elders is that in order to become spiritual, one must first become HUMAN. We can try to transcend our mortal condition and suffering, but if we ignore where we come from and who we are as human beings, denying our shared humanity, our spiritual practice becomes yet another trap and form of bondage.
For you to understand my worldview, my heart and my spirit, you would have to understand my human experience. Even though my maternal familial origins were humble, I consider them to be noble. The families I was born into descend from a long lineage of scholars, educators, translators, journalists and photojournalists, doctors, lawyers, politicians, ambassadors, activists, artists and revolutionaries. Some of my relatives and now ancestors were also mystics and seers even if their professions were something else. My maternal abuelas who raised me practiced folk-catholic magic, ancestral veneration and plant medicine (what I refer to as Guanaco folk magic). Both of my maternal grandparents were survivors of genocide and played critical roles in resisting empire.
Mis abuelos bailando
Before I was born, my abuelo Dr. Joaquín Hernández Callejas had been a prominent leader in the Communist Party of El Salvador as an intellectual and político. He was born into a family of musicians, teachers and wood-workers in Chinameca, and in his humble youth was a multi-instrumentalist playing marimbas and cumbias in the town fairs and local celebrations. He taught me how to play the piano as a child and our home was often filled with the beautiful sounds of his violin and accordion accompanied by my abuela's singing. Papi’s adult career as a lawyer and attorney general, scholar and writer led him to author a number of pedagogical texts which are in the Salvadoran university curriculums, such as State: Myth & Reality (Estado: Mito y Realidad) and Historical Development of the Theory of the State (Desarollo Historico de la Teoria del Estado). The chapter titles to State: Myth & Reality (Estado: Mito y Realidad) gives the reader a sense of what is discussed:
I. Estado Mitológico (Mythological State)
II. Estado Eterno (Eternal State)
III. Estado Divino (Divine State)
IV. Estado Natural (Natural State)
V. Estado Ideal (Ideal State)
VI. Estado Racional (Rational State)
VII. Estado Racista (Racist State)
VIII. Estado Fascista (Fascist State)
IX. Estado Imperialista (Imperialist State)
X. Estado Anarquista (Anarchist State)
XI. Estado Socialista (Socialist State)
Mi abuelito's favorite works of literature were One Thousand and One Nights and Cervantes' Don Quixote. He published essays about these works, such as Cuento de las Mil y Una Noches y el Ideal (Tale of the One Thousand and One Nights and the Ideal):
Aparentemente ese es un cuento para niños, un relato simple que ya no mueve a las conciencias de la época entusiasmadas hoy por las colosales proyecciones de la técnica moderna en la conquista del espacio y en las truculencias inauditas de la ciencia ficción. Pero no. Este cuento como otros famosos de la literatura universal, tiene vigencia eterna, tanto por la belleza formal de su estilo como por el contenido de sus magníficas enseñanzas.
translated:
Apparently this is a children's story, a simple tale that no longer moves the consciences of the age, which are excited today by the colossal projections of modern technology in the conquest of space and the unheard-of tricks of science fiction. But no. This story, like other famous ones in universal literature, is eternally relevant, both for the formal beauty of its style and for the content of its magnificent teachings.
My grandfather speaking at his induction to the Academy of the Language in San Salvador
My grandfather was inducted into the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española) in Madrid, receiving a medallion of distinction directly from King Juan Carlos. He was also inducted into the Salvadoran Academy of the Language (Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua) and the Chilean Academy of the Language (Academia Chilena de la Lengua). Before these accomplishments, however, he had been nominated to run for the presidency of El Salvador under the Communist Party during the first Red Scare, a time that was increasingly oppressive for people's movements across the so-called Americas. He received death threats from the right-wing and was being watched by the CIA (my family later collected copies of his stack of files that date back to the 1950s after his passing in 2000). Because of this he declined the presidential nomination to protect his family, having already lost a number of relatives and allies —all of which happened in the decades leading up to the overthrow of the oligarchs and the civil war that I was born into.
Papí being inducted into the Chilean Academy of the Language (Academia Chilena de la Lengua)
My grandparents' home in la Miramonte became known among the FMLN as a safe house in San Salvador, and my abuela would give food & shelter to revolutionaries who came to our door. The CIA was still keeping intelligence on my family through the remainder of my grandfather's life but by the time I was born he was focused on cultural and political scholarship as a leading figure in the intellectual circles of El Salvador, becoming president of the Athenium of El Salvador (el Ateneo de El Salvador). As a child, I grew up attending some of their forums with my abuela. My abuelo's life was dedicated to the transmission of knowledge, a firm believer that knowledge has the power to set one free. This is who raised me along with my abuela who was also a teacher and scholar, before I started living with my mother in the Belly of the Beast. I will share more about my beloved abuelita in another post, since she was a foundational force that connected me to our roots and passed on some of our traditional practices.
Mis abuelos bailando
Another highly influential character in my upbringing is my tío Beto, who is known to those outside of our family as Luís -La Muñeca- Romero. Tío Beto is a world-renowned photo-journalist. The majority of the images documenting the civil war of El Salvador were taken by him, being one of a handful Associated Press photo-journalists in our country during the 1980s. Alongside being a teacher of his craft and practice, he later became the presidential photographer under the first FMLN presidency in 2009 and is since tenured to this position by succeeding presidents including the current one. I spent a good portion of my late adolescence with him and his siblings, living with his sister (my tía Chole) who is also a human rights and feminist activist. Beto is my abuelo's nephew and my grandparents were very close with him and his siblings. My grandmother (his tía) had a camera and was always taking pictures, inspiring him to pursue his path as a professional photographer. We call him Beto because his second name is Alberto.
My tío Beto during the civil war docucmenting displaced campesinos
Tío Beto in recent years
Then there is my tío Edgar Varela (who has served as the ambassador of El Salvador in France, then later in the Hague, Netherlands and who is currently El Salvador's ambassador in Belgium). Tío Edgar was also very close to my grandparents as the nephew of my abuela. His older sister was also my late madrina, who was like my second mother to me and passed away in 2017, one week prior to my abuela's transition. My tío Edgar's wife, Carla Hananía de Varela is also invovled in state affairs, serving as the Minister of Education under president Bukele's first term. She has since stepped down from this post, while her son (my cousin) is still also active in the political realm but my other cousins are artists. This is the part of my family who are Palestinian-Salvadoran, with my extended family being the Hananía and Zablah families, and their extended family being the Bukeles.
Though the people closest to me know about my family history, up until now I’ve never disclosed publicly the life I was born into because I never wanted to use my family for clout and also because it wasn’t safe to do so. I don’t believe it’s safer now, but I share these personal details of my background so that you can get a sense for how my progressive relatives and my direct lived experiences as a war-child shaped my world-view to greatly inform my interest and investigation into the topics of war, resistance and uprisings, of anti-imperialist movements and liberatory struggle. None of what I’ve shared here is new intel for the gov anyway.
Since becoming a full-time astrólogo at the start of this decade I have written about the astrology of some historical events with the scope that I have had available to me, when not many in the greater (ie, more popular) community seemed to care or even know about the long history of liberation movements in the Americas or how they tie to Africa, Palestine and beyond. Over this past year (2023-2024) though, we have seen more people become aware of the "Palestine Question" and learn more about the history of its occupation, and consequently have become more aware of the intersecting struggles with ethnic cleansing around the world, of imperialism itself and what is brewing within the walls of the American Empire.
Not every astrologer is an activist, and not every astrologer concerns themselves with the actual reality that most people live in this world, not even the more well-known mundane astrologers. Yet I do not expect everyone to be class-conscious nor historically-conscious, and definitely do not expect other astrologers to be radical around politics. I understand that to wake up to these realities that shape our world requires a direct confrontation with the pain and suffering in one's self and in others. To truly address these issues requires integrity and committment, but above all vulnerability and compassion and a profound love for humanity.
For my own self, this has been a long winding road. I do not have all the answers but I have the love of freedom in me and the desire to assist and enable our collective liberation, which is why I do the work that I do.
Political astrology is not an area I will claim expertise in at this time, but instead it must be understood that this component of my research is a continuation of work that has been literally a lifetime in the making. The research that I hope to share is an ongoing study that unpacks our entwined histories to be able to foresee and prepare for the shifts in power structures that are sure to come in this new epoch unfolding for the next 240 years.
Empires come and go, but the Spirit is eternal and all chains ultimately rust to break apart.
In solidarity, and by the love of the stars and of us,
Naji
