Black Keys Fellowship

Black Keys Fellowship is a fraternity (brotherhood) for men whose desire is to improve their inner man and develop deeper levels of character and integrity. Our character and integrity is more important than everything else put together. At the core of this is our spiritual nature so in a sense we can equate developmeny of our inner man with spiritual growth.

Black Keys does not promote and religion or system of belief but instead emphasizes Divine Principles which transcent all religions and philosophical systems. For example, the principle of reaping what we sow is not true because it is found in the Bibe or the Hindu sacred writings, but because it is a Divine Principle. Principles existed eternally long before religions or philosophical systems were created.

Certain aspects of these Divine Principles (also sometimes referred to an Universal Law or Natural Law are manifested as what have come to be known as the mysteries. There are two forms of the mysteries: that which can be communicated from one man to another, and that which cannot be communicated because it is simply not possibe to do so, and it is this knowledge which can only be realized internally from experience. This knowledge enhances our understanding of the development of our inner man, but is not and cannot be a substitute for us undergoing the processes involved.

All of the mysteries, knowledge, and in fact everything else is ultimately based on number. Only nine numbers exist: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.it has been said that music is number in time, geometry is number in space, and astrology is number in time and space. Hence the name Black Keys has a double meaning.  The first is that as I came up with this name while in Africa, the greatest of all of the mystery schools were located at the temples in ancient Egypt, and the original Egyptians and Kings and Pharaohs were blacks, as has been shown by the research of Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy in their excellent book Black Genesis: The African Origins of Ancient Egypt. Even Egypt itself was originally called: Chem (not necessarily the correct spelling) which mwans: the black land. Egypt was the greatest civilization that has ever existed (post Atlantis/Lemuria)

Since everything is directly or indirectly based on number, including The Mysteries, it has been said that music is number in time, geometry is number in space, and astrology is number in time and space. Hidden within music are many of the mysteries, of which the black keys are an integral part.

The great Pythagoras upon leaving Greece and travelling to Egypt, had as his goal to join a mystery school (located at the temples) but he had to wait 20 years before being admitted! This is not because he was of bad character, because he was a good man to start with, but so high was the standard and required level of character developement that it took him 20 years to raise his lever of character and integrity to suich a high level to be admitted even as an apprentice.

The other reason that this group is called Black Keys is because the black keys have no name, but only gain their identity by their proximity to white keys, which in some ways is like the African culture that has been ignored and neglected as not being as important as the white culture. In music school we are taught about the 7 modes which all begin on the white keys, but what about the back key modes? Music schools teach nothing about them, nor even mention them, yet the only symmetrical mode is the black mode beginning on D sharp. None of the white key modes are symmetrical.

Many people hold the view that being of good character is to not steal, cheat, harm people, and be a good citizen. While this is a good start, it goes deeper than that, and growing in our character is a daily endeavor. True fellowship between men is based on mutual inner development. Black Keys is also an alternative for those who, for whatever reason may not be comfortable joining other freaternities such as FreeMasonry, Scottish Rite Masonry, York Masonry, the Shriners, the Oddfellow, and other fraternities who also emphasize character development.  There can be issues that arise such as requirements for required adherence to civil law and government, rather that to Divine Principles, which often conflict. This is not to say anything bad about such fraternities not the good that they are doing and their good intentions, yet their approach is different, (and no, the FreeMasons are not a conspiracy organization bent on taking over the world, but it is a good organization) and so also then as Black Keys has a different approach, it can be an alternative fraternity for other reasons.

The purpose of the group on a practical level is to 1) Offer teaching about various aspects of character development, 2) To encourage discussions of real life situations that we encounter throughout the week that challenge us and are opportunities to learn and grow from them, 3) To offer free resources (without violating copyright laws) in the form of written materials and recorded lectures and presentations, 4) Forming new and lasting friendships.

I have not yet found a venue for the first meeting, but if you are this far interested, please send me an email at: ask (at) blackkeys (dot) org