What is the Dikenga aka Congo (Kongo) Cosmogram?

“here is what the Kongolese cosmology taught me: I am going-and-coming-back-being around the centre of vital forces. I am because I re-was before, and that I will be and re-be again”

- Tying the Spiritual Knot African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo Principles of life and living by Kimbwandende Kia Bunseke Fu-Kiau PhD

The cosmogram in the world

About the Cosmogram

The cosmogram is an ancient tool from what is presently known as the Congo, in the north to Luanda, Angola, at the south of the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Bantu ethnic group are primarily speakers of Kikongo or Kongo language, which has given us English words such as zombie, funk and mambo, which means conversation with the Gods. 

The cosmogram is a map or wheel of the world, like a birth chart or the pagan wheel of the year full of layered information and meaning. Starting in the east, the wheel moves through birth (kala), life, death and rebirth (musoni). Each point is marked with a smaller circle at the apex of each line of the cross, and arrows signify the direction. Each point is also represented by a colour, birth (kala) green, life red, death yellow, rebirth white, and the large circle in the middle represents the kalunga sea, encircled like a womb and signifying the primordial waters. 

The Cosmogram in Use

In African Traditional Religions, especially as they exist in the diaspora, anti-clockwise circular movement has high significations and relevance to drawing down spirits. In many places, walking the dikenga is practiced today as a way of opening ritual, meditation and connecting to God. 

In any area of life at any moment we can understand what is happening and gain more context by looking at the map to see where we are. 

The Cycle

In birth, much like the season of spring, new things are beginning. Whilst this can bring excitement and the feeling of progress, this stage likens to a small shoot pushing out a seed and breaking through earth. It can be fragile, it can still be below the earth and therefore toiling in the dark and unseen. In our world where progress and success can mean safety for so many and are often the yardstick we measure things by, this stage can sometimes feel unrewarding. If this was about diet and a new health routine for example, at this stage you may still be figuring things out, learning new and big things that will need more time in your consciousness to become a part of your daily life and habits.

In life, which I think of as summer, things are in full swing. What you learnt in spring is taking shape in visible ways in your life. The information you have learnt in spring has found its rhythm in your daily practices and manifestable parts of life. You may be seeing results but this is the season for doing - not for full understanding of everything that will come to pass as a result of this cycle. I feel most comfortable in this stage, as a Virgo rising I love to see the order the mental work and personal growth and development creates in my life. This is a trap! Our world of duality means order and chaos are two sides of the same experience and mapping our transits via the Dikenga or Congo Cosmogram is essentially about learning to ride the waves. Obsessing or even preferring one part of the cycle is like trying to build a brick house in the middle of the sea. The name of the game is flow. 

In death, or autumn, in particular flow is the name of the game. This season is about letting go. Perhaps your new diet or gym routine means you missed out on other things with friends. Perhaps it has given you more confidence and altered the way you see yourself, your life and the world around you. Autumn is where we process and shed, we synthesise the new information our actions have brought. The notion of death can make people uncomfortable, but it is all around us, even our skin is shedding cells at this very moment. I had to work very hard to learn to let go of things, not grudges, but more notions of mindsets and how I see the world. If you are in a stage where you feel under barrage of intense events, you might be in autumn, and the universe might be trying to help you see the lessons you need to learn this season.

In rebirth, musoni or winter, we go to rest. To go back to an earlier analogy, you might be taking a break from your gym routine. Rest does not come easy to many of us. It doesn’t serve capitalism, it doesn’t seem to help us pay our bills, it doesn’t seem to fit with staying connected, taking care of our families and friends, it doesn’t provide an easy answer when you still can’t sleep at 2am and you are wondering “ what did I do today”. ‘Being’ is a full activity! Despite how disconnected many of us have become, we are one with nature, and everything in nature has some kind of season for rest. Wellbeing practices, like yoga, self care, meditation, a hot bath, are powerful and so prevalent and du jour at this time because on a grand scale the universe is trying to balance out and bring in more winter time. 

Out of Alignment

At work, we suffer burn out because we start a project, do a project, wrap up the project if we are lucky and then move onto the next one. Most of us start a project, start a next one, start another one and keep going until we are let go, we have to leave, or our body or the universe in some other way puts us out of action. Then we wonder why we can’t get out of bed or find the energy to do something. The universe is saying it’s winter, and how long that takes depends on how long you have been ignoring it. Even, how long your ancestors and bloodline have been ignoring it too. Bring winter into balance in your daily life by having a roster of wintery practices you can do regularly. Find ones you can do in 5 minutes, ones you can do in different places, so that you don’t lose your winter when you don’t have time to do an hour of yoga or meditation every day or your favourite relaxing spot closes.

A cyclical universe

In African Traditional Religions everything is cyclical. Water loops through our bodies out into nature and loops there too. Plants grow and shed and renurture the soil. Working with the congo cosmogram or the dikenga helps us bring our consciousness into alignment with the universe. It provides a tool for challenging the guilt and shame we feel at times when we don’t feel like the energy we are moving with is the one that will help us advance in the world, and temper the excitement of massive periods of growth knowing at some point that will cycle too. Like the world card in tarot reminds us in tarot, all experiences are available to us and necessary for our personal growth and for us ultimately to live the good life that is our birthright and our mission here on earth. 

It is for us

As entrepreneurs, creatives and makers, working with the cosmogram challenges the prevailing wisdom of business where the advice we get is to move in straight lines, trend upwards, increase profit every measurable period that exists. In African traditional wisdom, and in many other schools of thought, the businesses and projects we want to run and the ideas we have and things we want to make are gifts to us, that carry their own energy and require us to sit and work in tandem with them, not as the line master beating the drum forcing it to dance to our rhythm. In order to build a sustainable and profitable and good and fun life for ourselves, we must listen to where and what roles the project ideas we have want to be for us.

To book a insight led consultation with Mara to bring the cosmogram into your life click here

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongo_language

https://archive.org/details/africancosmology00kimb/mode/2up