Rogelio Straughn was born in Panama in 1944 and was exposed to the arts and philosophy early in life. He began studying piano and music theory at age six, and read regularly to his grandfather, a surgeon who had gone blind in old age. This introduced Straughn to Plato and other great thinkers. In adolescence, he read Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ and began practicing Christian ascetism.
He moved to the United States with his parents when he was 16 and soon got involved in civil rights protests, eventually working with various Black Power organizations as well as protesting the Vietnam War with Students for a Democratic Society. In 1973, he founded the Ausar Auset Society, devoted to Pan-Africanism and the achievement of higher states of consciousness.
The society was rooted in Straughn’s lifelong interest in the philosophy of ancient Egypt, and he adopted the Egyptian-inspired name Ra Un Nefer Amen. It was named for the Ausarian religious system, which teaches that humans share divine attributes with God and that this divine self-image of humanity is called “Ausar.”
The Ausar Auset Society’s philosophy centers on awakening “sacred potentiality” within individuals through an initiation system and an oracle, which adherents believe provides metaphysical guidance for life situations. Members practice meditation, rituals, and the Qi Gong movement system, and adopt a vegetarian diet. Ra Un Nefer Amen outlined 11 divine laws for the society in his 1996 book Tree of Life Meditation System.
The society’s governance is based on traditional African kingship. Ra Un Nefer Amen is the society’s King of Kings and Chief Priest, and is supported by the Queen Mothers of Ausar Auset International, regional kings and queens, and elders and priests. Since its foundation in New York in 1973, the Ausar Auset Society has spread to more than three dozen U.S. cities, and also has established chapters in Bermuda, Canada, Ghana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom.
Key Sources:
Amen, R. U. N. (1992). An Afrocentric guide to a spiritual union. Kamit Publications.
Reddie, A. (2010). Black theology, slavery and contemporary Christianity: 200 Years and No Apology.
Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements 