Beyond Semantics: The Sacred Shift from Understanding to Overstanding

Words hold spells.

They are not neutral.

They carry the consciousness of the systems that birthed them.

And in the English language—the tongue of Empire, conquest, and colonialism—the word understand reveals something deeper than we often consider.

To understand something literally means to “stand under.” It implies submission, subordination, a positioning of oneself beneath the authority or framework of something else.

Now pause here. Feel that in your body.

What happens when we stand under someone or something?

There’s a bending. A yielding. A quiet assumption that the thing above knows more, sees more, defines the truth.

And so, when a people—conquered, stolen, enslaved—begin to reclaim language, it is not simply a matter of semantics. It is a spiritual act of sovereignty.

The Rastafari movement, emerging from the roots of African resistance and the soil of Jamaican rebellion, rejected the language of Babylon—the colonial system that oppressed them. And in doing so, they gave birth to new words with new frequencies.

Words like I&I, rejecting separation.

Words like overstanding, rejecting subjugation.

To overstand is to stand above.

Not in arrogance, but in clarity.

To see the fuller picture.

To hold context, lineage, intention, and consequence.

Overstanding means we are not simply absorbing what is being said—we are discerning the source of the information, the intention behind it, and how it fits into our own knowing.

It is a higher-order capacity.

A listening not just with the ears, but with the whole being.

Overstanding Is Rooted in Deep Listening

To overstand is to truly hear. Not reactively, not through the filters of fear or ego, but with reverence.

It requires presence.

Humility.

A willingness to ask:

“What is really being said here? And what is not?”

“What shaped this person’s perspective? What shaped mine?”

“Can I stand in my truth while making space for yours?”

It is not agreement. It is not compliance. It is the act of holding complexity with grace.

From Knowledge to Wisdom

Western systems often reward understanding as intellectual mastery.

But overstanding invites something else: embodiment. Integration. Wisdom.

You can understand the theory of love and still hurt the ones you love.

You can understand climate science and still live in a way that harms the Earth.

You can understand trauma and still perpetuate it.

Overstanding is when the heart and hands join the head.

It’s when knowledge becomes lived truth.

Language as Liberation

The move from understand to overstand is not just an etymological curiosity—it is a doorway.

It is a reclamation of our right to name, to know, to define the world on our terms.

It is an invitation to question every assumption inherited from systems that were never designed for our liberation.

And it asks us:

Where have I stood under teachings, ideologies, or roles that were never mine to carry?

Where have I accepted “truths” without examining their roots?

What might become possible if I gave myself permission to rise above—not to dominate, but to see?

This is the journey from obedient student to sovereign being.

To overstand is to remember.

To reweave what has been broken.

To return to the seat of inner knowing and say:

“I will no longer stand under what does not honour me. I will listen, I will learn, but I will discern. I&I choose truth.”