On many of the traditional houses in Kyoto you find tiny statues. They are there to protect the house from evil spirits, the are a kind of amulet or in Japanese mayoke 魔除け. I believe they are depictions of Enmadaiou 閻魔大王、who is a judge in Meido 冥土,the kingdom of the awaiting dead. Those that he judges to be evil are sent to Jigoku 地獄, Hell. Basically the statues are reflecting evil spirits away from the house. But that can mean in Kyoto's traditional narrow streets, that you are sending the spirits to the house across the street. So it is not uncommon to see two of these statues facing each other.
Yesterday, I was walking through the back streets of Kyoto taking pictures, when I came across a fortune teller's shop. This is not so unusual there are many fortune tellers in Kyoto, but I found the sign to be intriguing. "Witches" written in English, first caught my eye, but it was the Japanese that caught my interest. I could not read the first two characters together, but I knew them. The first is kami, god and the second I recognised but could not remember. The remaining Japanese was easy to read, no meaning belonging to, and Tarot. So I took a picture of the sign to check later.
Today I remembered the sign and decided to check. The word is shinpi , meaning mystery or more precisely the mysteries. So I translate it as "The Tarot of the Mysteries". Which started me thinking about how mysterious the Tarot is. The Japanese word shinpi is generally used for example in: the mysteries of the sea, the mysteries of the universe. So what kind of mystery is the Tarot a part of? For me, the Tarot belongs to the mysteries of symbols. Along with runes, dreams and so on, it communicates to our subconscious through images. This brought me back to the fortune tellers sign: obviously I could read the English word witches and to some extent the Japanese too, but was something symbolic happening as well?
There is a crescent moon on the sign and a pentagram embedded in to the katakana character タ. So I believe that if the word witches was replaced by the Japanese word 魔女, still a non-Japanese reading: tarot reader, wiccan, pagan or so on would be drawn to the sign and gain some meaning from it.
The biggest mystery for me is how symbolically the Tarot consistently creates the story to be told. We say to read the Tarot, but that has a nuance of interpretation, but I feel it is more like narration. I remember when I first started to read the Tarot, I was young and somewhat shy, but the words flowed effortlessly when I gave readings. Now when I give readings in Japanese, I am much more fluent than at other times. The symbolism of the Tarot flows through me.
It is the time of the new moon in Capricorn, while walking back from a shrine dedicated to my chosen god Ebisu, I instinctively took a road I had never taken before and found this fortune teller's shop. Is there any symbolic meaning? The answer is simple, yes.
"Yoi o toshi o" is the Japanese greeting used on the last meeting before the New Year. On the occasion of the first meeting "agemashite omedetto" is used. The time between Yule and the New Year always seems fallow to me, in the sense that I seem not to do anything, but there is a feeling that something is about to start. Though sometimes it can feel a little negative, if I think of things that I didn't do or complete to my satisfaction in the year. I was feeling that way this year, but I sat down and wrote a list of the most important ten things in my life. For each, I wrote about this year and my plans for next year. I then realised that this has been a wonderful year, I have not succeeded with everything I started, but I have great foundations for next year. I am now really looking forward to the New Year.
This year I haven't written so much in this blog, I have been concentrating on it's sister blog, a bi-lingual explanation of the Wiccan year. Because I write the Japanese first, it is really pushing my ability and I make a lot of mistakes, but my ever patient teacher Naomi carefully and kindly puts me right. Because I am using my weaker language to write, the English translation is much more simple than if I first wrote it in English. But I really like this simpleness. When I have finished it, maybe I will go around again and give a more detailed account. But I also plan to write more for this blog next year too (this year if you are reading this in 2016).
I have been reading the tarot for more years than I a willing to count, but this year with Naomi I have been concentrating on practising tarot in Japanese. It is amazing how much more fluent I become in Japanese during a reading. But I still use English for professional readings. But maybe the time has now come to start using Japanese for those who want it. Interestingly I was doing a reading in English yesterday and at one point had to ask "How do you say muishikiteki in English? (subconsciously). So maybe my subconscious is telling me something.
As ever my camera and I have been out in nature all year. I have made a little video of some of my shots through the year. For those who do not know, the music is Pan Dance by Jethro Tull.
Probably the most personally important book I have had about Wicca is Scott Cunningham's "Wicca, a Guide for the Solitary Practitioner". It was by no means the first book I read, but it was the one that encouraged me to take the jump from having a interest in Wicca to becoming a Wiccan. "A Ritual of Gestures" from the book was my first Wiccan ritual; a simple, but beautiful ritual. As with all my treasured books, tarot decks and such like, this book was left behind in England when I moved to Japan in 1999. But it has always been in my heart.
Recently I was checking Amazon and I came across a Japanese edition. This year for the first time it has been published in Japanese. So I ordered a copy and also an English copy. So now I am the owner of two versions. The Japanese version arrived a week or so ago, but the English one arrived today. It is fantastic to have such a wonderful old friend back. In this book, the first Wiccan festival to be written about is Yule, so the timing is perfect. Although it is a basic book and I first read it over 25 years ago, it still holds so much knowledge and encouragement. A beautiful book.
Many years ago I picked up my first wiccan book and after just a few pages, I thought I had found the path. I think subconsciously, I had been looking for a spiritual path for a long time. But it soon became apparent that wicca was not one single path, there are so many traditions and ways of practising, so I studied hard to find which was best for me. But eventually, I realised that everyone has there own path to walk, now I walk that path.
But this post is not really about paths in terms of a spiritual metaphor, it is about actually walking, which in itself is spiritual. There is a highly magicakal and spiritual reason that path is the metaphor.For pagans in general and wiccans especially getting out into nature is very important. In my opinion the most important thing. Walking alone, along a path that is not so often walked, opens you to the Goddess and God. It places you into nature, where you can feel your place within the natural world. I have been lucky to have met a lot of good teachers and read many good books. But I have learnt more from walking alone through the woods
Recently I took a walk alone, along a path that had recently been introduced to me. The four pictures are of places I stopped along the path, that spoke to me in a spiritual and personal way. Each confronting me with something to consider and ponder. They were all empowering in different and profound ways. For me sacred, in fact the last was a sacred site of a different spiritual path than my own, but it was still happy to teach me it's special magick.
First I should point out that Kinki is a region in Japan. It is the region where I live, an area full of history and mystery. Recently I found a map of Kinki with a pentagram drawn on it connecting sacred places. As yet I do not know the full meaning, but I intend to visit all of the shrines and find out what I can. I showed my Japanese teacher and she was as surprised as me. But she could give me the names of all the shrines. I will list the names of the shrines on the pentagram's points going clockwise from the bottom.
In the centre is Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. After Nara, Kyoto became the capital of Japan. It is situated where the two upwardly pointed points meet. So I imagine these sacred places are protecting the capitals. When I know more, I will write more. But I have to say it feels very cool living in a pentagram.
Recently, I went on a one day trip with a friend to Omihachiman in Shiga prefecture. Near the station is very modern, but there is one section of town that is very traditional and has a magickal atmosphere.
There is an old canal, edged with stone walls and walkways. With the lush greenery it is stunningly beautiful.
In the local museum I found these magickal stones. In this part of Japan (maybe in other areas too) it was traditional to write the names of local deities on stones and put them in the foundations of new houses, to ask the gods for protection for the building.
At the same museum I found this old BSA bike, built in my hometown Birmingham, long before I was born. But we both made the long journey to the other side of the world.
We took the rope way up the mountain. There is a Buddhist temple on the top and in it's grounds there is a small Shinto shine. Usually Shinto shrine Tori gates and buildings are painted red/orange and black. But this one was golden. The Kami (Shinto gods) of this shine will help you with projects that need money.
Before we left Omihachiman we found a beautiful and traditionally Japanese looking cafe. I was so elegant, with a warm atmosphere. A magical day.
