Dancing with the gods

Barajima Hachiman o-mikoshi with offerings
(photo taken at the invitation of the Kannushi)

I love summer here.

The heat and humidity I could do without, but I can’t help but love summer – because summer is the season of gods.

There are festivals all year round of course, and some of the most important are in the depths of winter, but in July and August every year is a concentration of Shinto religious celebrations like nothing else.

Hard or Soft is not the question

This recent article on Patheos regarding hard vs soft polytheism made me stop and think about my own practice.

 

Years ago, when I had my first revelations, I started out very much a “hard” polytheist.  I had personal experiences, after all – it wasn’t philosophical, it was visceral, and it seemed obvious that gods existed.

 

Then I transitioned into a much, much softer phase.  After the initial excitement, I started to really delve into not only the history and mythology of what I was coming to believe, but also the philosophy.  I was coming at this from an academic perspective and some part of me was desperate to make it “rational” – the result was that I started to rationalize my experiences as psychological.  Oh, it was still religion, and it was still true in important ways, but looking back I put an amazing amount of effort into turning my personal experiences into something universal.

 

Lay the Spring Hearth

Since I stepped back onto my path again so many months ago now, things have not gone in such a straight line. I suppose that, all told, I should have expected a kind of spiral dance – but I confess I didn’t expect the barriers that have sprung up before me.

These are social and personal irritations, but the fact of the matter is that they have interfered with my ability to move in the direction I had hoped – a sign, perhaps, that the direction I had in mind is not the right one.  As we approach what I have called Gŵyl Braid y Canhwyllau (Brigid’s Feast of Candles), suddenly the way appears to be opening for a new beginning.

 But of course, I should have expected this for more than one reason.

The Dancer

While I struggle to put into words my experience of discovering the door to my gods in the third and final post on that narrative (recognising of course that it was really just a first step onto the path) I thought I'd comment on something I saw today that strikes quite close to home - an article on why cities are so much hotter than the countryside.

Where I live, what I do, it's sometimes difficult to really get away from the heat of summer.

Thankfully, I live outside Tokyo and commute daily - this gives me a bit of respite each and every day, and of course on weekends.  Tokyo has tried very hard to undo the damage of the 70s and 80s though, and the city has not only retained many of the little parks and shrines that dwell here, but has deliberately built up a few green zones and some buildings even have green spaces on the roofs. 

I'm desperate for more of course, but the little islands of green help a little.