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Aug. 26th, 2005
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Shinto and western paganism
Aug. 26th, 2005 10:33 pmI've been reading about Shinto, which is the native Japanese religion. It's part of the way of life there, so that it's not that people "are" Shinto, as opposed to something else. Most Japanese engage in both Shinto and Buddhist practices. Anyway, Shinto focuses on helping people and communities stay in balance with nature and the other forces of life. People can be observant by going to festivals held at shrines (shrine Shinto) or through practices on their own (folk Shinto). There are rituals that have been handed down for two thousand years, mostly about regaining purity and balance. The Kami (gods/spirits) are plentiful, corresponding to sacred places like mountains or springs, the elements, forces of nature like storms or agricultural fertility, valued skills, cultural heroes, revered ancestors, etc.
The library books I have (A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine by John K. Nelson and Shinto: The Kami Way by Sokyo Ono) are mostly about shrine Shinto. Throughout the year, shrines carry out their centuries-old ceremonies, the public in attendance if they wish. Everyone assembles and is ritually purified, then the head priest (male or sometimes female) calls down the Kami, who alights in a sacred tree or other designated spot and remains to bless the ceremony and listen to petitions. The appropriate rituals are carried out, including various prayers to the Kami and offerings of food and dances to please it, then it is invited to depart, more rituals take place to conclude the ceremony, and people socialize.
It seems to me that this is what Western European religion might be like today if Christianity hadn't come along. The ancient pagan rituals would still be part of our lives, supplemented perhaps by Greek philosophy, in ways analogous to the role Buddhism plays in Japan. There's good and bad to this. The Japanese people get a strong sense of being connected to place, to nature, and to their ancestors. But on the other hand, there's very little room for creativity in Shinto (it seems pretty stifling really), whereas modern pagans do get to be creative in compensation for having to be creative.
One thing did come up, in terms of this comparison, though, that really intrigues me. One of the ways a person can gain impurity, in Shinto, is by performing witchcraft. In an essentially pagan religion, how is "witchcraft" bad and different from normal folk practice? I'm tempted to write to Dr. Nelson and ask him.
The library books I have (A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine by John K. Nelson and Shinto: The Kami Way by Sokyo Ono) are mostly about shrine Shinto. Throughout the year, shrines carry out their centuries-old ceremonies, the public in attendance if they wish. Everyone assembles and is ritually purified, then the head priest (male or sometimes female) calls down the Kami, who alights in a sacred tree or other designated spot and remains to bless the ceremony and listen to petitions. The appropriate rituals are carried out, including various prayers to the Kami and offerings of food and dances to please it, then it is invited to depart, more rituals take place to conclude the ceremony, and people socialize.
It seems to me that this is what Western European religion might be like today if Christianity hadn't come along. The ancient pagan rituals would still be part of our lives, supplemented perhaps by Greek philosophy, in ways analogous to the role Buddhism plays in Japan. There's good and bad to this. The Japanese people get a strong sense of being connected to place, to nature, and to their ancestors. But on the other hand, there's very little room for creativity in Shinto (it seems pretty stifling really), whereas modern pagans do get to be creative in compensation for having to be creative.
One thing did come up, in terms of this comparison, though, that really intrigues me. One of the ways a person can gain impurity, in Shinto, is by performing witchcraft. In an essentially pagan religion, how is "witchcraft" bad and different from normal folk practice? I'm tempted to write to Dr. Nelson and ask him.