The Essence of Shinto - February 19 (TITLE CHANGED) > Likes and Comments
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Reading about how in Shintoism, the place where a river meets the ocean is sacred (where the male and female spirits merge), I found myself remembering how during my landscape photography days, three such places in northern California were special for me:a) Big Sur, the picturesquare location where McWay waterfalls (from a creek originating in the Big Sur river) meet the Pacific Ocean
b) Jenner, California where the Russian river meets the Pacific
c) Northern California where the Klamath river meets the Pacific.
(Margaret may be familiar witht least the last two)
I will post photos I have of them in our photo area in the right column here.
Reading about Shintoism, I'm unable to relate to the descriptions of rituals. So I've been thinking about the nearly nonexistent role of rituals in my life - Yes, there've been secular rituals, related to holidays - birthdays, Thanksgiving etc. But sacred rituals? The only one meaningful to me is the prayer or blessings we say in my weekly online weekly Spirit Talk group. It is meaningful because it expresses my values, and because we, who have bonded over time, recite it together, united in sharing those values and wishes for greater interpersonal and world harmony.
For about six years growing up, I attended Temple services, and for some years both Saturday and Sunday school in the Reform Judaic tradition.
In college, majoring in religion, I focused on Jewish mysticism and Tibetan Buddhism, regarding myself as a cultural/secular Jew (with high regard for Judaic values) but spiritually, for many years, as a Tibetan Buddhist. And I have at least half a dozen times in my life done a daily Tibetan mantra meditation, which I guess could be considered a ritual, although often a solitary one.
Sure, Judaism has many rituals - rituals related to recitation of prayers, performed in weekly services and on particular Jewish holidays. But they never spoke to me. In fact, they seemed dead, devoid of any real meaning (apart from intellectual understanding of their purpose).
The rituals of many religions have become dead to many of the people who profess those religions.
And rituals become empty unless they are infused repeatedly the original meaning. Unless sacred rituals evoke the sacred feeling - the connection to God or Spirit - that once infused them, they lack meaning....just like pledging allegiance to the flag meant little to most of us throughout our public school years. (Understandably, today more people may worship the flag than revere the Constitution).
Years ago, in Ancient Sites community online, I was active as an ancient Greek virtual citizen and as a Native American citizen.
For the former, I created a Demeter/Persephone ritual for the spring solstice which I led with a group for several years
It was also meaningful to create a ritual based on the Greek myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, in order to let go of my mother after she died (D&P, a kind of Greek Noah and his wife, were told by the goddess Themis to celebrate the rebirth of the earth by walking, throwing the bones of the mother behind them - that being the stick and stones of Mother Earth).
And in regard to Native Americans, I studied the sacred rituals of several Native American tribes related to a girl's first menses. In the Apache tribe, still today, the girl has a three-day ceremony in which she is revered as a vehicle for the goddess, Changing Woman. (My 1999 site about this is still up, at
https://www.webwinds.com/yupanqui/apa...
Our culture as a whole, unfortunately lacks coming of age rituals marking the transition into puberty and toward adulthood. Some religions, however, do have rituals for children at puberty, although often they are not spiritually meaningful to the participants.
We in the western world are so impoverished in regard to experiencing deeply moving sacred rituals!
Of course, it is possible to create one's own sacred rituals, but my guess is that many of us lack sacred communal rituals which are truly alive for us and connect us with Spirit.
by Motohisa Yamakage, February 19, facilitated by Valerie
NOTE: We changed this book choice from our original selection, which was inadequate. Note the new title we will be discussing-
The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart is a bit pricey but both Amazon and Abebooks carry it, though there's only two copies left on Amazon as of January 1.