A divine or an especially authoritative revelation (or the person who delivers it), often an ambiguous or enigmatic utterance spoken through a medium in a trance state.
An oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion, predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination.
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 14, 2010
The attribution of a discrete indwelling spirit to every material form of reality such as plants, stones, and so on, and to natural phenomena such as storms, earthquakes, and the like.
Animism is a religious belief imputing spirits to natural forces and objects.
The rock has a spirit; the tree has a spirit, etc.
The rock has a spirit; the tree has a spirit, etc.
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 24, 2010
A member of a Celtic order of priest magicians or wizards whose rituals, centering on animal and tree worship, were said to include human sacrifice.
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Gaul and likely other parts of Celtic Western Europe during the Iron Age. Following the invasion of Gaul by the Roman Empire, the druids were suppressed by the Roman government from the 1st century CE and disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century, although there may have been later survivals in the British Isles. Very little is currently known about the ancient druids as they left no written accounts about themselves, and other than a few descriptions left by Greek and Roman authors, and in stories created by later mediaeval Irish writers, the accuracy of all of which are disputed, we have no evidence about them.
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 23, 2010
A translucent screen consisting of a wooden frame covered in rice paper, used as a sliding door or partition in a Japanese house.
Shoji screens are Japanese designed Asian panel screens, popular worldwide for their practical advantages. Shoji screens are different from Chinese and other oriental screens in that the panels are rice paper, not wood, rattan, or bamboo. Rice paper is lighter than wood, but, as important, lets light pass through. Paper provides privacy, like any oriental screen, but also diffuses light throughout any room.
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 11, 2011
Shogi is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. Shogi means general's boardgame.
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 10, 2011
A religion native to Japan, characterized by veneration of nature spirits and ancestors and by a lack of formal dogma. Shinto is actually from the Chinese word for Japanese religion, shen-dao, the Way of the Higher Gods. The Japanese term for traditional religion is kami-no-michi, the Way of the Kami. Kami are spirits, gods, sacred powers and so on. It is very animistic. All things derive from the power of the kami. Once, Japan was only inhabited by kami. As all things derive from the kami, so do human beings derive from the kami and may become kami upon death. This belief forms the traditional history of the origins of Japan and its people. In the beginning the kami were generated on the Plain of High Heaven. The most important were Izanagi and Izanami. Their creative power brought about the land of Japan and the people. Izanagi and Izanami descended to the Floating Bridge of Heaven and stirred the salt water to create an island to which they descended to give birth to the kami of the world. The universe is interpreted in terms of the power of the kami. The myths discuss 800 myriads of kami on the Plain of High Heaven, much less the kami of Earth, the Central Land of Reed Plains. The myths set the pattern for Japanese concerns for purity, the veneration of the sun kami, the festivals and rituals, and the traditions that provide the distinctive Japanese identity.
Izanami died after giving birth to Kaga-Tsuchi, the kami of fire and went to Yomi, the underworld. Izanagi tried to break in and bring her back. He was horrified at her appearance in death and repelled. Even more, she was angry that he had broken in to see her polluted by death and she pursued him to destroy him. Izanagi escaped and blocked the hole to the Underworld with a huge rock to prevent Izanami from being unleashed on the world. She threatened to bring death to all things. He responded that he would make sure that things were born faster than she could destroy them. He escaped but was now polluted by the experience and so washed in the ocean to purify himself and exorcise the evil. This set the pattern for purification rituals. Ritually unclean, Izanagi bathed in the ocean. When Izanagi washed his left eye, Amaterasu (the Heavenly Illuminating Kami, or Sun Kami) was born. In washing his right eye, Tsukiyomi (the Moon Kami) was born and in washing his nose Susanoo (Valiant Raging Male Kami, or Storm Kami) was born. Izanagi was pleased by these kami of sun, moon and storm. He placed Amaterasu to rule the Plain of High Heaven and gave her his sacred necklace. So she came to rule all the kami. Tsukiyomi was to rule the night and Susanoo the sea. Purification inside and out becomes important in Shinto and the model is Izanagi’s bath. Pollution comes from the darkness and the kami help take it back to the darkness.
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 15, 2010
by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 20, 2011