Druid

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

Shoji

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

Japanese chess

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

Shinto

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

Osiris

Osiris was king of the gods. His wife Isis was goddess of fertility and magic and their son Horus was the falcon-headed god of the sky. Osiris was sacrificed by his brother Set in a bid to usurp him. Set cut him into pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Isis and Horus found the pieces and restored Osiris to life. Horus remained to rule the Land of the Living and Osiris went to the Underworld to rule the Land of the Dead. The Pharaoh was an incarnation of Horus.

In his original form, a green-skinned man dressed in the raiment of a pharaoh. Following the Legend of Osiris, he appears as a green-skinned man in the form of a mummified pharaoh. He is often depicted wearing the atef crown with a pair of ram horns at its base.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 04, 2010

Krishna

In Hinduism and Indian mythology Krishna is the eighth avatar or reincarnation of the god Vishnu. Also Krishna is one of the most popular Hindu gods. Tradition holds that Krishna saw Vishnu in a vision in which the former deity told Krishna to destroy Kamsa son of a demon, a tyrannical ruler of the world. Krishna's mother, Devaki, was Kamsa's half-sister. Kamsa already killed her first six sons because he had been told one of her sons would kill him. Krishna' brother, Devaki's seventh child, Balarama was miraculously saved by Vishnu. Krishna was also saved when exchanged by his parents for the daughter of a herdsman Nanda and his wife Yasoda (the daughter was also a divine being, an incarnation of Maya). With his foster parents Krishna spent a happy life playing boyish pranks and seducing the gopis (cow girls) and other rustic maidens. They found his flute playing irresistible. Legend has it he may have had 16,000 wives. But his favorite was Radha, daughter of his foster father, and his childhood lover, although they did not marry.

According to legend Krishna was not only divine, but heroic as well. He is alleged to have defeated numerous dragons and monsters, and eventually as predicted, killed his half-uncle the tyrannical king Kamsa. In the epic poem 'Mahabharata' he helps the Pandavas against the Kauravas, two families in contention. In the poem Krishna is depicted as divine. Also in the poem he delivers his celebrated oration 'Bhagavad-Gita' on duty and life to the troubled Hero Arjuna, for who he was a charioteer, on the eve of the decisive battle. This speech persuaded Arjuna that it was right to fight against his kinsmen. His "Song of the Adorable One" is one of the great philosophical poems. There are certain parallels between his birth and infancy and that of Christ's which tend to link these two important figures together. In art Krishna is usually portrayed as blue-skinned.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 04, 2010

Horus

The falcon-headed god whose earthly, visible form was the reining pharaoh in Ancient Egypt.

Horus was among the most important gods of Egypt, particularly because the Pharaoh was supposed to be his earthly embodiment. Kings would eventually take the name of Horus as one of their own. At the same time, the Pharaohs were the followers of Re and so Horus became associated with the sun as well. To the people this solar deity became identified as the son of Osiris. Attempts to resolve the conflicts between these different gods in different parts of Egypt resulted in at least fifteen distinct forms of Horus. They can be divided fairly easily into two groups, solar and Osirian, based on the parentage of the particular form of Horus. If he is said to be the son of Isis, he is Osirian; otherwise he is a solar deity. The solar Horus was called the son of Atum, or Re, or Geb and Nut variously.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 04, 2010