As Amaterasu retreats into the comforting womb-body of a cave, hissing, scalding steam announces her entry into isolation. Raw nerved and exhausted, the Japanese Sun Goddess closes the door on humanity, having received the final, most brutal and unmistakable insult of excrement, vomit and a flayed horse as thanks from a violent brother for her unconditional trust and kindness. Throwing the earth into murderous darkness and despair, the deity who centralizes and drives planetary rotation, spinning silkworms, rice harvestation, and political momentum fulfills the escape fantasy of the world’s hurried, harried, tired, torn and unvalued desperate for stillness, space and sleep. Rejecting the insatiable needs of society and ancestral responsibility of family, Amaterasu undertakes the psychical, heroic journey found within rest and solitude that heals the spirit and enlivens the soul.

Cutting through layers of Chinese and Korean religious and governmental influence, the Shinto myth of the Japanese Great Mother Amaterasu illuminates the preliterate, shamanic understanding of the need for journey into darkness necessary for healing. The riotous dance and orchestration performed by her minion of lesser gods and goddesses to trick and coax her back into the heavens represents both the shamanic path of ecstasy and entrance into the unconscious to retrieve the soul; and the role of society in demanding the hero return to her culture. Pre-eminent among the lures offered Amaterasu to return include a mirror reflecting her beauty and importance as well as a symbol of purity and a soul refreshed. Amaterasus mirror remains protectively hidden in her shrine at Ise, a physical manifestation of the Divinity within and proof of her kinship with the Japanese imperial regime.

The eternal rebirth of the sun generally associated with masculine figures illuminates Amaterasu's unique and distinguished status as solar Great Goddess. A mysterious juxtaposition of gender roles and mythical rarity, the preeminence of Amaterasu's myth of egress and return normally associated with Moon Mothers illuminates the innate, unconscious need for women - for all people - to regularly withdraw their seemingly endless outpouring of nurturing and nourishing. Magatama jewels symbolizing the heart and benevolence; a sword representing courage received as apology from her brother Susano; together with replicas of Amaterasu's mirror at Ise are living icons of Shinto ritual and belief worn by Japanese miko priestesses, trance healers who travel the unconscious on the spiraling path of departure, metamorphosis and rebirth to help heal others in body and soul.

Amaterasu's reaffirmed feminine strength and solar brilliance as the living kami or spirit of the sun celebrates the universal hero's descent, revitalization and rebirth. Hanging ropes or cords above temple entrances called the shimenawa or "sign of resurrection" mark the boundary between heaven and earth, leave-taking and homecoming that Shinto practitioners venerate as "conspicuous, important and silently eloquent" reminders of the personal relevance of Amaterasu's myth. Seasonal, ritual enactments of the Sun Goddess' story are still celebrated within Japanese communities at the awakening of winter into spring testifying to the intrinsic lure, timeless popularity and human understanding about the rightness of psychological respite. Penetratingly plain and loudly spoken, the only image on Japan's national flag - the big, red sun - indicates the pride and nationality Amaterasu inspires within the hearts of her people.

Amaterasu and the Shinto consciousness from which she springs are direct reflections of humanity's real or true consciousness where the soul and spirit live pure and free, void of societal, cultural or familial demands. Reading Amaterasu's myth was like peering at a blueprint for mental health that can apply to all people.

Cultivating aspects of Amaterasu

Amaterasu is a brilliantly insightful polyvalic - many layered - myth. Perhaps the two most valuable aspects of Amaterasu's story are the need for respite and renewal and the idea that the Divine is within each of us. Solitude, a rare commodity in Western hurried, harried culture, provides the individual with the necessary avenue for healing as well as connecting with the Divine. The original meaning of alone was "all one" - a state of being honoring and experiencing the magic and mystery in living.

Follows are a few suggestions for remembering our divinity and the grace in solitude. Ultimately, each of us must find those authors, books or outlets that connect us with ourselves:

Bibliographic References and End Notes

Amaterasu in Story

The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures by Burleigh Muten, illus by Helen Cann

The Kojiki - from the Internet Sacred Text Archive

Shintoism

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of researching Amaterasu was learning about Shintoism. Follows are sources and notes offered attempting to describe what I feel to be humankind's original belief system from which all others splintered, morphed and even sometimes abominated.

Campbell, Joseph, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume 2. Penguin Books, New York: 1991, pp. 475-478. Campbell describes Shinto as a religion of awe and living in gratitude amid the mystery of things. To retain this sense, he explains, the (mental) faculties must remain open, clean and pure which is Man's natural state of being.

Picken, Stuart D.B., Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Roots. Kodansha International USA Ltd, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco: 1980, pp. 6-21, 56. Picken states that within Shintoism human nature remains innocent and there is no concept of sin. Having resisted imposed forms of rationalization, Picken describes Shinto as the living spiritual roots of the Japanese people that remains very true to its original beginning. He explains that visits to Shinto shrines provide mental and physical renewal.

Stiskin, Nahum, The Looking-Glass God: Shinto, Yin-Yang and a Cosmology for Today. Autumn Press, Tokyo: 1972, pp. 79-153. Stiskin describes Shinto as the awareness of the eternal present beyond space-time and all dualities. He explains that Shinto as a belief system has no founder, scriptures, social or ethical dogma and relies solely on the pure expression of intuition and judgment of the individual. He lists the main tenets as:

• awareness of invisible life energies
• awe before the immensity of the cosmos
• deep humility regarding the smallness of oneself
• never-ending gratitude for the order within Nature

Stone, Merlin, Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: a treasury of goddess and heroine lore from around the world. Beacon Press, Boston: 1979, 1990, p. 315. Shinto is actually a name given to the prehistoric, yet still-present base of Japanese religion by the Chinese. Shinto translates as Shen Tao (Shinto), The Way of the Spirits (or kami).

Blacker, Carmen, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanstic Practices in Japan. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London: 1975, pp. 104-121. Blacker excellently describes miko origins, practices and place in Japanese history, culture and society.

Amaterasu and the Hero quest

Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press, Princeton: 1949, p. 207-213. Regarding Amaterasu's retreat and retrieval, Campbell states that "society is jealous of those who remain away from it, (and) will come knocking at the door." He says the "world may have to come and get the hero." The "blessing of the deep abode not lightly abandoned in favor of the self and scattering of wakened state."

Campbell, Joseph, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume 2. Penguin Books, New York: 1991, p. 478

Shinto Symbols

Cooper, J.C., An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames and Hudson, London: 1978, p. pp. 21, 41, 47, 51, 62, 90, 193.

Stiskin, Nahum, The Looking-Glass God: Shinto, Yin-Yang and a Cosmology for Today. Autumn Press, Tokyo: 1972, pp. 110-154. Stiskin provides in-depth discussion about the relevance and importance of mirror in Shinto symbolism. Stiskin's book is an important read regarding humanity's consciousness.

Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of the Goddess, Harper Collins: New York, 1989, pp. 51-59, 322.

Walker, Barbara G., The Women's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. Harper Collins Publishers, San Francisco: 1988, pp. 3, 14.

Kami

Kami is difficult to translate into English and is best discovered between the lines of supporting explanations some of which include:

Blacker, Carmen, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanstic Practices in Japan. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London: 1975, pp. 34-41. Kami are ambivalent manifestations of sacred power impinging on the human world and requiring treatment of a special kind (ritual purity, worship and offerings) to remain friendly. Mediums, shamans and clairvoyants can see them and give them voice. Blacker's well-organized, well written book is a must read about shamanism.

Campbell, Joseph, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume 2. Penguin Books, New York: 1991, p. 212. Kami is the Deity immanent in all things.

Picken, Stuart D.B., Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Roots. Kodansha International USA Ltd, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco: 1980, p. 10. Kami is "anything that can inspire human beings and a feeling of awe, reverence or mystery (and) awakens a sense of beauty, joy, love of nature or fascination with the universe."

Amaterasu and the snake

Lengthy discussions of the snake in conjunction with Amaterasu are scarce but intriguing enough to mention. Prehistoric artifacts describe a relationship between the regenerative, sloughing of snake skin and the eternal return of the sun (Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of the Goddess, Harper Collins: New York, 1989, pp. 58, 121, 136, 137, 282, 324-326). Additionally, J.C. Cooper describes the snake as a personification of Susano, Amaterasu's violent brother and God of thunder and storms (Cooper, J.C., An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames and Hudson, London: 1978, p 150). She further explains that the snake accompanies all female deities and Great Mothers and specifically represents solar rays (Cooper, J.C., An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames and Hudson, London: 1978, p. 147).

General

Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of the Goddess, Harper Collins: New York, 1989, pp. 121, 137, 277, 279, 282, 295

Resources for further study

Japanese Mythology

Shinto

Sun Goddesses

© Copyright 2006 Paula Vaughan
Not to be reprinted without permission.