Twenty years of visiting Ise - Part 3

I would like to talk about my impression of this time’s visit to the Gegū. As I pay a visit at the main shrine (honden), I sensed the vibration of a deity from behind the oratory. This vibrational energy was the same sensation I had always felt at this place.

At a shrine where god resides and when the god is present at that time, its spirit body emits an exquisite vibrational energy. When there is some kind of problem or conversely, in a high joyous state, the vibration becomes bigger and rough. Last year, the vibration was very big. When it is in that state, I could hear a sound like a bee flying. The sound cannot quite be explained in words. Kaminari 雷 means thunder. Kami means god. Nari or naru means make a sound. This might be the derivation of the word for thunder.

In the ancient times, people sensed this vibrational energy of the deity. When they sensed the anger, they made efforts to improve and when they sensed the joy, the whole village celebrated the joy together.

This time the vibrational energy was stable. All shrines at the Gegū were stable except for one, the Kaze-no-miya (the wind shrine). Up until last year, it was stable. This year, it has started to make a sound.

Some incidents at the Kaze-no-miya are recorded in the priest diary of Gegū. At a critical time when foreigners tried to invade Japan, the day before the attack, smoke rose from Kaze-no-miya and the billowing smoke flew off to the direction toward the invader. At another time in 1959 when typhoon stroke the Ise Bay, while Ise city had devastating damage, all the main shrine were left undamaged, in spite of the straw-thatched roofs. But only the Kaze-no-miya was totally crashed by a fallen tree, as if it had saved all the lives of the others at the sacrifice of its own.

The name of the deity who resides at Kaze-no-miya is Ibukidonushi-Ōkami. It is one of The Four Deities under Susanoo that teams up to work on missions. I sincerely hope that this first runner deity does not have to sacrifice again. If the majority of the people who are living on this land of Japan become consciously aware of the sense of gratitude to what they already have, the deity of the Wind Shrine will not have to make its move and instead settle down. (continue)

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live