This photo was taken by one of the attentive reader of my blog. I sense he has a strong connection with Ise Jingu (The Grand Shrine of Ise).
Every year around the time of chushu no meigetsu (autumn full moon), Ise Jingu holds a festival. They put out a contest for tanka and haiku (traditional Japanese style short and long poems). The selected best poems are read along with the traditional musical performance as offerings to the gods. The ceremony is called Jingu kangetsu-kai and it is held on the day of full moon somewhere between August and September. It is usually held at the Gegū (the outer shrine) but this year it was held at Naigū (the inner shrine) due to some construction.
The authors of the selected poems are invited to attend the ceremony. At the lower end of the photo, the eboshi hat worn by the gakushi (ceremonial players of instruments) is showing. The “e” of eboshi means bird. All shrine priests and music players wear this hat that signifies a bird. The ancient Shinto understanding is that the birds are messengers of the gods. The reason why the symbolic creature is not a dragon or a snake is because the gods are trying to show us the future where the Time of the Phoenix (bird) will come after going through a long period of the Time of the Dragon that we are now staged. The dragons will soon evolve into phoenixes.
These figures are symbolic images that reflect on the basis of civilization and culture of certain periods. The “long” feature of dragons and snakes are symbolic to the present time. When seen from the sky, trains and roads look “long”, a crawling creature like the snakes. An organized long line of people inkling a war. Fossilized dinosaurs (dragons) is said to be the source of oil. This all happened or is happening during the Time of the Dragons when people fight for land (earth) boundary. We will soon be evolving into the Time of the Phoenix where we will be borderless and free as a bird.
In the sky, there is the sun. The new era will be a civilization based on solar energy and flying freely. That is the message from the heavenly gods. We will be able to use telepathy. The development of the internet is the beginning of this new era. The high-techs will evolve to greater abilities.
In the photo, you can see a large white aura emanating from the gakushi players and the two big circle of lights floating in the air. One is a light green. This is the same color aura of the god spirit I often see when I go to the Gegū. The light blue one, I see at the Naigū. It is very rare to witness such big god spirits. It proves that the gakushi players are living a faithful and honest life. Otherwise, they would not have appeared.
Humans work hard and make efforts because they really don’t understand about life and god. And that is a good thing. Being ordinary, trying hard, making efforts and moving forward step by step.
We just keep moving on. It is the same in space. There is an eternal current and breathing. Going into meditation or so called “spiritual path”, will stop you from growing. You think it’s a faster way to enlightenment but in fact, it’s delaying your life. It’s good to have problems and struggle through life and being ordinary. When you work hard, for sure, one day you will see a change for the better.
Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu
Thank you for letting us live
I would like to spread the Gratitude Awareness towards ancestral spirits and everything around us so 5% of the world population will start acting on it on a daily basis.