Setsubun – Last day of Winter in Lunar calendar

Today, February 3rd is Setsubun in Japanese tradition.

Setsubun (節分) means “the turning of the season”. A day before Risshun(立春 – spring), Rikka(立夏 – summer), Risshuu(立秋 – autumn) and Ristto(立冬 – winter) is called Setsubun. So there are four days of Setsubun in a year.

During the Heian period (AD794-1185), the Setsubun before the day of spring was taken as the most important one. Today, the Emperor still holds a Shinto ritual at the Imperial Court on this day.

Why is the spring Setsubun so important?
In my opinion, it’s because it’s the one right before Shunbun(春分/March, 21st – vernal equinox).

A wide area in the Asian region, the month before and after the Setsubun of spring is a big time of celebration. It’s the New Years in the old calendar. They celebrate this time more than the New Year of the Western calendar. In China, massive people (students, migrant laborer etc.) return to their homeland around this time.

On the day of spring Setsubun, ecliptic longitude is 315°. On the day of vernal equinox it is at 360°, returning to point 0. So astronomically speaking, it’s like the sun has made her last turn.
Just for your information, the summer solstice is at 90°, autumnal equinox is at 180° and the winter solstice is at 270°.

I explained something rather difficult, but to sum it up, the celebration of Setsubun is about Sun worship. I sense that these dates are turning points and changes significant to the Gods.

The sun is born around December 23rd, on winter solstice, and she prepares for full action. Setsubun is the time when she really starts to bring out her power. In fact the plants are getting ready as well toward the day of spring equinox, in parallel to the sun.

For the World of the Gods, the winter solstice is the hidden Yin part of the New Year and Setsubun is the Yan part of the New Year when the actual move takes place. It is a very important time.
And in the World of Reality, we have the New Year’s Day just in between those two. It's all meant to be.

The ancient people worked on their farm, harvested and the whole daily routine was planned by following the movement of the sun. They believed it would bring good fortune. This is still spiritually active today.

Thus, we should also consider today as a special day for ourselves. To refresh yourself in your own way. To restart, working on what is in front of you in the best way possible. It’s the turning point toward the coming spring.

Rather than thinking big, start from cleaning. This is a misogi and harai, a purification and cleansing ritual that will help you spiritually.

The idea of bean-scattering on this day, is to clean afterwards. When you are cleaning the house to gather the scattered beans, you are cleaning off the dust you might have missed at the end of the Year.

The tradition of eating soba on the New Year’s Eve derives from the craftsmen who dealt with gold dust. When they do their end of the year cleaning at their workshop, they used soba dango balls. They made the gold dust stick on the sticky balls that made it easier to pick up.

What? You’ve already done your cleaning before the bean-scattering? Well that’s all good.

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

Best to stay Who YOU Are

After Setsubun* (Feb. 3rd), I am sensing that the most important thing from now on is to maintain your spirit body in a good condition.

To keep your own color, your way to live, becomes very important. Even if the life or color of others looks better, you should be aware that, for you, the same color of lifestyle might be poisonous.

We now have entered a phase where our fate will be determined. Especially, receiving other’s spiritual energy (healing works) could be fatal. In this dimension, our spirit body is like a DVD disk. It records and holds all your spiritual energy. By paying someone to work on you, not only are you changing your own color but destroying your own disk.

Until now, people who were manipulated by a spiritual leader (leader of a religious sect), their disk was scratched enough to be brainwashed. From now on, it will be more of a serious matter. Your disk will be completely destroyed. Your life will turn upside down.

Receiving spiritual work from healers who are worshipped as “Sensei”(master), you are actually destroying your own disk. Those who became a famous healer, making a lot of money out of their healing work, are mostly sent from an evil spirit to destroy human’s own spiritual disk.

When the evil spirit behind the healer is a fox spirit, the healer will start to have a split mouth like a laughing fox. It will start to be visible even in ordinary people’s eyes. If the evil spirit behind takes the form of a snake, you can feel the coldness around that healer.

I have received a notice from a god that when this starts to happen, it is the final warning to these evil healers.

It is completely a different story, when you are asking for an “o-harai”, purification, at an official Shinto shrine. You are actually not receiving the purification directly but you are offering it to the god who resides at that shrine. What you offer to the god reflects on you like a mirror. In truth, a purification ritual at a shrine works like that. You offer a purification to the god, and then, the energy reflects on you and you are purified at the same time.

From now on, you must really trust yourself until the last minute. If you are in a miserable condition, simply accept that condition. That is all you need to do. The acceptance will set you free. Don't go to some healer crying for help. It will be fatal. You will be selling your soul and destroying your disk.

The purpose of life is not about having a successful life in this lifetime. The reason why you were born is to maintain your soul for eternity. You will become a true successor when you have trusted yourself until the last minute. If you were born weak or sick, no matter how your appearance is, it’s ok. Just accept your condition and live through in your own color. If you had not depend on others begging for mercy and lived through with dignity, trusting your own innate god, you are a successor. At the end, like the Amida-Nyorai (Buddha of the beyond and afterlife), your innate god will hold you tight and take you to heaven.

From now on, your spiritual rituals should be kept only to offer gratitude to your ancestral spirits and to the gods. And live your life fully. Hardships may come around, but stay strong and keep your spirit going. Know that you are led to live. Be grateful to it and enjoy the big waves that might be passing through.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live



*Setsubun: In Japan, Setsubun (節分) is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means "seasonal division", but usually the term refers to the spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun (立春) celebrated yearly on February 3 as part of the Spring Festival (春祭 haru matsuri?). In its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun can be thought of (and was previously thought of) as a sort of New Year's Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called mamemaki (豆撒き, lit. bean scattering- Evil out, Happiness in.) – From Wikipedia