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What is name of the Shinto Facebook group with the poem that Rev. Barrish liked? I want to read the poem.

It’s called Shinto: The Religion of the Forest I believe... I follow that group, the Tsubaki America group, as well as another one for the Inari shrine that opene din CA

As for the poem, here it is!

I've heard it said

That Mother Sun had placed the Earth

A marble of little consequence

In your hands to protect

 I wonder if you shield us

By hiding us in your palm

Like protecting a candle

From a gust of wind.

 I wonder if you get up early

To check on us and see that we

Are fed, and watered, and well rested

And leave little notes for us

To tell us that you care

 Do you ever get dismayed

When you pick us up and look in close

And see us rushing headlong into blackness

Babies with matches

Babies with knives

The green, giving forests

Ash

The cool, blue rivers

Red

I wonder if you ever wish

We'd never been at all.

The only time

When I cease to wonder

is when I look

Passed the smoke colored stained glass

And see ourselves

As You see us

��We are small

We are so small

We are loved

We are so loved

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GUYS I POSTED A POEM IN A SHINTO FACEBOOK GROUP AND KOICHI BARRISH LIKED IT

i have pleased sensei

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What has been happening with you?

Among other things, about a month ago I took acid and ended up marrying a tree in my friend’s yard 

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Today I gagged on something that got in my mouth so hard i threw up

And i was packing at the time so a little bit got on my Saraswati statue

kids you may have fucked up your life but you have never thrown up on God before

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Dang it I just found your blog and I am already addicted AHHHHHHH

I LOVE YOU AAAAH <3 <3 <3 <3 HUGS HUGS HUGS HUGS

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Ok, I have been wanting to get into the shinto religion. The problem is that I am a white American who doesn't really know there family history. I have started to work with spirits so I want to know if it would be rude of me to work with them.

That’s fine! Shinto is for everybody.... 

Good beginner shinto resource here!: https://thetwistedrope.wordpress.com/shintoism/shinto-starter-guide/

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(sorry if double send) not japanese pagan but just dropping in to say hello and that its cool to know if another pagan in the same area (clawson) as me!! havent found another one before.

AYEEEEE WADDUP HOMIE <3 SHOW URSELF LET’S MEET UP OR SOMETHING

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What a lovely day!

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Artist Hank Schmidt travels to scenic locations only to paint the pattern on his own shirt.

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COOL SHINTO-RELATED THING THAT HAPPENED TODAY

There’s this great little Japanese market about 15 minutes from my house called Noble Fish (it’s in Clawson, Michigan if you’re in the area it’s GREAT) and at the front there’s the market and then at the back there’s a little kitchen where they prepare the sushi.

And what do I see hanging from one of the pillars by the sushi bar than TWO MASKS OF SARUTAHIKO-NO-OKAMI and AME-NO-UZUME-NO-MIKOTO!!!! AAAAAAH! 

Like I know it’s to be expected I mean Japanese deities in a Japanese establishment but it’s just so nice to see stuff from my practice out in everyday life... like since Tsubaki Jinja of America is so far away I’ve sort of felt isolated form other people in my practice and I feel like I haven’t learned as much as I could by being in a community of people who are practicing the same thing (there’s the lovely internet people who I am grateful for and who I adore so much but it’s not the same as a sangha that you can go worship with and have events with ect.).It’s so nice that there are people in your area who are at least aware of what it is! 

And whenever I see stuff about Japanese spirituality it isn’t usually Shinto related and when I DO see stuff about Shinto it tends to be connected to WW2 and imperialism so this was so refreshing and lovely to see!

I wanna chat up the owners to see if they are from near Tsubaki Jinja or they’ve visited <3 

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That moment where u make a status criticizing Christian missionaries for being shitty and then a guy who is a Mormon missionary who you didn’t recall you were friends with tries to start shit but you are too tired to argue so you just ignore it

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Buddhist women celebrating Vesak in Singapore.

In Singapore, Buddhist temples organise celebrations and decorate it with flowers and flags. People organise blood donation camps, visit old age homes, donate food, clothes and money, release caged birds or animals and chant mantras. People offer flowers, candles and joss sticks to the temples and the day ends with a candlelight processions through the streets. After several petitions, Vesak was announced a public holiday in 1955. [x]

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Shinto Stoner Problems No. 34

That moment when you lose the jar you usually put your weed in so you just throw it in the salt jar you keep for salt you offered to the kami before going out and when you go to use the salt you find that ALL OF YOUR SALT SMELLS LIKE WEED

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A lot of religious practice in Shinto is sort of at odds with how i want to express my devotion

@lilaccastle‘s comment on my last post got me thinking of another thing about Shinto that doesn’t exactly sit well with me and this is more of a personal thing than anything else. But it wasn’t exactly related to the post so I decided to make it a second post

As anyone who is friends with me knows I am a highly emotional person, and the cornerstone of my religious practice, whatever religion I have been practicing, is emphasizing expressing the exchange of unwavering, devoted love between God and us.

That’s there in Shinto; Amaterasu is a loving mother who shines on everyone equally and Sarutahiko-okami guards and protects all the earth from harm, but it’s generally expressed in a very reserved way in a mood of awe and reverence. And that’s needed. t’s important to remember to respect the power of the Kami and to do things the way they like it to be done out of love and devotion.

but that’s not always the person I am. I’m the type of person who loves things like the poetry of Meerabai and Rumi, and the Song of Solomon. Religious expirience for me always has a free, emotional quality full of unrestrained, unbridled passion for god. It’s what attracted me to the Hare Krishna movement, with the emphasis on singing and dancing in ecstasy, full of god’s love. And while Shinto certainly has one’s personal relationship with the Kami as a cornerstone, it’s rarely expressed in the tradition in this unrestrained way.

It leaves me in a quandrary sometimes. But maybe I need to stop trying to fit my relationship with Kami-sama in a box and just go wherever is best for my devotion with it.

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^^^^ I eel that a lot! My family isn’t really shito practicing like my dad is mostly secular and my grandma is sort of a non denominational buddhist? LIke I’ve been to her temple and i can’t tell if it’s pureland or zen or tendai or what and according to my grandma they sort of play fast and loose with Buddhist classification othber than “Japanese”

Like one of my dreams is to go to Japan on a pilgrimage and tour the shrines and temples there

And I’d even more like to study Japanese religions there at some point in my life

But I never think that I could live there, even though I have relatives there.

Like sometimes when I research Shinto so many of the concepts are tied inexplicable with Japanese culture and a lot of that I really adore and value and I try to put into practice in my life (I love Japanese aesthetic philosophy (concepts like wabi-sabi), veneration and respect for our elderly, remembering one’s obligations towards family), but there’s a lot of Japanese culture that makes me deeply uncomfortable like the widespread misogyny and the  inability to be REAL with people and instead having to put on this mask all the time. And I know these are all  sweeping generalizations and that there are more people that know more about this than I do but I don’t think it’s a culture shock that I could handle.

Like, coming from a person of Japanese descent who is American I look at Japanese culture and it sometimes seems like we set ourselves up to be socially awkward and emotionally repressed

But cause Shinto is so integrated into Japanese culture I feel myself being obligated to switch myself to a more “Japanese” mindset, or whatever that means, which since I’ve never been is just my impressions based on what I’ve read and heard from relatives.

Maybe cause I’m japanese I’m making more of a problem out of this thatn I should.

Idk

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lmao probably

I really need help with Ameratsu. Seriously my dude. I have had so much trouble contacting her as of late.

That’s because she’s dead. She was a light goddess that wanted to steal and infect people of my order and someone I hold dear, with a sort of complicated energetic disease which makes them dependent on light energy until they’re fully converted into soldiers which Amaterasu could control. She was causing problems and harming people so I simply killed her after much effort.

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Like one of my dreams is to go to Japan on a pilgrimage and tour the shrines and temples there

And I’d even more like to study Japanese religions there at some point in my life

But I never think that I could live there, even though I have relatives there.

Like sometimes when I research Shinto so many of the concepts are tied inexplicable with Japanese culture and a lot of that I really adore and value and I try to put into practice in my life (I love Japanese aesthetic philosophy (concepts like wabi-sabi), veneration and respect for our elderly, remembering one’s obligations towards family), but there’s a lot of Japanese culture that makes me deeply uncomfortable like the widespread misogyny and the  inability to be REAL with people and instead having to put on this mask all the time. And I know these are all  sweeping generalizations and that there are more people that know more about this than I do but I don’t think it’s a culture shock that I could handle.

Like, coming from a person of Japanese descent who is American I look at Japanese culture and it sometimes seems like we set ourselves up to be socially awkward and emotionally repressed

But cause Shinto is so integrated into Japanese culture I feel myself being obligated to switch myself to a more “Japanese” mindset, or whatever that means, which since I’ve never been is just my impressions based on what I’ve read and heard from relatives.

Maybe cause I’m japanese I’m making more of a problem out of this thatn I should.

Idk