from: Kia
re: Shinto and Kami
I can understand your confusion regarding Shinto. Hell, even I get confused sometimes, and I believe in this stuff. To make a very long story very short, followers of Shinto believe in the kami— usually translated by Westerners as “spirits” or “gods.”In reality, they are neither and both. Yes, if you are a shaman and you conjure a spirit, a Shinto believer would call it a kami, because in Shinto everything has a kami. And there are a damn near infinite number of them— yaoyurozu no kami as the saying goes.And therein lies the problem. For example, there is a kami for a certain tree, and a kami for all trees, andanother kami for the concept of trees. Similarly, youhave your family kami, individual ancestor kami, and a kami for the idea of your family. Trying to fit that into Western magic theory can get ugly.
// illustration by Brian Wells //
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// What about religious bias? What about mages that bind and enslave spirits/kami?
ReplyDelete// Aufheben
// Strictly speaking, Shinto dogma does not dictate a right or wrong way to handle spirits. It contains little inherent bias against other
belief systems and practices. Non-Shinto mages will usually have no trouble relating with Shinto priests, who tend to see binding rituals as nothing more than a clever—but fair—means to trick a kami into hearing one’s “prayers.” Of course, there are radical sects or individuals who may have different opinions, but tolerance seems to be the norm.
// Naginata