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CHAPTER 1

A Singularly Zen Idea

Man's space on earth ...
A quick Hunt or shelter Before the rain comes down.
Sogi

Looking back I can see how my Shinto upbringing (my father was a martial arts instructor and a countryman) made it so easy to pick up on the underlying animistic threads of Old Craft and its associated esoteric practices. From a small child I was in touch with that indefinable sensation of witch-power, god-power, ki, qi, or earth energy – call it what you will – the natural energy that is believed to be an active principle forming part of any animate or inanimate thing. Similar concepts can be found in many cultures: prana in Hinduism (and elsewhere in Indian culture); ITLχITL in Chinese; pneuma in ancient Greece; mana in Hawaiian culture; lüng in Tibetan Buddhism; manitou in the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas; ruah in Jewish culture, and 'vital energy' in Western philosophy.

Ki, I soon learned, was the unseen life force in our body and everywhere. It was the universal energy that penetrates everywhere uniting all manifestations of the universe, visible or invisible, animate or inanimate. For example, the ancient Masters noticed that animals' reaction times were much faster than man's. They also had more endurance and were fiercer fighters; they could be quieter or louder. This observation led to the belief that this was because the animals were more at one with themselves since their ki flowed undivided and remained focused.

The Masters came to the conclusion that animals possessed this unique ability because they weren't burdened with something that we humans have: consciousness. This meant that in animals nothing intervenes between stimuli and response, idea and action, mind and body. Their breathing pattern was different to that of a human. Animals faced with danger composed themselves by taking a deep breath – then lashed out as they exhaled sharply. Many animal moves intrigued the ancient Masters and some eventually became the basis for various martial art styles. This was the first understanding of the practical advantages of this unseen life force.

In Traditional Witchcraft and the Path to the Mysteries and because there is no official pagan litany, I used a lot of Shinto belief and Zen philosophy to demonstrate how the elevation of the mind leads to higher understanding regardless of the Path being followed. For the traditional Japanese there is no dividing line between the divine and human, since the forces that move in Nature move in man, according to Zen teaching:

When one looks at it, one cannot see it: When one listens for it, one cannot hear it: However when one uses it, it is inexhaustible.

Even the rocks are possessed of the divine spark and often form part of the intricate designs used to create those beautiful Zen gardens for contemplation – reflecting the belief that the 'Buddhanature' is immanent not only in man, but in everything that exists. I used this quote in one of the first esoteric books I had published – What You Call Time – and I find that I have come full circle in trying to explain that everything, magical and mystical, really just comes down to this basic understanding (and acceptance) of ki – or whatever you like to call it!

From me flows what you call time ... comes from the music of Japanese composer, Toru Takemitsu, who seems to 'hear unimaginable ideas in his head and translates them into sound through the most extraordinary means' – and who, in turn, took the title from a poem by the Japanese poet Makoto Ooka: 'Clear Blue Water'. The orchestral piece is in part inspired by the Tibetan idea of the wind horse, an allegorical conception of the human soul, familiar to many in the well-known associated sequence of five coloured flags, representative of the elements: fire (red), water (blue), earth (yellow), sky (white) and wind (green).

Unfortunately, within contemporary paganism, there appears to be a widening schism between those who are immediately at one with these thoughts – and those who need to assume the outward trappings of esoteric practices to enhance their personalities and elevate their standing in the eyes of others, without bothering to develop the inner Self. There was an amusing instance just recently when a close colleague was told by a 'celebrity witch', that I couldn't possibly have the antecedents I claim, because there was nothing written about them in my books! 'Well, there wouldn't be, would there?' came the response. I don't happen to feel the need to add every jot and tittle to my writing in order to convince the readership that I have indeed walked the Path of the Mysteries.

Those who study with me are the ones who reap the benefit of this received wisdom – not those who would only gain their knowledge from reading a wide assortment of esoteric books. In Zen it is the question that is most important – not the answer. And there is also understanding the concept of 'secret teaching' that always seems to rattles the cages of certain people in the magical community because they never stop to think of it as merely referring to the kind of teaching that cannot be set down in words but can only be learned through experience.

These differences are also reflected in an increasing violence of speech within social media directed at those who do not share the same opinion over what are generally considered to be pagan issues. I might even go so far as to say, that I find the level of personal intolerance far greater than it was when I first entered the pagan community back in the day. Columnist John Masterson summed it all up recently when he wrote: 'We live in an era where legions of people are dying to take offence, often on behalf of others ... and the result is bland society and boring [people] politics. ... Yes, there are a lot of whingers around who find it difficult to find any good anywhere, anytime and "talk radio" would immediately die without a constant stream of whiners, whingers and offended people but I could live with that,' he concluded. Social media, too, would take a hammering but judging from the growth of mediocre postings that dominate of late, I suspect, too, that many objective, sensible, and intelligent pagans have just folded their altar cloths and quietly stolen away.

As an antidote, may I suggest that in the spirit of Zen it is possibly necessary to step away from this type of negative thinking and try seeing the world through the 'way of the kami'. Folk Shinto (as opposed to State Shinto) includes numerous folk beliefs in supernatural agencies and spirits, and the practice of divination, ancestor worship, and shamanic healing. Some of these practices have been imported from Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, but the majority come from ancient local indigenous traditions that literally do trace their origins back to their hunter-gatherer ancestors. There are also many locations of stone ritual structures, refined burial practices and early tori that strengthened the continuity of primal Shinto; and at some point there was a recognition that the ancestors created the current generations and so the deep reverence of the Ancestors (tama) took shape. Here we find plenty of parallels between Eastern and Western paganism.

And I am not the only Western 'pagan' to recognise this juxtaposition. As Jon Moore wrote in Zen Druid: A Paganism for the 21 Century, earth-based spirituality is the bedrock of human interaction with Nature, the Cosmos and our fellow human beings. 'In times of great change while the impetus is for reassessment and renewal, the field has become confused with different schools and methodologies. There are arguably now as many schools as there are practitioners.'

For all its ancient roots, however, Shinto remains the largest religion in Japan, practised by nearly eighty per cent of the population, yet only a small percentage of these identify themselves as 'Shintoists' in national surveys unless they belong to an established sect. Most Japanese attend Shinto shrines and pray to kami without belonging to any formalised religion, since there are no formal rituals required to become a follower of folk Shinto. According to Inoue Nobutaka [Shinto, a Short History], this is because Shinto even has different meanings in Japan. 'In modern scholarship, the term is often used with reference to kami-worship and related theologies, rituals and practices. In these contexts, "Shinto" takes on the meaning of "Japan's traditional religion", as opposed to foreign religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and so forth.' And according to the Shinto section of The World's Great Religions:

The Japanese find comfort and inspiration in the beauties of their surroundings. They have built their shrines in spots of breath-taking beauty. They try to keep themselves constantly attuned to the loveliness all about them:

E'en in a single leaf of a tree Or a tender blade of grass, The awe-inspiring Deity Manifests itself.

The practice of beauty leads the Japanese to participate in ceremonies and festivals that may seem strange to us. The Insect-Hearing Festival is an example of this. On a quiet evening in the early weeks of autumn, they sit quietly and listen to the noises of various insects. Just as typical is the story of the Zen teacher who stepped before his class one day to give a lecture. He paused to listen to the song of a bird outside the window, and then he dismissed the class. There are sermons in nature – and the Japanese hear them freely.

This is surely paganism at its most pure and one we can easily identify within the West without having to embrace the religious doctrines of the East because this old agrarian and animistic-based belief focuses on the existence and power of the kami that exist in nature, and throughout Japan – and the rest of the world. Kami or shin is often defined in English as 'god', 'spirit', 'spiritual essence' – all these terms merely meaning 'the energy generating a thing'. Though the word kami is translated multiple ways into English, no one English word expresses its full meaning. 'The ambiguity of the meaning of kami is necessary, as it conveys the ambiguous nature of kami themselves' (Historical Dictionary of Shinto).

And since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, kami refers to the divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms. Rocks, trees, rivers, animals, places, and even people can be said to possess the nature of kami. Kami and people exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity. Kami refers particularly to the power of phenomena that inspires a sense of wonder and awe (the sacred) in the beholder, testifying to the divinity of such a phenomenon. And if we strip away all of the Western labels and jargon concerning what is and what isn't paganism, surely this becomes the most all-encompassing description of all: kami.

In Shinto there is a much more casual approach to interacting with kami, since they certainly are the most ambiguous of 'spirits' and although they require deep reverence and respect, they are not personifications of deity like the Horned God, or the many goddesses that have crept into the contemporary pagan pantheon. As Sokyo Ono explains in Shinto, the Kami Way: kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing both positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of musubi, the interconnecting energy of the universe.

The kami reside in all things, but certain objects and places are designated for the interface of people and kami. There are natural places considered to have an unusually sacred spirit about them, and are objects of worship [veneration]. They are often mountains, trees, unusual rocks, rivers, waterfalls, and other natural things. In most cases they are on sacred ground or near a shrine. The shrine is a building in which the kami is housed. It is a sacred space, creating a separation from the mundane world. The kamidana is a household shrine that acts as a substitute for a large shrine on a daily basis. In each case the object of worship is considered a sacred space inside which the kami spirit actually dwells, being treated with the utmost respect.

Interestingly, this is a faith about an overall perspective more than a simple list of beliefs. This perspective – referred to by the phrase mono no aware – is a uniquely Japanese way of seeing the world and its beauty that contains many nuances, which include:

Aesthetic sensitivity – a sense of beauty and of the beautiful;

Sensitivity toward the aesthetic and the emotional as a basis for looking at life – this includes the sadness or pathos of life as well as joy, happiness and bliss;

Seeing with the heart into the natural beauty and goodness of all things.

These sensibilities underpin much of what is focused upon in Shinto/Zen thought and artistic expression – things such as nature, harmony, balance – and their particular expression in practical and decorative arts such as flower arranging, architecture, landscape design, the tea ceremony and much else. These are outward expressions of our inner harmony (wa) that encourages us to spend evenings gazing at the moon; or sitting for hours contemplating the beauty of a garden, or a flower arrangement, or even a drop of rain on a single twig or leaf.

Many of today's disenfranchised pagans in the West, however, appear to be seeking a spiritual connection to life without feeling the need to become a witch, a Wiccan, a shaman, Heathen, or a Druid. Here the Shinto approach fulfils the basic need for a belief system based on what we would define as simple animism and ancestor worship in accordance with the world's other authentic, animistic traditions such as the Australian Aboriginal and Native American way of life; while Zen provides the intellectual stimulation rising from the simplicity of basic folk-belief to elevate the soul to a higher level of mysticism. As Jon Moore also observed in Zen Druid:

It represents and creates the possibility for growth and development in all areas, from the common everyday to the mystical. The mystical is then embodied in – and becomes – the everyday; in other words, from ignorance of how the world works to enlightenment. It is a journey to the very centre of the individual and out to the edges of the cosmos, for in the knowing of ourselves is the knowing of the universe.

What should also appeal to those of a non-religious but spiritual bent is the fact that Shinto beliefs are not dogmatically centred around any official creed or codified system of theology, or ethics – instead there is a distinct sensibility that underlies an entire approach to life and the world. This can be captured not only with that phrase mono no aware, but also with the concepts of makoto ('sincerity in the heart') and kannagara-nomichi (that virtue is inseparable from the rest of life, especially life lived in harmony with the natural world).

Examined more closely, much of the 'philosophy' surrounding Shinto and Zen would sit comfortably against that which passes for modern paganism and/or spirituality in the Western world with its platitudes and questionable antecedents. Or the multi-million pound businesses that cater for the need of magical regalia in terms of books, crystals and divinatory equipment! What finer act of worship could there be in any language or culture than to simply hold a fragile blossom of a wild flower in the palm of the hand in order to connect with the divine without the need to consult the tarot cards.

A student of Zen should learn how to read the love letters sent by the snow, the wind and the rain.

The Kensho Moment (East)

If you have read so far and found yourself thinking: 'This is what I've always wanted but have never been able to put into words or feelings', then that is a kensho moment. This is a Japanese term from the Zen tradition. Ken means 'seeing', and sho means 'nature' or 'essence'. It appears suddenly and fleetingly, upon an interaction with something or someone else; on hearing, seeing or reading some significant phrase, or by experiencing an unexpected sight or sound. Kensho is an initial insight or awakening. And we might experience numerous 'kensho moments' along the way – in the Western traditions we refer to them as 'portals' or 'gateways' – and we must pass through several on the path to Understanding and/or Enlightenment (satori).

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Excerpted from "Pagan Portals Western Animism"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Mélusine Draco.
Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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