Amaterasu Omikami"s symbols are the mirror and rice. I have called on Amaterasu at Winter Solstice and at times when a quality nurtured in the cave of myself needs to emerge. Because Her story in this collection deals with Her Brother"s drunkenness, it has also inspired reflection about my response to substance abuse in others.
j.a.pan is one of several cultures whose peoples know the Sun Deity as Female. Other cultures include the Arunta of Australia (see the story of Sun Woman); the Tobu of Argentina; the Inuit of Siberia, Alaska, Northern Canada, and Greenland; people of ancient Arabia; and people of Anatolia (Turkey).
_________________ The abbreviation C.E. stands for Common Era, equivalent to the use of A.D. Before the Common Era is denoted by the letters B.C.E." equivalent to the use of B.C.
The Mirror Dance of Life
No one is alive anymore who can remember the time Amaterasu Omikami, the Great Woman Who Possesses Noon, took Herself into the Cave of Heaven and refused to come out. But to those who know the story, every mirror on Earth is a reminder of that time and of the glorious moment She stepped again into the open sky, sending Her surge of strength and will again through all Life.
In those beginning times, the spirit of every living thing was called its Kami. The Kami of the mountain was lavender and long. The Kami of the trees was great and green. Animals had Kami in the shapes of swords and cups. Fish and flowers had Kami. The Kami of the rocks and the rivers were silent and calm. All the strength of these Kami poured forth from the Great Mother Sun, Amaterasu Omikami, and in Her honor was woven the great pattern of the seasons of the planting and the harvesting of rice.
Amaterasu Omikami had a Brother named Susanowo. Susanowo ruled the ocean, but He was jealous of the greater power of His Sister, Amaterasu. Because Amaterasu knew of His ill feeling, She was suspicious when one day Susanowo sent word that He was coming to visit.
Though She had a feast prepared on the day Her Brother was to arrive, Amaterasu also armed Herself with a quiver of ten thousand silver arrows and a giant bow of beaten gold. She planted Her feet firmly and awaited Susanowo.
Some of the Queen of Heaven"s tension melted when She saw that Susanowo came bearing gifts and speaking of trust and loyalty. Amaterasu and Susanowo ate together, and, after the meal had been cleared away, Amaterasu covered Her Brother"s hands with Her own.
"How glad I am You"ve come in friendship," said Amaterasu, Her eyes shining.
"I was worried You"d come otherwise."
Susanowo loosed His hands and bowed low to His Sister.
"Amaterasu Omikami," He said.
"Let Us forget the past. I have nothing but respect and admiration for You."
Late into the night They talked of Their love for each other, Their plans for the future, and the joy of Their relationship. Finally Amaterasu bid Susanowo good night and went to Her cave to sleep.
Susanowo, however, did not go to bed. Instead He sat alone at the huge table, sipping sake wine and growing increasingly angry as He compared His own power to that of His Sister. The memory of the food, conversation, and Amaterasu"s graciousness grew ugly in Susanowo"s mind. The wine He was drinking slowly kindled His resolve to show His Sister who was really most powerful.
In the next few hours, Susanowo tore drunkenly through the Plain of Heaven. He piled mounds of dirt in the irrigation ca.n.a.ls so no water could flow to the rice paddies. Not satisfied, He stomped on each and every plant until the fields were covered with broken and dying stalks.
Then He took up the excrement of animals and humans and smeared it in Amaterasu"s celestial weaving house where the heavenly women wove the sacred tapestries.
In fear and anger, the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses went to wake Amaterasu. When the Shining One saw what Her Brother had done, a pain stabbed Her heart. Her hands hung limp at Her sides, and Her mind pictured the dinner they had shared and the words of trust and endearment They had exchanged.
"Susanowo!" Amaterasu"s voice filled the Plain of Heaven like light suddenly fills a dark room.
Susanowo staggered into His Sister"s presence, pulling a piebald colt on a rope behind Him. He spat on the floor of the celestial palace.
Amaterasu put Her hands behind Her back.
"Susanowo," She said again.
"Where are the words of last night, Susanowo?"
Susanowo spat again.
"Susanowo," said Amaterasu again.
"Susanowo, You wrong Me. But I ask only that You sleep. Leave off, Brother Susanowo. Sleep."
Susanowo answered by pulling the sword from His belt and whirling to plunge its blade through the heart of the colt behind Him. Before the eyes of the entire heavenly court, He heaved the dead colt through the window of the palace and into the celestial weaving house below. There the carca.s.s struck and broke the looms and sacred threads and sent several of the heavenly weavers to the Land of the Dead.
A cry of rage escaped the throat of Amaterasu Omikami. She ran from the palace and back to Her cave. Once inside, She pulled the great door tight behind Her and locked it, shutting away from Heaven Her warmth and light and plunging even the realm of Susanowo into darkness.
The G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of Heaven caught Susanowo, punished Him, and banished Him from Heaven. But without Amaterasu Omikami to light the Plain of Heaven, there was only darkness. The Kami of the rice withered. The Kami of birds and animals, mountains and trees turned to gray ghosts. Life without Amaterasu Omikami was impossible.
The G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses gathered together to discuss how they might restore the precious Amaterasu Omikami. How to tempt Her from Her cave? How to let Her know that Susanowo had been sent away?
"We must moan and grieve outside Her cave. We must shout to Her of our dead," said some of the deities.
"No," said others.
"We must remind Her of the joy She brings. We must dance for Her."
And so it was that the Dance of the Mirrors was planned. All of the ghostly Kami of the world gathered up what little strength they had left and pieces of shiny mirror. With the help of the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, they collected themselves outside the door of Amaterasu"s cave and began to make a joyful noise. Songs and jokes flew, weakly at first and then, as the Kami began to take strength from each other, more strongly. A dance bloomed, and deep inside the Cave of Heaven Amaterasu Omikami heard the voices of Her people.
When Amaterasu cracked open the door of Her cave, a slit of Her brilliant light lit the night. When the Kami felt the surge of Life they had longed for, the dance became jubilant. Amaterasu listened and then poked Her head outside the cave. At that very moment the mirrors of all the Kami reflected back to Amaterasu Omikami Her own stunning beauty, and Amaterasu Omikami stepped all the way out of Her cave and into the open sky.
Once again the Kami of the mountain grew lavender and long. The Kami of the trees was once again great and green. Animals again had Kami in the shapes of swords and cups. The Kami of fish and flowers and rocks and rivers were alive once more.
On that day the strength of all Kami poured forth from the Great Mother Sun, and in Her honor was woven the great pattern of the seasons of the planting and the harvesting of rice. And so it is to this very day.
Ereshkigal (uh-RESH-kig-gull) Queen of the Underworld and Inanna (ee-NAH-nah) Queen of Heaven (Middle East)
Introduction.
Christian storytellers borrowed extensively from the myth of Ereshkigal and Her Sister Inanna when they put together the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Indeed, it was Inanna, Queen of Heaven, who first taught Her people how to die, be reborn, and rise again.
The stories of Inanna and Ereshkigal are recorded on cuneiform tablets dating up to 3200 years before the birth of Christ. They come from Sumer, the most ancient literate civilization we know, today"s Iraq and Middle East. Our knowledge of ancient Sumer is pieced together from the findings and interpretations of archaeologists and scholars, and Sumer"s artifacts are still being discovered. These writings reveal the tremendous power of the G.o.ddess and Her worship over time, as well as dramatic accounts of Her conquer and the resulting emotional devastation of Herself and Her people.
Ereshkigal is the older of the two G.o.ddesses: Her name appears in the oldest of Sumer"s writings. She is Queen of Irkalla, the Land of the Dead; Queen of Souls; the Most Merciful One. Her name Kigal means "Great Earth." Her counterparts in other cultures include Nephthys of Egypt; Persephone of Greece (see story); Kali of India (see story); and Hcl of northern Europe, whose name Christian storytellers borrowed for the Underworld they called h.e.l.l.
Inanna, whose Holy Lap was the source of the Earth"s life blood (see story of Danu) in the form of wells, rivers, and springs, was the most widely known G.o.ddess in later Sumerian history. Queen of Heaven, She was Venus, the Morning and Evening Stars, and was represented by an eight-petaled star or rosette. (Both Amaterasu Omikami of j.a.pan and lamanja of Brazil are similarly a.s.sociated: see stories.) Her animal counterparts were the snake, coiled on a staff, and the heifer, whose horns most probably represented the shapes of the Moon and the sacred Fallopian Tubes of life. She is related to the Semitic G.o.ddess Ishtar and probably descended from the Creator G.o.ddess Nammu, who was Herself a.s.sociated with the Mesopotamian Tiamat. The story of Tiamat, Great Mother of the Sea, finally recounts Her murder at the hands of male invaders.
As the myth of Amaterasu Omikami is a metaphor for the rice-growing cycle, the story of Inanna"s descent and return from Her Sister Ereshkigal probably dramatizes the seasonal shift between the time of rain and plenty and the frightening time of drought and possible famine. The story of the seasons is perhaps the deepest one we humans know. It is no accident that Christian tellers who mapped for us the story of their Jesus pinpointed His return to life in the Spring of the northern hemisphere. And, like the figure of Jesus, the Sumerian Sister G.o.ddesses in that far earlier version of this tremendous story of death and renewal touch deeply the seasonal nature of our own personal psychologies.
I have invoked Inanna and Ereshkigal with bones, seeds, pits, and compost. I have called on the Sisters for help with grief, terror, loss, and recovery. Ereshkigal embodies my ability to let truth be, without trying to fix or change it. Inanna embodies hope and the courage to change.
To Die, Be Reborn, and Rise Again Soon after the G.o.ddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven, took for Herself the human Dumuzi as Her husband, She heard that the husband of Her Sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, had died.
Inanna decided to go to Ereshkigal and be with Her Sister in the Underworld as She mourned. But when She called to Her friend and helper Ninshubar to help Her dress for Her journey, she got an argument instead.
"Don"t go," said Ninshubar.
"Please, my Queen. Send Your Sister Your sympathy by messenger."