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Hitaki-sai (Fushimi Inari)

November 13, 2014 / John D. / 6 Comments

Green Shinto friend, Hugo Kempeneer, has written up his visit to a most interesting ceremony at Fushimi Inari which took place recently. It’s a ceremony I’ve never seen myself, but thanks to his very clear videos of the event, I almost feel that I was there in person! (For an 18 minute video of the event, see here. For Hugo’s excellent Kyotodreams blog, see here. All photos copyright Hugo Kempeneer.)

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Hugo writes…

Today was the annual Hitaki Sai (火焚祭) Fire Festival at Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) in Kyoto. As usual the Fushimi Inari shrine is crowded with people from all over. Today was no different, though the weather was kind of nice and many people where lining up to get a good spot at the festival site. Myself, I was standing in line for more than 1½ hours. It paid off though and I had a first row view. The ceremony is held to express gratitude for the bountiful harvest and to pray for good health of worshippers. More than 100.000 wooden prayer sticks from all over Japan were burned in three separate bonfires.

Green Shinto comments: Looking at this, one can’t help seeing the syncretic nature of Fushimi Inari writ large. The ceremony is typical of Shingon Buddhism, and the shrine was appointed by the Shingon founder Kukai to be a guardian shrine of his Heian-kyo temple seminary, To-ji. Still today the Inari mikoshi is brought past the entrance of To-ji in its annual festival, when the Buddhist priests come out to pay their respects. The syncretic nature of Inari belief may be the reason, or one of the reasons, as to why Fushimi Inari is not a member of Jinja Honcho (Association of Shrines).

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Hugo’s Hitaki Sai Fire Festival Highlights:

The ceremony started at 1.00pm at the main hall of the Fushimi shrine and about 45 minutes later the priests and kagura (神楽) dancers entered the grounds. A cleansing ritual was performed in front of each heap, afterwards the fire starter bamboo sticks were set alight. Three priests lit the three bonfires.

First there was an overwhelming smoke that engulfed all the spectators, but soon it cleared up and the first flames were reaching to the sky. The long and hot task of throwing the prayer sticks onto the fire began. The priests and participants were singing prayers to thank the gods for a bountiful harvest and prosperity. After all, the Fushimi Inari Shrine is dedicated to Inari, kami of rice and business.

In-between the prayers and burning of the prayer sticks was a performance by some pretty kagura dancers, performing a beautiful traditional Kagura dance. They did this three times. The burning of the more than 100.000 prayer sticks lasted for one hour. It was quite an experience, as this was the first time I attended this ceremony at the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Miko, drum and divine utterance - relics of a shamanistic past

Hugo writes:

During the Hitaki Sai Fire Festival at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Kagura dancers livened up the ceremony. While Shinto priests were busily throwing the prayer sticks onto the bonfires, these pretty miko (巫女) or Shrine Maidens treated us to a traditional Kagura dance. Kagura (神楽) or “god-entertainment” is a theatrical dance—with roots arguably predating those of Noh. Originally called kamukura or kamikura (神座), kagura began as sacred dances performed at the Imperial court by shrine maidens (miko) who were supposedly descendants of Ame-no-Uzume [the dancer in the Rock-Cave Myth, whose bawdy performance leads a curious Amaterasu to emerge from her cave].

The slow and stately kagura dance performed by miko

The Far Right

November 13, 2014 / John D. / 2 Comments

Four recent articles have highlighted the growing danger of right-wing extremism in Japan.

First Murakami Haruki, Japan’s leading novelist, spoke out against the whitewashing of Japan’s record in WW2. “After the war, it was eventually concluded that no one was wrong,” said Murakami of the pervasive attitude in Japan. It is offensive to the millions who suffered untold cruelty at the hands of the Japanese army, and nationalists need to take on board that more Chinese died in WW2 than all the Americans, British and Japanese put together.

Extreme nationalists like the Zaitokukai make Yasukuni a rallying point

A second article by Hugh Cortazzi, former UK ambassador to Japan, stated: ‘It is very much in Japan’s national interest that the revisionists are discouraged from propagating their historical lies and that Japanese democratic processes are not threatened by extremist anti-democratic individuals or groups.’ As a supporter of Japan, Cortazzi ends his forceful piece with, ‘Better a candid friend than an insincere sycophant.’ Hear, hear! (For the full article, click this link.)

A third article by Japanese professor, Yamaguchi Jiro, further highlights the extreme rightwing orientation of the Japanese government. While campaigning to win respect abroad, it pursues repressive politics at home and condones ties to neo-Nazis. The media have been effectively silenced, textbooks are being rewritten to omit mention of atrocities, and the head of the national broadcaster NHK has more or less declared that it operates as an arm of the government. (Click to see The article in the Japan Times .)

Fourthly, there was a stinging condemnation of extremist elements by Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University, entitled ‘Right-wing witch hunt signals dark days in Japan’ (click here). “The revisionist right in Japan with the active encouragement, if not involvement, of the Abe government has succeeded in controlling NHK news, intimidating Asahi Shimbun and now academia,” says Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University.

A far right van in Kyoto bearing the slogan Respect the Ancient Japan School (wikicommons)

Intimidation of those who speak out against prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni is part of the extreme right’s campaign of vilification. “In 2006, Koichi Kato, a moderate (Liberal Democratic Party) politician, had his house in Yamagata burned down for his criticism of Prime Minister (Junichiro) Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine.”

Things have grown so bad now that some commentators are likening the situation to the 1930s. “In recent years, pressure by right-wing groups has led to cinemas canceling movies dealing with sensitive war-related issues; hotels canceling the reservations of conference rooms for symposia dealing with such issues; and museums canceling or revising exhibitions with sensitive contents. (There has been) widespread anti-China and anti-Korea sentiments (and) books of that kind becoming best-sellers, hate demonstrations, assaults on history by the nation’s leaders that trickle down to the general public, page-ripping of Anne Frank’s diaries, hiding of ‘Barefoot Gen’ in school libraries, assaults on protest tents in Okinawa and anti-nuclear tents in Tokyo, and public places refusing to rent space to groups that discuss issues like the Constitution and anti-nuclear power.”

There are times in history when it’s important to stand up and speak out. Conservative collaborators in the West, including sympathisers with Shinto, like to turn a blind eye to political developments such as visits to Yasukuni. In so doing they are guilty of complicity, for the stink of collaboration with racist thugs like the Zaitokukai* hangs over them. As Yamaguchi points out in his article, ‘It is the job of members of the media and academics to tell people immersed in narcissism that they, in fact, have ugly aspects.’ So let it be clearly stated: those who exploit Shinto for extremist ends are ugly indeed!

* To learn about Zaitokukai, see here.

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Author Murakami chides Japan over WWII, Fukushima responsibility
NATIONAL NOV. 04, 2014 Japan Today

Murakami Haruki (source unknown)

Speaking to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, the 65-year-old author said: “No one has taken real responsibility for the 1945 war end or the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. I feel so.”

“After the war, it was eventually concluded that no one was wrong,” said Murakami of the pervasive attitude in Japan. Japanese people have come to consider themselves as “victims” of the war, he added.

Murakami, one of Japan’s best known writers who has repeatedly been tipped as a future Nobel Literature laureate, said that it was natural for China and the Koreas to continue to feel resentment towards Japan for its wartime aggressions. “Fundamentally, Japanese people tend not to have an idea that they were also assailants, and the tendency is getting clearer,” he said.

Japan’s lack of repentance over its in the first half of the 20th century continues to strain relations with regional neighbors.

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For a suppressed 2-hour documentary on WW2 by Kazuo Hara, The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (Yukiyukite shingun, 1987), see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDkrunQwoLc. You can switch on subtitles at the bottom.

Bears in Distress

November 8, 2014 / John D. / 7 Comments

One of the distressed bears at the Ainu Museum in Hokkaido

The following piece comes from Green Shinto reader, Jann Williams. As a professor of Ecology, she has expertise in environmental matters and a concern with the welfare of animals. Given the deep spirituality of the Ainu, it’s highly unfortunate to say the least that bears should be mistreated in their name. Green Shinto has no hesitation in giving its backing to this campaign and has written to the museum in question to ask them to improve the conditions of the animals.

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The Bear Goddess beckons

In May 2014 my husband and I visited Hokkaido, starting our visit in Daisetsuzan National Park and finishing in Hakodate. As experienced ecologists with a keen interest in Indigenous cultures, the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi was high on our list of places to visit. We were impressed that a Museum of Indigenous Culture had been built in Japan, and we were attracted by the opportunity to learn more about the intimate connections between Ainu and their environment.

The Museum has some interesting and informative exhibits describing and demonstrating the Ainu religion and associated way of life. We were both very surprised however by the way the Hokkaido bears and dogs at the Museum were treated. It ruined what would have been an enjoyable and educative experience. The Great Bear Goddess is the highest of the gods worshipped by the Ainu, so it was distressing to see these majestic animals being kept in very small cages with a concrete base.

The conditions the bears are kept in at the Museum are inimical to their mental and physical health. The bears had gone ‘stir crazy’, having no energy and demonstrating disturbing repetitive actions. Technically this is known as ‘stereotypic behaviour’ and is a common occurrence in animals kept in captivity in inadequate conditions.

In August I posted a comment, along similar lines, on Green Shinto, in response to an article about the Ainu. Since posting the comment, I have written to the Ainu Museum about my concern over the treatment of these majestic animals. As a Professor of Ecology, and past President of the Ecological Society of Australia, I am hoping that that my voice may carry some weight.

Other international visitors have expressed concern about the condition of the bears. Of the reviews of the Museum on TripAdvisor, over 70% of visitors from western countries refer to the unacceptable treatment of these animals. Using their words, the reviewers call attention to “distasteful animal abuse”, “unnecessary animal torture” and “cruelty towards the bears”.

Since my earlier post on Green Shinto, the Japanese Animal Welfare Society was also approached to conduct an inspection of the facilities at the Museum and of the treatment of the bears. To my disappointment they reported that the conditions the bears are kept in are considered ‘legitimate’ according to Japanese law.

So what to do next? Changing the laws to meet international standards is required, that is clear. Even if these sub-standard conditions currently meet the letter of the law, it saddened me that Ainu consider this a respectful way to treat the bears. This was unexpected for an Indigenous people with strong spiritual connections with nature. Judging from some of the posts and comments on Green Shinto, it may reflect a broader Japanese attitude towards animals. Changing these attitudes and associated behaviour will take time and require cultural understanding.

I wasn’t sure what more could be achieved as an outsider looking in, but then a friend of mine leant me The Romance of the Bear God – a book of Ainu Folktales by Shigeru Kayano. To me this was a sign that the Great Bear Goddess wanted to reach a wider audience, to let people know about the conditions under which the bears are forced to live, and to find a way to improve them. That spurred me on to write this piece.

It’s been suggested that other readers of Green Shinto might consider sending letters to the Ainu Museum, for the more pressure they receive the more likely they are to improve the conditions of the bears. For those interested, the email address is museum@ainu-museum.or.jp:

Ainu Museum
2-3-4, Shiraoi-cho
Shiraoi-gun, Hokkaido
Japan 059-0902

P: 0144-82-3914. Fax: 0144 82-3685.

Any suggestions for other ideas to help rectify the situation would be appreciated.

Professor Jann Williams
Tasmania, Australia

The caged bears which have caused outrage amongst visitors to the museum on Trip Advisor

A noticeboard on the cages to explain that the Bear was not only the at the top of the ecosystem in Hokkaido but was the most worshipped Kamuy (deity) of the Ainu. Each spring a captured bear cub was bred with care as 'God's child' in preparation for a grand ceremony known as Iyomante, held to send the spirit of the bear back to The Bear Goddess.

Dogs kept in concrete cages – symptomatic of a special relationship with nature?

Vibrations

November 8, 2014 / John D. / 0 Comments

In 1955 the head of Yamakage Shinto, Yamakage Motohisa, met with a Shinto researcher called Jean Herbert. Together the pair visited something like 1000 shrines, and the research was eventually used in Herbert’s massive book on Shinto; at the fountain-head of Japan (1967).

In the following piece, Yamakage Motohisa describes part of their trip together and how Herbert related to the animistic ‘power spots’ of Shinto. I once had a similar kind of experience when accompanying a priest sensitive to the spirit of place on a trip to various sacred sites.

“Different places on the face of the earth have different vital effluence, different vibration, different chemical exhalation, different polarity with different stars: call it what you like. But the spirit of place is a great reality,’ wrote D.H. Lawrence. One aspect of Shinto is the celebration of that.

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To show that Shinto is so closely related with Nature, I thought it vital to take him to some natural sacred place, somewhere deep in the mountain as the archetype of Shinto shrine, where there were but some rocks.

He was sensitive enough to feel the natural vibrating energy; when he sensed the incredible energy coming out of such a ‘purified’ place for the first time, he looked greatly surprised, just asking “why …. why … why…”

“Because this is a Natural-Spirit Zone.” I said.
“We didn’t feel such a strong vibration in the shrines we visited.” he said.
“Because their buildings are what man made. They are not natural or pure.”
Then he asked: “Why, man should be Child of Kami according to Shinto.”
“In its radical sense, Yes, however, man has a lot of Kegare, spiritual pollutions. And who do you imagine comes and prays here, far away from the town? They come and pray for thanks…”
“Thanks for what?
“Thanks for — that I am fine, happy today. Their prayer is never for selfish desires. But most people visiting big shrines in the town will often give bad vibration with their egoistic praying. So I admit not all shrines in Japan are purified.”
“Hindu is also ‘natural’, isn’t it the same as Shinto in this sense?” he said.
“No.” I answered.
“Why?”
“Because some deities of Hindu are ‘hand-made’(artificial).”
Dr. Herbert smiled, then.

But in fact it is not only in Nature but also somewhere in the city that Natural Shinto is still breathing, secretly. We went to a very small shrine called Karasumori-Inari, situated in a back street surrounded by taverns in the middle of Tokyo. It was so small that no priest took care of it. But, once he entered its space, he could feel that ‘purifying’ vibration, which created a sacred place, different from the surroundings. He was amazed to find that ‘Natural Shinto’ is alive still in the middle of Japan.

Since he learned to feel the Natural-Spirit vibration, he tried by himself to examine every shrine we visited. When we reached the area of a shrine, he as a rule stood for a moment to feel its vibration, good or bad. and then asked me if his sense was right or not, to make sure. Such practical, deep experiences made a great contribution to his penetrating the core of Shinto. the natural power of purification.

Yasukuni war criminals

November 7, 2014 / John D. / 2 Comments

Apologists for prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni like to pretend it’s a purely religious matter or a purely Japanese matter. I guess German rightists used similar arguments about Catholicism’s compliance with the Nazis.

One of the most vocal groups in support of prime ministers visiting Yasukuni, not surprisingly, has been the War-Bereaved Families Association. In this respect it’s of interest to note the article below which highlights that: 1) even some Japanese Shintoists are opposed to the secret enshrinement of the war criminals; 2) both the previous and the present emperor have shown their disapproval; 3) the enshrinement of the war criminals is viewed as a symbol of Japan’s lack of atonement for the shocking war crimes committed in East Asia.

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Group tells Yasukuni Shrine to ditch convicted war criminals
AFP-JIJI, KYODO Japan Times OCT 29, 2014

Visitors take in some of the 30,000 paper lanterns illuminated during a festival at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on July 13. A chapter of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association is asking Yasukuni officials to remove the names of war criminals enshrined there. | REUTERS

An influential group that represents families of the war dead is urging Yasukuni Shrine to remove the names of the convicted war criminals currently enshrined there, an official said Wednesday.

A chapter of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association passed a resolution at its annual meeting Monday, calling on the shrine’s governors to delist the names from the 2½ million Japanese souls honored there.

The change would enable “the Emperor and the Empress, the prime minister and all Japanese people to visit Yasukuni Shrine without discomfort,” an official from the group’s chapter in Fukuoka told reporters. Similar calls have been heard over the years, both inside Japan and overseas.

The names include that of army Gen. and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Nationalists, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, argue that the Tokyo shrine is no different from war memorials in other countries, such as Arlington National Cemetery in the United States.

The Yasukuni Shrine. A group representing families of soldiers has asked that the names of 14 war criminals be removed. Credit Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

But the secret addition of World War II leaders to the Yasukuni list in 1978 caused Emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, to cancel a planned visit, according to a memo by one of his aides. His son, Emperor Akihito, has never visited the shrine.

Japanese politicians stoke anger in China and South Korea whenever they visit the shrine. Those nations suffered at the hands of Japanese aggression in the first half of the 20th century and regard visits by political leaders as insensitive triumphalism.

A small [but alarmingly powerful and influential] section of the political right believes Japan is unfairly criticized for its wartime past, saying the international military tribunal that convicted the leaders was practicing the justice of the victors and that Japan’s empire-building was no different from that of the European powers.

The issue has soured ties with Japan’s neighbors and even prompted a scolding from the United States when Abe visited the shrine last year. Japan’s leader has not held formal talks with either China’s President Xi Jinping or South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye since they came to office.

Abe’s visit to the controversial shrine came amid a near-crisis in relations with Beijing, strained by sparring over the sovereignty of an island chain in the East China Sea.

Miyazaki honorary Oscar

November 6, 2014 / John D. / 0 Comments

Miyazaki Hayao (source unknown)

One of Green Shinto’s favourite Japanese, Miyazaki Hayao, is to be given an honorary award next year, according to an article in the Japan Times.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Thursday it has picked anime director Hayao Miyazaki as one of three recipients of its Honorary Award this year.

The only other Japanese to receive the award was Akira Kurosawa, in 1990 at the 62nd Academy Awards.

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Film specialist Michael J. Anderson writes…

In 2005 New York’s Museum of Modern Art presented Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata: Masters of Animation. The retrospective’s centerpiece was the North American premiere of Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).

Spirited Away publicity poster

As no great fan of animation, let alone anime, I will admit that I think of Miyazaki as something of an exception. His best films manifest many of the same qualities as the very best of the classical Hollywood system: that is, they succeed in addressing multiple audiences at once, both as organic works of art and as entertainments in their own right. Spirited Away (2001), for instance, is targeted at ten year-old girls, seeking to remedy their principle anxieties, while operating as a parable for the economic crisis for older viewers. Then again, those not within the former demographic are likewise given a glimpse into the young female’s psychoses. It is in other words an art that operates on numerous levels, separately addressing different viewers.

Another instance of dual and even multiple address in Miyazaki’s work is in its salience for culturally Japanese and non-Japanese audiences. In any context, Spirited Away is a fantasy. However, for the Japanese viewers, it is a fantasy mitigated by Shinto metaphysics. Spirits are everywhere in the work, as kami are everywhere in nature.

When a creature enters the spa with a horrendous odor, it is the product of a spirit. Chihiro, the ten year-old protagonist, judiciously cleans the monster, ridding the spa of this terrible spirit. In this way, not only does Spirited Away manifest a Shinto causality, but further upholds one of the religion’s four affirmations: the importance of physical cleanliness. To bath in Shinto is to participate in an important purifying ritual.

Totoro publicity poster

Another of these affirmations is the sacredness of nature, which is a concern that the filmmaker often returns to throughout his corpus. In films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997), this Shinto belief is fused with an ecological allegory that condemns reckless industrial civilization, and particularly its employment of nuclear weaponry. That Shinto has so easily coopted environmentalism surely accounts for the latter’s prevalence in recent Japanese cinema — beyond Miyazaki, major works include the Shinto-titled Himatsuri (Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1985), Rhapsody in August (Akira Kurosawa, 1990), and Charisma (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999), among others.

Beyond Japanese cinema, where ecological concerns flow from Shintoist thought, environmentalism has become, arguably, the chief religious art of the modern world. The cathedrals of the medieval world have been since replaced by public spaces that call attention to a transgressive industrial past. Another recent MoMA exhibit perfectly articulated the religious intimations of environmentalist art. Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape offers a view of contemporary urban landscapes reappropriated after their industrial dereliction.

Princess Mononoke publicity poster

As the program notes, “nearly every significant landscape designed in recent years occupies a site that has been reinvented and reclaimed from obsolescence or degradation as cities in the postindustrial remake their outdoor spaces.” In other words, these new designs represent a sort of contrition toward a misused Mother Earth, often maintaining the scars of their industrial abuse as if a continual reminder for generations ahead of the industrial era’s grave sins.

But more on that later: in a film review of mine to be published next month, I further articulate the reasons for evaluating environmentalism as a religion. If you are unable to wait that long, I would recommend Michael Crichton’s speech to the Commonweath Club.

As for the current film program at the MoMA, or for Miyazaki’s art more generally, it almost goes without saying that it is essential, whether or not its respective religious intimations are of any interest to you. I mention these only out of what is otherwise critical slight: to understand Miyazaki’s work in particular, I would argue, it is necessary to understand it within its Shintoist rubric.

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Autumn (Halloween)

November 3, 2014 / John D. / 2 Comments

In this article Mark Booth (aka Jonathan Black), author of the bestselling The Secret History of the World and The Sacred History, explores the significance of autumn to spiritual life.

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Stories of the Fall By Jonathan Black

The arrival of autumn affects the human spirit. As the nights draw in we are driven indoors and also driven in upon ourselves. Our place in the world feels different. But does spirit really change? Do spiritual realms have their own season? Do spirits behave differently in autumn?

All the world’s great religions have roots in astronomy. In the great monotheistic religions these roots have of course been covered over and the influence of the gods or spirits of the stars and planets is played down.

In public Christianity denounces astrology, but many ancient churches from Canterbury to Chartres are full of astrological symbols, and most are built according to an astronomical orientation which is as exact as that of an Egyptian temple. Christian archangels are routinely represented as the great spirits of the heavenly bodies – St Michael being the Archangel of the Sun, for instance, and Gabriel the Archangel of the Moon.

In The Secret History of the World I show how at the time the Fourth Gospel was written ‘the Word’ was a traditional title of the Sun god who, it was said, would come to lighten the darkness. There is much more going on in Christianity than meets the eye – and these hidden elements are described in secret or ‘esoteric’ teachings.

In these teachings the stars and planets have not only had the role in helping to form human life that modern science allows, they also have had a role in the forming of human consciousness and continue to do so. The revolutions of the planet Venus affect the tides of our sexual desire, for example, and we are enabled to reflect or think because the Moon reflects the light of the Sun.

In the astrological account life on earth moves according to a series of cycles determined by the movements of the heavenly bodies – a daily cycle, a seasonal cycle, a yearly cycle, the cycle formed by the precession of the equinoxes and so on. As the Sun withdraws and the natural world begins to die, the spiritual world comes alive, becoming more active. Autumn may be thought of as a great door in the cosmos – and spirits come pouring through.

As the mid-point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, Halloween traditionally marks the beginning of winter. The spirits that flow first and more easily through the opening of the great cosmic door at this time are the spirits of the dead. Goblins, ghosts and the spirits of the dead are the lowest denizens of the spirit worlds.

It was traditionally thought that the beginning of winter was a propitious time to interact positively and helpfully with the spirits of the dead. The feasting traditionally associated with the harvest and Halloween is intended to draw the dead to us, to make them salivate and encourage them to be nostalgic for the pleasures of the material world. It’s a way of attracting the dead and working with them that is described by both Homer and Virgil, and it is still kept alive in cultures – for example Thailand – where offerings of food are sometimes placed in cemeteries.

None of this is necessarily done in a doleful way. Think of the Day of the Dead in Mexico and the fun in all that imagery. Likewise in English tradition ‘mumming’ – from which we get ‘mummers’ as in actors – began when people dressed up like the dead to make them feel at home, to greet them in a playful sort of way. The word ‘mummer’ comes from the mum-mum sound these mummers used to make imitating the walking dead’s attempts to speak.

Halloween has always been a time when you might commune with your ancestors, when you might ask their advice on your future dealings, a time when the spirit of prophecy was particularly strong. Halloween parties today still sometimes include the old game of apple-bobbing, for example. Girls used to bob for apples in search of love. Traditionally the apple is the fruit of Venus; the 5 point pattern pips make in a slice of apple mimics the patterns that Venus makes in the sky over a 40 year period. If you bobbed successfully, you’d put the apple you pulled out of the bucket under your pillow that night and hope to dream of the man you’d marry.

Autumn then is a time to explore the great mysteries of life, death and destiny, to get to grips with what it means to die, even to taste death. In the bleak midwinter, on the 25th December, the sun-god will be born and the death forces will be driven back, but in the meantime the world grows darker and colder. The Fall is then the fall into matter.