S1 E5 Fire, Full Moon, and Activities

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This week’s episode: Fire, the Full moon, and some Activities

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Goddess Information

Amaterasu Omikami

Title

• The Japanese (specifically Shinto) goddess of the sun, creation, and order

Description

• White skin, black hair, dressed in a kimono, often shown with rays of light coming off of her

Duties

• Rules the gods, shines her light during the day as the sun

Lineage

• Daughter of Izanami and Izanagi, sometimes said to be the daughter of just Izanagi
• Sister to many but primarily Tsukuyomi and Susanoo
• Previous wife of Tsukuyomi (the moon god), before he was exiled to the night sky by Amaterasu

Ask about Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu, are brother/sister or husband/wife?

• Had five sons Ame-no-Oshihomimi, Ame-no-Hohi, Amatsuhikone, Ikutsuhikone, and Kumanokusubi

Stories

• After being kicked out by his father for being troublesome Susanoo went to say goodbye to his sister Amaterasu. Suspicious of her brother, Amaterasu came out to meet him dressed in armor. To prove his sincerity he proposed a little contest whereby each chewed up and spat out a possession of the other. Three goddesses and five gods were born from this.
• Susanoo declared himself the victor and had himself a one man victory party. Unfortunately his victory party came at the cost of Amaterasu’s rice fields and the cleanliness of her palace, as he apparently pooped everywhere. Amaterasu took it all in stride, but his behavior got worse and worse.
• Eventually he cut a hole in the roof of her weaving hall and threw a horse that he had flayed alive into it. Unfortunately one of Amaterasu’s weaving girls got caught in the weaving machine as the horse fell on it and died.
• This sent Amaterasu over the edge. She hid herself in a cave and sealed it shut with a huge rock. This deprived the world of the sun's light and everything became chaos. Because of this all the gods and goddesses gathered outside the cave and began to hatch a plan to get Amaterasu back led by Omoikane, the god of wisdom.
• With all the gods and goddesses in their places ready to bring light back to the world, they just needed to convince Amaterasu to open the cave. One goddess, Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, stood before the closed off cave. She became divinely inspired and put an upside down bucket and began to dance upon it. The divine inspiration part was where she made the dance very bawdy, or not family friendly. This caused all the gods and goddesses to laugh.
• Amaterasu asked from the cave what was happening and a goddess replied that a better goddess than Amaterasu had been found. This caused Amaterasu to be curious and come to the mouth of the cave. A god moved the rock aside and Amaterasu was presented with a mirror. She was so entranced by what she saw in the mirror that she came out of the cave and thus light was restored to the world.

Interesting Facts

• Her great grandson was the first emperor Jimmu, the emperors of Japan show that their family tree reaches back to him and so link their lineage to Amaterasu.

Symbols

• Mirror, sword, and magatama ( a comma shaped jewel), the sun

Continuing on our theme of Moon phases and elements, we’re doing Fire and the Full moon. We’ll be presenting you with plenty of correspondences, as before,