- Joined
- Mar 26, 2002
- Messages
- 3,397
Wonder if there's a connection to be found?
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GLOSSARY/KAMI.HTM
" What all these versions of Shinto have in common is belief in kami, or "divinities"; Shinto itself is a Chinese-derived word which means "the way of the gods" (Shin="gods"; To, from Tao="the way"). What these kami are is hard to pin down. They range from the original creating gods to lesser gods, from the spirits of ancestors to any natural force or aspect of nature which inspires awe.
...... Each of these clans worshipped a divinity, a kami , that was associated with the clan; it was the job of the chieftain to see to the proper ceremonies devoted to the clan's individual kami . Should one clan overrun another, the kami of the conquered clan was made subject to the kami of the victorious clan. Each clan still worshipped their respective divinities, but the hierarchy of those divinities shifted. .......
So, have we answered the question about kami ? Not really. The world view of tribal societies which organize themselves along kinship lines, tend to regard the world, both physical and metaphysical, along the same lines, that is, as one large kinship group. The kami are more than just a plurality of gods or forces; since the world is a creation of Amaterasu, you might say that the whole world partakes of divinity. That is, although we translate kami as "gods," it may be more accurate to think of the word as meaning something like "kami-nature," or "the sacred in things." The life force in humans are kami , as are the spirits of ancestors, the organization of social groups, the forces that bring health, disease, longevity, and death, the gods themselves, geographical places, and the stars and planets. The whole of the universe for the early Japanese was suffused with the sacred, from one end to the other partook of kami nature. Anything, then, could potentially become the object of worship."
Richard Hooker
and more info if you're interested:
http://quasisemi.com/myth/
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GLOSSARY/KAMI.HTM
" What all these versions of Shinto have in common is belief in kami, or "divinities"; Shinto itself is a Chinese-derived word which means "the way of the gods" (Shin="gods"; To, from Tao="the way"). What these kami are is hard to pin down. They range from the original creating gods to lesser gods, from the spirits of ancestors to any natural force or aspect of nature which inspires awe.
...... Each of these clans worshipped a divinity, a kami , that was associated with the clan; it was the job of the chieftain to see to the proper ceremonies devoted to the clan's individual kami . Should one clan overrun another, the kami of the conquered clan was made subject to the kami of the victorious clan. Each clan still worshipped their respective divinities, but the hierarchy of those divinities shifted. .......
So, have we answered the question about kami ? Not really. The world view of tribal societies which organize themselves along kinship lines, tend to regard the world, both physical and metaphysical, along the same lines, that is, as one large kinship group. The kami are more than just a plurality of gods or forces; since the world is a creation of Amaterasu, you might say that the whole world partakes of divinity. That is, although we translate kami as "gods," it may be more accurate to think of the word as meaning something like "kami-nature," or "the sacred in things." The life force in humans are kami , as are the spirits of ancestors, the organization of social groups, the forces that bring health, disease, longevity, and death, the gods themselves, geographical places, and the stars and planets. The whole of the universe for the early Japanese was suffused with the sacred, from one end to the other partook of kami nature. Anything, then, could potentially become the object of worship."
Richard Hooker
and more info if you're interested:
http://quasisemi.com/myth/
