Saturday, March 12, 2016

Amaterasu, revisited







































image: Wikimedia commons (link).

I've now completed the links for the first twenty-six "squares" on the mosaic-board of Star Myth links in the myths section of my new website, Star Myth World (dot com).

While there are still more to go (and more to be added in the future), you may enjoy perusing some of them now, and continuing to check back later.

The most recent Star Myth to be linked there is the story of Amaterasu -- and it is well worth revisiting. Here is the link to the new page discussing that myth, with illustrations and star-charts.

In addition to all that this myth can teach us regarding our sojourn through this incarnate life in the material plane, the story of Amaterasu also contains elements which I believe clearly link it with the story of Abraham and Sarah in the Hebrew Scriptures, and with the story of Loki and Skade in the Norse myths, and which thus provide us with yet more evidence that the sacred traditions and ancient wisdom preserved by all the different cultures spread across the surface of our planet earth share a common, celestial foundation.

The story of Amaterasu is discussed in even greater detail in the first volume of my multi-volume series, Star Myths of the World, and how to interpret them.

Its spiritual significance, and ways in which this story from the Kojiki of ancient Japan links to the spiritual themes at the heart of the Iliad of ancient Greece, is also discussed in Star Myths of the World, Volume Two (just recently published).

Volume One and Volume Two each have a very different "feel." 

In Volume One, we explore together a small sampling of myths and sacred stories selected from a wide variety of cultures around the world, in order to introduce some of the elements of the "language" of celestial metaphor which is operating in the Star Myths of the world, and to provide abundant evidence that this language is indeed a world-wide phenomenon.

In Volume Two, we focus primarily on the myths of ancient Greece, going into great depth (and yet only really "scratching the surface" of the depth and breadth of the incredible ancient wisdom available in that body of ancient wisdom).

In Volume Two, by virtue of the greater "depth" with which we are able to explore the myths of a single ancient tradition, we also get deeper into the spiritual message which I believe the treasure of humanity's mythologies is trying to preserve and convey for our benefit, and how the "spiritual language" of the ancient myths may work.

That system is discussed in numerous previous posts as well -- for understanding the message of the story of Amaterasu, I believe the post entitled "Here it has reached its turning point" is very pertinent.

The name of the goddess Amaterasu, 天照 , is composed of two characters which mean "heaven" and "shine" or "splendor" or "glory" in Chinese and Japanese.