Coming Out of the Cave & Reflecting on the Past Year
This year has had some dark moments, no doubt.
However, for this moment, as the full moon is growing in our sky, let’s allow her to illuminate the reflections of our psyche.
I’d love to share with you one of my favorite myths for this post-Solstice and Yule, the liminal time before the turning of the wheel of the year.
Myth of Amaterasu
One of the most powerful solar goddesses, Amaterasu, has dominated Japanese Shinto belief for centuries. (Other sun goddesses across the globe include Saule/Baltic, Sulis/Celtic Roman, Cybele/Mediterranean, and Sekhmet/Egyptian)
Her shrine was first built in Ise in the 7th century AD and is rebuilt every 21 years in the same spot, in exactly the same form.
A short version of her myth:
She is born of the primordial couple and is so bright that they place her in the sky as the Sun.
Amaterasu’s brother, the god of war, goes on a destructive rampage where he desecrates her quarters with his excrement.
As she looks down at the havoc, horrified, her brother pierces her with a spindle shaft. The metaphor of a spindle penetrating her represents the violation of rape.
