Japan – 𝐀𝐗𝐈𝐒 ֎ 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐈

Kyūdō, beauty is in the action

Published on: July 18 2023 Last updated on: July 18 2023 Written by: Lorenzo Pennacchi Categorized into: Anthropology, Atlas, Philosophy

Let's take a closer look at the famous essay Zen and archery by philosopher Eugen Herrigel connecting it to Yukio Mishima's philosophy of life and the samurai code. An art without art, a continuous metamorphosis, the action in its original purity.

Keep reading…

The disturbing Japanese case of the "spirits of the tsunami"

Published on: April 7 2021 Last updated on: April 7 2021 Written by: Marco Maculotti Categorized into: Atlas, folklore, History

In Japan, the survivors of the tsunami that claimed more than 2011 victims in 15.000 say they continually see the restless spirits of the victims, already dubbed "ghosts of the tsunami" by local folklore.

Keep reading…

Bushido: the samurai code according to Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure

Published on: July 30 2020 Last updated on: 9 September 2020 Written by: Samuel Baricchi Categorized into: Anthropology, Philosophy, Middle Ages

For several centuries the Japanese samurai caste has passed down a set of ethical standards and military which, although they seem to date back to 660 BC, were put in writing in the form of a code only between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by Tsuramoto Tashiro, who wrote the Hakagure according to the precepts that were taught to him by the warrior monk Yamamoto Tsunetomo.

Keep reading…

Blood Metaphysics

Published on: March 18 2020 Last updated on: November 11, 2020 Written by: Robert Eusebius Categorized into: Anthropology, Christianity, Esotericism, folklore, Mito, History, History of Religions

Blood has always been considered, in the history of ideas, the vector of a powerful magical force and the vehicle of a complex and varied symbolism, starting with the rock paintings dating back to the Paleolithic to reach the three "book" religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), passing through the cosmogonic myths of ancient traditions (Babylonian, Hindu, Norse, etc.), obviously without neglecting its use in traditional oriental medicine and its sacrificial value within ceremonial practices.

Keep reading…

Shamanic aspects in the cult of Ganesha, the elephant-headed goddess

Published on: November 19, 2018 Last updated on: 14 September 2020 Written by: Marco Maculotti Categorized into: Astrotheology, Esotericism, Mito, Shamanism, History of Religions

Starting from Airāvata and the mythology of the "blending of the Ocean of Milk" and then reaching Ganesha, Giuseppe Acerbi aims to identify some esoteric correspondences between the elephant-headed divinities of ancient India, Iran, Japan and the Americas.

Keep reading…