Right now, working towards the great challenge of my life, alongside the hardship and the pain, I have started to feel that the time I spend facing myself, in order to get through it, is actually rather wonderful.
I have a friend who has always backed me with everything they have, in good times and bad, and always tells me what matters. Every single word from that friend feels enough like divine guidance that it has become real support for me.
This morning too, an email arrived with a photograph.
Does any shrine do? — knowing your ujigami, your local guardian deity
“Today is a first-of-the-month shrine visit day, so I’m rushing around all morning. I’m greedy, so this is my way of trying to get the gods to spoil me a little,” my friend said, laughing.
“What does it even mean, to get spoiled by the gods?” I found myself genuinely wondering — and immediately went looking for my own ujigami.
There are plenty of shrines near me, but which one? Not knowing, I was told about something called the Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto Shrines.
You can find your own ujigami through the Jinja Honcho
I know almost nothing about the gods, but when you are told something honestly, you should act on it honestly! I searched their site, and sure enough — the Association of Shinto Shrines really exists.
Searching brought up the local shrines very clearly. But which one should I actually go to? So this time I simply telephoned them.
“Association of Shinto Shrines. Could you give me your address? … then that would be such-and-such shrine!” They told me, simply and kindly.
My first visit to my own ujigami — are there rules for how to pray?
“Don’t overthink rules, just go there honestly! The grounds of a shrine early in the morning are overflowing with positive energy, so even if you bring negative energy with you, it’ll cancel it out.” Trusting my friend’s words, off I went.
A quick primer on shrine etiquette
Trusting what my friend had taught me, I went for my shrine visit.
- The earlier in the morning, the fewer people, the more dignified and clear it feels! So I arrived at 5:50 a.m. (I have an early job, so I chose to stop by on the way — a way to go without making too much of it.)
- Before passing under the torii gate, I bowed once and settled my mind before entering the grounds.
- I purified myself with the water at the temizuya. (No water was flowing because of Covid measures at the time, so I skipped that part.)
- I walked straight along the approach towards the shrine itself.
- Standing in front of the offering box, I bowed — the offering should be a white coin, and only as much as you can comfortably afford, so I prepared a ¥100 coin. Even every day that only comes to ¥3,100 a month; I dropped the coin in as a token of a sincere heart offered to the gods.
- I prayed with the two-bows, two-claps, one-bow form (simply giving thanks, nothing more), bowed once more at the end, and stepped back.
Who is it the gods lend their strength to?
Watching me fight through this great challenge day after day, my friend guided me to this visit to my ujigami. My question — surely not everyone gets their wish granted just by asking? — got this answer:
The gods help those who work hard under their own strength! Someone who does nothing themselves and simply relies on prayer, the gods only watch over.
It is when you have worked and worked and worked with everything you have, making the effort yourself, and just need one last push of luck to get you over the line, that the gods’ outside help tends to kick in.
In conclusion — rather than asking for something purely for yourself, like winning the lottery or becoming rich, I felt that the state of your own heart is what matters, in anything.
Believing that the gods, too, are surely watching what I am staking my life on right now and why I drive, I will keep working to become someone the gods are glad to spoil a little.
