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The Nihon Shoki, as translated by W. G. Aston, makes note of an entity it describes as the Heavenly Parent. In the text we read:
“The Heavenly parent, Ame yudzuru hi ame no sa-giri kuni yudzuru tsuki kuni no sa-giri no Mikoto”
The deity is listed before all others in the Geneology of the Age of the Gods. In an earlier footnote in the Nihon Shoki, Aston writes:
“For the sake of comparison the Kiujiki scheme of the generations of early Deities is herewith added. It will still further exemplify the confusion of these traditions. Therefore a God was developed in the Plain of High Heaven whose name was Ame – yudzuru – hi – ame no sa-giri kuni-yudzuru-tsuki kuni no heaven transfer sun heaven right mist land transfer moon land of sa-giri no Mikoto, who was produced alone. After him, were born two right mist generations of companion Gods and five generations of mated Deities. These make up what is called the seven generations of the Gods.”
The Heavenly Parent, Ame yudzuru hi ame no sa-giri kuni yudzuru tsuki kuni no sa-giri no Mikoto, plays a prominent roles in the Art of Ninzuwu’s spiritual rites. This deity has remained a mystery to many, as not much is written about her. Shinto:The Way of the Gods by W. G. Aston, provides on of the few references outside of the Nihon Shoki itself:
“The Kiujiki has a first God called Ame yudzuru hi ame no sagiri kuni yudzuru tsuki kuni no sagiri, and describes him (or her, for there is no indication of sex) as the “Heavenly Parent.” It is impossible to translate this rigmarole; but as it contains the words “earth,” “sun,” “moon,” and “mist,” a nature-deity is evidently intended.”
Aston seemed a bit frustrated in his attempts to understand the name of the Heavenly Parent, as he writes that such “rigmarole” was impossible to translate. Yet, while Aston has made great efforts and contributions in translating some very valuable Japanese works, there is an esoteric understanding of the heavenly parent’s name.
The name of the Heavenly Parent may have been difficult for Aston to understand as its definition is not that of an object, but an abstract phenomena. It is like a Christian praying “let your kingdom come upon earth as it is in heaven.” Let us now translate the name of the Heavenly Parent before proceeding further.
Ame means heaven. Yudzuru, or yuzuru, translates as bestow. Next we have hi meaning sun. Ame-no-sagiri translates as heaven of mist, or heavenly mist. Kuni means land of course. The latter two phrases are to be taken as one, heavenly-mist-land. A heavenly-mist-land is what we call a dimension. So far, the first part of the name, Ame-yudzuru-hi-ame-no-sagiri kuni means Heaven bestows sun-heavenly-mist-land. The next phrase, yudzuru (bestow) tsuki (moon) kuni-no-sagiri (land of mist) no Mikoto, helps us come to the full meaning of a certain phenomena that the ancients recognized. This can be determined the term sa-giri, which appears in the name.
The term sa-giri means mist. This is quite interesting and may reveal some Taoist influence in the Nihon Shoki. Some Taoist factions held that Heaven had nine dimensions and Shenxiao, divine mist, being the highest. The Palace of Divine Mist was in that highest sky. Mists were also means by which gods and immortals traveled upon or hid themselves. In the book Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, written by Charles A. S. Williams, we ead:
“What is the foundation of Chinese thought that gave existence to these fascinating forms? The answer is best found in the evolution of human thought in the ancient Asian and Pacific world. We know that animism prevailed for thousands of years in Asia, that all natural things whether organic or inorganic were believed to possess spirit an independent spirit….Natural phenomena such as rainbows of mists also acted as vehicles for ancestral spirits or the gods themselves. These concepts engendered a great respect for nature that has survived intact in some Oriental religions, such as Japanese Shintoism.”
Ame-yudzuru-hi-ame-no-sa-giri-kuni-yudzuru-tsuki-kuni-no-sa-giri-no-Mikoto means Deity who bestows the sun-heavenly-mist-land and moon-land-mist. The sun-heavenly-mist-land is a metaphor for the Divine World and the moon-land-mist is symbolic of the astral world. In the book entitled, Light on the Land by Art Wolfe, we read:
“The Japanese language itself reinforces the sun-light-divine nexus in the word hi, which means both “sun” and “spirit'”
Micheal Bertiaux, in the legendary Voudon Gnostic Workbook, explains the following in his description of Amaterasu Ohkami:
“The physical Sun is the symbol of the divine Sun,”
Bertiaux’s comparison is expanded upon in great detail, in the popular work, The Essence of Shinto by Motohisa Yamakage. The author first defines hi as pertaining to “fire, sun, or spirit.” He writes:
“For the ancients, “fire” (hi in Japanese) was “spirit” (this is also hi in Japanese) as well as “sun” (also pronounced as hi), which brought them warm rays.”
Later, in another passage of the text, we read:
“Within every human being there resides naohinomitama, which, literally translated from the written characters, means, “spirit of straight fire or sun.” This naohinomitama is wakemitama (or bunrei) of daigenrei (the great original spirit). That is, wakemitama is a child-spirit of daigenrei, the Creator Kami of the universe.”
Therefore, Ame-yudzuru-hi-ame-no-sa-giri-kuni-yudzuru-tsuki-kuni-no-sa-giri-no-Mikoto is the consciousness of the divine, astral, and physical worlds, or the universe. In view of the information we have considered thus far, Ame-yudzuru-hi-ame-no-sa-giri-kuni-yudzuru-tsuki-kuni-no-sa-giri-no-Mikoto can also be translated as “Heaven bestows spirit-heavenly-mist, which gives the moon-land mist.” This represents the communal relationship between the Divine and Astral worlds, but also the phenomenal place we partake of in the physical world. Remarkably, we find a similarity between Ame-yudzuru-hi-ame-no-sa-giri-kuni-yudzuru-tsuki-kuni-no-sa-giri-no-Mikoto and what is written in the Babylonian creation epic, which begins with Tiamat and Apsu.
Ame-yudzuru-hi-ame-no-sa-giri-kuni-yudzuru-tsuki-kuni-no-sa-giri-no-Mikoto is the consciousness of the divine and astral worlds, but also how the intercourse between the two produced matter. If we were to take Aston’s translation of the Heavenly Parent for its literal definition, we would have sun (fire), earth, moon (water) and mist (air), meaning that the Heavenly Parent’s name is very similar to what is represented by the four letters of the TetragrammationThe Formula of the Tetragammation in the Gnostic Mass by T. Apriyon, states:
“Tetragrammaton is a Greek word meaning “Word of Four Letters,” and refers to the Hebraic Name of God, hwhy, which is commonly known in the West as Jehovah. This name has always been held in supreme regard by kabbalists as a Name of great power and symbolic meaning. The letters of this Name have been attributed to the four elements, the four suits of the Tarot, the four worlds of kabbalism, and all other conceivable quaternaries.”.
If we were to take the name of the Heavenly Parent, as it compares greatly with the Tetragrammation, the meaning would still be the same as we have supposed. However, in ancient Asian cosmology a “mist” is a yin aspect, meaning that this deity is a goddess of sorts, if not adrogynous.
‘ Excellent! I enjoyed that very much.