I've been watching Inuyasha since 1994. Back then it was only on once a week at 1:30 AM. Now I see it on Cartoon network on weeknights On demand and on Netflix. tonight I am watching the disk with the last of the Band of Seven on it. The whole Mount Hakushin and the mummified saint are pretty deep stuff. Kikyo has a big role and she is still acting as a priestess in the final chapter of the Band of Seven. It is her spiritual power that in the end purifies one of the biggest "bosses" if you will. A saint turned to the dark side by Naraku.
I was watching some other episodes and I wrote this other blog when I was watching these. Inuyasha is a series that can be enjoyed by people of different ages and walks of life. There are so many things to find in it. There is the character of Kagome who is a student priestess and archer for young girls. Inuyasha is an action character with a big sword for the boys. However there is this whole other cultural layer to it. Inuyahsa can be appreciated on a deeper level too. I often think about all the philosophical interpretations and spiritual information in it.
A while back my other half went out to a toy con and brought me back an action figure of Kikyo from Inuyasha. Since my partner only occasionally watches the show, and so picked up Kikyo for me without knowing her significance. Kikyo is the most enigmatic character and my favorite. She is a priestess who was deceived by a demonic monster called Naraku. Kikyo and her lover Inuyasha were turned against each other by the demon's lies.
Later in the story Kikyo is conjured up by a sorceress from her bones and graveyard soil. This resulted in Kikyo's walking the earth as an undead priestess. In life she had unusually strong powers of purification and spiritual strength. In death she is a formidable shade that wanders the earth. She seeks vengeance for her betrayal. But through her undead journeys she contemplates the yin and yang of her existence. She says that "Dark is light, good is evil, love is hate." Her "life" as an undead spirit in a cold body countermands everything she believed in as a priestess, however she lives and still attempts to carry on good works. Yet her existence is cursed and anathema by the very tenets that she once believed. Her life is a paradox.
I'm watching the pivotal two episodes On Demand where Kikyo finds out who betrayed them, and discovers that Inuyasha was not the one who killed her. The origins of the sacred jewel are discussed and there are many references to Shinto mythology. The series touches upon much of the animism and demonology that I find out more and more about every time I studied Shinto.
When I was in college, my "inner voice" kept whispering Shinto... Shinto in my ear. It's like an "ear worm" of a song when it happens, sometimes my intuition comes to me in that way. At the time I didn't "get" Shinto. I had been studying Wicca with all the long winded spells and elaborate altars and robes. Maybe back then I thought that was more powerful. At this point in life I feel closer to Shinto, closer to just the Earth and maybe even closer to understanding Zen. I have studied so many different paths and boiled them down to just the essence that is left. I even have my own huge pink rose quartz sacred jewel in front of me here.
Kikyo is an interesting role model. She is there to teach us that we are not supposed to become a captive of time like Kikyo, no matter how bad we are hurt, no matter who it is that betrays us. Kikyo is forced to be a living dead girl that can never escape her past. It doesn't have to be that way for us
I was watching some other episodes and I wrote this other blog when I was watching these. Inuyasha is a series that can be enjoyed by people of different ages and walks of life. There are so many things to find in it. There is the character of Kagome who is a student priestess and archer for young girls. Inuyasha is an action character with a big sword for the boys. However there is this whole other cultural layer to it. Inuyahsa can be appreciated on a deeper level too. I often think about all the philosophical interpretations and spiritual information in it.A while back my other half went out to a toy con and brought me back an action figure of Kikyo from Inuyasha. Since my partner only occasionally watches the show, and so picked up Kikyo for me without knowing her significance. Kikyo is the most enigmatic character and my favorite. She is a priestess who was deceived by a demonic monster called Naraku. Kikyo and her lover Inuyasha were turned against each other by the demon's lies.
Later in the story Kikyo is conjured up by a sorceress from her bones and graveyard soil. This resulted in Kikyo's walking the earth as an undead priestess. In life she had unusually strong powers of purification and spiritual strength. In death she is a formidable shade that wanders the earth. She seeks vengeance for her betrayal. But through her undead journeys she contemplates the yin and yang of her existence. She says that "Dark is light, good is evil, love is hate." Her "life" as an undead spirit in a cold body countermands everything she believed in as a priestess, however she lives and still attempts to carry on good works. Yet her existence is cursed and anathema by the very tenets that she once believed. Her life is a paradox.
I'm watching the pivotal two episodes On Demand where Kikyo finds out who betrayed them, and discovers that Inuyasha was not the one who killed her. The origins of the sacred jewel are discussed and there are many references to Shinto mythology. The series touches upon much of the animism and demonology that I find out more and more about every time I studied Shinto.
When I was in college, my "inner voice" kept whispering Shinto... Shinto in my ear. It's like an "ear worm" of a song when it happens, sometimes my intuition comes to me in that way. At the time I didn't "get" Shinto. I had been studying Wicca with all the long winded spells and elaborate altars and robes. Maybe back then I thought that was more powerful. At this point in life I feel closer to Shinto, closer to just the Earth and maybe even closer to understanding Zen. I have studied so many different paths and boiled them down to just the essence that is left. I even have my own huge pink rose quartz sacred jewel in front of me here.
Kikyo is an interesting role model. She is there to teach us that we are not supposed to become a captive of time like Kikyo, no matter how bad we are hurt, no matter who it is that betrays us. Kikyo is forced to be a living dead girl that can never escape her past. It doesn't have to be that way for us
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