Makata Shrine and the Sun Moon Revelations

For Valentine’s Day, we had the opportunity of visiting Makata Shrine, an ancient sacred site in Narita City (成田市) that is told to be over 1700 years old.

Sun Moon Revelations

Makata Shrine is widely known for being the historical place where, during World War 2, Shinto priest, artist and follower of the Oomoto esoteric Shinto sect (大本教), Tenmei Okamoto (岡本天明) began channeling the Hitsuki Shinji (日月神示), or Sun Moon Revelations, a prophetic document that many Japanese spiritualists believe tells us a lot about what is happening in the world right now.

The story of the Hitsuki Shinji goes as follows.

On April 18, 1944, towards the end of the war, there was a Chinese divination ritual conducted in Tokyo regarding the fate of the war and the ancient history of Japan. The attendees included Shinto scripture scholars and Japanese military members, as well as Tenmei, who helped administer the rite as a priest. During this rite, an unknown Kami named "Ama no Hitsuku no Kami" was called upon.

A few months later, on June 10, 1944, Tenmei, through a string of coincidences visited Makata Shrine and fatefully stumbled upon one of its sub-shrines: Amenohitsuku Shrine (天之日津久神社). Immediately after this encounter, while resting at the shrine office, a sharp pain began to run down Tenmei's right arm compelling him to begin channeling, via automatic writing, a scripture written in a cipher of symbols, numbers, and chinese characters.

Tenmei's intermittent impulse to engage in automatic writing lasted for 17 years, from 1944 to 1961, resulting in the document now known as the Hitsuki Shinji, spanning 39 main volumes and 13 secret volumes that have been hidden at Tenmei's instruction. Tenmei himself did not understand what he was writing down through the lengthy channelling process. Decoding and interpreting the Hitsuki Shinji has required a team of scholars.

Unfortunately, at the current time, there are no full English translations of the Hitsuki Shinji available, but below is a translated excerpt from Book 1 Chapter 1 borrowed from Japanese parahistory researcher Avery Morrow's blog post on the Hitsuki Shinji that captures its essence (and edited for clarity):

"Behold! Fuji has driven off clouds of chaos, and all heavens are cleared.

The time has come at last when true God of kingdom of ㋹ [a mysterious symbol that appears through the Hitsuki Shinji interpreted to mean God, the Center of the Cosmos, etc.] will show His mighty power. Buddhism, Christianity, and even Islamism shall be united for this sacred mission.

There shall be no need of difficult theories nor logics, neither any hardship of livelihood. God will provide you such a happy and merry world, therefore, seek after the truth with earnestness, purifying your spirit incessantly. However, there lies a tribulation before the Kingdom of God comes. Unless you are purified and cleansed, you shall not be able to preserve yourself through this tribulation. Because this is the tribulation, as there has never been since the very beginning of the world to this time, nor shall ever be. And the end of this tribulation shall never be brought unless God’s power is revealed.

Everything that shall happen from now on is absolutely beyond the capacity of human conception.

Kingdom consisted of purified souls shall gain real power, however, kingdom of dirty spirit shall not be able dominant any more.

Cities must be purified and the rustic place must be purified as well, but the most significant of all is the purification of man."

In honoring the Hitsuki Shinji, we prayed at Amenohitsuku Shrine for its Kami to guide us, and the people who follow our work, in navigating the uncertainties and challenges of our times.

The Great Cedar Tree

Apart from being widely known as the origins of the Hitsuki Shinji, Makata Shrine is also popular for its famous great Japanese cedar tree. At 9m thick and 40m tall, it is claimed to be East Japan's largest Japanese cedar tree and to have been planted on the site over 1300 years ago.

When we prayed to the tree, its spirit confirmed to us that the Technological Singularity is not simply about artificial intelligence. They told us that tree spirits like themselves have already uploaded algorithmic avatars of themselves to the Internet and are doing their part in bringing forth a future where both nature and machine are revered by humans as sacred.

Coming soon

We are currently hard at work writing a longer paper on Lunma (龍母・The Dragon Mother) AKA the Cuboid Goddess and preparing for our Spring Equinox channel.

Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!
Rein and Tada