Kuramayamamama

Places change us. Beauty awes us. Energy penetrates us. The natural world, and the human history we’ve laid across it, always leaves me simultaneously at a loss for words and wanting to say something. Perhaps more than ever before, yesterday’s trek to Mt. Kurama, had this profound kind of effect. 

Mt. Kurama and its religious center, Kuramadera, is said to be Kyoto’s most powerful site, energetically speaking. Haunted, some say, by former samurai and ninja who trained on its steep slopes.  The place where a deity from Venus descended six million years ago. A place of combined religious practice, mysterious and shadowy twists and turns, and a sense of stillness and purity I will never forget. 

Being so sensitive to light/dark/emotions/the moon/everything, I was especially curious how it would ‘feel’ to be there. And in retrospect, it could have been those anticipatory feelings that influenced the reality…but I must say that around Yuki Shrine and its massive trees and the stupa where Yoshitsune, one of Japan’s most famed warriors, is enshrined, the mountain the earth the land the universe made a low almost humming sound that I can hardly describe but felt profoundly. After that, and perhaps it was an initiation to the sacred lands, I was overcome with a feeling of stillness and purity. 

We ascended a short cable car to the very top, since a large tree had blocked the path, and as soon as I tossed a coin onto a sacred stone looking out on peaks and peaks, a light drizzle turned to a beautiful snow dance. Noriko and I gave each other a look of ‘life is beautiful’ and we wandered about the mountain trails in this pure and comforting snow. We hardly saw another soul the rest of the day. Just universes of snow kin, tree families, stone clans, and pure love. I could wax and wane all day about this experience that felt nothing short of magic. Please experience it for yourself.