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ecosophia
As a slightly early solstice gift this year I received, from a friend who spent several months in Japan, a short Japanese book (in the classic accordion-folded variety) which contains instructions on the practice of Kuji-In, the nine mudras or hand seals that play a central role in most traditions of Japanese occultism. (Done in sequence, they fill exactly the same role that a banishing ritual has in Western magic.) It's a charming little document, and the only disadvantage with it is that I don't read Japanese. That's a disadvantage, in turn, because the Kuji-In are a classic bit of multicultural magic that deserve more distribution outside Japan than they've had. The nine characters on which the Kuji-In are based come from a book by the Taoist alchemist Ko Hung; the mudras themselves are Buddhist in origin; the Kuji-In are assigned by Buddhist practitioners to esoteric Buddhist deities, by Shinto practitioners to Shinto kami, by practitioners of Japanese planetary magic to the seven planets and the two lunar nodes, and so on. So they're symbolically very flexible.
I learned one way of doing them some time ago, but more information would be very welcome. That being the case, it occurs to me that I have readers who are fluent in Japanese. Is anyone potentially willing to translate the text if I email scans? It's only 23 pages long, and they're small pages with relatively large print on them...
***I've just discovered that there's a copy of the document online in the library of the Diet, Japan's equivalent of the Library of Congress. It can be found here. The copy I have has slightly different illustrations but the text appears to be the same.***
有志
Date: 2019-12-21 02:06 am (UTC)Re: 有志
Date: 2019-12-21 03:40 am (UTC)Translation
Date: 2019-12-21 02:13 am (UTC)[email protected] is my email.
Otherwise, I know another of your readers, Jeffrey Kotyk, who is a scholar of Chinese and Japanese esoteric traditions and in particular how Indian and Iranian astrological influences were transmitted to East Asia, and would be probably much more qualified than me.
If he doesn't post here I can forward you his email.
Re: Translation
Date: 2019-12-21 03:42 am (UTC)Translator here
Date: 2019-12-21 02:15 am (UTC)I should add the disclaimer, though, that there is a chance it might be beyond my expertise. Sometimes those kind of texts are not written in _Japanese_ as such, but more like a variant of archaic Chinese. Anyway, if you send me the scans, I'll see what I can do.
William Polensky / Iryu Sakamoto
[email protected]
Re: Translator here
Date: 2019-12-21 03:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-21 04:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-21 05:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-21 07:31 pm (UTC)Mudras of India by Carroll and Carroll
a compendium ofMudras from Indian dance, Yoga, Indiana Taoist and Buddhist esoteric and Tantric sources.
Not exactly what you want but maybe useful.
Mark
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-21 07:35 pm (UTC)Would you post the results here?
Date: 2019-12-21 05:11 am (UTC)Do you have any idea at this stage if these hand signs could be used safely alongside the DMH?
Re: Would you post the results here?
Date: 2019-12-21 06:03 am (UTC)As for their compatibility, we'll have to see, but my guess is that there won't be a problem. I've used other Japanese mudras -- for example, there's one you use when you practice misogi shuho (purification in water), which I've done with good results -- and more generally I've noticed that Japanese spiritual practices seem to mesh very well with Druidry. Maybe spiritual practices from islands off the coast of Eurasia just naturally work well together!
Yes please
Date: 2019-12-21 05:46 am (UTC)Re: Yes please
Date: 2019-12-21 06:03 am (UTC)Indian Yoga?
Date: 2019-12-21 10:58 am (UTC)https://chopra.com/articles/10-powerful-mudras-and-how-to-use-them
But the link with occultism is fascinating. Do you or anyone else know more about that aspects? have I been doing occult exercises without realising it?
Re: Indian Yoga?
Date: 2019-12-21 07:41 pm (UTC)So yoga is "occult" in the sense that it's a spiritual practice that isn't authorized by a mainstream church, and it's not occult in that Indian society didn't go through centuries of violent religious authoritarianism the way the Western world did, and so never had to hide the riches of its spiritual heritage.