SARASVATI
SACRIFICE AND BLISS
Bill
Moyer:
What does it mean to have a sacred place?
Joseph Campbell:
This is a term,
I like to use now
as an absolute necessity for anybody today.
You must have a room
or a certain
hour a day or so
where,
you
do not
know what was in the newspapers that morning.
You don't know who your friends are.
You don't know what you owe to anybody.
You don't know what anybody owes to you.
But a place where you can
simply
experience and bring forth
what you are
and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation.
And first you may find that nothing is happening there.
But if you have a sacred place
and use it,
and
take advantage of it
. . .
something will happen.
[transcribed off the TV]
(145) SAIKAI-MOKUYOKU OR PURIFICATION
Our artist of old, such as a painter, a sculptor and an architect, underwent Saikai-Mokuyoku (purification), when and while he was engaged in a big work. A swordsmith, in particular, was very particular about his purification, and a Sake-brewer had to undergo strict ablutions of great asceticism. [Sakai, Atsuharu, Japan In A Nutshell, Vol. 2, Japanese Psychology Tradition Customs and Manners, Yamagata Printing Co., Yokohama, 1952, p99]
Saikai is a service observed to worship a patron-deity. An altar is prepared in a studio and the artist venerates his tutelary or patron deity every morning. He pledges his sincerity and honesty before his Kami, whose help, in his work, is thus invoked. He will refrain from anything impure or unclean. He has six commandments, which are:
Detail of Sarasvati in the Los Angeles County Art Museum
(1) He will visit no house of death
(2) He will visit no house of sickness
(3) He will abstain from meeting any person
(4) He will not attend to the judgment of a criminal
(5) He will not attend to the execution of a criminal
(6) He will not listen to music
Mokuyoku means the washing of a head and a body; namely, cold ablutions, which an artist has to undergo for his physical purification, while Saikai is his mental or spiritual purification. [Sakai, Atsuharu, Japan In A Nutshell, Vol. 2, Japanese Psychology Tradition Customs and Manners, Yamagata Printing Co., Yokohama, 1952, p99]
Washing and bathing were among the most indispensable necessities of existence for Beethoven. In this respect he was a thorough Oriental. Mohammed has by no means prescribed too many ablutions to suit him. If, while he was working, he did not go out during the forenoon, in order to compose himself, he would stand at the wash-basin, often in extremest negligée and pour great pitchersfull of water over his hands, at the same time howling or, for a change, growling out the whole gamut of the scale, ascending and descending; then, before long, he would pace the room, his eyes rolling or fixed in a stare, jot down a few notes and again return to his water pouring and howling. These were moments of profoundest meditation, nothing worth making a great fuss about had they not resulted in disagreeable consequences in two directions. In the first place, they often incited his servants to laughter, observing which the Master would fly into a rage, which on occasion led him to yield to ridiculous outbreaks. Or he would get into a fight with the landlord when the water leaked through the floor, . . . . [Anton Schindler (1814-1827), in Sonneck, O. G., Editor, Beethoven, Impressions By His Contemporaries, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1967, p167]
A few days later I presented myself in the anteroom, where an elderly servant did not know what to do with me, since his master was bathing at the moment. This I knew because I heard the splashing of the water which the noble eccentric poured out over himself in veritable cascades while giving vent to bellowing groans, which in his case, it seemed, were outbursts of content. . . . [Josef August Röckel (1806), in Sonneck, O. G., Editor, Beethoven, Impressions by his Contemporaries, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1967, pp64]
. . . I entered the place consecrate to supreme genius. It was almost frugally simple and a sense of order appeared never to have visited it. In one corner was an open piano, loaded with music in the wildest confusion. Here, on a chair, reposed a fragment of the Eroica. The individual parts of the opera with which he was busy lay, some on other chairs, others on and under the table which stood in the middle of the room. And, amid chamber music compositions, piano trios and symphonic sketches, was placed the mighty bathing apparatus in which the Master was laving his powerful chest with the cold flood. [Josef August Röckel (1806), in Sonneck, O. G., Editor, Beethoven, Impressions by his Contemporaries, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1967, pp64-65]
saikai = A period of abstinence for ritual participants observed either before or after the occasion. Depending upon the person's rank, duties in the ritual, and the event itself, the strictures can be quite demanding or rather relaxed. In all cases, they involve mental concentration and frequent bathing and avoidance of certain foods, the opposite sex, and death or sickness. [Nelson, John K., A Year In The Life Of A Shinto Shrine, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1996, p257]
kamidana = Shinto altar in a private home. . . . Shrines sell a side variety of amulets that are then placed within the kamidana. Together, they serve to link the household to the shrine. Offerings of fresh leaves, water, and sake are traditionally made on the first and fifteenth of the month. [Nelson, John K., A Year In The Life Of A Shinto Shrine, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1996, p257]
Ablution Pavilion
Somewhere along the approach, probably not very far from the oratory, is an ablution pavilion (temizuya) for ceremonial purification by means of rinsing the mouth and pouring water over the finger tips. This symbolic cleansing is considered indispensable as a preparation for worship and no shrine fails to provide some such facility. Usually there is a simple open pavilion with a stone basin filled with clear water and one or more wooden dippers. With this rite evil and pollution are ceremonially removed and the worshipper becomes once again pure. Originally purification was performed at a spring or stream, as at the Inner Shrine at Ise, for example, or by the seashore, and this is still considered somewhat ideal. [Ono, Sokyo Dr., Shinto, The Kami Way, Charles Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT, 1962, pp34-35]
. . . My visit probably occurred shortly after he had eaten breakfast, for he repeatedly passed the napkin lying beside him across his snow-white teeth, a habit, incidentally, in which I noticed he often indulged. . . . [Louis Schlösser (1822-1823), in Sonneck, O. G., Editor, Beethoven, Impressions by his Contemporaries, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1967, p137]
Abstinence Preceding Festival
From the Evening of the previous day those who are to officiate must prepare themselves spiritually by entering the priests' quarters, if there is one, or by secluding themselves from other people. This is called saikai, literally "restraint and rules" They bathe (kessai) frequently, put on clean clothes, take only specified food, and lead a calm and continent life, abstaining from all forbidden acts. If they violate the regulations or something occurs during this period, such as death, injury, or a fire, they are disqualified from participating in the festival and sometimes the festival itself is postponed. [Ono, Sokyo Dr., Shinto, The Kami Way, Charles Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT, 1962, pp64-65]
1. Purification: Whether it consists of simply rinsing the hands and mouth with water or with waving a wand of white paper streamers in the air over the heads of priests, trays of offerings, . . . this first step is the preparation essential for making the environment and the individuals within it ready to petition, receive, and entertain the Kami's presence.
2. Presentations: . . . one sees a high table laden with various kinds of fruit, vegetables, seaweed, and rice cakes, which surround the core offerings of uncooked rice grains, salt, water, and two bottles of sake. . . . . it is safe to say that a ritual without food offerings is unthinkable in Shinto practice.
3. Petitions: . . . norito, or "words spoken to the Kami," are the main part of any ritual. Beautiful, correct words, intoned with reverence and awe, bring about good influences. . . .deriving from ancient belief in kotodama, a spiritual power residing in words. . . .
4. Participation:. . . the opportunity for participation is often extended to everyone in attendance when leafy sprigs from the sacred sakaki tree (native only to Japan) are distributed. Each person follows the example of the head priest in slowly coming forward, bowing, and then placing the little branch on a small table as a means of linking the individual to the divine. . . . [Nelson, John K., A Year In The Life Of A Shinto Shrine, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1996, pp39-40]
monoimi = Similar to the practice of kessai during a period of saikai, or abstaining from a variety of foods, habits, and encounters with defiling substances, monoimi is an essential preparatory obligation of Shinto priests before major ritual occasions.
shinsen = Food offerings presented upon an altar to the Kami. They always include rice, water, salt, sake, and food representative of the sea, mountains, and plains. [Nelson, John K., A Year In The Life Of A Shinto Shrine, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1996, p264]
Los Angeles County Art Museum
MOYERS: You write in The Mythic Image about the center of transformation, the idea of a sacred place where the temporal walls may dissolve to reveal a wonder. What does it mean to have a sacred place?
CAMPBELL: This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen. [Campbell, Joseph, The Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers, Doubleday, New York, 1988, p92]