Insights to Humanity's "Nature Religions": Humanity, the Heart of Reverence

This is a six part series of short postings of a longer article viewable at this link: Insights to Humanity's "Nature Religions".  These shorter periodic postings may make reviewing the article more time efficient for you.

When an Ainu house was built, the goddess of fire was invited to dwell in it through the performance of a special ritual. This goddess was an intermediary between humans and some of the deities. Traditional Ainu houses are therefore regarded as temples. A fire-hole was made in the center of the house to warm the house and to cook food. Once the ritual of fire ignition had been performed, the goddess of the fire was believed to have entered and taken residence in the fire-hole and the fire had to be kept alive from then on.  The recently arrived goddess of the fire was called abekakemat meaning “the lady of fire,” and after a period of a day or two, she was called abefuchi meaning “the grandmother of fire.”

As previously explained, the Ainu believed that the souls of tools were lower in rank than the souls of humans, who were in turn lower in rank than the souls of the deities. Therefore when an Ainu hunter, for example, shot a bear with an arrow, it was believed that success in this endeavor could only come about if and when the bear-god permitted it, namely when the bear’s soul wanted to be hit by the arrow.


The Ainu believed that every bear-god brought its body into the world for the benefit of humans; meat for food, fur for clothing, internal organs for medicines, and bones for tools. Only when the hunter lived an ethical life would the bear-soul give up its body to the hunter. When a hunter succeeded, he and his fellow hunters would carry the bear’s skin and head carefully to his home together with the other parts. There, and without further processing of the skin, the hunter folded it up into a pile and placed it in the place of highest honor in his house, the northeast point of his fire-hole. And finally he placed the bear’s head on the folded skin with respect.  These actions ensured that the bear’s soul would remain on its former head and talk leisurely with the goddess of fire, while the Ainu honored the bear’s soul through their devotion to its remains. Offering prayers of thanks to the bear-god for having visited the hunter’s home, the Ainu then conducted a ritual for returning the bear’s soul to the realm of the deities by making various offerings of sanctified brewage, foods, and images skillfully carved from a white wooden stick.

The Ainu believed that when animals and plants were living, they occupied the temporary forms represented by their physical bodies. However, their true forms were in the world of the deities and were the same as those of human souls; a realm where they spoke and acted as humans.  It was also believed that when the bear soul arrived in the realm of the deities, the offerings they brought with them were increased six-fold, and the soul could invite the souls of other bears and animals to join in the celebrations. The bear-god spoke of the lavish reception, gratitude, and offerings it had received from the humans, and on hearing this, the invited souls yearned to offer their bodies to the hunters from the village spoken of by the bear-god.

As a result the invited souls went to a high mountain or deep forest and there assumed the bodies of animals and visited the woods near the village. The Ainu therefore thought the success of future hunting was guaranteed by sending the souls of the hunted animals politely back to the world of deities.

However, the Ainu did not conduct the sending-back rituals only for selfish benefit. Many aged Ainu believed it was important to welcome the souls of recently deceased animals, to nurture, love, and appreciate them, and then to send them back to the realm of deities. 

The prayers and rituals that only humans could perform, assured the smooth circulation of souls, and these rituals were regarded by the Ainu as the most important function  of humans. 

Thus making humans, in effect, the "heart" of creation ensuring proper circulation...


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