Occult Japan

by Percival Lowell

OCCULT JAPAN

OR

THE WAY OF THE GODS

AN ESOTERIC STUDY OF JAPANESE PERSONALITY AND POSSESSION

BY

PERCIVAL LOWELL

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

A POSSESSION BY THE GODS UPON ONTAKE. Page 6

Copyright, 1894,

By PERCIVAL LOWELL,

All rights reserved.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

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The manifestations of which this book treats were witnessed by the writer in 1891 and 1893. Since then the miracles, he learns, have become one of the sights that visitors are taken to see, and on the fifteenth of April and of September the grounds of his friend the high priest at Kanda show many a tourist from the other side of the world amid the devout crowd about the sacred bed of coals.

The illustrations are from photographs by the writer, taken at the time.

P. L.

CONTENTS.

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1. page

2. Ontaké ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   1

3. Shintō ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   16

4. Miracles ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   36

5. Incarnations ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   97

6. Pilgrimages and the Pilgrim Clubs ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   193

7. The Gohei ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   230

8. The Shrines of Ise ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   270

9. Noumena:

10. Self ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    278

11. Selfhood a Force ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    285

12. Possession ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    290

13. Will ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    298

14. Self as Ideas ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    304

15. Ideas a Mode of Motion ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    307

16. Ideas a Force ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    317

17. Individuality ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    320

18. The Japanese Character ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    323

19. Dreams ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    332

20. Hypnotic Trances ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    343

21. Possession Trances ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    355

22. The Shintō Gods ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    368

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

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1. PAGE

2. A Possession by the Gods upon Ontaké

   Frontispiece

3. A Buddhist Divine Possession ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   162

4. The Leader of a Pilgrim Band blessing the Holy Water ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   216

5. A Pilgrim Club ascending Ontaké ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   224