Lara Atwood is an author, researcher, and practitioner of the Religion of the Sun – an ancient religion that she and her husband uncovered in 2013. Based on their findings, they believe it’s the source of many sacred sites and wisdom traditions, and may be the world’s oldest known religion. Lara has written the first history of it in her book The Ancient Religion of the Sun, and has co-authored a number of books with her husband about its practice. To do this, she has spent more than a decade researching ancient sites, sacred texts, and spiritual traditions across the globe. She shares their work on the website sakrosawel.com and the YouTube channel of the same name. “Sakro sawel” means “sacred sun” in the ancient Proto-Indo European language.
Autobio
I’m an author and practitioner of the Religion of the Sun. I spend my time researching, writing about, and practicing this ancient religion.
I’ve authored the book The Ancient Religion of the Sun, which was published in 2018 (and updated in 2021) and which presents the research on the history of this religion I have done primarily between 2016 and 2021. I’m also co-author of the books Ancient Solstice (2021) and The Spiritual Out-of-Body Experience (2024).
I run this website and the Sakro Sawel YouTube Channel, which I created in 2017 as a place to share my research on the ancient Religion of the Sun.
I first began researching ancient religious sites, texts, myths, and history in 2011. Then in 2013, my husband Mark Atwood and I uncovered the existence of the Religion of the Sun, which is when I adopted this incredible religion myself. Ever since then I have been dedicated to experiencing it, restoring it, and sharing my findings with the world.
I especially love to go out at dawn, as many mornings as I can, to sit in meditation and connect with the Source through the sun. This is one of the oldest and most profound practices from the Religion of the Sun.
The Religion of the Sun is my native tradition, as it was the religion of my ancient Indo-European ancestors. I’m descended from those Indo-Europeans who migrated into Europe thousands of years ago from the Steppes, and those who remained around the Steppes until the Russian revolution (which they fled), as well as the Mesolithic hunter gatherer peoples of Europe. I am of mixed Indo-European heritage – being of British, Germanic, French, and Slavic ancestry.
My books and videos are based on extensive research. I have read thousands of books, articles and papers, and over one hundred ancient texts. I have researched scores of ancient sacred sites and hundreds of ancient illustrations, as well as the oral histories of indigenous peoples from around the world. I have read numerous genetic, linguistic, and archeological papers, and articles on scientific studies. Together, the books I’ve worked on are based upon over 3,000 references and counting.
I’ve traveled to a number of ancient sacred places, including the Great Pyramids, Petra, Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, Chaco Canyon, and Uluru.
I grew up surrounded by the beauty of nature and had a number of spiritual experiences as a child, which prompted me to attend a session of Church and Sunday School with my best friend at the age of 7, even though my family was not religious. I was curious to find out more about spirituality, but was disappointed by the stale old Church and unintelligible sermon, and even more so by the silly stories of Sunday School that I couldn’t understand how anyone, even children, could believe. That was enough for me to decide that I needed to look further than the current mainstream religions for answers; instead I felt the spiritual was alive and teaching through nature itself, where I would spend everyday as a child immersed in the mystical sense I felt from it.
I’ve been a dedicated spiritual seeker since the age of 20, and my spiritual quest has led me here, although it’s not over, as I’m continually looking to learn as much as I can, and grow. I look to Odin/Wuotan for inspiration – the European god whose quest for wisdom is neverending.
My great, great grandfather was a Cossack (in what is now Ukraine where the order was founded). He used to lead the charge, singing as he did, with the men following behind, singing in chorus. His main job was to pioneer and establish new settlements. Being involved with the Cossacks my family were “White Russians,” who fled Russia (specifically Odessa in the Ukraine) to escape the “Red” Bolshevik revolution. The rest of my family were German, English, Scottish, Irish, and French. They built what they had on the backs of their own hard work in very difficult conditions.
I respect the right of all people to practice the religion of their choice, as long as its ideology does not prevent others from doing the same and/or it promotes unprovoked violence towards any other living beings. I also believe that all peoples have the right to preserve their culture, their ethnicity, and their nations, as long as it does not infringe on the right of others to do likewise.
Interviews
Apr 2025 ~ For the Love of Mystics ~ Interview on ‘For the Love of Mystics’ podcast on YouTube with Jennifer Jurkovsky. Watch the interview here.
Aug 2024 ~ the Broader Lens Podcast ~ Interview with Booboo Garcia of the Broader Lens Podcast on OBEs and ancient religion. Watch the interview here.
Apr 2022 ~ Voice of Islam Radio Station ~ Live interview on the Voice of Islam radio station Drive Time Show, broadcasting out of London (episode 28-04-2022 Collective Consciousness and is Veganism Healthy?). Listen to the interview here (between 37.00 – 50.13)
Feb 2022 ~ Voice of Islam Radio Station ~ Live interview on the Voice of Islam radio station Drive Time Show, broadcasting out of London (episode 03-02-2022 Time and Revelations). Listen to the interview here (between 33:35 – 45:17)
Nov 2021 ~ Zero Podcast ~ Interview with Sam Tripoli on his spiritual podcast Zero. Listen to the interview on Rokfin here (a subscription to Rokfin is required to listen).
Nov 2021 ~ Ancient Mysteries on the Air Podcast ~ Interview with Jim Harold on his ‘Ancient Mysteries on the Air’ podcast. Official listing for subscribers is here, though you can listen freely (and legitimately) here.
Apr 2021 ~ The Grimerica Show ~ Interview on The Grimerica Show. Watch the interview here (audio starts at 1.57).
Jan 2021 ~ Voice of Islam Radio Station ~ Live interview on the Voice of Islam radio station Drive Time Show, broadcasting out of London (episode 28-01-2021 Heavenly Bodies). Listen to the interview here (between 1:05:46 and 1:18:21)
*Correction: Pyramid Texts are 4,500 years old (not 5,500)
Nov 2018 ~ So Love Inner Radiance Youtube Channel ~ Interview with Jennifer of SOLoveInnerRadiance as part of the ‘Sol2Soul Global Summit 2’ hosted by Jennifer on Facebook. Listen to the interview on Facebook here or watch it on YouTube here.
Hi Lara,
I’ve been searching for truth most of my life. This search has been intensified since Covid where I daily actively look for the meaning of life from any source possible. Looking for something tangible that I can really get into and use daily, that most importantly I feel is truth and comes from a good place – has been a mission! A fantastic mission of learning and growing, but still a mission. Like I’m looking for a new home if that makes sense.
Anyway a few weeks ago I purchased a wooden solar cross necklace from Etsy. Wasn’t particularly looking for anything in particular – but when I saw it, i just had to have it. Then I came across your youtube page. I’ve watched almost all your videos (that are AMAZING btw) and am purchasing your book this evening from Amazon UK. What you speak about to me just feels like truth. I love it. Can’t thank you enough for all the work you have done x
Wow, what an amazing synchronicity! There have been quite a few people who’ve been guided to this information in a similar way, including one person through a lucid dream. I feel like I’ve been guided to it too. So glad to hear the videos are resonating with you, and I hope you enjoy the book. If you have any questions about any of it, I’ll do my best to answer.
Welcome Andrew! Sounds like quite a quest you’ve been on, glad you found your way here ☀️
Lara,
The great spirit has led me here. Does it sound mad, that I feel like I am descendant from Odin? I look like all his images. I’m tall, 6’4″. Blue eyed, long beard….and I constantly am absorbed in the thoughts of cycles, spirit, and fighting with the evil darkness. I see how the cycles work. Is that odd?
I’m an engineer, sawyer, carpenter, homesteader, homeschooler, father, husband, mechanic…..jack of all trades. I’d give it all up, as I feel like I have a higher calling, but I cannot seem to find it. I keep coming back to the ancient stories and feel drawn to them like I’m supposed to do something with this.
I am looking for answers, and to find some satisfaction to my calling. I know there are too many coincidences in my life, I am not here to merely exist and be a useless eater.
Is it strange I feel like I have eyes on me all the time? Like the great spirit, Odin, God, whatever he is, is watching and rooting me on? I’m constantly telling myself I am not special enough for such a purpose. Yet, something deep tells me a lot is riding on my shoulders. Maybe your husband Mark can provide guidance? Insight? Wisdom?
I think you’re really searching for truth and that can be a different way of looking at life than most people consider possible.
I have also felt the presence of invisible guides around at times, watching and encouraging, and I’ve actually seen some of them in out-of-body experiences. I don’t doubt this is where your sense of calling comes from. I have read many experiences people have had with Odin that show he is working to reach people.
For the first time in a very long time, our ancient religion is coming back – the ancient Religion of the Sun. It’s not all here yet, but it will be. This is the root of the ancient stories that draw you to them, and that have drawn you here. But I would watch out for tracks that take you where you may never find the knowledge that will show you where you need to go.
I’d suggest keeping to a clear and logical direction and following the guidance you feel you are being given.
To do the religion of the sun, to be involved in it, will call many, and the real knowledge of the ancients that has the power to fight evil will return. Ultimately, however, it is a spiritual battle, as the struggle is and has always been for the light within.
Hello, Lara. I hope you are well. I read with interest your book, “The Ancient Religion of the Sun.” I’m wondering if you are familiar with Cosolargy, which is one such religion in our modern time. I would be interested in hearing from you. Many blessings in Light, Gene.
Hi Gene, I’m so sorry about my delayed reply! I’ve been so focused on working on our next book that I haven’t looked at the comments for a while. I’m not familiar with Cosolargy; I’ve only looked at ancient religions and their pagan revivals. Much light to you.
Hello Lara
Saw your video on youtube about cycles and your research from different civilisations and the prophecies. They are all correct.
If you visit India specially the Himalayas and go to some divine places where you can meet some unknown realised yogis you will be able to get a lot of knowledge.
I wondered in the Himalayas in the last 5 years and met a few yogis and I have some videos on my YouTube channel. I had this curiosity a decade back about what is there in the vedic scriptures and what all knowledge do these yogis get living all alone in remote high mountains but getting all the knowledge. In Hinduism we call the absolute knowledge as Brahmagyan. Brahm means universe and Gyan means knowledge. It is also called enlightenment or Self realisation. Spirituality is very interesting and if one gets a glimpse of those experiences then one cannot leave it. I intend to move to the Himalayas soon.
Good Luck. I will share your channel on my channel so that more people can view your videos and get the knowledge. My channel name is Shiv Mathur
Greetings Shiv. I would love to visit the Himalayas one day, so I found your videos very interesting. I wonder if there is any unbroken tradition still left there from ancient times? Thank you for sharing my channel. As you probably know, the ancient religion of the sun survived the most intact in India, so it truly is a remarkable and important place.
After researching exclusively on kamiyonanayo, or the seven generations of gods that emerged after the creation of heaven and earth in Japanese mythology, I came to conclusion that the story of kamiyonanayo could be a metaphorical reference to the civilizations that came before our current one. Izanagi and Izanami are said to be the last generation of the seven generations of gods and they are the gods that were said to have given birth to the various islands of Japan and the other gods known in Shintoism. I can’t find a lot of detailed description about the generations of gods that came before Izanagi and Izanami, when it comes to what they did. It is possible that they created landmass and many other things just like Izanagi and Izanami did, but their creations were subsequently destroyed and a new generation of gods would emerge after the destruction. The first two generations of gods are called hitorigami, they are said to have came into existence alone and are sexless, although some accounts describe them as male and were being born from the “male essence”. All five generations that followed came into existence in male and female pairs. This could be a hint that during the very first two epochs of civilization people in the world were sexless just like the hitorigami. This would coincide with the descriptions of other cultures about previous civilizations that the further you go back in time, the less desire people had and the more spiritual they were. The first two epochs of civilization people had no desire for sexual pleasure, therefore they were neither male nor female. This is interesting to note because Buddhist text the Agganna Sutta also says the first humans were sexless, and they their bodies were self-luminous. It may not be a literal description but rather people back then were well aware of their inner light that the desire of the physical body did not eclipse their inner light and they were not bound to the mundane existence of this reality(it is said they could fly around at will and travel between different planes of existence freely, which could have a metaphorical meaning rather than a literal one as well). But as time went by they became less and less spiritual and as each new cycle began there was more spiritual degeneration. Buddhism may not have been an offshoot of the Religion of the Sun, but it nevertheless talks about the cycles of civilizations.
Kamiyonanayo can be found in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, there are many possible reasons why more straightforward descriptions of the previous world ages did not appear in the scriptures. But still, the story of kamiyonanayo could be giving a subtle hint about the existence of earlier civilizations.
Lara, do you research, practice or write about sun gazing?
My partner and I get up every morning to watch the sun rise, and sometimes the sunset, but the sunrise feels higher in vibration (less dense) than the sunset which feels more materialistic. There is a lot to be uncovered by this (I believe) ancient practice. I like to pray to the sun when looking at it. It feels like my prayers reach the higher planes to a greater degree than if I were inside shielded away.
I think there is a lot to be uncovered by the ancient practice of connecting with the sun too. I’ve found it very powerful to do practices involving the sun. There is a reason why ancient peoples went to so much trouble to incorporate the light of the sun directly into their sacred places, rather than shut it out. I will be doing some videos about it soon. At sunrise and sunset when it is not as strong, I gaze below the sun so I can still just see it in my peripheral vision but without looking at it directly, so that I don’t risk harming my eyes, but still have the sense of communing with the sacred sun.
Thank you for that advice. I’ll look at it from that angle to experience the difference
Hi Esthee,
I can also comment in regards of not hurting the eyes.
In Yoga teachings, trataka eye gazing is given as one of main shatkarmas (cleansing techniques).
Obviously everything is relative, and what workes for one person might not work for the other, but in general, I was taught in my Yoga course, that only after 1 year of candle gazing, one can safely move to sun gazing for about 10 minutes on sunrise and sunset. Among other benefits, these practices can be very good for the Ajna “third eye” chakra.
Looking on a flame of a candle is a beautiful practice in itself, the flame of a little candle and the fire of the great sun are ultimately the same, but just on different scales. And if your schedule would change and sun gazing would become not easy, working with a candle could be more easy and practical (Just be always mindful to light a candle in a safe manner.)
May your practices be very fruitful.
Hi Esthée,
Just wanted to say I can relate to your enthusiasm about the sun gazing. My husband especially, is a very devout “sun-gazer”, at one point he was staring into it for about 45 minutes :-O. But he has since then learned that its better to just look at it briefly, and then close his eyes and visualize, as he had a dream indicating that it may be damaging to his eyes to stare so long at it. What Lara says then sounds like a good option – to look a bit away from it.
Personally, I found sunrise sun really beautiful as you say, but the evening one also has something to it. It also looks like not one sunrise/sunset is the same, they are each “original” so to speak. :-) A few days ago for example, we went for a sunset, and I felt inspired to chant a mantra while gazing at it, and the whole nature and everything felt really peaceful. And as it gradually went down, my husband noticed there was an arch of gentle rainbow around it, which stayed for quite a while even after the sun has set. I have never seen anything like that before, it felt really special.
Wishing you many beautiful moments with the Sun!
Thanks for taking the time to share Lucia
Hello Sakro,
I have recently came across your channel by accident while I was watching videos regarding spirituality and ancient wisdom from different cultures. You speak on your videos about Hinduism and the Norse gods, which descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion, which you call the Religion of the Sun, and I found that very interesting. Now I’m not Indo-European, I’m 100% Chinese, and our language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family which is unrelated to the Indo-European languages as far as scholars know. However,I believe that at some point in history there was only one language spoken around the world, but somehow that language split into the many languages people around the world speak today. We may see each other as very different people, but we are one despite the fact that we like to discriminate against one another. I am very interested in the oneness of the universe, the fact that everything in the universe is interconnected and all things form an unbreakable whole. This idea has been proposed by Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and philosopher, he represented this oneness with a circle and a dot, and referred to as monad. When another circle of the same radius intersects with the monad, a dyad is produced, which essentially means “twoness”,or “otherness”. The area which the two circles intersect is known as a vesica piscis, or “bladder of a fish” in Latin. And from the vesica piscis the triad(threeness),tetrad(fourness),pentad(fiveness) were born. In other words, this is about unity turning into duality. And in Hinduism Brahman is the oneness of the universe, and Maya is the illusion of separation, or duality. While both the Greek and Hindu are Indo-European, we Chinese also came up with a similar idea. In a book called Dao De Jing by Laozi, a philospher who lived around the Warring States period(6th Century to 4th Century BC),talks about the Dao becomes one, one becomes two, two becomes three and so on. All phenomena we see are ultimately manifestations of the Dao. It underlies all phenomena, but we humans with our dualistic minds fail to perceive it. Perhaps there is something going beyond even this whole Indo-European thing since we are all human beings that share this planet and have much more similarities than differences, and it is important to let go of our dualistic view of our world and start to see things as they are. It is also possible that at some point in time, not only we spoke the same language, we were also aware of the oneness of the human race and the universe at large,but as time went by we have developed dualistic views and started discriminate against one another, and went our separate ways so develop languages developed and different cultures and nations arose. While at the beginning we were all the same. Is it possible for you to look into non-Indo-European accounts as well and draw some parallels?
Hi Emily,
The timing of your question is very interesting! I have just been researching ancient Chinese civilization and language. I don’t want to give away too much, because it is going to be part of an update I’m making to my book The Ancient Religion of the Sun, which will be out in just a few weeks. However, I can definitely say that ancient China and Taoism are connected to the ancient Religion of the Sun very strongly. There is so much to ancient China that most people are unaware of, and it is more involved in events of the ancient world than many dare suppose.
Taoism also features prominently in my husband’s book The Ancient Path of the Sun, which has just been released, as it contains many great truths and principles of the religion of the sun as you say.
I will also say that Indo-European culture is much more ancient and widespread than most realize. I will be including more evidence for this in the update to my book. I don’t just stick to researching Indo-European traditions though, but look at any connected to the ancient Religion of the Sun. However, the more I research, the more I see that they are all connected to each other.
Hi Sakro, I’m glad you noticed the connection ! I haven’t read any of your books but I saw your video on YouTube that talks about world ages and periods of light and darkness. The content of that video reminds me of the idea of Yin and Yang. It really amazes me that so many ancient cultures had so much knowledge and wisdom that the modern world desperately needs. As an East Asian culture enthusiast I’ve also noticed that Japan may also have a strong connection to the ancient religion of the Sun because the name of the country in Japanese includes the word for “the sun” in their language, and Amaterasu, the sun goddess is the most important deity in Shintoism. Japanese people even believe that their first emperor,Emperor Jimmu, was descended from Amaterasu. I’m looking into this, and I may be able to provide some information on this too if I do find something.
PS: It’s interesting that the Japanese flag also features a symbol of the sun. Looks like they really had a connection to the sun.
A Peruvian told me that some linguists have found tribes in both China and Turkey that speak dialects extremely similar to Quechua, which is the language of the Incan empire, still spoken by indigenous communities. At some point I’ll track down those books or studies…
Julian I’d be very interested in that research once you come across it as I have wondered if the ancient language of that region is connected with it.
Hi Emily,
I am very interested in both Chinese, Hindu and other ancient cultures… maybe I can mention that there seems to be an interesting parallel between the concept of 2 solstices and 2 equinoxes of the wheel of the year, that was well known in China and other ancient cultures around the world, and Daoist concepts of 5 elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water), as well as Daoist esoteric symbolism of the Big Dipper constellation.
Everything is so connected in its essence, everything has originated from one source…
I think the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu may had been one of the wisdom bringers like Odin. Just a thought though,I’m still looking more into this.
hi,
I came across the story of Fuxi and Nüwa the only survivors of a great flood and remembered this comment/thread
I read it at unesco.org
https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/mouvable-heritage-and-museums/fuxi-and-nuwa
Hi,
I have heard about the Chinese flood story from my parents when I was little and have always been fascinated by it. I’ve always wondered if cultures other than my own had any similar stories and I found many. I definitely believe that there was a global flood that had destroyed most of the civilizations, and I wonder if it was after that flood the ancient knowledge was lost. However I am convinced that not all civilizations were affected by the flood. Japan, despite being one of China’s closest neighbors, does not have a flood myth and scholars like Hirata Atsutane and Motoori Norinaga suggested that the reason for this is that Japan was not affected by the flood. While some criticized this argument as a nationalistic interpretation of the myths by Japanese scholars,I do not think their argument is totally invalid because Japan could be one of the places on this planet where the last remenence of the Religion of The Sun exists. The Shinto religion still reveres to this day the sun goddess Amaterasu, and many Japanese people still practice Shintoism. They have preserved their native religion through the ages, unlike many other countries where their native religions were ruined by foreign religions like Christianity and Islam, take Europe for example. Taoism was pretty predominant in China as well, but the Cultural Revolution destroyed many aspects of the traditional Chinese culture, and that includes Taoism. In recent years the government has been trying to bring about a revival of traditional Chinese culture, but this process has been slow and most people in China are not religious. Japan is not like any of these countries however. Shintoism has always been a major religion in Japan and even though Buddhism spread to Japan it did not exterminate Shintoism. The more I look into it the more I find Japan to be an interesting place to learn about, recently I’ve learned that the Japanese language does not have any known linguistic connection to any other language, and the origin of Japanese people is still a subject of debate. The beginning of Japanese civilization is shrouded in mystery, and I wonder if there is any special connection between Japan and the civilizations existed prior to the Great Flood that practiced the Religion of The Sun. I have not yet found any evidence for this except that Shintoism holds reverence of sun goddess Amaterasu and Japan does not have a flood myth(which means they were not affected by the Flood)
Emily
Hi Emily,
Thank you for your interesting message. I find Japan also quite captivating on many levels. Through my investigation on the origins of languages in the Americas and especially in Meso-and South America, I have been lead to Japan as well. I came across a very intriguing culture that may hold a key to the Religion of the Sun in Japan. They are called the Ainu.
I have not found real evidence that they practiced the Ancient Religion of the Sun, but I was very much hooked by some fascinating knowledge that they have and that can lead us to the real Practitioners of the Religion of the Sun in Japan.
In one of the Ainu legends it is said that the Ainu were in Japan very long time ago (14000 BCE), ‘before the Children of the Sun came’ [Reference: The Return of the Ainu. Studies in Anthropology and History. Katarina Sjöberg, 1993]
Of course it begs the questions: Who were these Children of the Sun? Where did they come form and when? What were their Religious inclinations and were they connected to the Ancient Religion of the Sun? What was their relationship with the Ainu? The Ainu living today (of with there are few left in Japan and most of them on Hokkaido island) may still know who these Children of the Sun were from their legends.
Besides this remarkable tale, there are some serious researchers who have designated their language as Indo-European, by for example Revered John Batchelor (Missionary), who lived with them many years. The Ainu language is spoken by a mere 15-100 speakers till this present day, so it has a risk of dying out. Other researchers also designated a part of their genetics as European and their looks as of a Caucasian type mixed in with local Asiatic types. Allegedly, the ‘full-blooded’ Ainu often have a lighter skin with lots of body hair, which has become one of their traits as they wear massive beards and long hair. Reverend John Batchelor (Missionary), depicted them as Indo-European.
I was lead to them for reasons of linguistic links between American vernaculars, Japanese and their language. Similarities are present, but not as strong as I have seen with other parts of the world, but perhaps something will come up in the future if I have a chance to research it deeper.
I am curious what you would find out more in Japan to the connection with the Ancient Religion of the Sun and I wish you much insight and discovery in it!
Hi Bogdan,
Thank you for your information on the Ainu! I have heard about the Ainu but I haven’t looked into their culture specifically yet, these people are not only present in Japan, but part of Russia as well. Perhaps the Caucasians came eastward from Russia and intermixed with the indigenous people of the East and their descendants eventually became known as the Ainu. My key interest has always been Shintoism in general, while so far I have not found any evidence for Indo-European influence on Shintoism, maybe because I have not looked into Indo-European related subjects as deeply as I could have been. As an Asian myself my core subject of interest has always been East Asian cultures. Indo-Europeans are being called by some as the “master race” of this planet and they possessed vast spiritual knowledge about our universe and our existence, but that doesn’t mean that they were the only ones who had such knowledge. I do believe that regardless of races there was once a global religion that was practiced by most of the people in the world. That religion taught people to look beyond their differences and emphasized that people should live in harmony with each other and live in harmony with nature. As Lara explained in one of her videos, we, the people of the current era are very spiritually unevolved , in fact a lot less spiritually evolved than many ancient civilizations that came before us, and it seems like we are becoming even more so as we are getting closer to the end of this current era. It’s been quite a long time since I first discovered evidence of this global religion that was once practiced all across the world among the people of all nations and all races, I just couldn’t think of a name for it and I had been holding off to tell people about it until I came across the Sakro Sawel Youtube channel and heard Lara talking about the Ancient Religion of The Sun and then everything just clicked for me. So I thought I may as well share some of my findings regarding Japan and some of the other East Asian cultures, so there can be more pieces of the puzzle, this way perhaps would help build a more complete picture of the Religion of The Sun and how we can possibly bring it back in this day and age. The world definitely needs to know about this once global religion and what it teaches.
Hi Emily,
I think it’s excellent you are researching the religion of the sun in East Asian cultures. Because I’ve researched all over the world, I haven’t been able to go in depth into the spread of the religion of the sun in Asia, but I have come across evidence for it being there already – like the ancient pyramids in China, the connection between ancient China and Egypt, the surviving sun dynasty in Japan, ancient sites aligned to the sun in Japan, sun and heaven worship in Mongolia, ancient solar initiations in Indonesia etc. I always hoped people would take up researching the religion of the sun in their tradition and culture, since it’s not possible for me to do it all. I think it would be great if you could put together your research so it could be put to use in some way. Feel free to email me at the contact page about it.
I have wondered for a while now who these mysterious Children of the Sun were who went to Japan… Does anyone know?
Hi Lara,
I think they are very likely to be the same group of people, whom you call “wisdom bringers”, or maybe their descendants…
One interesting connection that I’ve found in the book in Russian by Valentin Simonenkov, is that the ancient name of the Indian Mother Goddess was Matarasva, that is very similar to Amateratsu. MATA RA SVA – A MATE RA TSU. (Mother of the Sun).
Also, there is a possible link with Sumer through Siberia… According to the work of Anatoliy Kifishin, some very ancient Siberian petroglyphs have writings in Sumerian language and mention the name Amateratsu. He translated one of them as “Amateratsu is Inanna”. I have read also about similarities between Japanese and Sumerian myths.
The “wisdom bringers” could also travel from South… in Bolivia, mysterious Fuente Magna stone bowl has inscriptions identified by some people as again, Sumerian language. It has a depiction of what appears to be the Mother Goddess.It has some aquatic features that made me think about Apkallu… Pokotia monolith discovered close to Tihuanako, also has inscriptions similar to Sumerian.
I would like to make one correction on my previous post about the Children of the Sun of Japan. There is no mention of the ‘Children of the Sun’ in the work by Katarina Sjöberg (The return of the Ainu). I have checked it and the reference on Wikipedia where it came from, is not correct. For me it is another lesson to be very prudent when using Wikipedia, as it proves once again, that the chance of mis-or disinformation can be quite high, which has the consequence to lead people astray.
Hi Vadim, what book are you talking about? And do you know if there’s a translation of it in English? I don’t know anything about the Russian language except for the letters and very few simple words. I didn’t find any information about Matarasva on the Internet so I assume it is not a very well known name. But I know matar is the Sanskrit word for mother so your explanation of Mother Goddess makes sense to me. However I am usually skeptical about the linguistic connection between names of deities across different languages unless there are a significant amount of similarities between them(I don’t know if there is any similarity between Matarasva and Amaterasu, feel free to tell me more if you know there is any) Amaterasu’s name has a very specific reference to the sun in Japanese since it is composed of two Japanese words, ama(天) meaning sky, and terasu(照らす) meaning to illuminate. So Amaterasu means sky-illuminating. I do have noticed that when her named is romanized her name contains the word mater, which is the Latin word for mother. But I believe this is merely a coincidence because Japanese never had any contact with the Romans, and Latin is only one among many Indo-European languages, I don’t see the point of putting a secret reference to the Latin word for mother. But Amaterasu is clearly a motherly figure in a way as her descendants would eventually give rise to the Japanese Imperial Family as described in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, which are two of Japan’s earliest writings that include the myth and legends of Japan. So I don’t know, maybe there is a connection between Amaterasu’s name and the Into-European word for mother, more likely though it was influenced by Sanskrit, since India was way more closer to the island nation geographically, but I haven’t found any proof for that yet(that was before Buddhism even entered China). So currently I’m skeptical about the claim that Amaterasu is connected to Matarasva, although I don’t dismiss the possibility that there is.
That’s quite strange Bogdan, why would anybody fabricate that? I saw this quote (containing the ‘Children of the Sun’ term) being mentioned on other places too before, do you think its possible that her book got updated (or at least the online version of it) in the meantime? In Wikipedia, its mentioned that this legend is coming from the Ainu sagas called Yukar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukar), so to know for sure, I think one would have to check those. In any case, those sagas look like something worth to translate into English…
Hi Emily,
That book is called “Philosophemas of the Mother of the World The Goddess Sofia” by Valentin Simonenkov, Moscow 2016. I am not sure if it is translated in English…
Me too, I tried to google “Matarasva” and could not find any references to it online! This name is not a part of any of Hindu mantras, that I am familiar with.
But its parts are often used, for example in worshipping Divine Mother: “Om Kali Om Mata”, “Shakti Kundalini Jagadambe Mata”. “Ra” is an Arian symbol used very often, like the names of Hindu heroes RAma and ARjuna both start with RA or AR. “Hare Rama”. And “sva” can be seen in the endings of many mantras, as “SVA HA!” So “Matarasva” definitely resonates with me as something authentic so I mentioned it here… In Russian language” mater” also means mother, even the name Russia (RAssia) seems to originate from that ancient Aryan root, just like IRAn. Muslim “ALLAH” could be simply a variation of ARA. Again, RA. In Ancient Egypt Ra was a name of the Son God, in English we have two similar words “light” (LA) and “right” (RA), etc etc.
And yes, it is so interesting, how it all could relate to Japan? Maybe Japan was not so much isolated in ancient times?
If Japan was influenced by Aryian/Indo-European cultures, perhaps it happened a very very long time ago… long time before Buddhism…such an ancient time, that it got forgotten even in many myths and legends. And now for us, it becomes quite a challenge to put together the little fragments of the information about that ancient past into one coherent picture, that can become beneficial for modern people, actually doing the spiritual work, just like our ancient ancestors did.
Thank you very much for your posts, I really appreciate your efforts and insights.
Interesting that the ‘children of the sun’ reference was not correct, I thought it could perhaps be mis-referenced, but Katarina never wrote that in any of her works.
The question of whether there’s a presence of a religion of the sun knowledge in Japanese culture still stands though. Here are some things I came across.
Jômon: Looking at some specific symbols and geometry on pottery and knowing they had solar aligned stone circles, it is possible that this culture might’ve had a religion of the sun influence at some point in their long-standing history on the island.
Migration image: (https://investigativegenetics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13323-015-0031-1/figures/1)
Yayoi: A major migration of a people happened around 300BC-100BC (conventional dating), though possibly starting sooner (900BC even). They came from Korea and brought and spoke Japonic. They also brought in rice farming and a culture of their own.
Chinese official histories detailing some interactions with the land of ‘Wajin’ state that in the 1st cent. BC the land was divided into a hundred realms/tribes, later amalgamated into thirty and that by the 3rd cent. AD – after fighting amongst themselves for a long time – these were unified into a single realm. Under the leadership of the female Priest-Queen Himiko..
(modern drawing: https://about-history.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/The-Japanese-Sun-child-The-Shaman-Queen-Himiko.jpg)
“Himeko’s name in archaic Japanese means Sun Child or Sun Daughter and probably alludes to her divine descent from Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, as all Japanese rulers would later be identified as being descendants of.” ~ ancient.eu
Author Mori Koichi wrote that she was able to have this position due to her religious authority. An agricultural culture also depended on the sun, the chief priest would be the one who interceded/controlled the sun and production of rice. Even up until the 7th cent. AD Chinese records state: the emperor’s duty, with the heaven as his elder brother and the sun his younger brother, would perform his religious obligations before sunrise, and when it rose entrusted it back to the sun.
I have not read the Kojiki or Nikon Shoki. But it seems they were put together while accommodating certain political purposes at the time and might not accurately reflect early Japanese (religious) history. Some also say Amaterasu, or their sun deity, was initially male or neutral – later made female to give credence to her as the origin of the imperial lineage. Also the historical, and in my view possibly very central, Queen Himiko is not mentioned at all. Some even suggest that she was the real person upon whom the myth of the sun goddess Amaterasu was based. That would be amazing.
The founding myths in Korea seem of a similar style and were also used ‘politically’ by tribes there. Not to say the Japanese one is without elements of possible esoteric merit.
The Japanese language is generally considered an isolate. But Professor Susumu Ohno shows that actually the Tamil language influentially shaped Japanese! (A web page written by his own hand http://arutkural.tripod.com/tolcampus/jap-tamil.htm) The evidence itself, and his linguistic authority seem convincing.
So who were the Yayoi people in Korea (who spoke Japonic, which links to Tamil, Tamil which I’ve read also links to Sumerian)? These places, btw, were more connected than I thought, there’s the silk route, but such interactions and movements might stretch back much further.
It does seem the Koren Yayoi already had an established culture there. Some historians state they were likely ‘pushed off ‘the island. Or perhaps in a meant-to-be sort of way they went to Japan, starting a nation there and a new opportunity for generations to come?
The Korean peninsula’s land is graced with 40-50% of all of the worlds Dolmen. Beautiful. I do not know if these connect to the migrating Yayoi culture. However I did find something incredibly interesting. These dolmen were (also) used as graves and they found whole intact skeletons. Genetics showed that these ‘Hwang Seok-ri’-looking people were of a Nordic/white person and indeed facial reconstruction show it was ‘a complete Westerner’. And again in 2005 at Jeongseon a skull and thighbone were found with a DNA sequence similar to the current British!
Prof. Byeongmo Kim said: “I don’t think it’s surprising that Westerners came out on the Korean Peninsula. By conquest of the Hitties around the 18th and 17th centuries BC, the Aryans who lived in the black sea region emigrated to India. Among them, some of the people who lived in India may have migrated from Southeast Asia to the Korean Peninsula along the path of rice farming. Their path will not be related to the spread of the dolmen culture… .” (translated with Google)
Articles: http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20061206027001 and https://tinyurl.com/Korean-Article
The dolmen are conventionally dated to the 1st Millennium BC (but I think they could well be much older, e.g. similar European ones are dated to 5000BC).
This find, along with such at the Tarim Basin mummies seem to indicate, perhaps like Lara mentioned, a presence of an Indo European people in Asia in early times?
Back to Japan. There might well be an ancient thread of a religion of the sun tradition running from very early cultures all the way to the Yayoi and then to their migration to Japan. But in my opinion Japan has such a unique feel and beauty, you can feel it. Of course comprised of many influences over time. But I wonder: did an original reinvigoration of a genuine divine nature occur somewhere in the early formation of the Japanese nation? Who was the Sun Child Himiko, the young queen upon whom it was put to lead this new unified nation? Did she perhaps posses an inner authority of the sun?
I looked a bit more into it and found that there is quite a lot of information online about the Ancient Slavic Goddess, MATER SVA.
In Russian, “svet” means light and “svyatoi” means holy, and as we also know, SWAstika is one of the principal solar symbols. Interestingly “sva” also sounds very similar to the name of Hindu God SIVA (Shiva).
If you search online for “Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Slavic Gods and Spirits” by Olga Kryuchkova and Elena Kruchkova, you can find there a beautiful prayer devoted to the Goddess Mater Sva. Could she be the same Goddess, known by Japanese as Amaterasu? It is really not too far from Russia to Japan…
I came across the same Sumerian link Vadim and it was also my first thought when Lara asked the question, so I searched to see if there was a correlation and some researchers do point to Sumerians as a link. I did briefly read an explanation about the Japanese myth in relation to Ameteratsu but it didn’t seem it was right to me and that could be because the translation of the myth may have gone astray?
I feel the Sumerian link was with the ancient samurai, as the word could just be a transliteration of sumeriya. If you read this description you can see an esoteric description of their ways which may have later in time been taken literally by people or by historian readings. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html. I haven’t researched the Samurai’s anymore than this but so much can be lost and tainted over time, especially when it comes to the history of The Ancient Religion of the Sun.
Apologies for sharing something I’ve only just come across myself, but this work seems worthy of note.
It provides a wealth of information exactly on that link of early religion of the sun knowledge and its entry into China.
This three volume 900 page work also specifically focusses on and proposes the central position of the veneration of the ‘north celestial pole region’ in ancient times, and in China.
Mark and Lara have presented information on the spiritual meaning of this most sacred area of the night sky.
I do not know if this worship was as central to the ancient civilisations in the way that this author’s theory specifically makes it out to be, despite realising it is indeed incredibly sacred.
But this work seems to be a comprehensive source to corroborate and add new evidence to the widespread occurrence of a reverence to this sacred north celestial pole — as well as a source to see what knowledge, and how that spiritual knowledge came to be present in early China.
“In and Outside the Square: The Sky and the Power of Belief in Ancient China and the World, c. 4500 BC – AD 200” John, C, Didier (2009)
The three volumes are available in PDF from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism#CITEREFDidier2009
I plan to look into this some more (as I find the spiritual sense of that area very special) to hopefully extract some interesting information.
An interesting little, unexpected, possibility of cultural contact in relation to China I also saw was between (Shang dynasty) China and the origin-enigmatic Olmec culture of central America.
This is a little news article about the idea and the proposed contact by sea.
https://web.archive.org/web/20010802024552/http://dailycampus.smu.edu/HTMLPages/Spring00/03-31-00/news4_0331.html
This one shows some of the artefacts and engraved writing that Dr. Mike Xu bases his proposal on.
https://web.archive.org/web/20010802024552/http://www.chinese.tcu.edu/www_chinese3_tcu_edu.htm
Really cool if there was some contact there. Not so much for the sake of ‘exotic’ finds of ancient contact between cultures. But I find some of the cosmology and core beliefs shared between distant cultures intriguing. Some of it is very deep and fundamental, yet both understood it (or even on a more global scale sometimes.) Yet we today are nearly oblivious to some of these central ideas. But understanding them could be valuable to us.
In relation to ancient Chinese culture I have read about some of the similarities mentioned in astronomy/agriculture/arts/weaving/metallurgy/tomb mound culture/the emperor’s role etc.
“The farther we go back, the nearer are the resemblances.” J. Edkins
But perhaps the area that will provide the ‘golden’ link is through a language connection.
There exist different proposals for language branch classifications though, so which ones are actually correct? Trying to verify language connections myself without having the appropriate expertise is difficult. However, there have been scholars of the past who’ve spent their life’s work on such things. There must be one or more (whether a western sinologist in the 19th century or a 20th century Japanese historian or Chinese linguist) who has figured things out properly – despite their work perhaps not being accepted in the mainstream or having faded from the current status quo.
I just wanted to mention that as a possible avenue for people when looking into this. As some of these ‘early modern’ philologists and historians had a high scholarly standard, and were less confined by particular current paradigm limitations (though also having their own, like religious convictions and having less archaeological/genetic data available. And no internet :-).)
Perhaps one of them has made links which connect well to what we’re now learning about the religion of the sun. (in re-reading Lara’s comment just now it seems, or I hope, she’s onto something already.)
One author I came across (though I don’t know how correct his theories are) is a Joseph Edkins. “To show that the languages of Europe and Asia may be conveniently referred to one origin in the Mesopotamian and Armenian region, is the aim of the present work.” This in his book ‘China’s place in philology: …’ 1871.
Some quotes:
“The old institutions of China were shown to be like those of the renowned cities of ancient Mesopotamia. It was stated that the remarkable similarity in arts, usages, and ideas, existing among the races that lived near the Yellow River, the Euphrates, and the Nile, indicated that they sprang from a common source.”
“It has been suggested that the Chinese brought these observations at the solstices and equinoxes with them from the west, and preserved by tradition the old positions of the stars.”
He seems to also use the Hebrew bible’s notion of the ‘Generations of Noah’ to try to identify races/peoples, quite a popular thing to do at one point. But I don’t whether, or how much, actual ancient history made it into or can be deduced from it.
“… that it was the Cushites [? Cushitic, at the time of 1870’s, apparently being designated the early non-semetic language of Babylonia], the brothers of the Egyptians, who commenced and developed the Babylonian civilization, to proceed to class the Chinese with them. The likeness found to exist in practical bent, in the arts of life, and in all the solid elements of the old-world régime is sufficient to justify this step.”
Hi Akira, thank you for all the information regarding ancient Chinese culture! I didn’t even know about any of this as Chinese myself and I’m still learning about my own culture while looking for traces of the Religion of the Sun in this ancient civilization. Your mentioning of Himiko is also very interesting,I’ve never paid attention to her before and after looking into her life accounts I think there is reason to suspect that she was actually one of the Wisdom Bringers who descended upon the surface of Earth to teach and unify the people of Japan. There may also be a connection between her and Amaterasu. I have not found, however, sufficient evidence to support the claim that Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were compiled for political purposes, even though there is speculation of such. Whatever their true origin may be, I think there is a reason why the same Japanese Imperial Family have managed to reign Japan for so long. If they really had no relation whatsoever to Amaterasu, their sole claim of themselves being descended from the sun goddess may not be enough to secure their position for such a long time.
Or perhaps it was Himiko, not Amaterasu, that the Japanese Imperial Family is actually related to rather than Amaterasu,if Himiko essentially gave rise to the figure known today as Amaterasu. There are indeed many similarities between the two and there is unknown connection between Himiko and the Japanese Imperial Family that was over-mystified as the legend of Amaterasu and Emperor Jimmu. There has been may alterations and reinterpretations to ancient teachings overtime all around the world and some have deviated from the original message completely(like today’s Christian and Muslims’ understanding of Jesus). Something similar likely happened in Japan as well but the Japanese still stay relatively close to the original teachings the Wisdom Bringers offered by venerating the sun and understanding the cycles of nature, there are many references in Japanese culture that has to do with their understanding of how the universe works like the notion of wabi-sabi(the acceptance of transience and imperfection),celebration of the vernal equinox and the rebuilding of the Ise Shrine dedicated to Amaterasu every 20 years as part of a Shinto understanding the death and renewal of nature and the impermanence of all things, which are also part of the teachings of the Religion of the Sun. The gender of Amaterasu may as well has to do with the fact that Himiko, the Wisdom Bringer who could have brought the Religion of the Sun to Japan, was a female. The idea of a female Wisdom Bringer may sounds strange to some since most Wisdom Bringers mentioned by Lara are male, which may has to do with the fact that patriarchy was predominant in the ancient world and in most of these cultures only male figures could be trusted by the people. But that by no means indicate that females are incapable of finding out the highest truth about life and the universe. Many of the ancient teachings actually hint that people of both genders have equal spiritual potential…but was largely ignored by many societies so dominated by patriarchy…
Also it is interesting to note that the Emperor of Japan does not have many heirs to his throne…there are reports which say that the Japanese Imperial Family is having problems with infertility and some members of the family are struggling to have children…the exact reason for this is not clear but it could signal the end of Japan’s long-lasting solar dynasty and the loss of a key part of the Shinto religion that is a reminisce of the Religion of the Sun. The lineage of the Japanese Imperial Family that is supposedly descended from Amaterasu as described in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is probably more than just a myth since this lineage has been able to reign in Japan for such a long time without being overtaken by another clan is not a common sight in world history. Many great rulers come to power, ruled their countries wisely quickly got overtaken generations later. The emperors that has ruled Japan in recorded history are descended from the same lineage that is said to be traced back to Amaterasu, and in some periods of time in Japan’s history the Emperor does not even hold actual political powers, instead all political affairs are managed by someone known as a shogun. The Emperor has always been the head of the Shinto religion and unlike many other religions in the world that were once lead by religious leaders that provoked violence and invading other lands, killing innocent people, Shintoism, for the most part, has been relatively peaceful and one of the core teachings holds that nature is sacred and one should respect nature and live in harmony with each other and nature. One of the things that the Emperor of Japan does is praying for the peace and happiness of the Japanese people, except for perhaps during WWII. Throughout history very few people in Japan questioned the authority of the Emperor and many Japanese, including a friend of mine, still see the Emperor as somewhat of a divine figure, in spite of the Humanity Declaration Emperor Showa was forced to make after surrendering at the end of WWII that he is not a god but a man. While there may had been some intentions for power-grabbing with the composition of Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the family lineage the Emperor of Japan clearly has some unusual origin, either from Amaterasu, the sun goddess or Himiko, the Wisdom Bringer who came to Japan to spread the Religion of The Sun. Either way, the timing of which the Japanese Imperial Family begins to suffer from infertility also coincides with an era in our history where materialistic view of the universe dominates the world and to obtain money and fame has become the goal of many people in the world. Many ancient teachings that contain wisdom have been reinterpreted many times at a rate faster than ever before with today’s widespread telecommunication technology. The last reminisce of the spiritual knowledge that was being passed down by the Wisdom Bringers is on the brink of being lost forever and perhaps not to be found again. When there is no longer a heir from the lineage that can inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne(as the throne of the Emperor of Japan is called), that would mark a both natural and unnatural end to the solar dynasty. Natural in the way that the lineage just dies out due to infertility of members of the Imperial Family without being overtaken by brutal force and massacring, unnatural in the way that this is how a dynasty that has ruled Japan for such a long time just ends due to infertility. Even if they manage to find someone to take the Chrysanthemum Throne and preserve the monarchy it wouldn’t be the same thing as what had been going on with Japan’s emperors for the past centuries. The death of one of the world’s last-remaining solar dynasty like the extinguishment of a flame on a candle could indicate that this current age of civilization has, or is about to, reach an end. For Japan, they have lost their beloved Emperor, but to people of the world, this could be just yet another one of the signs that our current era is about to end and a catastrophe many ancient traditions predicted would occur at the end of our current era is coming soon. Speaking of which just reminds me that there has been so many signs of the End approaching lately, not only with the plague that is sweeping across the globe but also increased tensions between people in different parts of the world, like the increasing of tension between the US and Iran, and much more. Also not to mention natural disasters occurring everywhere like big earthquakes, wildfires, massive tsunamis, and volcano eruptions. We are truly living in a very unsettling time, and these things literally keep me awake at night because I would think about them every time before I go to sleep. And I guess there is nothing I can do as an individual except for focusing on spiritual cultivation and trying to spread the message of truth to others around me, although many would not listen. I’ve been called by others many times “superstitious”, “stupid” and “strange” when I told them about my belief. I explained that these spiritual knowledge could essentially save us from heading down the path to destruction and make our world a much better place than it is now. But they often laugh at me and say how ridiculous I am to believe that some knowledge of the Ancients passed down from centuries ago could be helpful to us in the modern world. They would attack me with examples of cultures from the past that slaughtered animals to please the gods and praised the shedding of blood as a sacred rite. Those people were doing it wrong and killing innocent creatures to please gods was not part of the spiritual teaching that contained true wisdom. True wisdom does not promote violence or hatred of any kind, not even on the smallest scale. They don’t know about the ancient teachings that tell people not to take the lives of innocent living beings, and they don’t seem to want to hear about it either. Well, this is also what some ancient traditions predicted about the people of the current era we live in, and I can confirm via my own personal experience this is absolutely true. They would not want to believe in the truth and when they hear about it they wouldn’t believe it no matter what. I’m getting used to people saying stuff like that to me now but I’m concerned about the future of humanity. If we continue down the path we are taking right now we will sure face destruction in one form or another. Maybe some day, hopefully not too late they will change the way they see things.
Perhaps the Japanese don’t have a flood myth, but the conflict between Amaterasu and Susanoo (the storm god) is suggestive of some sort of cataclysm. He trampled the fields, put mud in irrigation ditches, and forced her (the sun) into hiding in a cave, casting the world into darkness.
This is quite an interesting suggestion Julian! A possible cataclysm hidden in a myth. :-) Definitely worths a deeper look, maybe there are more clues hidden somewhere… Still, its interesting that there wouln’t be more info circulating about such an important event in a popular Japanese culture or literature. Suppression? New people coming/moving in, who didn’t remember it? So many questions…
Hi Julian, that’s a very interesting interpretation of yours about the conflict between Amaterasu and Susanoo, I never thought about the battle between the two of them that way and neither had I seen anyone else relating it to some form of cataclysm(perhaps the flood).
Hi Lucia, during the Isshi Incident of 645, a transformative event in early Japanese Imperial history, the influential Soga no Iruka, the son of a powerful Japanese statesman, was assassinated and enemies of the Soga Clan seized power. Shortly afterwards, Iruka’s father Soga no Emishi killed himself by setting fire to his residence. The conflagration destroyed the manuscript copy of the Tennōki, an important historical text which was forever lost, as well as many other Imperial treasures which had been taken for safe-keeping by the Soga, Fune no Fubitoesaka quickly grabbed out of the flames another unique historical text known as Kokki and is said to have afterwards presented it to Emperor Tenji – though it was at some later time lost in unknown circumstances, and no known extant copies of it remain. I wonder just exactly how many manuscripts that recorded important events in Japanese history were destroyed during this power seizing event. It may not necessarily be due to an intentional suppression, but overtime as events such as political crises taking place, it seems inevitable that some books which contain important records about a civilization’s history would be destroyed. Maybe somewhere in the books that were burned during the Isshi Incident there were detailed descriptions about what happened in Japan around the time when Amaterasu and Susanoo were believed to be at war with one another. But since those books were burned and the records within them were being destroyed, there is no way we will ever know for sure.
But burning books after seizing power seems to be a relatively common practice around the world throughout human history. Maybe this is what the rulers do so that they would “kill off” ideologies that don’t fit their agenda so they could stay in power. This could be one of the ways that precious ancient knowledge can become lost overtime.
I’ve found a video which explains Japan’s Vernal Equinox Day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHqwFJ98xMU This one of the few sources I can find on the Internet which targets an English-speaking audience explaining what the Vernal Equinox Day is and what do people do on that day. This is one of the few obstacles I run into when it comes to finding information about Japan, many sources that dive into the details regarding Japanese spiritual traditions and customs aren’t available in English, and as someone who is taking still baby-steps in learning Japanese language there’s just no way I can read and understand them, despite the help I do get from my Japanese friend who has been introduced to and has become a follower of the Religion of The Sun. I am trying my best to find traces of the Religion of The Sun in Prehistoric, Ancient and Modern Japan and so far I have managed to figure some stuff out, but still,I am far from even having a small portion of the whole picture at hand.
I personally want to thank everyone who has commented on the information I’ve shared and asked interesting questions. They have encouraged me to dive deeper into the realms of the unknown and trying to find out more about the truth of the Ancient Religion of The Sun in East Asian countries like Japan and China. There is no saying for sure when will I find all pieces of the puzzle due to a language barrier and so many other factors that may prevent me from finding the right information, but I won’t stop on this journey until I think I have found enough information to know what happened there and what sort of connection those places had with the rest of the world. Once I’ve found a descent amount of information I am thinking about ways which I might share them with the world in an organized manner. On my mind is the idea of creating my own website called Japan and The Lands of The Rising Sun and there I will share all my discoveries about Japan and China, and perhaps a some of my personal experience with spiritual practices. I have so far never had a successful out-of-body experience and I haven’t met beings like Odin, but I do do other forms of practices such as meditation and I think I have learned things from doing so. I do need to figure out how to put them in a way that is organized and easy for other people to relate to, since I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world who has had experiences of this kind. I might share them in the form of social media posts as well. You probably will never find me on Youtube though because I am really shy talking in front of a camera and letting strangers see my face.
Do you believe in a true and natural human language? One that combines all subjects into a single illustration? That we can only truly be satisfied in knowing things when they have been expressed in this language. If we look at the Ancient Egyptians, their entire religion and meaning was expressed in a culture that melted all academic studies into a single entity (art, architecture, physics, sound, biology, time, space etc), where nothing was separated. My fear is that as a species we have fragmented our expression into individual subjects and so are unable to truly grasp concepts and so we lose ourselves in misunderstandings.
So I am thinking that only when we have mastered the art of communication will we be able to connect ourselves to the universe via the Sun. Nature is a master of communication, but we have transcended ourselves to a level of spectatorship that disregards ourselves as a part of it. People say we are animals but they don’t feel it, and its this disconnect that worries me. I think we should be thinking on a level were everything is one like how it is in our dreams.
I remember feeling similar about going to church as a child. I don’t remember anything from the sermons because they never touched me. It was all rather dull. I recall being drawn to the sunlight coming through the windows, and the weeping willow I could glimpse through the glass. I watched it sway in the wind and somehow felt that God was out there, and not inside the church. I felt more connected to the divine being outdoors.
Yes, I felt the same at church Anne Linn. I used to find the sermons very dull and my favourite part of the mass was at the end, where people were leaving and going back outside.
Hi Lara,
I recently came across your YouTube channel and was very impressed with the depth of research you have done. Ancient civilizations and lost history has been an interest of mine since the early 90’s when I came across Hancock’s work. I am at a point now where I wonder if the Sphinx and great pyramids have been there for far longer than we ever thought, like 35,000 – 40,000 years ago, a full precessional cycle beyond the Younger Dryas period.
I now wonder if they were not a marker of the Younger Dryas period in recent history (Bauval/Hancock theory), but a warning of the “next great cataclysm” from ancient pre-history using that same alignment to Orion and in accordance with cataclysmic cycles. It also seems that the diorite boxes found there, and other places like the Serapeum were not meant to be tombs, but rather sealed storage containers for sacred knowledge and artifacts that could last through another massive event. Maybe the lost period you speak of was those that survived, found the wreckage and artifacts and then tried to ‘re-assemble’ mankind and interpret what they found.
It makes sense as to the weathering and destruction of the outer surfaces of these great monuments. They were built from the stuff mountains are made of, you need thousands and thousands of years and/or massive catastrophe to do real damage. Perhaps the cataclysm at Younger Dryas was severe enough to rock the pyramids hard enough to shatter/crack the limestone casings and damage the original sphinx surfaces..
There is so much we don’t know about our past. I rack my brain constantly to piece together how human history unfolded. I just bought your book, looking forward to reading it. Cheers!!
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Thank you John! I agree with you – there are so many pieces of the puzzle. I personally feel we need to do our best to pull them together to get a coherent narrative of our past to be able to make the decisions of what we need to do now.
“I respect the right of all people to practice the religion of their choice, as long as its ideology does not prevent others from doing the same and/or it promotes unprovoked violence towards any other living beings. I also believe that all peoples have the right to preserve their culture, their ethnicity, and their nations, as long as it does not infringe on the right of others to do likewise.”
SPOT ON (spot the sun)
Cheers
are you familiar with the Saga from Finland, explaining Oden somwhow differnt than the Norse traditions?
www.
bocksaga.net
Yes, I am. I came across it toward the end of last year. I found it quite amazing that there was a cave discovered where Igor Bock said there would be, and found his description of Odin/Oden intriguing, however, Igor is the sole source of the saga, which means that I can’t treat it as a verified source. Igor also had a very controversial life, which makes it even more difficult for me to see him as a reliable source. I was in contact with his friend Jim a while ago after he came across my videos, and he seemed like a really nice, genuine person. At this stage though, until I can see that Igor’s account is corroborated or verified, I haven’t used the Bock Saga as a reference for my research.
Thanks for explaining that Lara. I have also looked a little bit into the Bock Saga and Ior Bock, and I certainly agree with you that his life, as presented in the mainstream media, was controversial. It was surprising for me to see that some elements in the Saga seem to echo some things I have learnt about the Religion of the Sun and its history, however other aspects, especially the ‘breeding system’ seemed opposite to true spirituality and higher principles (where a monogamous marriage is considered sacred). However I’m aware that over time religions and their principles might deteriorate and dark practices picked up, so it’s actually a great point that you made, that getting information verified is a way to validate it and pick up the aspects of truth that might still be preserved in the account.
I just watched your video on YouTube and it connected with me in a very unusual way in almost past life type memories. The fathers of our technological civilizations have been dubbed demons, ancient aliens, sorcerors, and keepers of lost knowledge, but reasonably and more likely, they are refugees of a section of the world wiped out by glacial meltwater floods. A civilization with high artistic, scientific, masonic, mathematical, and social structure. Not sure now what the reason is for this little note, but I felt a need to connect… ??? It seemed urgent.
Hi Del,
I know exactly what you mean. I feel that many of us could have lived through those ancient events, and being reminded of them causes a kind of “deja vu” without really being able to understand why.
Certainly in any case, these myths are so prolific throughout so many ancient cultures that they would have been told to us over so many different lives as to almost become a very intrinsic memory.
Coming to this information again can then be a sort of re-remembering for many people.
I think you are spot on with your intuitive sense of urgency. There are so many reasons why connecting with this information, as well as helping as many people as possible to re-remember it, is urgent.
Re-remembering is a great way of putting it. I certainly felt that when first coming across the spirituality of the sun.
I believe.. no, I KNOW that many of us did live these events, and have made a choice to continue incarnating in this world as helpers, guides and healers. It’s been twelve thousand years since the last flood, and many of us are rapidly regaining our past-life memories and skill-sets from that time in service of others at this most critical and potently transformative time. Thank you for doing the hard work of researching, advocating, and LIVING our great, ancient transformative cosmology! The Light shines brightly through your videos.
Thank you so much Sebastian. I agree, that these events have been recorded in our soul, cellular, and ancestral memories (on so many levels!), which is why we feel so innately and naturally drawn to this information. I do feel that this is just the beginning, and that as people are passed this information, it will trigger that remembering in more and more people.