The story comes from Japanese Shinto. I feel that it is a good one.
One day the sun went into a strop. It was understandable, really. Her brother (the sun is female in this story), the storm god, had been wreaking havoc: destroying her fields of rice, killing her maidens, and more besides. She had had enough, so went into hiding in a cave. As you can imagine, the sun going into hiding is not a good thing for humans, animals, and all other life forms. The crops didn't grow, people didn't know when to get up and when to go to bed, it was cold all day, and so on.
The gods tried desperately to get the sun to come out of her cave, but she refused to show her face. They reasoned, they argued, they pleaded and implored, but in vain.
Finally, Ama No Uzume made an appearance. She turned a tub upside down, and began to dance on it. Gods and humans stood and stared. Encouraged, Ama No Uzume started to reveal her breasts while dancing, then took off more of her clothes, until naked, all the while dancing in a bit of a frenzy. The onlookers couldn't control themselves, and began shouting, laughing, cheering, generally creating noisy mayhem.
From inside her cave, the sun heard the racket. Finally, she could no longer restrain her curiosity, and peeked out of the cave to see what was going on. She could not help but be entranced by the sight of Ama No Uzume's comical yet sexy dance.
Ama No Uzume had craftily hung a mirror and a beautiful jewel outside the cave entrance. Seeing the jewel and her own reflection in the mirror, the sun slowly came out of the cave. Seizing their opportunity, the gods leaped forward and closed the entrance to the cave, so that the sun was unable to retreat once more. And now, seeing sense at last, the sun stayed out and the harvests flourished.
Ama No Uzume is sometimes referred to as 'The Great Persuader' and 'The Heavenly Alarming Female', a title which I find most amusing. I mean, would you wish for a confrontation with a Heavenly Alarming Female? Mixed feelings, probably.
She is thought of as the vitality and fertility which repel the forces of darkness in the universe, and reawaken life. She cares not a jot for tradition or propriety; she embodies thinking, or living, outside the box.
The story of Ama No Uzume is also picked up by Luis Royo. Well versed in, and with a good feeling for, mythologies of the world, Royo invariably sexes them up a bit. This is not surprising, since much of his artwork has an erotic flavour to it. In addition, Royo is Spanish, and his Spanish temperament bleeds through into much of his erotic art, which tends to be dark, sensuous, provocative, and a bit fetishistic.
In his brief telling of the story, Luis Royo brings to the fore the shamanic aspect to Ama No Uzume's crazy dance. It is no ordinary dance, but the frenzy sends her into shamanic ecstasy and trance: the gods are correspondingly en-trance-d. And the mystical power of her dancing is such that the sun is touched by its energy. The sun has been hurt, gone into hiding, and it is only the crazy dance of Ama No Uzume which can heal her wound. It is thus a dance of deep healing magic.
"Ama No Uzume's dance …… took a sacred undertone under the Shaman's swaying and erotic forms, and all the gods were filled with a feeling of excitement ...….. They say that, after that day, all monsters and giants hid in the depths, their members amputated and their desire overflowing before the ghostly dance of the sorceress of dawn Ama No Uzume." It was such a nice story before Royo got his hands on it......
Anything For A Laugh
There was nothing very shamanic about it. And fortunately he didn't take his clothes off. But one reason that Boris Johnson won such a handsome majority in the recent UK elections was, in my view, the fact that he demonstrates humour. What a bunch of incredibly crabby, sour-faced beings the politicians of Britain are. Corbyn, Sturgeon, Teresa May before Boris. I have written before about my unsuccessful search for 'The Nicola Sturgeon Book of Jokes'. So among this lot of grim lips and crusty faces, Boris was bound to appear like a breath of fresh air. How much of it was a put-on is beside the point: the image was everything. Here was a guy who could take the piss out of himself, who would bluster and fluster, who seemed to enjoy the odd little prank. I have known a number of people who have raised their eyes to the heavens in despair, as to why so many folk voted for a bumbling buffoon. These people have missed the point entirely.
There is something very significant amongst all this, to me anyhow. To be truly human seems to include having a sense of humour. At least some sense of humour. I know that, subconsciously, I am on the lookout for this. And a lack of humour immediately raises suspicions in me about the all-round humanness of an individual.
To return to Ama No Uzume. The gods reasoned, they argued; they pleaded, they implored. But the sun didn't listen. Another element was required to get through the solar funk. And that element was humour - and a ridiculous branch of humour, at that.
Humour remains a potent weapon today. And it's not just polite jokes, either. Ridicule. There are elements to modern western society which are stubbornly impervious to everything - except humour. In your face humour, at that.
'Social justice'; 'intersectional politics'; climate panic. The one thing which those who uphold these notions are generally allergic to is reasoned, logical discussion and debate. They don't really do these things. I'm not all that good at them myself, but I have a go.
'Climate' is a big one. The number of people I've had 'conversations' with about this, suggesting it's not quite as terrible as is made out. It's when we get to the point where I ask: "Shall I give you the sources? The links?" Then they do a minor imitation of the sun in a mood, or throw their arms up, or change the subject. So what's that about? Don't they want to know? To at least have a look? Why won't they spend five minutes on Tony Heller's website, or something else similar? What's really going on? I leave you to sort that one out for yourself.....
Similarly, when I've pointed out that Arctic ice is pretty normal at the moment; so is Antarctic ice; there are fewer tornados than twenty years ago; the polar bears are doing nicely, thank you. People appear to think I'm being provocative for the sake of it, or being a compulsive pain in the ass. I'm not. These statements happen to be factually true, that's all. What's up with factual reality?
So when reason, logic, discussion fail. When it's a fixed belief you are up against, a matter of personal identity, cherished ideology. Or if it's a case of blind faith, religious fervour dressed up as care and compassion. Then, there is only one thing left. Ama No Uzume. Humour. Maybe even ridicule.
Ridicule is not the kindest of means, but sometimes needs must. It is a minor revelation when it clicks: beliefs and ideas that are not derived by rational means probably cannot be dealt with by reason. That's not their language of discourse. More direct, cutting-through techniques are appropriate. In the case of more extreme political correctness - intersectional politics, denial of biological realities, for example - and of climate doom-mongering, they seem to me so bizarre that exposing their profound silliness is the only course of action.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us take off our hats and jiggle our breasts for Ama No Uzume.
Comedy in Britain has woken from its stultified, strangulated slumber, I have discovered recently. Comedy Unleashed has thrown off the politically correct straitjacket, a garb which destroys humour. I'm surprised the thought police haven't got in there and stopped them. Website below, plus plenty of clips on YouTube.
comedyunleashed.co.uk
A Random Ending
I decided to round this off with a few quotes. They may or may not have anything to do with what's been discussed. But here they are.
'If I was a 17 year-old who didn't attend school, perhaps journalists would talk to me about science.' Tony Heller of realclimatescience.
'Political correctness is fascism disguised as manners'. George Carlin.
'When we talk about compassion, we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative to wake a person up.' Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. This is a particularly provocative quote. Its essence is, to me, true; but it lays itself open to serious misuse.
'My technique is don't believe in anything. If you believe in something, you are automatically precluded from believing its opposite.' Terence McKenna
'The problem is not to find the answer, it's to face the answer.' McKenna again.
Images: Ama No Uzume
Ama No Uzume (Luis Royo)
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
