The Sword of Heaven by Mikkel Aaland

Shinto is the indigenous spirituality of Japan - The Way of the Gods.

Shinto reveres spirits or essences, called kami, which reside in all things. These can be animistic or natural places that are considered to have a sacred spirit about them and are objects of worship. Frequently mountains, trees, rocks, rivers, and other natural edifices, a shrine is built nearby to honor the kami. This is considered a sacred space inside which the kami actually dwells, being treated with the utmost respect. A shimenawa (a simple braided rice straw rope) draped across the space or object may be the only marker needed to show it is sacred and the dwelling of a kami.

Statistics list over 80% of Japanese as Shintoists, as well as following Buddhist practices, although the majority of Japanese consider themselves to be non-religious. Kami and people are not separate; they exist within the same world.

In The Sword Of Heaven, Norwegian writer Mikkel Aaland details his involvement in spreading kami throughout the world. A combination of travel and spiritual adventure, we follow Mikkel beginning in 1983 through a series of connections. In San Francisco, he hears how a Shinto priest had a vision of the end of the world. His response was to take an ancient relic, the Sword Of Heaven, and break it into 108 pieces. Each piece was encased in stone to retain the power of the sword, becoming kami themselves. These would be distributed worldwide, and much like ley lines, the powers join into a protective ring encasing the world. Intrigued, Mikkel becomes involved. He is a photographer and travels widely for work. When he returns to Norway, he is greeted with a package: one Shinto god. From the first placing in a Norwegian lake, Mikkel travels the globe, placing gods in sacred places over the next four years.

There are relationships and the connections he makes, as well as many conversations with the Shinto priest in Japan. Though everyone is extremely well intentioned, he often doubts the whole enterprise. The answers he gets are vague in a very Japanese way (there may be an 'actual' sword inside the stone, or it may just be a special stone - there may be 108 kami stones, or there may not). It's these questioning moments which prevent The Sword Of Heaven from being a spirituality book, opening it up to lovers of travel stories and adventure. He is not the only one placing stones, and at the back of the book, there is a map of all the locations around the world.

The Sword of Heaven has a good balance and readers of spiritual and travelle's tales will find it appealing.

2000 / Hardcover / 280 pages