![]() I was leading our moot’s Imbolc ritual this year, and before it began, there seemed to be a lot of funny, hyperactive energy flowing around the circle. I’ve even chanted Hi-Fu-Mi when leading rituals with my local moot. I therefore like to intone the Hi-Fu-Mi norito before conducting rituals (including Neopagan ones) as a way of purifying the ritual space. The Hi-Fu-Mi norito is considered a prayer of purification, with the power of changing misfortune into good fortune. If you want to know what the Hi-Fu-Mi norito sounds like, you can hear it being recited here. Finally, it’s usually only written in phonetic hiragana characters rather than ideographic kanji characters, which is especially welcomed as the kanji used in most norito are typically much more difficult to read than those in regular modern Japanese. This makes it much easier to recite in a rhythmic manner. Secondly, it consists only of syllables (in fact, all of the major Japanese syllables occurs once without repetition) and has no real words, although many Shintoists attribute particular meanings to individual or groups of syllables (the first ten syllables, for example, can be translated as the numbers 1-10). Firstly, it’s quite a lot shorter than many other norito. I think this is one of the most accessible norito for several reasons. U O E NI SA RI HE TE NO MA SU A SE E HO RE KE ![]() SHI KI RU YU I TSU WA NU SO O TA HA KU ME KA ![]() HI FU MI YO I MU NA YA KO TO MO CHI RO RA NE One norito I would recommend to those starting out in Shinto or who are not so confident with Japanese is the “Hi-Fu-Mi” norito. For me, saying the norito in their original language is a way of honouring and remembering Shinto’s Japanese origins, as well as being a form of spiritual discipline – it’s much harder to memorise a norito in Japanese than in English, so to make the effort to do so is an act of devotion. I find the English translations in Shinto Norito: A Book of Prayers, a book by ordained Shinto priestess Ann Llewellyn Evans that I highly recommend, to be particularly beautiful.īut as I can speak Japanese, I do like to say norito in their original language (as well as in English). I see nothing wrong with this at all – I think it’s good to speak to the kami in the language that is closest to your heart. One way to get round this is to say the norito in your own language. ![]()
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