Geisha

Category: Mystic groups and systems

 

Read any book, look at western based websites, and all of them will tell you that Geisha were a form of high class prostitute. 

This is wrong. 

Once the sophisticated cultural system that revolved around Japanese mysticism had collapsed in the mid 1800s, then that is what they may well have had to become, but the original Geisha were the experts in the ability to channel the energy that would have been expended in an orgasm and in the man’s case into an ejaculation, into the direction of spiritual experience, to use the energy so generated to help you higher on the spiritual path.  So the very aim of all the techniques was to avoid orgasm.

So yes, they did sell ‘sex’ if you can call it that – more correctly they sold foreplay techniques and instruction in withholding methods, but they were not prostitutes.  Many of the techniques now used in the Ninpo [Ninjutsu] methods, if not all, were used by the Geisha.

Don’t believe me? 

Red lips, white face, topknot

Let us be logical now and look at the facts.  How many prostitutes do you know dress themselves in layer upon layer of protective and non revealing clothing to sell their services?  How many prostitutes use elaborate white and red make-up on their face and neck to sell their services?  How many prostitutes do you know who are highly educated, can paint and draw well, can play a musical instrument proficiently, know classical texts, are capable of composing poetry and capable of entertaining via poetry and classic literature?  How many prostitutes you know can afford sumptuous personally and beautifully designed ‘haute couture’ silk kimonos, their own large house, servants, and trainees?  How many prostitutes do you know who are feted in classic art paintings and in kabuki theatre and in legends and myth?  How many prostitutes do you know entertain their clients with music and food and ‘tea’?

No, logic says that something else was going on and that something else was spiritual experience.

It is clear that the Geisha were perfectly capable of having their own spiritual experiences and became legendary as a result of both their prowess at helping their fellow men and women have spiritual experiences, as well as for their own exploits in the spiritual world.

The painting style of ukiyo-e flourished in the period that the Geisha were at their height.  In the next few paragraphs, I will take a look at some of the evidence by providing some pictures of that era.

Ukiyo-e and the Geisha

This is a drawing by Ishikawa Toyonubu and is called Yoko-Oban.  It was published round about 1751, well before the reforms.  It shows one client surrounded by Geisha – both trainee and the main Geisha, plus two male servants.  They have had a meal and one of the younger trainee Geisha [shown smaller than the main Geisha – ranking is shown by size] is offering sake - to the man.  One girl plays a zither.  In the alcove we see a symbolic rabbit on a plinth.  The room is extremely sumptuously decorated with wall hangings and paintings.  At the back of the room is a huge scroll showing a portrait of a famous poet.

The story on which this painting is based is by a Haiku poet, which should tell all.  We see the fan.  The whole picture shows spiritual experience – ‘mist’ is symbolic. She is wearing the sandals that, though western commentators say they have to do with muddy streets, are nothing of the sort – they are ‘cloud walkers’ symbolic of being able to have out of body experiences.  Her maid does not wear the same shoes. Her kimono is in the shape of a cloud.  There is no horizon because in the spiritual world at this level there is no horizon! Willows in this context are symbolic of the spiritual word – the world of the spirit or ‘dead’.

Here we see some truly beautiful kimonos layered and elegantly worn by geisha named by the artist.  The larger and thus most important geisha was the subject of well over 100 prints in her time indicating that she was something very special. There is a white owl.  White - the level of highest spiritual achievement – the aether  – and the owl symbolic of the person who is capable of achieving spiritual travel – one who can see in the dark and who is wise. A butterfly is a symbol of the higher soul in flight, it can be seen on the famous geisha’s robe. Her obi is decorated by suns. The sun is the symbol in most spiritual cultures of the Creator.  So she is indeed very important – the ultimate mystic – one whose spiritual path leads to the Sun – a one way journey.

It may be helpful to know that the very insignia on Japan’s flag – the rising Sun is indicative of the idea that at one time at least, Japan was the land of the spiritual traveller, the mystics whose aim was the Sun and not the moon.  In effect, their aim as a nation was to leave the cycle of  death and reincarnation [the Created – the Moon]  and to go to the Sun [the Creator].

A geisha in the spiritual world re-enacts the experiences of an earlier legendary figure – a poet whose works she is reading. The Chinese poet Kinko tried to capture a young ‘dragon’ but in the process encountered a giant carp and used its back as a stepping stone to heaven. An apparent myth, but in out of body travel all is feasible, it could of course be an alchemical dragon.  Some of the symbolism is too complex to describe here.  The only simple symbolism is the Water shown which is a ‘level’ in the spiritual world. She is very clearly in a trance state.  Her cloak is decorated with the symbolic pine tree, the trees are covered in snow – so symbol of the Winter and the aether level.  There is a cloud at the top of the picture, or if you prefer the ‘mist’.

A Geisha returns from a temple visit after she has attended a festival. She arrives in a litter, a form of transport which was for the wealthy, and arrives to meet her servants both male and female who are there to greet her.  Notice the decoration on the litter indicating that it is her own not a ‘taxi’. The house, as can be seen, is large and extremely impressive with an entrance portico of some size. The male retainer holds a fan indicating the nature of both the geisha and the house – it is a house where one can travel beyond the fan. In the description of this picture in guide books, there is an indication that the temple she visited was the famous Meguro temple which was over 3 kilometers away from the district in which this house was situated.

Painted faces and halos

Why do the Geisha have white faces and such elaborate hair styles?

Both the geisha here have topknots.  The far geisha is wearing shides.  The near geisha has the pattern of the twin pillars on her neck.  Both have white faces and red lips.

The robes of the Geisha often matched their status too.  Setton is one of the vibrational levels in the spiritual world and is the ‘highest’ that one can go.

The photo does not show this but Geisha also use combs.

In the picture below, we see three Geisha in sumptuous kimono each decorated symbolically, with the characteristic hair and hair decorations.  The kimonos have a decoration of pine, bamboo and cherry blossom.  Cherry blossom is more generally symbolic of the cloud world – the Floating World; ‘The Three Friends of Winter’ – so Winter as the final stage of the spiritual journey [and the aether level] are symbolically the pine, bamboo, and plum.   Together they symbolize perseverance, integrity and modesty.

The geisha on the left has a crane on her kimono – so she is a  ‘bird’ – a spiritual  traveller as well as a ‘crane’ a very distinguished and accomplished traveller.

The Geisha and the ‘wife’

The Geisha used Sex magick and Sexual stimulation and taught Peaking.  The sexual stimulation techniques require that you know the person that you are helping, principally because every man is different in the way they are both aroused and can be left teetering on the brink.  There are, as my Mum might have said, ‘a hundred ways to skin a cat’ [perhaps an inappropriate phrase to use here, but you get the idea] .

Hair ...............

It seems to be clear from many of the drawings and paintings of the Geisha that they had a limited number of clients and in some cases only one.  True courtesans did exist in Japan and of course they had a number of clients, but the geisha had to be specialised and that is why they were so well off financially and could command such a high price.  Geisha were to all intents and purposes lovers.

In Polynesian and most shamanic societies they divide the mind into three – the three worlds - the Higher Spirit, the Conscious mind and the Subconscious mind.

The Polynesians treated the Subconscious mind and the Conscious mind as though they were two separate personalities or characters in every person.  So in essence did the Japanese.

A man’s Subconscious [and a woman’s] chooses her sexual partner and lover.  A man’s Conscious  mind chooses his marriage partner – the one with whom he is going to set up a home, have children and share the strain of running a home with all its financial burdens.

Shimura Tsasumi

In Western society, we conform to the rule that we should only have one partner.  Without being too simplistic, if the Conscious mind is strong, the marriage usually works because the partner chosen is a compatible match, but men and women often take lovers because their Subconscious actually fancies other sorts of people – they then suffer the appalling anguish and emotion of their action.  If the Subconscious mind is stronger than the conscious then the man may marry or live with his lover, but he usually finds that it is a disaster on a day to day basis, - they argue, they fight, they never agree and find that setting up a home is a nightmare of incompatibilities.  And these days they tend to divorce.

“David then searches his soul and marries the sensible Agnes, who had always loved him and with whom he finds true happiness”.  Hmmmmmmmmmm does he?

It is believed that of all Charles Dickens’ novels, David Copperfield was his most autobiographical.  It is worth perhaps noting that Dickens had numerous lovers.

Japanese prints – Gabrielle Fahr-Becker The series "Contest of Beauties in the Pleasure District', which comprises a total of 19 portraits, depicts the most popular ‘courtesans’ in Yoshiwara at the time. Eisho depicted his subjects more tenderly than did his master, Eishi. ….. The girl in this picture is holding a cushion on which is a toy cow. ….. Midoriki has pinned her ample hair into a large bun in the form of a shell. At this period she was known throughout Edo as the leading geisha in the Wakamatsuya establishment, and was very popular.

And here we have a well known kabuki actor portraying a wife in a play. It was no accident that men played the roles of wives, it was intentional, just as it is intentional in our pantomime.  Just as it was intentional in Shakespeare’s time. Wives are not intended to be the spiritual heroines.  They are often very sympathetic characters, helpful, kindly, funny, organised and useful, but they are neither sexy nor appealing physically and they cannot send Jack up the Beanstalk.

Thus in the Japanese society of the Floating world a man had two partners as long as he could afford it.

The Geisha appealed to the Subconscious mind, and the Japanese man also had a wife, who was there for the Conscious mind.  Thus a Japanese man married his social partner, his conscious equal, a friend, a supporter but to a large extent not someone [unless he was very lucky] who appealed to his subconscious.  In order to keep his subconscious happy he went to either a geisha if he was on the spiritual path, or a courtesan, or [if he was poor] a prostitute if he was not spiritually inclined.

The French appear to adopt a somewhat similar approach to life even today – without the Geisha!

This sounds a wonderful arrangement – especially for the man - but as many of those who have been on the ‘lover’ side know, it can be anguish, because love is a very demanding master.  Practically every culture has its story of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ style lovers.  In Japan this story was that of Osome and Hisamatsu, who, just like Romeo and Juliet committed suicide.

Japanese prints – Gabrielle Fahr-Becker   This picture .. shows a geisha.  The poem on the scroll in the top left-hand corner of the picture reads: "Parting is difficult, but I turn my head once more. Since we shall meet again soon, life goes on." The lovers lament [a modern lament] Come hither, come hither my sweetheart And I’ll give you the time of your life I’ll run my hands over your body so fast That you won’t even think of your wife   Come hither, come hither my darling And you’ll be enveloped by lust I will play with your body until it is spent [Yes you can ring your wife if you must]   Come hither come hither my lover We’ll make love on this bed all day And I’ll massage your body until you have come [But please put your mobile away]   Come hither, come hither my angel You know darling I love you a lot Well I ‘spose that I could simply let you just come If ten minutes is all that you’ve got.

It was clearly also not much fun for the wives.  In the painting below we see the wife of a samurai [a bushi]  – samurai regularly sought spiritual experience in order to ‘go with the force’. 

The wife has a pen in her hand and is at a writing table, paper is laid out ready for her to write.  The poem reads;   My little house stands in the south of Kyoto And there deer live But the people of the capital Do not like this place And say that it is in the back of beyond   So she is lonely and bored, just like many wives the world over in the same predicament.   Japan was a male oriented society and there were no male ‘geishas’, if we can call them that, to help the women find their lover or to help them with spiritual experience.   The only thing she has to help her is the incense burning in the lamp, not very effective and not exactly the same!

So men may consider the Japanese society of the geisha to be wonderful and a model of what we should have today, but we women might think differently!

If we now look at this arrangement purely from the spiritual point of view, however, the geisha wife arrangement works well.

Once the man has had children, he can cease having any sort of conjugal relations with his wife if he so chooses.  He then meets up with the geisha in order to build up his sexual reserves of energy.  He is, all the time, practising abstinence and endurance and ‘celibacy’.

Infrequent meeting of the geisha also helps to keep the emotional tension high.  If he doesn’t die of a heart attack from the stress of it all, he should be able to generate an enormous amount of sexual energy ready for the final kundalini experience.

Observations

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• Japanese tea ceremony 1
• Japanese tea ceremony 2
• Japanese tea ceremony 3