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My story

Kitsune

Member
I see everyone posted stories (expiriences) here about children remembering their past lifes, and since I started having memories from mine since before I recall, I guess this is the correct place to post it.
I also must say, I share not only to feel this heavyness on my shoulders a bit lighter, but also because if someone here knows anything about my story, perhaps what exact year this happened, or a list of deceased people for the cause my other mother did... I would be really happy.

And so, I have been asking my mom weird things like "When can I go home?", while I was home, since kindergarden.
Along with that, I always had the feeling I had another mom, and right away that I had a past life with that other mother, and that I was (and she, too) a "half-fox" = half human-half fox, this sounds silly now, surely.
At first, I believe mom thought it was my imagination, but she was always open minded. From the start, she always helped me believe in fairies and santa-claus, and after, when my words became something more serious, she supported me and believed me.

It all started to make more sense after I almost drown at swimming class, because no teachers were paying attention, and so it had to be a friend to take me up from the water. The moment I went out, I was really weak, and soon unconscious.

And all of a sudden, the other mother I mentioned previously became like a persistent spirit who I would be able to totally see (not constantly, just sometimes) usually standing, in a miko/shrine maide/ dress, with long black hair and, everytime, she made me feel very comfortable. Actually, I think she didn't have to try because her presence was what was so comfortable, relaxing and lovely.
I would also start remembering more, just details, like being hold in her arms, how the place where we usually were looked, tall grass, smells... things by the lines.

At a certain point (years after) she said something, many times and always the same; that she loved me and was my mother, but that the mother I had now was my mother too, and that she loved me a lot, and I had to love my mother just as much as I loved her. Gotta say, few before, I had been really rude to my mother here, in multiple ocassions.

I think it was more or less the time I told her about the message that she actually took me seriously.

The message-only-conversation, soon became real conversations, but at the same time, as I grew up, I couldn't see her so clearly, eventually being unable and only feeling and smelling a certain scent to burnt. When I talked to her, I would know japanese, which is how I learnt most of it (plus watching anime and classes... that goes later).

It was around this time when I also saw a man, who scared me a lot. He observed me from far. My mother here made me a charm thing so I woud feel safe. Actually, she made many, but with the last one I stopped seeing and feeling him around, so all good.

(tbc because I arrived the word limit)
 
Continuation:


I've always been curious about this life, but on the other hand I always had the feeling that my Japanese mother would be really upset about it, that she didn't want me to search anything. Still, sometimes I wouldn't hold and do my own little internet researches, in which I found out about the "half-fox" thing:


In Japanese folklore, some foxes have high inteligence and the power to transform into humans, usually young women dressed as shrine maidens, (between others, like for example to create illusions), and so I believed I had been one, and my other mom too. I also found out something called "Kitsunetsuki", which was suposed to be a sickness in which a human would be possessed by a fox. At the time I din't pay too much attention to that, but it did make me suspect that my mother was already dead, and wasn't just showing herself to me with some kind of mental power or something by the lines (in my familly, "not usual" abilities are common, so I didn't think it 'couldn't' be that too much, to be honest).


Then, a woman moved to the floor over to ours. This person, who was really nice and gave me Japanese classes, was born in the same city I used to in my past life. She was pretty shocked by how I had the same accent, and I didn't doubt much before explaing her what at that time I called my "weird dreams and imagination" (mostly so others wouldn't think I'm crazy).


This Japanese woman explained me how the mother I described was a shrine maiden from a certain status and from a shrine she (my neighbor) lived near to in Japan, which by the way is surrounded by fox statues, and is suposedly the main place for the most benevolent kitsune who would serve for its goddess there. How the half-fox thing comes from japanese folklore (which I already knew), added that kitsune supposedly could travel between the worlds and send messages from the death to the alive, how in many stories a kitsune would marry a human and have a baby, but that the place was really big and even has more than one shrine, and many cementeries, to the point that even if I was to search for a tomb, it would be pretty much impossible to find the one by checking them all one by one.


I searched for images of the place and, yes, there it is, it is the same.


From then on... my phobia to humans (sorry for not saying this before but until now it was just irrelevant) and society just agravated, and so did monetary problems, so eventually the classes came to an end, and a kind of "Mister Holmes" long period of time started, in which I would want to find out more, but at the same time would feel bad about it.


So I'll skip, skip, skip... skip until aaaaalmost the time being now, (so I skipped few years :tongue: ). I met someone, with who, for some reason, my phobia is totally unexistent and I can even shout at street with people around as long this person is close to me. The number of times my other mom was around decreased and decreased, until the point I am now in which I only feel her in my heart, always with me as a guardian angel. If I have any doubts and ask her, I'll surely get a japanese answer in my head, but is this really her? I believe so. She's still with me, and we simply don't need to hold long conversations so often, if any. I believe she is a guardian angel now.


(and tbc again...)
 
And the last part:


I honestly became des-interested in this matter for some time... I didn't really want to know anything else, what I knew was enough, but, I would like to know her name, visit the shrine... anyways.


One night, praying as I usually do, I had the idea (bad idea) of praying for my other father, because if I had had another mother, then obviously there had been a father.


Sadly, I burnt, not literally but the feeling was as if I really did. I also felt so much hatred, so much sadness, and that stupid feeling of that man watching me from far, and it just didn't stop until I re-prayed without including him (I did imply that if he has a good person I still wished good for him, though).


And now we are where I am, in which I already found everything out, and I explain, as if solving a mistery, after having done so myself, to the unexistent expectators who had never wondered anything about my story in the first place.


Foxes with powers, to begin with, most probably never existed. But Kitsunetsuki did exist. Let's remember: Kitsunetsuki is the sickness that suffers a human after being possessed by a kitsune, usually women. (sometimes the person would believe she was a fox, sometimes others would say "oh my god! a kitsune is possessing her!")


This sickness was believed around the same era I recall I lived in (by the looks of clothings and other little things). Women who "suffered the sickness" would be either exorcised by a priest or, most usually, killed by throwing rocks at them or... being burnt.


Which explains the burnt smell when she's/Was around, and the feeling of being burnt when I felt her in pain, specially when I prayed for my father.


Why my father? Because, in most stories, it would go like this:


A woman in a shrine maiden dress would fall in love with a man, in some they would even have a child, but the man would find it all out, how she's no other than a fox in a human body.


How I died remains unsure to me, I don't remember her death, and all my memories are about tall stuff... meaning I was really little and died before her.


Maybe, she just wanted to stay assured, she wanted to say that what I saw, her existence, my memories, were real, and wanted me to stop neglecting this world and love it instead.


Again, if someone knows anything about us, maybe a list of shrine maidens from Fushimi Inari, anything, I would really be interested to know.
 
Hi kitsune


Welcome to the forum.


What an interesting tale! I'm guessing this previous life was quite a long time ago if these sorts of 'traditional' practices were still going on? Do you have any idea of the
 
tanguerra said:
Hi kitsune
Welcome to the forum.


What an interesting tale! I'm guessing this previous life was quite a long time ago if these sorts of 'traditional' practices were still going on? Do you have any idea of the
Well, I don't remember anything too modern, specially the clothings of people, so I can't say it was recent.


On wikipedia it's said Kitsunetsuki was believed in since the Heian era (794 - 1185) until the begining of XX, in which it ceased to be a typical sickness, and on XlX's begining it became a "definetely not real" thing.


Fushimi Inari is said to have been founded in 711. But all of the building was reduced to ashes on March 21, 1468 by fire. The next records are on 1499 with it's hall, Honden, being built, and since there it just goes growing and growing.


Also; I think my Japanese mother practiced the Kagura dance, since I remember her wearing a different outfit from the usual one many times, and many bell sounds, which they usually hold on a hand while performing it.


This dance is performed in the Kagura-den, there are many, the first mentioned in texts from lX, but I can't find when the one we had been at was built.


--Sorry for the long answer.
 
Yes, I thought this one must be pretty old.

...Foxes with powers, to begin with, most probably never existed. But Kitsunetsuki did exist. Let's remember: Kitsunetsuki is the sickness that suffers a human after being possessed by a kitsune, usually women. (sometimes the person would believe she was a fox, sometimes others would say "oh my god! a kitsune is possessing her!")...
In older days they had all kinds of explanations for what we now call 'mental illness'. Various different beliefs thought people were possessed by demons, or 'bewitched' and so forth. It is possible this idea about someone being possessed by a 'fox spirit' might be something like that? Social norms and beliefs would reinforce this kind of thing.


There was a bit of a spate of people being 'possessed by demons' in medieval Europe, for example, when it's more likely they were suffering lead poisoning or schizophrenia, or some hysterical reactions to grief or stress (all common enough in those turbulent days).
 
tanguerra said:
Yes, I thought this one must be pretty old.
In older days they had all kinds of explanations for what we now call 'mental illness'. Various different beliefs thought people were possessed by demons, or 'bewitched' and so forth. It is possible this idea about someone being possessed by a 'fox spirit' might be something like that? Social norms and beliefs would reinforce this kind of thing.


There was a bit of a spate of people being 'possessed by demons' in medieval Europe, for example, when it's more likely they were suffering lead poisoning or schizophrenia, or some hysterical reactions to grief or stress (all common enough in those turbulent days).
Yes. Around the end of 19th century, it was noted that physical diseases that caused fever were often considered kitsunetsuki.


The symptoms are also pretty confusing:


It can cause iilliterate victims to temporarily gain the ability to read, cravings for rice and food that usually foxs like, listlessness, restlessness, and aversion to eye contact.
 
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