Making it Up As I Go

So I’m planning on doing Nanowrimo this year, and October is always my month to plan, so I’m always on the lookout for inspiration. This year’s book is going to be about witches and fox spirits and forest magic and all sorts of fun things, and when you have an eye out for something it’s amazing what you run across.

Notice the acorn offering to the foxes? (And in the next picture, some seeds.) I love that SO much I can’t even express it. Foxes are the messengers to Inari, the Japanese kami of fertility (agricultural, not physical) , rice, tea, sake, agriculture, and industry, and of general prosperity and worldly success. But in some places,  the messenger has taken precedence over the kami, and offerings are made to the foxes instead, of foods the foxes would like. I just find that utterly fascinating. And I love the simplicity of the offering- 5 acorns. Not 20, not more, just 5.

The tree of discarded fortunes. I find this so poetic.