Two spirits in shintoism

People have various aspects in their minds. They are happy but suddenly may be unhappy. Sometimes they are angry but finally softened. Depending on, our minds keep changing and we need to control in some situations.

Deities in japan have also the same tendency. Sometimes they are calm, supportive and gentle, but in some occasions they would be offensive, vehement and angry. In shintoism, the tendency is divided into two spirits; Calm spirits and aggressive spirits. It is said that each deity in the religion has this kind of spirits opposing each other in the same deity's character and in most cases those spirits are enshrined separately in a shrine. For example, the calm spirit of Amaterasu-the supreme sun deity is enshrined in the main building of Inner shrine at Ise Grand Shrine, while its aggressive spirit is enshrined in an annex building in the same shrine.

The calm spirit is called "Nigi-mitama" （和魂）. The spirit represents "normal" and "stable" status and people feel peacefulness in the spirit. When the deity is in this mood, they are cooperative to people and listening to people's prayers. People in Japan have been looking for this deity's mind status by having its religious prayers from the very antient time. At the same time, the normal status means no motions, namely no changes, no progress in the environment.

Meanwhile, the aggressive spirit is called "Ara-mitama" （荒魂）. The spirit shows the deity's aggressiveness and offensiveness  People feel offensive, urgent and dangerous in its spirit  and the deities would be fierce and cause s damage on people and/or the country. Natural disasters are considered as this Ara-mitama spirits of the deities.  Ara-mitama keeps everything going and changing. People have been afraid of this fierce status of the deities and considered it as the divine curse so they tried to convert this Ara-mitama into Nigi-mitama by means of their religions services in order to prevent their selves from receiving damages. 

Upon my description above, you may prefer Nigi-Mitama to Ara-mitama since, although I think that it is quite natural,  you would not like any damages. However, looking at Ara-mitama's activeness, we also need this spirits together with Nigi-mitama, the calmness. The Empress Teimei, the wife of the 123rd Emperor Yoshihito, once told in public that the Ara-mitama is a spirit to achieve the calm situation represented by Nigi-mitama. Simply saying, we need actions （Ara-mitama）to achieve the calmness （Nigi-mitama）. Nothing is generated without actions.

That said,  if Ara-mitama is too much, the situation would fall into a restless situation and eventually it devastates the whole things you would like. Let's say, you have to move to live a life a day but you can't keep moving eternally. You would need a rest and go to bed to sleep. Without this relaxing moments, your body and mind would be eroded by stress and fatigue, which leads you to unhealthy condition mentally and physically. In sum, Nigi-mitama and Ara-mitama should be balanced.

Tama-shizume （魂鎮; calming down a spirit）is quoted by a martial-art master at Meiji Jingu Shrine. He raised a question; why the shrine has buildings for both spirits in his blog and his answer is that the deity itself  teaches us the importance of managing Ara-mitama well. He said, people stay in a mood of Nigi-mitama in their daily lives but practicing marshal arts is a mood of Ara-mitama since it is active and sometimes offensive for its competition, so marshal artists should activate their Ara-mitama part in their spirits during their performance. However, remaining in the Ara-mitama mode is too dangerous as mentioned above, so when they finish their performance, they need to cool down their spirits. This cool-down action is called Tama-shizume. Physically, cooling down the body muscle is quite important to avoid injuries but this tama-shizume includes the spirit lifting, too; the activated Ara-mitama should be back to Nigi-mitama, the normal mode. The deity's two different spirits are not enshrined in one building since he said that it is difficult even for the deity to control the Ara-mitama, so the deity shows us that the two spirits should be balanced by the separation.

Our life should be at peace but actions are also required for our progress and changes. Shintoism tells us; whatever actions we take, we need to foresee how to finish it to regain your Nigi-mitama.