Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

I am currently conducting fieldwork on the Modern Mystery School (MMS), a spiritual business headquartered in Tokyo and Toronto and thousands of followers around the world. MMS has been in operation for over 20 years; although there has been some media speculation and social media chatter, no in-depth ethnographic fieldwork has been done until now. The founder, an Icelander in Tokyo, makes extraordinary biographical and spiritual claims. He is a ‘Sacred Dandy’ who wears high fashion, relishes material wealth, and lives out the MMS edict of ‘being royal’. Alongside him are two other men; together they form the ‘Third Order’ and are pinnacle of organizational leadership. The core of the spiritual teachings is to awaken your Eternal Self and enter into a lifestyle of material and spiritual royalty through initiation into the lineage of King Salomon. As my research explores, the vast majority of followers are women. There are many specialized roles for women: the Beauty Council; the Council of 12, the Grand Oracle; Healers and Guides. In this study, I analyze the political interrelationship between the top male leadership and the thousands of female leaders/initiates. I discuss how the Kabbalistic principle of ‘As Above, So Below’ is interpreted to ideologically support the leadership model. And I take the audience through some spiritual seminars about the sacred feminine and beauty to see how Japanese women seek out economic independence and self-redefinition through this globalized religion.