This week I’m releasing the first in a new series of singles I’m calling the Sacred Mountain EPs, which will be released between August and October, 2021. Listen now on my Spotify or Bandcamp pages.

Sacred mountains have always fascinated me. I have had some of my most profound spiritual experiences in nature, especially in climbing mountains, and I know I’m not alone.

Since earliest recorded history, mountains have been places where humans went to experience transcendence, probably because they were physically ascending closer to heaven or what we believe to be spiritual worlds.

Mountains are holy places that are feared, revered, and sometimes both.

Mount Fuji, or Fuji-san, is the highest mountain in Japan and one of Japan’s three sacred mountains. It has been a frequent subject of artists, poets, and filmmakers the world over, but especially those coming from that nation.

The ancient samurai used the base of Mount Fuji as a remote training area, and folk tales tell of ghosts and demons roaming the forests surrounding the northwest face.

A shinto cult called Fuji-kō venerated the mountain as a female deity, and encouraged members to climb it. The paths leading up and around the mountain still host multiple shrines, teahouses, and huts dedicated to spirits of the area.

A well-known Japanese proverb suggests a wise person will climb Fuji-san once in their lifetime, but only a fool would climb it twice.