Some reminders for my fellow non-Japanese people getting into Shinto:
Because if you don't want to listen to actual Japanese people or Nikkeijin, maybe you'll listen to someone like you.
"Open religion" does not mean "religion you can do whatever you want with." Being invited into someone's house doesn't mean you can start changing the wallpaper and ripping up the carpet and rearranging the furniture, and being invited into someone's religion doesn't mean you can start changing things for your own convenience.
Shinto is the religion of the Japanese people. It is a faith and belief system that is entrenched in Japanese culture and ideals and that must be understood and respected to follow it.
Shinto is from a living culture. If you do not respect Japanese culture and actual Japanese people, then your understanding of Shinto and your approach to it will always be shallow and meaningless.
Do not combine Shinto with any other belief system. Kami should be housed within Shinto traditions with no other religion's deities with Them; keep your Kemetic or Hellenic or Germanic gods out of your kamidana and keep kami out of your pagan rituals and ceremonies.
稲荷大神/Inari-Okami is more of a title than a specific kami, and pretty much everyone has a different answer when you ask them who Inari-Okami is. No specific person is more right than another.
Speak to and about the kami with respect and use their proper titles. User shinbutsu-shugo (untagged bc I don't want to annoy complete strangers lmao) has a list of proper honorifics to use and which kami to use them for.
Animal remains do not belong in Shinto shrine spaces. I promise you, Inari-Okami does not want fox skulls or pelts as offerings.
御札/Ofuda are blessed items that can only be purchased from a shrine. If you buy an Ofuda from somewhere else, it's not Ofuda. It's just a slip of paper with some kanji on it. If you can't get an Ofuda from a shrine for whatever reason, you can make a 依代/yorishiro instead.
Western witchcraft is inherently contradictory to Shinto. You can be a witch. You can follow Shinto. You cannot be a Shinto witch.
陰陽道/Onmyōdō is not witchcraft, it's a form of mysticism that uses scientific practices from multiple Eastern religions as a form of divination. 陰陽師/Onmyōji would really not appreciate you calling their practices witchcraft.
No kami is an aspect of the God or Goddess, or part of any other deity from any pagan religion.
Spirits, 妖怪/youkai, and "lesser" kami are not something to control or own. Give Them the respect they deserve or leave them alone. This especially goes for 狐/kitsune too because they're what gets a lot of people interested in Shinto.
Research proper etiquette before visiting a shrine. Please.
Stop getting all your info from white Westerners and start looking at what actual Japanese people and Nikkeijin have to say. Everything in this post is just repeated from Japanese sources but if you took it all at face value instead of checking it with Japanese resources, that's a problem.
