神 - Pray to the Thundering GODS

Readings & Meanings:

かみ

シン

ジン

かん

こう

God, god, mind

Common Usage:

神

神無月

神道

神様

精神

Examples:

十月には八百万の神が出雲の国に行ってしまうので、神無月と言われる。

神道は日本古代からある精霊崇拝の一種と言われている。

神様、どうか東大に受からせて下さい。

精神を集中させて、火の上を歩く。

Translations:

Because October is the month when eight million gods come out of the clouds and go to the country, it is called the Godless Month.

The kind of ancestor-worshipping religion that has been in Japan since a long time ago is called Shinto.

God, please let me have passed the Tokyo U (entrance test).

Gather your concentration and walk on the fire.

Radical:

示, the altar radical, is back.

申 is the phonetic. The oldest pictographs show a bolt of lightning going through the heavens, which fits in with the "god" meaning. But then it became a pictograph of the hands tugging on a rope. That reminds me of the shinto way to pray: tug on the belled rope in front of the temple twice to get the god's attention.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/7.htm