The Cult of Tara

MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
Above this appears the syllable TAM which transforms into Tara's
emblem, the lotus flower, marked again with TAM, the seed of Tara
which will blossom into the deity. Thus from the syllable light
radiates forth in all directions, making offerings to the Noble Ones
and purifying the defilements of the entire world. The light gathers
back into the syllable, and at that instant the emblem and seed
transform into the perfected body of the goddess.
2) Upon the top of Tara's head appears a white OM, the power of
body; upon her throat a red AH, the power of speech; and upon
her heart a blue HUM, the power of mind. Again, the different rituals
may elaborate upon this in various ways, but finally there
appears a green TAM in the center of her heart.
3) From this syllable light radiates forth and summons the knowledge
being from its natural abode; it appears in the sky with VAJ­
RASAMAJAH "Diamond gathering 1" and dissolves into the deity
with J AH HUM BAM HOH !
4) Again light radiates forth from the syllable TAM in her heart,
inviting the five Buddhas and their retinue; they pour from their
flasks a stream of liquid nectar upon her head, filling her entire
body, and the overflowing excess forms on her crown the "sealing"
figure of Amitabha.
This basic scheme may be embellished and refined in various
ways, extended with incidental verses of offering, praises, and
prayer to the diverse deities who appear in the visualization. But
the four steps of the Process of Generation, here given so succinctly,
are the fundamental sequence of all evocations of the
divine, a pattern that is invariable, however much obscured by
detail or by compression; as such these steps have received much
theoretical attention and have been organized and labeled in various
ways.
An early schematization of this process is found in the Guhyasamaja
Tantra, where it is called the "four limbs of approach and
evocation." Later commentators applied this terminology especially
to the Father Tantras, and to the rituals of the Guhyasamaja cycle
in particular, occasionally disagreeing on particulars of correlation;
but with some alternation from the idiosyncrasy of these rituals it
is often used to schematize the Process of Generation wherever it is
found, and it is applied to the evocations of Tara (see pp. 445-446)-
Thus the Guhyasamaja Tantra says: 1B9a