The Cult of Tara

APPLICATION
of obscuration and empowered in body by the master's visualization
and application of the mantra directly upon the disciple, and also
by the magically potent water that he has generated in the flask.
These ritual types may be depicted as follows:
locus of power mantra
nonreality
self contemplation
front effectuation
object application
ritual type
general
soteriological
ritual
magical
examples
awakened corpse
alchemy
six yogas
ritual service
burnt offering
four mandalas
initiation
thread-cross
These types are the blocks from which rituals are constructed, and
the predominant function flavors the entire performance. But we
must bear in mind that it is rare to find any one ritual type in total
isolation, especially in communal ritual activity; the performance
of any function requires the prior ritual service of the deity, and
many performances in the ritual and magical type classes begin
with a self-generation (no matter how perfunctory) as a symbolic
reenactment of the acquisition of the divine power, before it is then
directed toward a ritual evocation or magical employment. Thus
the paradigm ritual function of the burnt offering is still preceded by
a brief self-generation as its "ritual service," and we have noted before
that any ritual of offering (even without explicit self-generation) is
always the delayed second half of a full-scale evocation. But in all
these cases it is the ritual function of approach, offering and effectuation
which forms the central motif of the entire ceremony. Again,
an initiation, from the recipient's point of view, is a magical function
performed upon his person, but the officiating master must perform
at least briefly (in private) both the ritual service and the evocation
of the deity—the self-generation and the generation in front—before
he proceeds to the magical operation that is the focus of the ceremony.
Similarly, the thread-cross ritual (to be examined later)
begins with a brief ritual service and evocation, but then it emphasizes
both a special ritual function of torma offering to various
malevolent spirits and the magical function of the thread-cross itself;
here it is the combination of motifs which provides the performance
with its acknowledged efficacy and its special dramatic flavor.