Waterfall and River Sacred Practice
Overview
Section titled “Overview”This canonical ID (60) currently groups 3 source layers with divergent titles. Milestone-1 migration preserves every layer below without inventing a single merged narrative. Status: needs-review.
Also attested under these titles
Section titled “Also attested under these titles”- Mahāmāyūrī — Great Peacock
- Daoist Fasting / Zhai Abstinence
Research layers
Section titled “Research layers”Layer 1: Mahāmāyūrī — Great Peacock
Section titled “Layer 1: Mahāmāyūrī — Great Peacock”Source file:
01_Buddhism.md
Sanskrit: Mahāmāyūrī Vidyārājñī
Type: Protective spell goddess / vidyā queen
Historical functions: poison, snakebite, dangerous beings, illness and supernatural threats.
Ritual logic
Section titled “Ritual logic”The peacock is traditionally associated with overcoming poison. Mahāmāyūrī texts invoke extensive classes of spirits and divine beings, binding the dangerous religious landscape into a protective recitation system.
Practice family
Section titled “Practice family”Homage and refuge → invocation of Mahāmāyūrī → recitation of her vidyā/dhāraṇī → naming or encompassing threatening beings → protection/healing aspiration → offerings/dedication where prescribed.
Access: Textual recitation exists openly; elaborate sādhana belongs to ritual lineages.
Reliability: A/B.
Layer 2: Daoist Fasting / Zhai Abstinence
Section titled “Layer 2: Daoist Fasting / Zhai Abstinence”Source file:
02_Daoism.md
Beyond the formal Zhai ritual category, preparatory abstinence can include dietary restrictions, sexual abstinence, bathing, seclusion and control of speech before major rites.
Reliability: B.
Deep-Strata Expansion — Daoist Esotericism and Ritual Technology (v1.2)
Section titled “Deep-Strata Expansion — Daoist Esotericism and Ritual Technology (v1.2)”Layer 3: Waterfall and River Sacred Practice
Section titled “Layer 3: Waterfall and River Sacred Practice”Source file:
03_Shinto.md
Waterfalls, springs and rivers may be kami loci and purification places. Later ascetic waterfall practice often belongs to Shugendō or sectarian Shinto rather than ancient shrine ritual alone.
Reliability: B.
Additional Shintō / Kami Entry Register
Section titled “Additional Shintō / Kami Entry Register”Purification: ōharae no kotoba; minazuki harae; vehicle purification; building/site purification; land-pacification (jichinsai); well purification; salt mounds; funerary-return salt customs; ritual fire purification.
Kami-presence technologies: shintai; mitamashiro; sacred mirrors; swords; jewels; sakaki; masakaki; gohei; heihaku; shide; torimono; ohake; temporary altars; sacred sand; sacred stones; shrine transfer/enlargement rites; sengū.
Offerings: rice; sake; salt; water; fish; seaweed; fruit; vegetables; cloth; silk; weapons; horses; symbolic horses; ema; tamagushi; lanterns; first-fruits.
Divination / oracle: dreams (mukoku); miko possession; takusen; saniwa; kiboku; deer-bone divination; futomani; kayura/kayu-ura; lots; archery divination; horse omens; agricultural divination; wind/weather omens.
Court/state rites: Kinensai; Niinamesai; Daijōsai; Kanname-sai; Tsukinami-sai; Chinkonsai; Chinka-sai; four-direction rites; Ise daily offerings; imperial messenger rites.
Folk/syncretic: marebito; boundary deities; dōsojin; sai-no-kami; mountain gods; field gods; water gods; sea gods; plague gods; ancestor-kami transitions; household kami; hearth kami; toilet kami; well kami; fox-possession traditions; dog-spirit traditions; snake cult; serpent/water kami; sacred stones; spirit pacification; memorial enshrinement.