Kagura as Invitation, Entertainment and Dismissal of Kami
Overview
Section titled “Overview”This canonical ID (64) 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”- Mārīcī — Goddess of Dawn / Invisibility and Protection
- Guarding the Three Ones
Research layers
Section titled “Research layers”Layer 1: Mārīcī — Goddess of Dawn / Invisibility and Protection
Section titled “Layer 1: Mārīcī — Goddess of Dawn / Invisibility and Protection”Source file:
01_Buddhism.md
Type: Dhāraṇī goddess and ritual cycle
Mārīcī developed a large ritual repertoire. The Tibetan canon preserves a dhāraṇī, a “King of Ritual Manuals” and separate maṇḍala rites.
Ritual architecture
Section titled “Ritual architecture”Initial dhāraṇī recitation expands into deity-specific ritual actions, visualization, maṇḍala procedures and applications. Historically Mārīcī became strongly associated with protection during travel and from enemies and danger.
Research note: The surviving Sanskrit/Tibetan textual cycle demonstrates that what may look like a short protective spell could sit inside a much larger ritual technology.
Reliability: A.
Layer 2: Guarding the Three Ones
Section titled “Layer 2: Guarding the Three Ones”Source file:
02_Daoism.md
Chinese: 守三一, shou sanyi
Type: Unity meditation, inner gods, stellar descent
Later forms of meditation on the One imagine three forms of the One dwelling in the three Cinnabar Fields.
One documented visualization pattern
Section titled “One documented visualization pattern”- Visualize the Northern Dipper descending above the head.
- Visualize the Three Ones emerging among its stars.
- Perform three breaths.
- With each breath, visualize one of the Three Ones descending to its corresponding Cinnabar Field.
- Maintain the three deities in their respective internal residences.
Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Religious Daoism,” §9.2.
Reliability: A/B.
Layer 3: Kagura as Invitation, Entertainment and Dismissal of Kami
Section titled “Layer 3: Kagura as Invitation, Entertainment and Dismissal of Kami”Source file:
03_Shinto.md
Kokugakuin describes a common three-part ritual grammar:
- welcome/invite the kami into the sacred locus;
- entertain and worship them through music, song and dance;
- see the kami off.
Older miko-kagura retained possession/oracular associations. Hand-held torimono such as bells, fans, bamboo and sakaki could participate in the divine-presence technology. Some historical dances reversed circumambulation as part of the induction of possession.
Reliability: A.