Re: veneration

From: gamartin_at_...
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:53:29 -0000

> They should be significantly more specialised.
>
> > Do saints act as exemplary models or actually bestow power?
>
> Yes, both.
>

OK, I think all in all this pretty much hits the nail I was aiming at. I'm having another crack at interpreting Shinto into HW terms, and what with the 8 million kami and the like, I think the above suggests that the veneration model is the appropriate one. Quite interesting, really - at least one theory I have seen suggests that Shinto should be thought of as a mature animism from the Shugendo philosophy institutionalised into a structure very much like the saint/congregation/liturgist dynamic.

Now, if I understand correctly, sorcery has no NECESSARY relationship with with veneration in structural (as opposed gloranthan specific) terms, right? Could one think of the liturgist/congregation + saint/supplicant dynamic as a black box, a magic system in toto in its own right? Liturgists use the sorcery mechanic, that would need to be kept, but do the GodLearner-descended sorcerers have a necessary relationship with this structure? I think not. I'd like to put real animist shugendo-practitioners into that role, that of the local wizard-type. Plausible?

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