Fire Walkers #2

They stood in two rows before the altar, and beating time with the jingles of the staffs and batons in their right hands, chanted, ensemble, the 'hridaya' sutra. This finished, they went and settled on the seats prepared for them at the two sides of the area. The abbot in his robe came to our side and sat facing the altar. And another, very nice gentleman, who was a kind of second abbot, came and thanked us for being present. {The honor of energy and soul among the rituals of all disciplines is more than Robert's Rules of Order or any polite and pernicious etiquette.}

In a moment, another, smaller group of Yamabushi arrived and were ceremoniously challenged at the entrance by two Yamabushi guardians. In a kind of Noh play dialogue...the newcomers, through their leader, were asked the meaning of the term Yamabushi and the reason for each of the elements of the costume. The replies were given with great force - as though an actual battle were taking place {It is my opinion that much ancient art and frescoes showing battles are of this nature and that many battles were avoided by use of such display of force.}, and in the end, when they had proven themselves, the new group was admitted to sit with the rest, after ceremonially circumambulating the pyre.

A little Yamabushi now got up, with a long bow and a sheaf of arrows, and at each of the comers pretended to shoot an arrow into the air. {Were the comers aligned with the points on a compass like the sabbat rituals, with their fires surrounding?}

Next, another Yamabushi got up with a sword, and, after praying before the pyre, waved it at the pyre and returned to his seat. The abbot stood before the pyre and read a sutra from a piece of paper which was tucked into the pyre. And then the stage was set for the great event.

It began with two Yamabushi bearing long, flaming faggots, one at either side of the pyre, reaching in, low, and setting the pyre aflame. (Biblio and notes: 'Campbell wrote in his journal: 'It is most remarkable that in the Goma fire sacrifice that we were about to witness, elements of the Brahminical Soma sacrifice, as well as of the much later Tantric Buddhism of the great medieval period were synthesized, and colored, moreover, with the tincture of Shinto. Hanging around the sacred area were strings bearing the jagged paper offerings characteristic of Shinto--not white, but colored.')

It went up with a great belch of smoke, which billowed heavily to the left (our left) and completely engulfed the Yamabushi. Since I was taking pictures, I was glad that the; breeze leaned in that direction