Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/268

246 The fact and its reason may be formulated together thus: The gohei-wand is used in every divine possession in Japan, without exception, as a necessary vehicle for the god's descent. Whether the possession take place by Shintō, Ryōbu, or Buddhist rite, in every instance the gohei-wand is put into the hands of the man to be possessed at the time the invitation to the god to descend begins, and through it is the god believed to come. It is post hoc because propter hoc. The gohei is thus the very soul of the rite.

To add argument to this fact savors of supererogation, for the crucial character of its circumstantial evidence is patent. As if, however, gratuitously to emphasize its importance, both faiths festoon the place where the descent is to be made with other gohei, pendent overhead, for purification. Both haraibei and shintai are thus present at the function.

Before the waving of this little wand, all the Buddhist pretensions to the cult pale to impalpable phantoms. Further discussion becomes suddenly vain. One cannot argue with a wraith; and if one think to strike insubstantiality, he is aware only of the void.