The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s2.1

v2.c32.s2.1

In the sphere of Vedic magic we have to do both with personal and with impersonal substances. The conception of all sorts of demons as threatening man is one which is supplemented by the more impersonal view of substances or potencies, which dwell in things, and which are often, therefore, of value in magic rites. It is possible that the earlier view is that which conceives these potencies either animatistically as actually alive, or animistically as spirits, but in the Vedic literature the two views, personal and impersonal, are both clearly found, and, like everything in the Veda, they are never clearly kept apart. Such powers⁴ are the power of error in the sacrifice which clings to the sacrificial post, and therefore may pass to the sacrificers,⁵ if care is not taken to render it harmless, the nature in woman, which causes her to slay her husband or to bear no children to him, and to bring death and disease among his cattle.⁶