The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s8.1

v2.c32.s8.1

In many cases the sacrifice itself is degraded to mere magic: this is a precise parallel to the degradation of the formulae to spells which we have already seen, and of which the mystic Hotṛ formulae, originally of a superior type of thought, but later degraded to common magic purposes, are the best example. The actual sacrifice itself may be adapted to magical ends: thus to secure the opposite of the natural results the sorcerer performs it with the arrangement reversed as far as may be: the movements are not from south to north and from left to right, but from north to south, the region of the dead, and from right to left. Or again the offering verse in a sacrifice for Indra may be addressed to the Maruts, and *vice versa* in an offering to the Maruts. The Kauçika Sūtra has full descriptions of black magic, an idea which has never been without votaries and which in the Middle Ages attained great fame.² More directly the sacrifice becomes not merely in the theosophy of the Brahmans the great power of the universe: more prosaically it becomes the means by which the sorcerers who practise magic against one can be made to show themselves, by which rival wives can be overcome, by which the monarch in exile can regain his throne.³ The sacrifice can be adapted to these ends by any manipulations of its component parts or by the precise mode in which the ritual acts are performed.