Purifications

Purifications We possess only about 100 lines of his Purifications.

He was said to have been a magician and controller of storms, and he himself, in his famous poem Purifications seems to have promised miraculous powers, including the destruction of evil, the curing of old age, and the controlling of wind and rain.

It gives a sequence of seven purifications, based on the sequence of sīla, samādhi and paññā.

Many of the aspects of public religion are repeated within the mystery, sacrifices, ritual meals, ritual purifications, etc., just with the additional aspect that they take place in secrecy, confined to a closed set of initiates.

Some scholars now believe that there was only one poem, and that the Purifications merely formed the beginning of On Nature.

These purifications were complex exorcisms while others simply involved the act of literally walking between two fires while being blessed by the Shaman.