Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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This page groups rituals by the text that describes and prescribes them. Wikipedia gives the example that "in Tibetan Buddhism, the rituals described in the Bardo Thodol guide the soul through the stages of death, aiming for spiritual liberation or enlightenment." Browsing this way lets a visitor see the specific text that is the documentary record for a given ritual.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
Rites that remove a condition the tradition treats as impurity - by washing, by abstention, by transfer to a substitute - and restore a person or place to a state fit for worship. Impurity in this sense is a ritual status rather than dirt or sin, and what causes it differs sharply between Shinto, Jewish, Islamic and Hindu law. 2
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 2
Directory
Category
Rituals 1
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The Purification Rituals

This group gathers purification rituals, the ceremonies of cleansing that remove impurity or sin and restore fitness for worship or ordinary life: ritual washing, lustration and rites of atonement performed in formal ceremonial form.

The browser will find purification rituals from across the traditions. The entries describe each rite's form and the conception of purity it serves, noting the tradition that performs it.

Attested In
Filter Results2 entries
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. PurificationView the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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