ABSTRACT
By focusing on the experiences of spirit mediums who transform themselves into deities during rituals, Chapter 7 investigates the direct interactions between people and būtas. Drawing on the Gestaltkreis theory and notions of perspectivism, I consider these interactions as playing with multiple perspectives. The relationship between people and deities, which is revealed through spirit possession, forms the basis of the transactional network and also generates the actuality of the divine śakti circulating within it. Through the experience of gazing at the deity incarnated in the medium and responding to her words and actions, the devotee partially undertakes the deity’s perspective and also remoulds his/her own perspective in an umwelt that embraces the coming and going of būtas. This mutual and concrete experience of interactions with būtas enables the people to form and sustain a transactional network composed of a more extensive circulation of substance-codes, including raising agricultural products; caring for the land, nature, and deities; receiving the wild śakti; and reproducing their lives and social relations in the village community.
