244 henrik h. sørensen
Conclusion
The worship of the asterisms and heavenly bodies played an important
role in Esoteric Buddhism in China, and the rest of East Asian cultures.
Although many of the cults may have originated in China, it would
appear that the strong identification between certain Buddhist divini-
ties and the worship of the planets was a Chinese phenomenon. In any
case, the forms that have come down to us reveal beyond any doubt
that the cultic worship of the planets and constellations in Esoteric
Buddhism was strongly informed and influenced by contemporary
Daoist practices.
Planetary worship in the context of East Asian Esoteric Buddhism
was never a uniform tradition but one that was constantly changing.
Moreover, there were many overlaps, both as regards function and
in terms of variations in ritual practices and the related iconography.
Hence, we see that rituals performed to address similar astral beliefs
were directed at different divinities depending on a given context.
It seems to be the case, therefore, that the worship of Tejaprabha,
Mañjuśrī, Sudṛsti and the gods of the Great Dipper, for example, could ̣
very well have been carried out for exactly the same purpose: to avert
danger and to seek blessings. Moreover, the sources indicate that sev-
eral of these astral cults coexisted and were promoted within the same
Esoteric Buddhist context.