Ritualistic representation is a complex relationship between reality and the symbols used to depict it. In the case of the kachinas the representation is unlike any religious idea of non-Indians. First of all, the kachina of the Pueblo tribes is not a god but a cosmic, ineffable force, existing in tliree different forms: the first is unseen and unimaginable; the second is the reflection of the kachina power in a human "impersonator" or dancer; and finally, there is the doll which is untouched by the power of the kachina but duplicates its appearance.
In the kachina dances there is no possibility for facile explanations. Nothing can make an "intelligible" experience out of an illogical but meaningful ritual act any more than it is possible to explain a poetic metaphor which exists, in the first place, because it embodies something beyond the grasp of logic. The ritual dramas of the Southwest tell us nothing at the same time as they suggest an entire cosmology to the initiated.