Utux is the pivotal spiritual reality of Atayal religion. The word names at once the soul of a living person, the spirit of a dead one, the collective ancestral spirits (utux bnkis), and the highest supernatural power, sometimes distinguished as Utux Kayal, the spirit of the sky. The utux are not depicted in image and are rarely individualized; they are experienced as a watching, judging presence that upholds gaga, the interwoven code of custom, taboo and ritual by which Atayal groups live. Prosperity, illness, success in the hunt and the fate of the soul after death are all referred to the pleasure or anger of the utux, who receive the dead at the rainbow bridge and admit the worthy to the ancestral land. Offerings, expiatory rites and the reading of omens keep the living in right relation with them.