Perhaps we can call it "fierce Compasion"? Like when a mother grabs a child running toward the street by the arm and says," Get back here! Don't go in the street. You'll get hit by a car." Sometimes a little wrathful behavior can be useful, and even necessary.
In Tibetan Buddhism we call the wrathful form of Yidams, "Dharmapalas", or "Protectors." These are not really deities to be prayed to, although it is not exactly wrong to do so, they are meditational visualization practices that we do for the benefit of all beings. In Vajrayana Buddhism (which is not a type of Buddhism, but rather a level of aptitude just as we have primary school or university levels of aptitude) we have lalready trained in morality (with Hinayana), and in philosophy/psychology (with Mahayana) and are now ready for complex practices. Some of these are 'peaceful' (or 'joyful') and some are 'wrathful'. When doing the peaceful practices, we imagine that all sentient beings of the universe are our mothers. In wrathful practices we imagine that all sentient beings of the universe are our children.
In order to do the wrathful practices, we need to first learn the basic peaceful practices first; compassion (Chenrezig), purification (Vajrasattva), and others. Generally we will 'Take refuge', Do 'guru yoga', do Vajrasattva purification, and after doing any other practice we might like to do, we close a session with 'dedicating the merit'. After we learn the basic formula and preliminary practices, we will be ready to receive wrathful Dharmapala practices. Only a Lama can give someone the necessary Lung empowerment, also called 'transmission' or 'abhisheka'. A proper empowerment is required, or the meditative experience doesn't do the trans-rational magic it is intended to do.
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