Sacred Caves In Taoism (道教洞天)

In Taoism, the term ‘heavenly cave’ (洞天) refers to the holy mountain where Taoist deities and immortals live. There are 10 major sacred mountains and 36 minor mountains that form the main structure of Taoist heaven. These sacred mountain (hence the caves) also included the five major mountains in mainland China. These sacred mountains are physical locations where Taoists of past dynasties built temples for their spiritual practices. The actual meaning of ‘heavenly cave’ if we are to scrutinize, refers to caves in the mountain that can reach the heaven. This is depicted by a work ‘Traces Of Tao’ (道迹经) composed during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (东晋): “五岳及名山皆有洞室” meaning “All five mountains and famous mountains have caves.”

In another matter, there is something like ‘deities of 8 caves’ (八洞神仙) that may refer to Taoist deities reside in the 8 caves. Again, the cave in this context refers to sacred mountains or heaven if you like. And the 8 caves can be subdivided into ‘upper cave’, ‘middle cave’ and ‘lower cave’ where only one fairy resides in each of these three caves. Some scholar suggested that these 3 fairies refer to 3 stages of live of a woman: the young, mother and elder fairy.

However, in another epic work, ‘Journey To The West’ (西游记) mentioned the fairy of the 8 caves as: the deities of upper cave as the ‘three purity’ (三清), the four emperors (四帝) and other heavenly immortals. The deities of the middle cave are the ‘jade emperor’ (玉帝), the 9 fortresses (九垒) and the deities of oceans and mountains. While the last of the list are deities of lower 8 caves: the lord of underworld (幽冥教主) and earth deities (地仙).

As if the above is still not enough, the folk literature further added another two groups of ‘8 immortals’ (八仙) in addition to the original ‘8 immortals’ existed since the Yuan Dynasty. The original ‘8 immortals’ refer to Lv Dongbin (吕洞宾), Li Tieguai (李铁拐) etc. a total of 8 immortals. However, in Qing Dynasty, the middle 8 immortals (中八仙) and lower 8 immortals (下八仙) were added to increase the number of deities in the pantheon of Taoist deities.

In modern times, these sacred caves have become Tourist spots mainly and I doubt that anyone can meet any forms of immortals there. Of course, the size of ‘8 immortals’ has shrunk to only the original 8 immortals. It is okay if you still feel confused about the ‘cave’ and ‘mountain’ issue, please rest assure you not alone as many Chinese too is obvious about the distinctions.

Magician’s View On Intermediate State (法师眼中的中有)

When we are born, we are normally well being taken care of. This is not the case when we are going for our final journey.

Religions have a lot of advices but all those are just irrelevant in my eyes. For each of us is a unique entity with own dynamic personalities.

I am not in a position to discuss on if a soul would go for a reincarnation or it would go to heaven or hell; but I can roughly discuss on where one’s soul would be during this period between death and the next. Forgive me as no psychic eyes can see through the mystery realm of reincarnation.

As far as my experience goes, a dead soul will never leave the intermediate state if it thinks it has something to do. For example, if this dead soul likes to play computer games; then it will engage in rounds of computer games days and nights until it finally feels tired and wants to move on. Once this dead soul has this idea, its surrounding would turn dark and in most cases; it would be led through a door and enter into the next realm.

My late aunt died about 2 decades ago just one year short of her retirement. She had a very bad marriage life and her only wish was to travel around the world. It was sad that my aunt couldn’t fulfil her dream while she was alive. So for many times and many years after my aunt has passed away, I had some vivid dreams of my aunt travelled to many places and she seemed to be very happy on each occasion. I could still remember that my aunt waved at me at a train station in US during one of my dreams. The last dream I had about my aunt was that I accompanied my aunt to a big hall with many doors. There was a notice on one of the doors. While I stopped and read the notice, my aunt proceeded to open the door and entered. I could see white light came out from the hall; but I was somehow barred from going into the door. This was when I woke up from my dream. I have not had any dreams about my aunt since then. Maybe my aunt is reincarnated. I could only guess.

My father died about a decade ago. When he was alive, my dad likes to travel and exercise. So for a period of 10 years or so, I used to see my dad playing badminton or jogging in the Lake Garden in my dreams. My dad also always brought me around to various places during some of the dreams. Interestingly speaking, although I know where I was; the surrounding was always dark as the journeys were almost always at night. The last time I dreamed of my dad was that I sent him across a bridge, and he walked to the other end but I somehow halted before stepping on the bridge. Perhaps that too indicated that my dad has passed over to the other side or being reincarnated.

Yet many years later, one of my buddies whom I would like to call him as Beng. Beng was an alcoholic and a womanizer. Beng used to visit pubs for drinks and prostitutes on most Friday nights. As far as I know, Beng would only return to his home at 3am after intoxicated with alcohol. Unfortunately, after one of the happy hours; he met with a freak accident and died on the spot. One week after Beng’s death, I was walking past one of Beng’s favourite bars and saw a familiar silhouette in front of me. Due to curiosity, I followed the stranger into the pub and after searching for a while, my eyes fixed at one corner. There I saw Beng was sitting in the corner drinking while hugging two pretty ladies. I knew it was Beng’s ghost.

After the encounter, I had a few more encounters with Beng’s ghost at night in pubs downtown. Six months later, I saw Beng’s spirit again outside of a pub. This time his head stooped and he looked sad. So, I approached Beng and asked him:

Me: “Oh Beng! Why are you here? Shouldn’t you somewhere else?”

Beng: “It’s you Liew… I am bored. Although I enjoyed drinks and ladies; no one talks to me. I just repeat drinking and womanizing days and nights and all these are getting mechanical and torturing. I want out! Can you help?”

Me: “I can send you off but I won’t know where will you go next.”

Beng: “Okay. Anything is better than this.”

So, I did a short deliverance ritual and Beng’s spirit was sent off. I have not seen Beng since the ritual.

Based on my previous experiences, perhaps I could conclude that as long as a dead soul can hold its euphoric state for all eternity; then it already staying in its ‘Pure Land’. Incidentally, the concept of Pure Land is simply based on maintaining a state of mind for as long as possible. But this is easy said than done as our mind in dynamic. Hence, I don’t think anyone will stay in any sort of Pure Land for a very long time.

A Magician’s Pure Land (合道归真)

I always think that the aim for magic is for the benefits of this life and the religions are for the next. Then and again, I could be wrong.

A magician of an unbroken lineage too has his/her final resting place similar to the Buddhist Pure Land or the western heaven. The only difference is that a magician’s pure land is more down-to-the-earth compared to the euphoric religious beautiful after life. As a whole, an Asian magician of credible lineage will return to his/her masters after the end of his/her life. I have consistently visited the kurba archan (Thai grand master’s) temple and see a lot of white shirt archans (masters) sitting under a giant gold Buddha statue. A step lower are all spirits once kept by previous masters. So I guess if continue with my Thai magic, I will end up at kurba archan’s place very soon.

On the other hand, I was also a practitioner of Taoist magic and was given a small hut by the lineage masters which is surrounded by plants and herbs in the Peach Blossom Cave (桃花洞). The sky is always pink in that cave and the grass is always green. The scene looks very much like what is depicted of the Buddha’s Pure Land without the presence of Buddha and bodhisattvas of course.

Maybe I am just dreaming, but both scenes are quite real that made me quite at ease as I know where would I be after the end of my life. To me, this is more assuring than the promises of heaven or pure land; at least my dreams were real enough and such dreams kept repeating now and then.

So I guess since so many people asked me on the purpose of doing magic, other than the standard answer of using magic for mundane purposes; the other point I would like to add is also for the magicians’ final resting too. Unfortunately, death and after life is seldom spoken about in many magic schools. I am sure the subject of after life is also part of curriculum in traditional wiccan schools.

The point I want to raise is that, a magician should receive some kind of visions about his/her after life matters from his/her masters. Without those assurances, this magician is not recognised as a member of the lineage; this life or the next. Of course, for many other magicians out there; they should step on their gases so that they shall not be alone during their journey to the next.

Message From The Joker (小丑的信息)

If I am not mistaken, there are 52 plus 2 cards in a deck of poker. The plus two cards are the ‘joker’ cards which are not normally used and discarded… well, in normal gambling circumstances.

Do you know that this ‘joker’ is evil and it may attract spirits especially during the witching hour (12 midnight to 3 a.m.)?

There are many unwritten games to call upon this joker during midnight, this is just one of the many. But before I go on, please be warned that this is a psychologically dangerous game for there were people became mentally ill after playing this game. So don’t try it if you have a weak heart for I shall not be held responsible on whatever results that may have.

To play this game, you will need a deck of poker with the joker. Shuffle through the cards and then select a card and put it further in front of you as shown in the picture above while saying: “Joker, joker, where are you?”. Then, take another card and put it on the front left side and say the slogan again. Repeat the process until the ‘joker’ appeared in one of the location or until all 5 points are placed with a card each.

If the joker card did not appear on any of the locations, then there is no spirit around you. You may repeat the game if you so wish desires but as a rule, it is best not to exceed 5 tries every time or very bad things may happen if not immediately. I have a friend who fainted while playing this game in a haunted house. He claimed to have seen a white shadow flew across his head after gotten the joker card.

For the brave hearted ones, if the ‘joker’ card falls on the ‘far’ point, that means a spirit is still far away from you and you are relatively safe. However, if the joker falls on the ‘together’ point; then a spirit is already possessing you. So it is best to reverse the game by sending the spirit off. Having said so, if the ‘joker’ cannot be seen after the first try; that means the spirit is very reluctant to leave. In this case, you may repeat the game for a further 4 times. After that, it is my advice to seek professional help if the spirit still refuses to help.

On the same matter, cards with numbers 1 to 10 can be coded individually as how you like.

The ‘J’ means ‘you will get a message soon.”

The ‘Q’ means a female spirit that is around but it does not want to participate in your game.

The ‘K’ means a male spirit that doesn’t like to join your game.

Further, the colour ‘red’ means a benevolent one and ‘black’ refers to a malevolent spirit.

Contemplating The Source Of Magical Power (追寻魔力的根源)

To me, the source of all magical power comes from ‘respect’. People who do not respect others cannot enjoy the power of magic; at least I have not seen anyone who are arrogant and exorbitant enjoyed a peaceful life in any form of magic traditions.  

In Asian magic and other fields such as martial arts and artisans, especially the Thai traditions; the ‘waikru’ (teacher’s) ritual is of the most important.

The teacher’s ritual teaches us to be thankful and appreciate of our teacher’s generosity to part their knowledge to us. Of course if our teacher is still alive, then he/she will part his/her most secret knowledge to us now and then. However, if our teacher is no more with us and we remain our respect to him/her as it is; then have no doubt that the teacher’s blessing shall continue to pour to us in one way or another.

If we follow a proper magic lineage of any sort, East or West; our teacher would not only teach us just casting magic ritual alone. We will have to study herbal knowledges as well. In Thai traditions, there are ways and time on when a particular sort of herb should be collected and preserved. Modern folks would just scorn at those herbal knowledges as obsolete and irrelevant; but I would look at the wisdom of old as a type of ‘respect’ to our mother nature. For the more respect we have to the herbal ‘gift’ of our mother nature, the more ‘feedbacks’ our mother nature will return to us.

In another respect, haven’t you already noticed that an arrogant person however rich he/she may be will not have a tranquil and safe life? It is precisely that the act of disrespect to the mother nature that has blocked the messages from mother nature reached us. In this sense, I personally do not believe in the punishment of God… But it is rather we are punished by our own arrogance and ignorance.

I had to put my case this way because so many people said practising magic is superstitious in this modern days where the only real thing is the smart phones and the Pokemon Go game; and the dazzling world of entertainments. The fact is: if you have practise magic for over 10 years and reap no benefits at all, and that you are from an unbroken lineage; then there must be something very wrong to your practice.

If you still don’t believe my words, and that you are suffering now in this life; then chances are that you have not treated your old parents well. Go back and treat your old parents well and you shall enjoy a period of tranquil life. If none of your parents is around, then pray for his/her forgiveness continuously as long as you live; then your life shall be relatively peaceful too (if you perform this continuously).

The Amazing Lookalikes (物有相似)

I have just collected two very similiar lookalikes. Can you tell a difference?

the left one is a bulb from amorphophallus pendulus (herb) from West Borneo and the right is a all famous mystrious holy item (mineral) from Thailand. Both of them are rare items!

The Devil’s Claw (恶魔の爪)

This is surely a sign that the devil is emerging and protruding its claw out from the inferno!

I found this strange looking plant during a morning walk that gave me the creeps when looking at it. Its message seemingly said: “I am going to get you!”

So, for the non-believers, pray before you are being prayed! Believe it! ;-)