Category: I Ching
I’m Genealogically Related to King Wen
And that’s not clickbait!
Actually it’s probably a bit clickbaity, because once we get into it, well, about twenty million people out there claim a relation to King Wen. Anyway, I very recently learned that the Wen 溫 Hakka clan descends from King Wen 周文王 (who we attribute the I Ching oracle to) and his son King Wu of Zhou 周武王, according to Chinese genealogical records.
Which is to say 100+ generations later, I’m writing the English translation and annotations of (maybe, possibly) my ancestor’s Great Work. I mean. Shrug. Smirk. How’s that for authority. 😉
Five Core Skills in Chinese Folk Magic
A single line statement from Xunzi (3rd c. BCE) becomes the framework for mastering Chinese folk magic. In this lecture, we unpack the “Minister of Oracles” (Minister of Magic?) in the royal bureaucracy of early China and reveal how it encodes a five-step curriculum.
There’s a passage in Xunzi that lists out fifteen branches or bureaus of government ending with the one who oversees them all, the Son of Heaven, or the Head of State. The tenth office listed is the Minister of Oracles, chief among the shamans 巫.
You could even make the argument that this translates to the Minister of Magic, as that title more fully encapsulates everything this particular government official is in charge of for the kingdom.
Mandala of Heaven 周天: Taoist Alchemy Course
$40
A Cultivation Practicum
This is an introduction to Taoist inner alchemy, by way of cultivation work with the Zhou Tian, or Mandalas of Heaven, grounded in canonical source texts and living tradition. Key features of this curriculum are:
- A 200+ page structured textbook and workbook (that serves as a companion and book of your study notes, personal reflections, and log of experiences)
- Primary canonical texts translated into English (I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this obscure text translated into English before) with annotations
- Practice instructions that go beyond the free, publicly available lectures and guided experience prompts
- Structures the free, publicly available material into theoretical foundations and practical application
- Emphasis on ethical grounding and safety
- Participant Question & Answer feature (a password-protected FAQs page tailored to you)
The two core lectures on the Lesser Mandala of Heaven 小周天 and Greater Mandala of Heaven 大周天 are already available free to the public, which you can access:
- A Taoist Secret to Cultivating Personal Power: On the Lesser Mandala of Heaven, Xiao Zhou Tian 小周天
- Advanced Introduction to Taoist Alchemy: On the Greater Mandala of Heaven, Da Zhou Tian 大周天
This deeper-dive cultivation practicum organizes what was introduced in those two lectures into a sequential system that becomes praxis-oriented.
The course book, which is a workbook, is a guide on how to integrate those core practices.
In other words, the two free lectures introduce the ideas. This course is where the cultivation actually happens. It is a structured container for the teachings.
The coursework expands the scope in depth and breadth, curating a curriculum to study, practice, and self-reflect on the Mandalas over a period of 100 days, guided by a 200-page course textbook, through which you will:
- Notably increase your internal vitality, awakening and actualizing otherwise untapped core powers, &
- Master the foundational principles and symbolic systems shared among many lineages of folk magic across Asia, essential in Taoist mysticism and esoteric Buddhism.
Deliverables
- A 200+ page cultivation manual and workbook (digital PDF delivered to your email inbox; you can order a printed spiral-bound copy of the book via a third-party print-on-demand site at-cost). Your course text becomes your one-stop consolidated resource with all of the following and more:
- Authoritative reference tables and diagrams
- Organized sections with clear, beginner-accessible explanations of core Taoist principles, especially in the area of inner alchemy
- Step-by-step guided practice instructions
- Canonical sources and textual translations, so that you know where these practices come from and how they were historically understood
- Reflection prompts and line space for you to log your insights and experiences right next to the reference materials– this helps to reinforce your learning, and also serves as a journal– you’ll be able to refer back what you wrote in here and assess your own progress
- MP4 downloads of just the guided meditation. I’ll send you two versions: one that has Heart Sutra musical incantations in the background layered beyind my voiceover narration, and a version that’s the voiceover narration only.
- 300-dpi resolution digital image of the cover design (17.25” x 11.25”), which can be be used for art prints, wall hangings, etc. In Taoist and various Eastern esoteric traditions, such a design would be called a form of Spirit Map (靈圖, líng tú) or magical painting (術畫, shù huà).
- Cover design features four mandalas from the post-Geluk era (circa 17th c.) representing the canonical four Buddha families and generally symbolic of a four-fold cosmological system of protective guardians.
- The central seal that spreads across both the front and back covers is the Blue Medicine Buddha. The 64 hexagrams appear both as an 8×8 square diagram and as a full circle.
- Original translations and annotations of excerpted chapters from the Dao Men Yu Yao 道門語要 (Fundamentals of Taoist Alchemy), circa 1271 – 1325, specifically the two chapters on the Lesser Mandala “運小周天之法” and the Greater Mandala “行大周天之功” with explanatory annotations
- Fundamentals is a collection of much older canonical essays compiled by Huang Shang 黃裳, a Taoist priest of the Zhongpai 中派 (Middle Pillar Lineage), a tradition of Taoist inner alchemy
dated back to the Yuan dynasty founded by the master Li Daochun 李道纯. - The essays date back to the Yuan dynasty, received texts of the Lineage, while the date of Huang Shang’s compilation is unclear, though speculated to be the Qing dynasty.
- The Middle Pillar Lineage was known for its syncretizing of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
- The term “黃裳,” Huang Shang’s namesake, is a direct reference from Hexagram 2, Line 5 of the I Ching.
- Fundamentals is a collection of much older canonical essays compiled by Huang Shang 黃裳, a Taoist priest of the Zhongpai 中派 (Middle Pillar Lineage), a tradition of Taoist inner alchemy
- QUESTION & ANSWER WITH BELL | Course Participants Only FAQs Page. Email me your questions and I’ll compile the Q&As into a password-protected page for course participants only. This is your opportunity to ask me any questions you have related to these subjects.
- Admittedly I’m not great at responding to emails, especially ones with questions that may involve a thoughtful, thorough reply. But the questions submitted through this course curriculum will be prioritized, and I’ll answer them via multimedia formats on a password-protected FAQs page.
- You can ask anything related to this subject matter. Or ask how I personally practice, or apply certain principles. Feel free to ask about my perspective, or ask the questions on Taoist mysticism that you can’t seem to find anywhere else in English.
Download the
Course Syllabus
Through the framework of the Lesser and Greater Mandalas of Heaven, this course introduces the foundations of classical Taoist inner alchemy. It will consist of studying translations and annotations of canonical source texts on the Mandalas of Heaven, guided practice, and reflective work.
Download an Excerpt
Read the First 49 Pages
For a sampling of what’s in the course book, click on the above link to a PDF to read the first 49 pages, which outlines your learning objectives, gives you the table of contents, and introduces the premise of this Work.
Continue reading “Mandala of Heaven 周天: Taoist Alchemy Course”
Tarot and I Ching Correspondences (Reference)
I’m an I Ching aficionado and also a tarot aficionado, wrote chonky books on both subjects, so naturally I’ve thought long and hard about how the two systems reconcile. This page is a download of a tarot and I Ching correspondence table for your easy go-to referencing.
Continue reading “Tarot and I Ching Correspondences (Reference)”
Advanced Introduction to Taoist Alchemy
This is Part II of what we started in Part I on the Lesser Mandala of Heaven. Part II covers the Greater Mandala of Heaven, and in doing so, provides an advanced introduction to Taoist alchemy.
We are continuing from Part I, so I’ll presume you’re already familiar with what we covered there. If you haven’t watched that video lecture “A Taoist Secret to Cultivating Personal Power: Inner Alchemy Basics,” please do before proceeding.
In this introduction, I want to explore the inner logic that underlies one of the world’s most sophisticated (in my opinion) systems of spiritual cultivation. I intend for this intro to be a deep-dive into the heart of Taoist alchemy by delineating the Greater Mandala of Heaven.
The ultimate goal of Taoist alchemy is to transform the finite into the infinite, matter into spirit, and limitation into transcendence. We cover this ground by first understanding the distinction made between inner alchemy and outer alchemy.
Philosophically, this is a system and tradition that presents a compelling perspective on how Change happens.
Historical Textual References
In addition to the two texts mentioned in Part I, these are some of the oft-cited sources of insight on the Greater Mandala of Heaven 大周天. The titles are hyperlinked to the full texts over at ctext.org (the Chinese Text Project). While CTP as a site has its limitations, it’s one of the best free, accessible, and online databases for primary sources of pre-modern Chinese texts, so it’s the most user-friendly for folks like you and me.
A Taoist Secret to Cultivating Personal Power
This is Part I of a two-part video lecture that introduces a Taoist secret breathwork practice known as the Lesser Mandala of Heaven, or Xiao Zhou Tian 小周天.
Rooted in classic Taoist inner alchemy (內丹, neidan), it teaches you to unlock a hidden energy circuit that runs through your body, up the spinal Du 督 meridian and down the frontal Ren 任 meridian, forming a continuous loop of vitality.
By circulating the triple treasures along this hidden energy path, you harmonize the body’s three dantian 丹田, or energy centers, with the three realms and cycles of the universe. Taoist masters believe this alignment refines your essence, restores internal balance, and elevates your personal power.
To round out the discussions, we’ll be covering:
- Guarding the Center 守中 baseline Taoist practices and their textual/historical origins
- The Guarding of the One 守一冥想 guided meditation
- Principle of Union of Heaven and Humanity (Tian Ren He Yi, 天人合一)
- Ethical foundations (de, 德) and the Three Virtues as the basis of cultivation
- Lifestyle precepts
- The Du 督 and Ren 任 meridians
- Jing, Qi, Shen 精氣神: The Triple Treasure
- About Your Dantian (Three Internal Fields)
- The Internal Body Clock & Wu Xing
- Personal ritual space mirroring Taoist cosmology and numerology
- The Six Omens of spiritual awakening, confirming readiness for Greater Mandala of Heaven work
- Study of the translations and annotations of the Fundamentals of Taoist Alchemy 道門語要 (1271 – 1325) source text
The video is timestamped, and you’ll find a step-by-step guided practice on how to direct breath up and down this internal orbit, transforming your body into a living mandala and tuning it to the rhythmic cycles of nature.
This practice is more typically transmitted from teacher to disciple, but here, let’s see if we can offer a more direct and more easily accessible method.
Whether your goal is improved health, increasing your energy reservoir so you can get more done in a day, or to unlock your mystical potential, this is a cultivation technique worth your while to learn.
Continue reading “A Taoist Secret to Cultivating Personal Power”
Asking Smarter Questions in Divination
I partook in this thought leadership workshop and learned about the five categories of questions to ask for more effective, strategic decision-making. Being me and having the interests I do, of course I immediately connected these learnings to tarot, I Ching, and in general divinatory readings.
Teachers in nearly every divinatory tradition or system talk at length about the importance of how you ask and frame questions for divination. The quality of answers you receive — be that in strategic leadership, personal development, or divination – is directly influenced by the clarity, precision, and intention behind the questions you’re asking.
A well-framed question acts like a lens. It brings your focus to what truly matters, and in the case of readings, hones the focus narrowly on what it is you most want or need to know. The better your question, the more noise will get filtered out of the reading result, enhancing meaningful insight.
Thinking about how to frame questions through the principles of these five categories is really helpful, I think. Hence, this share.
Building Your Identity Capital: Personal Spirituality Edition
In an executive leadership workshop I attended, I learned about identity capital and how people leaders need to help their teams cultivate identity capital. It’s a concept popularized in The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, which in short summary is the collection of professional and personal assets that define why you’re great. This is subdivided into four categories: (1) skills and credentials, (2) social networks, (3) life experiences, and (4) personal qualities.
Identity capital is what sets you apart in your marketplace or industry. It attracts more opportunities, builds your credibility, and empowers you to be more persuasive. Even when headhunters don’t consciously realize it, they’re looking for candidates with identity capital in abundance. Those who stand out in competitive environments are the ones who are rich with these assets.
I found the workshop useful, so I want to share what I learned. And of course I thought, how fun would it be to combine those professional development learnings with divination as a tool for self-reflection.
Below is a free downloadable Identity Capital Workbook.
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On Preventive [Spiritual] Care: Nine Precepts of the Healer
There’s this section in Chapter 9 of The Spiritual Axis (Ling Shu) from the classical medical treatise Inner Canons of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi Neijing), which in canonical versions is often designated as Verse 27 that I love for many reasons.
Nine universally applicable precepts of healing can be extracted from Verse 27. The way they’re worded, you can interpret them through different lenses and they still hold true. The verse functions as axiomatic to acupuncture, and to both the ancient and the modern healthcare provider.
You can read it through the lens of how to ensure physical health, and also how to ensure mental, emotional health, and — as to the primary scope of work I operate in — to spiritual health.
If you’re looking at it as a road map for your own healing journey, it works. If you’re a healer of any stripe, these are nine clinical axioms for guiding patient care. You can look at these nine precepts as applied medical wisdom, or heuristics for clinical decision-making. They work as key tenets for helping a practitioner refine their diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
And finally, in my view, these nine precepts can be instrumental to helping anyone set the foundation of their personal spiritual practice. It’s designed in such a way that you can account simultaneously for mundane physical health and hygiene tenets and for basic considerations in ritual or ceremonial magic.
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