When it comes to Taoist magic, people think of which FU to write and what spells to recite, but they all forget that any FU or spells are nothing but a way to communicate with the gods. You are submitting a request for help for the gods to give you the help and power to fight the evils; that’s what magic is. How can no one ask how to make the gods like us more so that more help could be given when we need help?
When you pull one hair from your body, it seems like that’s just a tiny thing, which should not do much to us anyway. However, do you know that one hair can trigger the whole body to move? Someone pulls a hair from you, and your whole body responds to that pull. This is very much like how it is in Taoism cultivation too.
It’s the god’s anniversary, like the god’s birthday, and you didn’t show up or do anything about it and pretend it's nothing wrong. Imagine how this god will talk about you with the other gods while having some chat time? Your small movement seems not a big deal, but you are already damaging your reputation in every god’s heart. One god doesn’t feel your heart; the message spreads across the god’s world, and your name goes on the blacklist. Next time you do a FU, a spell, or even any magic, you are trying to get help from the god, while the god will do the same back to you, ignoring your requests just like how you ignored its anniversary day.
As Taoists, we must always pay attention to the god's anniversaries every month to show our hearts to them and be a good disciples that can impress the gods. When the gods like you, then you get the help you want. Learning more magic “techniques” doesn’t change the fact that you are still trying to communicate with the gods and requesting their help. If they don’t like you, no matter what you do, they can choose to ignore you just like how you have done so to them.
The gods are like a mirror of yourself. How you treat the god will be how the god treats you back later. If you don’t want that kind of “treatment, " why do you do that to the gods? This isn’t just to gods; the same theory applies to human relationships. Many so-called adults still fail to understand this, which is why they mess up all the relationships they have built. If you don’t want your friend to be bad, stop being bad to them. It’s a common sense virtue, yet society has been ignoring the importance of virtue in the education system so much these days.
It is not about the complexity or difficulties of the magic; it’s the relationship you have with the gods that make the magic “work.” We commit ourselves to the Tao, and the gods, with the effort that we output every day to show them how worthy we are, and that is why the gods would love us and want to help us when we are in need. If we always say we are “busy” because we have to “go to work,” god could have acted that way when we requested help. They are busy with their own thing and don’t respond to you when you use magic to call them for help. Imagine you ring the bell for help during an emergency case, and all the gods put you on “hold” for the first few days.
If you are working in a company, you should know that people go out for drinks and dinner, chat about office politics at the back, and sometimes stab people. Imagine you are drinking with your coworkers, and you get drunk and say something about your boss, next day, the boss might already know about it, and you will enjoy a “nice” treatment soon. It seems like you just did a “small” thing, something so casual and so little it might not matter, but that is not how it works in reality. A small thing like a small cigarette bud not put out can burn down a whole apartment. Small things can always burn into a big flame. That is why experienced workers will always be cautious 24/7 about their speech and action, just in case!
Some disciples thought they just needed to “talk to the gods” at the altar and could skip the actual talking or relationship-building with the human side (with me). However, their gods are born because of me, who got them ordained. That means, if you forget your ROOT, you will see the gods will not like you either. A disciple who stays quiet and pretends they can talk to the gods will always end up in one situation, which is “drought.” That means they will feel no more interest in the path, as the feeling is gone, like a relationship went dead because their gods have already told them the message. Learning Taoism is not as simple as just studying the content; it is about the actual HEART-to-HEART relationship you build with the gods AND the masters because the masters are the root of your gods. Without the masters, you won’t even have a connection with the gods. This is also one thing that many disciples failed on and ended up in “drought mode.” Hey, I did offerings; I burnt incense… sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Try to do this in your family if you don’t believe me. You can try to talk to your father and mother and pretend THEIR father and mother don’t exist. Ignore the grannies; see if your parent is okay with that. How come this simple logic doesn’t kick in when it comes to Taoism? Or how about you try to suck up to your company’s big boss above and skip building a relationship with your manager? Eventually, you will see yourself being out of this company. Your manager won’t like that kind of worker below him; it’s common sense.
Every action and word you say matters; just like I have said, you pull one hair, and the whole body moves. This is something every disciple should think about and self-reflect on. Why is your magic not working so well suddenly? Why is your protection shield going weaker? Why did you suddenly lose interest in cultivation? What have you been doing which led to you today? If you cannot change yourself and improve on your virtue, then your tree of Tao will start to die. Virtue is the water for the Taoist’s tree. Re-read the five virtues, ten commandments and other doctrines in our lineage… see what you can do better.
