Daoist Mother

Ferocious Beast Woman to Empress: The Transformation of the Queen Mother Daoism has many traditions, gods, and goddesses that one may follow. The worshippers and priests may choose as many of the multiple gods or goddesses that they wish to worship. They may also choose one tradition or to blend a few. It is one religion that is pretty open to being built around one’s life style and needs. The oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty, are the first known record of a powerful goddess in China that has remained an integral part of its religious culture up to the present day. She goes by many names, Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, Hsi Wang Mu, Divine Mother, and many other names and titles. I am going to concentrate on how she has transformed, …show more content…
In the text Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood, which was translated by Suzanne E. Cahill, She is the highest Goddess in Daoism that governs over the west; which is the region of death and eternal life. The direction west is associated with Yin, which is the dark female qi. The Queen Mother has the authority to grant or withhold individual immortality, as well as govern over the relationships between the gods and humans. The home of the Queen Mother is that of a garden on the sacred Kunlun Mountain. The consort to the Queen Mother is The Eastern King, Mu Gong. The Eastern King is her opposite, the yang qi to her yin qi. Even though the Eastern King is her consort he was often overlooked in poems and stories about her. The Queen Mother is said to have been trained by one of the primordial triad, The Celestial King, Yuanshi Tianwang. With such an important teacher it underlines how important and powerful she is. The Queen Mother has played many roles and iconography over the …show more content…
Tu Kuang-t’ing calls the Queen Mother, “Master and creator of all living beings, teacher and registrar of immortals and the source of the revealed scriptures of Shang Ch’ing Taoism.” According to Tu Kuang-t’ng’s hagiography and the T’ang poems, medieval men wish to find a divine teacher that will show them the meaning of life, lead them to experience perfect fulfillment, while showing them how to escape ignorance and death. During the time of the T’ang Dynasty in China, a lot of Daoist poets and masters wrote about the Queen Mother. It is hard to find a single piece of writing that does not refer to her, by one of her names or forms. Her imagery at this time is that of the Shangqing tradition, which is still largely followed during this dynasty in China. In this dynasty they wrote poems to her, about her and about their stories of becoming one with the Dao. They refer to her in many ways, some use other names or terms for her, others use her different titles. They narrate their transcendence through these poems to show others how to find the Way. One such author, the Daoist master Ssu-k’ung T’u refers to her as “Amah,” which means wet nurse. He uses this term to claim that she is his surrogate mother as well as his teacher. This is a common theme in his work as well as in other masters’