Generally the first major step for most students is the practice of the Golden Light. Unlike many schools where it is only a prayer like chant in the manner of Buddhist Sutra Chanting or at most, drawing the Golden Light in a bowl of water, Jasper Lake Maoshan has an entire ''yoga'' derived from the basic practice to very high levels that include merging with the Solar Deity himself or the creation of a Magical White Crane that can become the bearer of the consciousness of the magician.

In another use of the Golden Light unique to Maoshan is its use in dream yoga.

The Golden Light or Jin Guang Zhou is one of the primary methods of basic training in Maoshan.

A STUDY IN GOLDEN LIGHT.

Sherlock may prefer a study in scarlet, but for the Daoist thaumaturge the study is in gold.

Golden light will help train several functions important in occultism... concentration, breath control, three dimensional interior and exterior visualisation, dealing with energy and it's manifestation in your body and so on.

Remember to say the spell itself before fully engaging in the visual part unless specified. But even when you chant the spell you shouldn't read it off like a grocery list. Understand what you are saying. Meditate on each sentence

To this end let us study four lines a DAY. It's worth trying to remember the Chinese even if you choose to chant it in English. As you study each line you can repeat it many times trying to remember the depth of meaning. Just one line per day.

1. TIAN DI XUAN ZONG. 天地玄宗

HEAVEN EARTH MYSTERIOUS ANCESTOR.

Calling on the Supreme Duality, yet realising they are really One. Qian and Kun, Yin and Yang, are one and contain each other. In essence is indeed the Mysterious Ancestor of all manifested things. Yet it hints at the fact that it is unknowable to ordinary human consciousness. Mysterious, XUAN, also means black, dark and deep. The Primordial negative existence from which all manifested forms and functions arose and return, indeed if they ever left!

By implication there is ONE supreme origin of all things, dark and mysterious, unilluminated to mere intellectualism.

There is one mysterious Gate of Mystery or Xuan Men that is made manifest and is open to all who seek it.

The Mother and Father, Heaven and Earth are reflected in the creative relationship, of our own parents. And it is from this union a living ego is initiated into the mysteries of incarnation with his parents as sponsors.

2. WAN QI BENGEN. 万炁本根

TEN THOUSAND QI ROOT ORIGINS.

Ten thousand is a Chinese idiom for many and even infinity. Thus from the Heaven and Earth dualism arises motion, motion is energy or Qi. Qi, is energy and breath, the root of life and manifestation. From the One Unity arises the many. That root is is in rhe spiritual and mysterious unknowable darkness of rhe Mystery. We are reminded that birth is an energetic activity, it's root is in the Mysterious Dao and not merely in the physical 'branches' we can see. BENGEN, root origins implies birth in Chinese. As well as a cosmo genesis we are reading the history of our own incarnation into manifest existence, a reflection of the universal process. Our spirit emerges from rhe mysterious darkness of the unmanifest, we are pure energy attracted to the Earth by the union of our parents who combine yin yang energies as one.

This is also one of rhe esoteric basis of filial piety and ancestral continuity.

3. GUANG XIU YI JIE.广修亿劫

VAST CULTIVATION HUNDRED MILLION CYCLES.

We acknowledge vast cycles that operate in the universe at every level. We remember our own incredibly ancient origins. Remember who and what we are. Acknowledging that our ego has traversed thousands of incarnations and is not a mere physical shell is a jarring shock that can wake up our present sleeping consciousness to its true reality and nature.

JIE is translated as Kalpa, a Tantric derived term denoting massive cycles of the cosmos manifesting and returning to the source I cringe to quote from Wikipedia, but here goes:

,'' 4.32 billion years, a "day of Brahma" or one thousand mahayugas,[4] measuring the duration of the world. Each kalpa is divided into 14 manvantara periods, each lasting 71 Yuga Cycles (306,720,000 years). Preceding the first and following each manvantara period is a juncture (sandhya) equal to the length of a Satya Yuga (1,728,000 years).[5] A kalpa is followed by a pralaya (dissolution) of equal length, which together constitute a day and night of Brahma. ''

4. ZHENG WU SHENTONG. 证吾神通

PROOF MY MAGICAL POWER.

A result of realising one's true nature and breaking through rhe cultural and self imposed limitations of self misunderstanding and self misidentification is the manifestation of the power of one's true cosmic nature, popularly called 'magic'. By not knowing and misunderstanding one's own nature one's view of even the immediate environment, let alone the universe have been based on false assumptions. To cast off this falsehood liberates the true ego and allows it to perceive the Dao as it is, not how we modify it by false assumptions.

The plan. Don't do anything except basic Qigong (gathering and cleansing) and the Golden Light.

The following are my own interpretations through conversations with Master Liang and meditation. You must form your own insights but without 'pathworky' type intuitions of the Western style.

5. SAN JIE NEI WAN.三界内外

THREE REALMS INNER OUTER.

In both Daoism and Buddhism the Three REALMS are three possible states of manifested existence for all living things.

Trailokya in Sanskrit.

The Three Realms are kamaloka or the Kingdom of Desire. In this realm the ego must experience all the baser desires and their consequences and suffering that gives rise to cause and effect.

Yet while the mystic flees from desire and the chain of cause and effect, the magician has quite a different approach. He will scientifically analyse, understand and transmute the base lead of desire into meritous action and transcend them. Imbibing poison to turn it into the elixir.

The beings of kama loka include human beings, animals, plants, the hungry ghosts, demons and the lower demi-gods.

The Second Realm is that of Rupa Loka, the Kingdom of Form. It is the realm of those who have achieved adepthood through personal realisation. There are less laws because of the reduction of cause and effect due to the elimination of the base desires. But ONY a lessening and there is srill an enchaining to, albeit to a lesser degree, to suffering and incarnation.

The Third Ream is the Kingdom of Arupaloka or the Kingdom of Formlessness. Not much can be said of it except through experience, jnana or experiential knowledge.

The Three Realms are without us and within us. There is no differentiation. The three Realms are reflected in the potential of human consciousness to exist in any of these states of consciousness and realisation that partake of the nature of the Three Realms. Look within to find that without, and without that you may understand that which is within.

6.WEI DAO DUZUN. 惟道独尊

ALONE THE DAO IS REVERED.

ONY onee thing matters above all things. The Dao. Nothing else matters in the big cosmic picture... Wars, politics, likes and dislikes are irrelevant. We cannot 'fix' the world because of cause and effect arising from human nature. The Dao is both noun, for the Great Mystery of Cosmic Cause. There is a Reason for existence and even apparent suffering. Dao is also a verb, the act of treading the Path. A path is going somewhere. The ego must make a decision to understand the Great Mystery of the Cosmic Dao, and by the Dao within. Remember there is a reciprocal relationship of growing understanding between knowing the Dao within and knowing the Dao beyond. A perceptual loop that continually expands the perceptual horizon of the ego. Armed with Dao he treads the Dao, or path in light of the Dao.

Ultimately we realise we are Dao, all is Dao, within and without there is no difference.

7.TI YOU JIN GUANG 体有金光

BODY HAS GOLDEN LIGHT.

Golden, means precious and treasured and light is the one true universal constant that reveals the eternal and essential life force of creation. It is in essence Tian Qi, the creative, life giving breath of Yang. Just as Tian Qi is the basis from which all life and consciousness has emerged, so it is the fundamental basis of our own existence. We see it as the basis of the very creation of the universe, the light of cosmic mind, and it is within all things. In our solar system, it is the Sun, which gives life through golden light and energy to all life and its rhythms on Earth. The Sun is the source for the Five coloured Qi, and thus in basic magical qigong, the Five colour rays of Qi are absorbed from the Five directions that relate to the solar principle. Most magical descriptions of spiritual qigong begin with linstructions such as ''.. Face the Sun rising in the East etc... ''. On a galactic level it is the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper.

But within us that light also exists and when found the inner nature is found and transformed thereby. There is gold in lead. As earthbound living beings unaware of the Golden Light we are looking up from the Earth consciousness watching the sun rise and set and life being born and going to the grave. Much of what we see is false and earth centered. To see from the point of view of rhe Golden Light is to see from a solar consciousness. That is for example from a solar point of view you would see things like the true motion of the planets and even the fact that the sun/ego does NOT die (set) and be rise each day. It is eternal.

8. FU YING WU SHEN.覆映吾身

REFLECTING MIRROR MY BODY.

The solar consciousness of the Golden Light is achieved. Yet you are not it's source, you are reflecting it. Cannot cling to it as mine, yours. Hence the great sages and Immortals are but mediums of the ONE DAO. Reflecting the cosmic.

In artwork showing the Immortals the fiery halo of wisdom is an indication of the reflection of the Golden Light achieved by realisation of inner and outer solar consciousness. It isn't just a metaphor, this light playing around the being is a real phenomena that can be seen and even photographed.

If your saying my golden light, I did this or that with the Golden Light you're already well off base. It's not 'yours'. By trying to 'own' it you will never obtain it because it requires transcendence of egotistical selfishness and an opening of the heart in selflessness.

The Golden Light is achieved by opening, not grasping.

Let us recapitulate, if you do not master the Golden Light, Daoist magic,'s most fundamental exercise then you have nothing. Mastering it in theory and practice will take some time, a minimum of 5 to 7 years.

You would be surprised how many emails I get complaining that they're being' attacked by yin' or cannot seem to get their Daoist magical skills off the ground. Usually they haven't mastered Golden Light or are looking for more exotic 'spells' to tickle their fancy. This it, the Golden Light is the number one fundamental training in all schools of magic. Its not 'exciting' to many, but without its foundation you will never ever succeed nor will any Taoist school take you seriously.

Now, so far you should realise there's alot of coded information in the spell. It has talked of the nature and manifestation of macrocosm and microcosm. Man and nature are one. The difference between the two is but an illusion of the ego and selfishness is a barrier that impedes the flow of cosmic energy into your life.

Let's continue.

9. SHI ZHI BU JIAN 视之不见

LOOK FOR IT, CANNOT BE SEEN.

The real Dao, the real Mystery, the real essence of life and evolution cannot be seen, though it does lie behind every manifestation that we can perceive. We can observe it changing in the world of temporal matter, but behind the visible curtain of matter is an eternal unseen cosmic will, the Dao. Learn to distinguish essence from form.

The vulgar masses only perceive the outer forms of things and not the hidden essence and purpose behind them. They cling to forms and bemoan their loss or change when they pass away. The Daoist however is concerned with essence.

By working on the essence of things the magician can effect change in the world of form. The untrained magus tries to force changes in the world of form and usually fails. By working in essence and understanding the causal essence the accidental properties of form can be changed.

10.TING ZHI BU WEN.听之不闻

LISTEN FOR IT, CANNOT BE HEARD.

Just as things seen are but changeable, temporary forms, so sounds, speech, words are but temporary and unsatisfactory forms expressing the essence in refracted form.

Essence can be summed up in the invisible and the soundless and unnamed.

As soon as a thing has name and form, it is already a fragment of the One.

11. BAO LUO TIAN DI.包罗天地

EMBRACIG HEAVEN AND EARTH.

The Dao must embrace all dualities as one. Yin and Yang, Dark and Light, Life and Death, and so on. The are not really polarities at all except to human analytical consciousness. They are one and inseparable parts of a whole. The Golden Light as a practice nurtures both Heaven and Earth aspects of being.

12. YANG YU QUN SHENG养育群生

NURTURING LIFE.

The practice of the Golden Light is life affirming, pouring the Golden elixir of the Cosmos into the organism and nourishing the creative and life energies of the practitioner. Healing and balancing the Daoist magician's being.