TAOIST BIOMANCY: Body, Face, and Hand Analysis (DAOZHAN: Divination Resource for Daoist Calculation Book 5)

“The holy sages were divine, hence they knew the future; they were wise, hence they stored up the past.”- Yijing as quoted in Da Liu

The word Tao (dao) means “way,” or more specifically “way of truth.” The master of method (fangshi), later known as human of the way (daoren), or master of way, or priest of the way (daoshi), a product of Chinese shamanism (Chuci), practiced divination, astrology, geomancy, medicine, internal alchemy (neidan), ecstatic wandering, and exorcism (Taoist arts) for the sole purpose of preserving their harmony with nature, and becoming a divine immortal. It was difficult to distinguish between the fangshi and the sorcerer (wu).

Taoist divination, a diagnostic discipline of Taoist medicine, is the art of understanding reality (predicting portents) by utilizing such modalities as astrology, geomancy, Yijing calculation, and biomancy (analysis of the face, body and hand). Astrology predicts the inherited fortune (karmic condition) bestowed by heaven. Geomancy predicts the fortune in personal harmony with the environment. Body and face analysis predicts the fortune in one’s outer appearance. Hand analysis predicts the fortune in one’s inner self (personality). Yijing oracle mathematics provides the symbolic cosmic code as philosophical guidance for spiritual alchemy.

Copyright 2005. (166 pages; 87 figures); see www.lotusspace.com for more info