Tao Magic [antikvár]

IntroductionThis selection of Taoist magic diagrams, talismans and charms represents an aspect of Chinese art virtually unknown in the West. Art historians - even Eastern art historians - have largely ignored them, concerning themselves primarily with problems of artistic technique rather than meaning, the question of 'how' rather than 'why'. Yet Taoist calligraphy, as I shall be showing, has been of first importance in China since earliest times, both as an artistic carrier of spiritual truths, and as the one means of communication with the spirits.Taoist graphic art was first and foremost a practical magic, enabling man to communicate with the spirit world and influence the workings ofthe invisible forces of nature for his own benefit. It was geared to his everyday needs, concerned with the changes of season and weather essential for planting, harvesting, and building. On another level of daily life, the diagrams and talismans were intended to cure sickness, bless marriage, ease childbirth, protect the household from fire, get rid of pestilence and misfortune, guard against calamities. In short, they were to make the daily life of the people easier. Later in the text we shall be looking at the different ways in which these magic diagrams have been made and used, throughout the centuries.On a deeper philosophical level, the diagrams may be understood as embodying the concepts of Taoist philosophy. They are to help us harmonize the sexual polarities, the yin and yang, within ourselves, and to place us in harmony with the turbulent energies that act upon our lives and the universe. At the most profound level of all, they point the way to the core of Chinese mysticism. We can intuit the truth that reality is not a succession of separate moments, or an infinite number of separate 'things', but a seamless web of eternal change, like the currents of a river, or clouds blown by the wind; that 'being' and 'non-being' are complementary, just as the fretted stones which we see depicted in the diagrams are given their shape by erosion, and the surrounding silence gives music its form. In the visual arts of China, empty space is as important as line. The final goal ofthe Taoist mystic is to penetrate beyond ordinary 'reaHty' to reach to an awareness of