Secrets of the Talisman: The Nine Phoenix Purification Talisman

The method of Nine Phoenix Purification is used very frequently in Taoism. Whenever an altar is established and rituals are performed, purification is generally required to sweep away the energy of all evil spirits and create a pure environment. Then, performing rituals and using talismans in this environment can greatly reduce interference. At the same time, because the Nine Phoenix Purification Talisman has this extremely strong power of purification, it is often used to transform water into talismanic water to sweep away various evil spirits when there are strange events in the house or unsettling yin evil matters. In the ordination of the Zhengyi sect, there is one called the Supreme Orthodox Nine Phoenix Purification Ordination.

The Nine Phoenix Purification Talisman is the core of the Nine Phoenix Purification method. Many disciples of modern schools, due to the lack of lineage, do not know that this is a mandatory step in performing rituals. As a result, either the rituals are difficult to verify, or the effects are minimal. Even worse, due to incorrect time and space orientation in establishing the altar and without purification, performing rituals can lead to harm. Thus, practitioners often encounter various problems, leading to folk legends that practitioners always have bad luck or suffer from the five disadvantages and three deficiencies. Although not purifying is not the only factor causing ritual failure or affecting oneself, it is also one of the important factors.

It needs to be explained that some orthodox schools do not use the Nine Phoenix Purification method, but before performing rituals, they often use the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra combined with the Five Thunder Command to purify the site, which also belongs to a type of purification. This article specifically discusses the Nine Phoenix Purification method and will not elaborate further.

Many disciples are unclear about what Nine Phoenix is, and some people think it refers to nine phoenixes, which is actually incorrect. This is a misunderstanding in the process of inheritance, where the nine-headed phoenix was incorrectly understood as nine phoenixes. In fact, the Nine Phoenix here refers to a nine-headed divine bird.

The "Classic of Mountains and Seas: Great Wilderness North Classic" says: "In the great wilderness, there is a mountain called North Pole Cabinet. The seawater flows north. There is a god with nine heads, a human face, and a bird's body, called Nine Phoenix." This is the most direct record of Nine Phoenix.

In the ritual of Nine Phoenix Purification, Taoism has all the core elements of the Big Dipper steps, hand seals, mantras, and talismans. Among them, the Big Dipper steps, talismanic forms, and hand seals can be used independently with the mantra. If performing a large Taoist ceremony that needs to affect a large area, usually all four are used together to achieve a strong purification effect. In the classification recorded in the lineage of the Taoist Yin Talisman School, there is a relatively detailed description of these different versions of the Nine Phoenix Purification method. Many beginners do not understand it well, so here I will briefly explain it, hoping to help those who are just starting to practice rituals.

1. The Nine Phoenix Purification Mantra is: "Nine Phoenix soars. Purifies the ten directions. Immortals guide. Enter and exit the magnificent house. Ascend to the Golden Palace. Personally see the Jade Emperor. All filth. Quickly leave the distant place." When using this mantra, it is usually borrowed from the power of the talismanic energy of the sun, moon, and heavenly Big Dipper killing energy to jointly activate it. This is using the mantra as the body and the talisman as the function, used in combination.

2. The Nine Phoenix Purification Mantra is: "Nine Phoenix purifies evil spirits and demons perish and capture." This is a quick hand seal used when capturing evil spirits and monsters during rituals. Each character corresponds to a hand seal, one character to one position, and the last two characters are emitted from the front of the middle finger, then struck towards the target. It is often used in attacks. In most cases, unless it is a relatively important ritual, it is generally not used in the ritual altar because this power is relatively large and concentrated, and is generally not used lightly.

3. The Nine Phoenix Purification Mantra is "Nine Phoenix soars, purifies the ten directions, golden boy guides, jade girl serves beside, worship the尊帝, pay respects to the Jade Emperor, all evil spirits are cut off, remove misfortune. Disciple respectfully invites the Nine Phoenix Purification General, quickly descend the heavenly Big Dipper, evil spirits and demons lose their form. Heavenly generals and divine officials, directly descend the cloud Big Dipper. Stars move, the dipper turns, shimmering three lights, respect my talisman command, purify the ten directions, quickly as the Imperial Preceptor of the Queen Mother of the West's law commands!" This is usually used in combination with stepping the Big Dipper steps. Generally, it starts from the Ding character step stepping on the Kui Big Dipper, then performs the Nine Phoenix Purification Big Dipper. The part before "remove misfortune" is for stepping, and the rest are the mantras after stepping. Stepping the Big Dipper for the Nine Phoenix Purification method is basically not just driving away evil spirits, but killing evil spirits. Before performing the ritual, one will pray to the spirits and ghosts on the road to leave, then use the Big Dipper steps to define the range. If encountering places with severe yin evil, praying and persuading is useless, so this Big Dipper will be used to forcibly suppress it. Of course, encountering more powerful ones, this is not enough, and needs to be combined with other methods. The benefit of the Big Dipper steps is that the range of influence is large, the power is broad, and it is often used for suppression.

If all four are used together, the mantra forms are similar, the difference is that hand seals, Big Dipper steps, mantras, and talismans cannot be missing, relatively more complex, requiring a little practice to use proficiently. The coordination in the middle also has its mysteries, so I won't say more here.

For the Nine Phoenix Purification Talisman, because the Nine Phoenix Purification Talisman is often used as a convenient method for temporarily storing magical power, it will target different efficacy needs, or only use the mantra, or only use the hand seal, or only use the Big Dipper, or two of them in combination to process the Nine Phoenix Purification Talisman.