Chapter 242 - 241 Grandmaster’s Enlightenment
Every god statue, once sculpted, must undergo an Enlightenment ceremony, which is to offer salutations and inform the Heaven and Earth through the ritual, infusing the boundless Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth into the statue, bestowing it with spirituality. Only then is the god officially revered and housed in the temple, protecting the land and blessing the common folk.
Otherwise, a god statue without the Enlightenment ceremony is merely a clay figure, like a piece of art. If discarded carelessly, it can become inhabited by evil spirits. If worshipped unknowingly by the common people, it may become an Evil God, misleading all beings.
Therefore, the ceremony to replace the golden statue is solemn and respectful. The Grandmaster’s golden statue, by the consecration presided over personally by the Daoist Temple Master, invites believers to observe the ceremony as a gesture of its importance.
The auspicious time for Enlightenment arrives, and the main hall is enveloped in silence.
Master Chi Yuan, in a sanctified Vestment robe embroidered with various auspicious Taoism patterns of gold and silver threads, wears a Dharma Hat, flanked by Daoists clad in yellow scripture robes.
And in the center of the hall, the new golden statue has been positioned, covered with a red cloth, connected by a red string to the adjacent god statues, leading all the way outside to two flagpoles; the tops of the poles intertwine, forming a whole.
In the middle of the flagpoles at the temple gate, Wuwei holds a mirror close to the red string, the mirror facing the temple gate. Outside the gate stand Qingming and an old Taoist named Qingxin, each holding a mirror. Qingxin is responsible for catching the light from the mirror outside the temple gate, while Qingming aims the refracted light onto the new god statue.
This is Enlightenment.
It is the act of drawing the divine light of the sun, moon, and stars—the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth—into the temple, allowing the god statue to receive the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth, and bring blessings to all people.
Qin Liuxi, draped in a purple Vestment robe embroidered with the patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and the Eight Diagrams Pagoda, fastens her hair with a Magic Crown. Her somewhat gaunt face is serious and stoic, cleverly standing beside Master Chi Yuan.
At that moment, with the arrival of the appointed time, light shines through the mirrors onto the red cloth-covered golden statue, gleaming with golden light.