Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven (Jiu Tian Xuan Nü, 九天玄女) (2024)

I love watching videos of people sharing their deeply personal experiences with deities of different pantheons and what those experiences have meant to them, so now I’m sharing one of my own. =)

We’ve arrived at our final installment of the “Bell Chimes In” series for 2017. For those of you who’ve watched all 18 episodes, thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me. As I close out the year of venturing into the terrain of YouTube (I know I am no pioneer on this front, but it was for sure an unfamiliar and new adventure for me), I should probably share with you why I ventured out in the first place: the Lady of the Ninth Heaven.

Her name is more commonly translated to “Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven,” since arguably that’s a more accurate translation, if you translate “玄” (Xuan)to “Mysterious” (which I don’t). Culturally, rather than literally, when you say Xuan in Chinese, there are certain layered implications andsubtext thatismissing from the word “Mysterious” in English, when put in this context.

Here, Xuan’s meaning is more aligned with “Occult” or “Esoteric.” Though “Occult Lady of the Ninth Heaven” or “Esoteric Lady” doesn’t sound any better. Xuan also implies that which is concealed, that which is of the shadows,and evokes the colorblack. So sometimes you may see a translation to “Dark.”

Many deities from the Taoist pantheon or Chinese folk religions with “Xuan” in their names often get translated into English as “Dark,” to indicate a dark god or a dark goddess. E.g., Xuan Wu, considered a powerful dark god of the north, who like the Lady of the Ninth Heaven, is associated with occultism, magic, sorcery, alchemy,and martial arts. He is in many ways a warrior god, with battles fought by sorcery or martial arts. So given that context, the Lady of the Ninth Heaven could be interpreted as being a dark goddess.

“Lady of the Ninth Heaven” is my final video for the year, but perhaps mymost important one (important to me, that is) because as I said in the video, it’s about giving credit where credit is due. This is my Acknowledgements. I would not have come out to talk so openly to you all about my practices, my thoughts, world view, and opinions as they may pertain to craft if it weren’t for what I perceived to be the strong urging of Jiu Tian Xuan Nu.

FREE DOWNLOAD | Chinese Oracle Bone Script Divination Cards

• Read more about the deck here: “Chinese Oracle Script Divination Cards“
• To download the digital files for the deck, the companion guidebook as a PDF, and step by step instructions on how to use a third party print-on-demand site to produce your own copy of the deck, check out the “Tao of Craft Downloads” page (you’ll need to scroll down a bit, past other stuff).
• Here’s a direct link to the ZIP file to download everything in one fell swoop.
• NOTE: There are a few typographical and design errors in the image files that I haven’t gotten around to correcting. Hey, can you really complain about this? Dude, it’s a free divination deck. You didn’t pay for this. Also, you hardly need any chops at all to correct them yourself. You can literally make the corrections in MS Paint. And if you know basic Photoshop, even better. So my recommendation is to go through the cards and fix the errors yourself. Also, if you want to make a derivative of this deck, change it around a bit to be more personalized for you, and then print out your own version of the deck for your own personal, non-commercialuses, go for it! You’ve got myblessing! In fact, I encourage it and want to see the amazing results on Instagram! Show me! ❤