Taoist Robe 道袍 (Saamlawnese: Doe Pu) is a very important magical outfit for a Taoist. Once the authorized ones officially consecrate the Taoist robe, it becomes a sacred outfit and won’t be an ordinary “costume” anymore. Anyone can buy a Taoist robe online, but none are consecrated. It’s no different from buying a T-shirt from amazon, just an ordinary piece of fabric. However, once it is consecrated, it has a special meaning and relationship with the gods and the lineage’s system, the celestial court, and hence it will become a sacred robe that you will never want just to put in the closet. A Taoist robe gives you the identity of a Taoist and also lets you represent the Tao. In our lineage, we have three colours of Tao Robe as our main robes. The black robe is used to communicate with the Tao and submit things to the Tao, such as prayers, letters, or chanting to request the Tao to absorb our negative and obstructive forces. Generally, this is a communication robe for talking and praying. The blue robe is used for cultivation and getting energized by the Tao’s power. It allows the Tao’s power to go into and protect us while helping us by empowering our soul, giving us more power to focus, think and act. Generally, this is a cultivation robe which energizes us for everything we do. The yellow robe uses the Tao’s power to do magic and gives you the magical power to resist, repel and overpower any evils. It is often the robe we use when doing an exorcism or magic battle. Generally, you can call this magical armour. When we wear the robe, the power of the Tao goes on us. It shields our energy body, which empowers us and changes the energy body’s status immediately from our ordinary state to a tuned and focused state, which greatly increases our power to do magic and communicate with the gods as well as protect you from evils that try to jam up your channelling pathways. Imagine the ordinary state is like a screen with many colours and pictures, like a movie is playing and the screen is full of every colour. After the robe is on, your whole screen turns yellow or red. Can you immediately see how the robe “purifies” your energy into a specific statue? It’s not the colour that is doing the magic; it’s because the Tao has agreed and registered this special robe for you, and so it is the agreement between you and the god that makes the robe “work.” When we do rites, ceremonies, or any rituals or magic, there will be powers channelled to us through the Tao, and these magical powers will go on you and the robe. The robe acts like a sponge or battery, which helps you store some of that power, so the robe also has a special energy body. Over time, it will develop much power because you have been using and cultivating it a lot. (If you never use it, then it doesn’t get cultivated) One day you are sick or low in energy, or maybe it is just a bad day with insufficient sleep, but you got an emergency case and need to do magic to resolve the situation… what can you do? Grab the robe and put it on; that immediately packs on a lot of cultivated powers right away and allows you to do magic with more power than what you got on the body. It’s a very smart way to cultivate your “armour.” In an emergency, you can also use the robe to save a person from spiritual possession by throwing it over them so that evils cannot invade their body. Or you must hang the robe to block off a certain place so evils cannot enter. There is much creative use for the robe, not just for wearing on the body. However, it’s supposed to be worn and cultivated mostly. The Taoist robes are basics and are always our under-layer robes, giving us power and support from the Tao. On top of that, we will wear other robes, which we call “magic robes,” that are consecrated with the different powers such as the celestial court etc. Tao Robes are also simple and can be washed easily by hand. There is no problem washing the robe in the machine if you have to or if it doesn’t break in your machine. However, to keep it safe, I usually go by hand wash. A common misunderstanding is that washing the robe will wash away the magic power – that’s stupid and hilarious, so we should not even bathe and shower daily. Don’t be foolish and believe that. However, you can add Jing spells into the water and wash the robe with it- especially the Jing Saam Yeep spell, which allows the robe to detox the unwanted energies back to the Tao and clean up the energy body. Washing should be done occasionally; don’t let it get stinky. You can also hang it up to let it be “blown” by the wind, dry clean, etc. If robes are damaged, they should be repaired or changed, do not wear broken robes because it is also a “leak” in that spot for the energy body too. You can seal the leak in the energy body by using magic for “bleed stopping,” but it is also time to change a new robe, so get prepared and plan your purchase. These robes should last a long time; if yours get damaged quickly, you must observe your actions and see what you are doing wrong with them. That must be caused by bad habits and actions with the robe, like careless things you should not be doing. For the advanced one – these are “civil” level robes, not civic level. How are robes supposed to be consecrated? That you need to learn from me when you are ready! :)
