A wooden sword at the altar is very important because it is the magic wand or pointer we use to instruct the gods to carry out magic work for us. As I have said above, you use a magical tool to command the gods at the altar, not the gods or powers that go through your body. For the gods that are in your body, you use the sword finger handsigns. The wooden sword is called the seven-star magic sword 七星法劍, which means the magic sword for outputting the powers out of the ground (the altar is the ground). If you are commanding gods and troops with a mobile altar, you would also need a sword to instruct them because they don’t belong to your body anymore; they are a team of gods at the altar. As you can see, the logic is that you use the finger for powers in your body, and the sword represents the altar, a team of gods that isn’t in your body or yours. A sword can be anything, from a real sword-looking object to a chopstick or even a branch you picked up from the ground. It is a pointer device which can command the troops at the altar. Even the word “sword” could be not a “sword,” too. Once you have an official sword at the altar, you can also have smaller ones that are consecrated and used when you are outside, which allows you to do magic to things outside while the altar is at home. By doing so, you can remotely command the gods at the home’s altar to travel to where you are and help you with things. Please note that the gods and troops are working in dimension D6, which has no restriction on distance. Once you set the command, they can arrive at the location instantly. You might ask – if I can do magic by using the power in my body, why would I even need to use the altar’s power by distance anyway? You sleep, and your altar doesn’t. You can pass out, and your altar doesn’t. You can be hit by a car and faint, and your altar doesn’t. What happens if you get hit by a bad accident? Your magic gets affected because your condition is bad; the altar is still intact. When you are sleeping, taking a nap or passed out, your body is going through a reset cycle with the micro or macrocosmic orbit; then your heart is busy doing its own thing while your “magic” that you did with your body’s power all need this heart to operate. You see, that protection seal you put on the door might last a bit, then if anything happens, the magic will be all used up in one defending attempt, then no more support will go there because your heart is busy! Having an altar, you have 24/7 stable power providing all the magic, just like a stable power source that powers up every device at home instead of running the devices by a power bank. The altar can also be a place for us to send you to support, and if anyone tries to break your magic or challenge your gods, the altar will be able to fight them off for you while you are not in the fight. When magic attacks are revenging on you, at least the god at the altar takes the load, and it doesn't crash on you directly like a bomb on your head! Your altar can eat the impact; then you go back to work on the altar to fix it, then it's all good again. Having a wooden sword for the altar is so important, and having a mini-sword token is just as important because you can draw power from the altar by using the actual sword when you are outside. There are mini wooden sword keychains or even mini swords for cosplay that are also keychain size. You can also use one of those telescopic sticks for presentation. You should have a real sword at the altar and some mini-clones to use outside. If you live with other people who also worship at the same altar, you can make those mini clone swords for them to carry around too. It’s a very good protection charm that allows them to do magic using the sword (they do not even need heart spells). You might think an altar requires a lot of money, incense burning, etc. NOPE. A simple altar requires three things. A stable location with table space, a representative of the god, and a timer to signal when the communication begins (which can be incense, an hourglass, or a timer). What if I don’t have any of these timer devices? Well, then, I would be creative and use something to relay the message of when it is the “ON” time and when it is the “off” time. Let’s say I am in the wild forest and have nothing fancy. Okie, time to play Man vs Wild. I would build a platform by surrounding a piece of land, clearing out everything, so it is THE ALTAR space. Then I would put a big rock as my god’s body, or maybe make a rock-man by stacking some rocks together as a statue. Making a fire is hard; I will put a leaf and a rock on top of it to signal that this is our start time, and the rock or leaf is gone when I am done talking with the god or the session is over. The thing is, how to get it started? Fire your Sun Kuet (all) that you know into the god representative, which should be the big rock-man in the above example, or it could be your sun paai. Then connect it to the source by doing HTM Hoi Tin Moon. If you don’t know this yet, then skip it. Begin the session by doing the signalling act; then, you can start talking to the god there. Oh, right, a magic wand or wooden sword. I picked up a nice long branch; we will use that in this example. Pick up the branch and face the god, close your eyes and speak inside, tell the god that this is the wooden sword etc. Then bow 3x, circle the sword toward the god 3x CW to connect it to the god, and 3x CCW to take power out. Bow and put the sword down and let the god empower it. This is it! You can now use this as the sword. It is an agreement between you and the god at the altar! Remember to return to the altar daily to talk to god, do greetings, give offerings etc. If you abandon your god, the god will also abandon you. The more you talk to the god and use its power, the more it grows on you. Eventually, you will develop your altar into a much more complicated and complex form later. Guys, this is serious, not a joke. Even if you are dumped to the moon, you can still have an altar built out of rocks. Nothing can stop you from having an altar. A Taoist altar is not about being very “Chinese” or “Traditional”; the actual communication with the god matters. If there is no more incense factory in this world, we can always use something else; nothing can stop a real Taoist because we know how it works and not just blindly follow a tradition. This method above works for any disciple, so get going on your sword and altar; I don’t see why you need to wait. You can print a Sun Paai for the god’s representative first, and later you would upgrade more and more. When I was ordained and accepted by the gods, my altar was only a saam law fu head on the wall on a piece of 11x8.5 paper; nothing stopped me from connecting to the god and doing magic. I used a flashlight as a signal tool. Point the light up, shine the light to begin the time, and shut the light for a time to end. Your heart and heart spells are the fire-starting thing that gives your altar the real LIFE; it’s a thing that will never run out and is always with you. Now, do you feel stupid being altarless for so long? Your altar might look funny with a chopstick as a sword for now, but hey, it works. You get more proper looking as you develop the altar, but it all starts from the baby setup and the REAL GOD that is put inside. A simple altar with a good heart can kick the asses of those big fancy altars with a poor heart. That’s the truth. I did a magic battle with my baby Saam Law altar when I first got ordained, and I killed evil gods with it, with just a Saam Law FU HEAD on the wall written by a marker, not even a brush. What’s wrong? I won, and here I am today. Get moving. Build your altar, get a “sword, " or some swords, so you can use that altar at home or even outside.
