Food Offering Secrets at the Taoist Altar

As we have been teaching in the food offering article, everything you put on the altar for the gods is to show your gratitude and appreciation, but also to relay a message telling the gods what you want to have. For example, you want more wealth, you can put up some chocolate coins to symbolize wealth!  In this article we will show you the way and how you can create your own food offerings with meaning to relay a message for the gods too!  You don’t have to stick to the traditional methods and combinations, you can simply just create your own based on whatever language you know!

The Method of Relationship

First, you need to know how people make words up from the beginning. There are basically 3 ways you can link to something with word:

  • Visible elements – like the form, shape, color, etc.
  • Audible elements – like sounds it make, or the vibration is makes or even the speed of it etc.
  • Feeling and sensation elements – like it makes you emotionally changing, such as happy, sad, shock, etc.

You can apply the same thing to whatever you are giving as food offerings and make up a message too. The traditional ones in Chinese is like mostly based on the word and sound-alike, for example:

Yellow Banana, it looks like a claw, like fingers, and it like the hand waving to usher in something, so the word Jiu 招 (ushering and waving to invite over), and yellow like golden, so it symbolizes wealth as in財. So, people don’t want to put green bananas because they think green is like not mature, and you want wealth that is usable, not immature wealth like just “opportunities”. Yet, if you know this, you can say green is the kind of energy I want to welcome, which in the 9-star theory is the color of star #3, meaning the power of inspirations and senses, great for creators and people who need to do brainwork. It works now, doesn’t it sound cool that you can “mod and hack” these traditions?

There are no taboos or “wrong” if you can tweak and make it means something you meant and not what others interpreted. DO NOT get shaken by people saying you are “wrong” based on whatever they say, it is based on what YOU MEAN and not what others meant!  It’s YOUR food offerings for the gods!

Example – Sushi

Here is an example of the food offering, which many people in the Chinese culture would not like to put on the altar. Sushi, 壽司, it sounds like something about life ending or corpse, and it’s even cold, how can you put cold stuff for the god? Seriously, that’s a lot of “no” I am hearing.

What does this food offering mean?

First comes the Nori (seaweed) which the disciple used the Saamlawnese word 紫菜, wounds like 招財, ushering wealth. So, it’s already a good start. Then you have rice that symbolize power and “yang” (positive is white) energy. Then you have to crab which is like a wealth in the ocean (water), and crab walk horizontal which means to blossom. With more veggie inside (green, wealth). Together wrapped in a bundle, like packaged up the power of wealth blossoming, and give it to the people safely.

The whole meaning is then: Ushering the wealth for blossoming and anything positive here. Giving 3x rolls, meaning quickly begin now!  Final name - 招財發財大花甲運財巻  Wealth ushering, blossoming, one big cycle 120 years wealth delivery roll!  WOW!

Yes, it works, as long as you can THINK OF a way to make it mean something you want. You can even say it means something ELSE that you have in mind, sure, you can take the same dish and change the meaning too, it’s up to you.

How to SAVE the Meaning

Just like a word document, you need to SAVE the meaning into the file (food) for the god to get it and not think it means something else. To do so, you have 3 things to remember:

  1. Faith, meaning that you have to believe it yourself and not doubt yourself about it.
  2. Desire, you must really WANT that blessing and not just make it up because you just HAVE to do it.
  3. Communication, upload incense and tell the god as the final meaning so he knows, and you both agreed this is the meaning at the very end.

If you lose faith in your own food offering and meaning, the “saved” information will fade away in preheaven and the whole food offering will become meaningless because the gods will not be able to retrieve that info anymore since the “signal” is gone (faith). You have no idea how important faith is. It is what hold your message in preheaven and make it “stay” there. If faith is gone, even the gods can be gone too.  

Faith, is to believe something without condition, like a blind belief, no need to question, explain, whatever. You believe it and that’s it. Once you question, doubt, skeptic, faith failed. Remember this and you have no problem advancing in Taoism.

Ordain today and be a faithful disciple, learn more when you are in the lineage and remember to check out the ebook on prayers of faith too!