Lei Gong

雷公

In Chinese mythology, Lei Gong (Chinese: “Duke of Thunder”), also called Lei Shen (“Thunder God”), is the Chinese Taoist deity who, when so ordered by heaven, punishes both earthly mortals guilty of secret crimes and evil spirits who have used their knowledge of Taoism to harm human beings. Lei Gong carries a drum and mallet to produce thunder and a chisel to punish evildoers.

Lei Gong is depicted as a fearsome creature with claws, bat wings, and a blue face with a bird's beak and wears only a loincloth. Temples dedicated to him are rare, but some persons do him special honor in the hope that he will take revenge on their personal enemies.

Since Lei Gong's specialty is thunder, he has assistants capable of producing other types of heavenly phenomena. Tian-mu (“Mother of Lightning”), for example, uses flashing mirrors to send bolts of lightning across the sky. Yun Tong (“Cloud Youth”) whips up clouds, and Yu-zi (“Rain Master”) causes downpours by dipping his sword into a pot. Roaring winds rush forth from a type of goatskin bag manipulated by Feng Bo (“Earl of Wind”), who was later transformed into Feng Po Po (“Madame Wind”). She rides a tiger among the clouds.

Lei Gong began life as a mortal. He encountered a peach tree that had come from Heaven, due to the struggle between the Fox Demon and one of the Celestial Warriors, and had become evil. When Lei Gong took a bite out of one of its peaches, he was turned into a human with bird wings. He soon received a mace and a hammer that could can create thunder. This is how he became the God of Thunder. Lei Gong is said to be extremely prudish, and will not enter a house where copulation is taking place. Pictures of this act are also supposed to have the same effect. He rides a chariot driven by A Xiang.
From: Wikipedia

The Chinese god of thunder, whose name means "Thunder Duke". In the Taoist pantheon Lei-gong is an official in the Ministry of Thunder, which forms a part of the celestial administration. He has the beak, wings and claws of an owl, but his body has the shape of a human, although it is blue in color. He is portrayed wearing a loin cloth and carrying a hammer and drum (an instrument which produced thunder). His image can still be found in many Taoist temples.

From: Pantheon.org

Lei Kung was the Chinese god of thunder, and his wife, Lei Zi, was the goddess of lightning. He makes thunder with his hammer, like the German god Thor, and Lei Zi makes lightning with her mirrors. Lei Kung was shown with a bird's head and wings and claws, and blue skin, and he rode in a chariot pulled by six boys.

From: Here.

Chang-O

Copyright Lisa Hunt.
Lisa Hunt Art - Chang-O

Waiting, she finds her silk stockings
soaked with the dew drops
glistening on the marble steps.
Finally, she is moving
to let the crystal-woven curtain fall
when she casts one more glance
at the glamorous autumn moon.
Li Bai, aka Li Po (701-762)
An Imperial Concubine Waiting at Night

Ch'ang Ô is the Chinese moon goddess, the younger sister of the Water Spirit. Her husband Shên I, the "Excellent Archer", was given the drug of immortality by the gods. Ch'ang Ô discovered the pill which Her husband had hidden. Not knowing what it was, but seduced by its delicious fragrance, She ate it. Suddenly She found She could fly. Just then Shên I came home, and realizing what She had done, She fled from Him, up into the sky, until finally She reached the Moon--a glowing white sphere, very cold, with no life save a forest of cinnamon trees. Here She made Her new home.

Her husband in the meantime had come to realize that Ch'ang Ô's destiny was to be the Goddess of the Moon, as His was to be God of the Sun. He was made immortal also, and given a great house on the surface of the Sun. When He came to visit Cha'ng Ô on the Moon She was afraid at first, but He explained He was no longer angry with Her, and They were reconciled. He built Her a palace of cinnamon-wood and precious stones, and is said to visit Her on the fifteenth day of each month, when the Moon is full.

Some say She was transformed into a three-legged toad, the three legs representing the three ten-day phases of the Moon.

Ch'ang Ô is often depicted with a hare, and the Hare of the Moon can still be seen traced on the surface of the full Moon. She represents the source of yin, the female principle, as Her husband symbolizes yang, the masculine.

This card in a reading can indicate misunderstanding and fear, which can be cleared up or assuaged through good communication.

Alternate names: Hêng Ô, Chang E, T'ai-yin Huang-chin ("The Moon Queen"), Yuehfu Ch'ang Ô ("Ch'ang Ô of the Lunar Palace")

To read Her tale, go here.

From: HERE

Chang'e, Ch'ang-O or Chang-Ngo (Chinese: 嫦娥; pinyin: Cháng'é), also known as Heng-E or Heng-O (姮娥; Héng'é), is the Chinese goddess of the moon. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e only lives on the moon. As the "woman on the Moon", Chang'e could be considered the Chinese complement to the Western notion of a man in the moon. The lunar crater Chang-Ngo is named after her.

Chang'e is the subject of several legends in Chinese mythology, most of which incorporate several of the following elements: Houyi the Archer, a benevolent or malevolent emperor, an elixir of life, and the moon.
On Mid-Autumn day, the fullmoon night of the 8th lunar month, an altar is set up on the open air facing the moon to worship her. New toiletries are put on the altar for Her to bless. She endows her worshippers with beauty.
From: Wikipedia
Also see:

• 1.1 Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 1)
• 1.2 Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 2)
• 1.3 Chang'e and the Cruel Emperor (Version 3)
• 1.4 Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 4)

The Legend of Chang-O
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, when the moon is fullest and brightest, the Harvest Moon Festival is celebrated in China. The legend behind this festival begins around 2170 B.C. after a great flood. Yu, the king of many kingdoms had stopped the flood, and was teaching the farmers how to once again cultivate their fields.

The Jade Emperor of Heaven wished to help Yu and the farmers. So, he gave orders to his ten sons to become ten suns and travel across the sky one at a time, each one taking a day. The ten sons disobeyed their father, and all of them came out at once every day. The heat from the ten suns was unbearable. People and animals were dying of the heat, rivers and lakes dried up, the land became barren, and trees and crops scorched and burned.

Hearing the farmers prayers for relief from the suns, the Jade Emperor looked at the destruction that his sons has caused. He sent Hou Yi, the bravest god in heaven , down to the earth to fix the wrong caused by his sons. Hou Yi, was a benevolent god with a beautiful wife named Chang Er. The couple loved one another deeply, and were known as the divine couple.

Not wishing to be separated from her husband, but against her better judgment, Change Er descended to earth with Hou Yi. While on earth, Change Er and Hou Yi would become mortals and live among the people.

Hou Yi was a great archer, and he had brought his magic bow to earth with him. He climbed to the top of a high mountain, and tried to convince the suns to have pity on the earth and the people. He asked the suns to begin taking turns in their journey across the sky, one on each day.

But, the ten suns had other plans. They considered to be boring to cross the sky one at a time. They felt it was much more fun coming out together, so they refused to listen to Hou Yi. In fact, they increased their heat, causing even more suffering to the people. This angered Hou Yi, so he took out his magic bow and arrows and shot down nine of the suns. The last sun begged for his life and promised that he would stick to his job of separating night from day.

At last the people of the earth were once again enjoying their daily lives. But when Hou Yi returned to heaven and made his report to the Jade Emperor, the Jade Emperor became furious at Hou Yi for killing his nine sons. He banished Hou Yi and Chang-O from heaven.

Hou Yi was upset with the banishment, but he had been made leader of the clans, so he was always busy. He passed his time teaching the people of the lands how to protect themselves. In fact, he was so busy that he began to neglect his wife. Chang-O was not happy being mortal. She hated the suffering, aging and death that were an innate part of the mortal process. Chang-O was also extremely upset with the Hou Yi for angering the Emperor. So the couple became unhappy and estranged from one another.

Eventually, Hou Yi encountered another woman in his travels. He succumbed to his desire, and wound up having to kill the woman’s jealous husband. Hearing about this the Jade Emperor forbid Hou Yi to ever see the woman again and sent him home to Chang-O who had heard about her husbands infidelity.

Chang-O was becoming more and more unhappy as she caught sight of her reflection in a lake and saw wrinkles starting to appear on her beautiful face. Hou Yi heard that on top of Kunlun mountain, the Royal Goddess had a pill of immortality. Wanting desperately to make things right with his wife, he climbed the mountain and found the Royal Goddess.

The Royal Goddess gave him the pill and told him that if one person took the pill he or she would ascend to heaven, but if two people split the pill, they would live forever. The pill had to be taken on the fifteenth day of the eight month when the moon was fullest. Hou Yi and Chang-O decided to split the pill and obtain immortality.

However, three days before they were to take the pill, Hou Yi heard of a “jade elixir” which could prevent women from aging and help them to stay eternally beautiful. Wanting to surprise his still slightly angry wife, he decided to make the three day trip to get the elixir.

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Chang-O still could not find Hou Yi. So she sought out one of his scheming “friends” to find out where he was. The man lied and told her that Hou Yi had gone to see the woman who he had been unfaithful with before. In her fury, Chang-O went outside under the moon and took the whole pill by herself and started to drift upwards into the sky.

Hou Yi arrived just in time to see his wife rising rapidly upwards. But, sadly, the Gods and Goddesses in heaven did not like Chang-O because she had abandoned her husband. So, she changed her direction and headed toward the cold palace in the moon.

Hou Yi was killed by his unscrupulous friend who had since become his enemy. Chang-O was very saddened and mourned for what she had done. She was cut off from the love of her life, and doomed to spend eternity alone in the moon. Hence, she became the Moon Goddess.

And so it is, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, the people of China look to the moon and sometimes they say they see Chang-O gazing back at them.

From: HERE

Also see:
Moon Festival Legend - Chang O, The Moon Goddess
Chinese Mid Autumn Festival or Moon Cake Festival
Chang O Flees to the Moon
Ch'ang O -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Chang'e - The Goddess of the Moon
Under a Harvest Moon in China - Spirituality

Nükua/Nügua/Nüwa

女媧

The Chinese creator goddess who created the first humans from yellow earth, after Heaven and Earth had separated. Since this process was too tedious and time-consuming she dipped a rope into mud and then swung it about her. Soon the earth around her was covered with lumps of mud. The handmade figurines became the wealthy and the noble; those that arose from the splashes of mud were the poor and the common.

Nü-gua is one of the most popular goddesses and is worshipped both as the intermediary between men and women, and as the goddess who grants children. She invented the whistle, instituted marriage and instructed mankind in the art of building dams and channels for irrigation. Nü-gua is also credited with the restoration of the universe after it had been devastated by the monster Gong Gong.

A particular myth tells that at a certain time the cardinal points where no longer in the proper place, exposing the nine realms. Nü-gua melted colored stones to mend the azure skies, cut off the lags of a turtle to support the cardinal points, and slayed a black dragon to save the land of Qi. Another myths states that beyond the northwesters ocean there live ten ghosts who were fashioned from her bowels.

Her alleged husband (and brother) is the god Fu Xi. Like her brother, the lower part of her body is portrayed as that of a dragon. When they are represented together, their tails are intertwined. She holds a compass, the symbol of Earth, and her husband holds a set square, the symbol of Heaven.

From: Pantheon.org

Nüwa as a repairer

The earliest literary role seems to be the upkeep and maintenance of the Wall of Heaven, whose collapse would obliterate everything.
There was a quarrel between two of the more powerful gods, and they decided to settle it with a fight. When the water god Gong Gong saw that he was losing, he smashed his head against Mount Buzhou (不周山), a pillar holding up the sky. The pillar collapsed and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. This caused great calamities, such as unending fires, vast floods, and the appearance of fierce man-eating beasts. Nüwa cut off the legs of a giant tortoise and used them to supplant the fallen pillar, alleviating the situation and sealing the broken sky using stones of seven different colours, but she was unable to fully correct the tilted sky. This explains the phenomenon that sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest, and that rivers in China flow southeast into the Pacific Ocean. (this account is similar to the Huainanzi account; it was added as The Upkeep and Maintenance of Heaven.


Other versions of the story describe Nüwa going up to heaven and filling the gap with her body (half human half serpent) and thus stopping the flood. According to this legend some of the minorities in South-Western China hail Nüwa as their goddess and some festivals such as the 'Water-Splashing Festival' are in part a tribute to her sacrifices.

Nüwa as a creator

The next major role of Nüwa is of a creator deity. However, not many stories ascribe to her the creation of everything; they usually confine her to the creation of mankind. It is said that Nüwa existed in the beginning of the world. She felt lonely as there were no animals so she began the creation of animals and humans. On the first day she created chickens. On the second day she created dogs. On the third day she created sheep. On the fourth day she created pigs. On the fifth day she created cows. On the sixth day she created horses. On the seventh day she began creating men from yellow clay, sculpting each one individually, yet after she had created hundreds of figures in this way she still had more to make but had grown tired of the laborious process.

So instead of hand crafting each figure, she dipped a rope in clay and flicked it so blobs of clay landed everywhere; each of these blobs became a common person. Nüwa still laboriously crafted some people out of clay, who became nobles.

Nüwa as wife or sister

By the Han Dynasty, she is described in literature with her husband Fuxi as the first of the San Huang, and often called the "parents of humankind". However, paintings depicting them joined as half people - half snake or dragon date to the Warring States period.

Nüwa as a goddess for Miao people

Nüwa is also the traditional divine goddess of the Miao people.

From: Wiki

It is said that there were no men when the sky and the earth were separated. It was Nuwa who made men by moulding yellow clay. NThe work was so taxing that her strength was not equal to it. So she dipped a rope into the mud and then lifted it. The mud that dripped from the rope also became men. Those made by moulding yellow clay were rich and noble, while those made by lifting the rope were poor and low. In a ancient times, the four corners of the sky collapsed and the world with its nine regions split open. The sky could not cover all the things under it, nor could the earth carry all the things on it. A great fire raged and would not die out; a fierce flood raced about and could not be checked. Savage beasts devoured innocent people; vicious birds preyed on the weak and old.

Then Nuwa melted rocks of five colours and used them to mend the cracks in the sky. She supported the four corners of the sky with the legs she had cut off from a giant turtle. She killed the black dragon to save the people of J1zhou(1), and blocked the flood with the ashes of reeds.
Thus the sky was mended, its four corners lifted, the flood tamed, Jizhou pacified, and harmful birds and beasts killed, and the innocent people were able to live on the square earth under the dome of the sky. It was a time when birds, beasts, insects and snakes no longer used their claws or teeth or poisonous stings, for they did not want to catch or eat weaker things.

Nuwa's deeds benefited the heavens above and the earth below. Her name was remembered by later generations and her light shone on every creation. Now she was traveling on a thunder-chariot drawn by a two-winged dragon and two green hornless dragons, with auspicious objects in her hands and a special mattress underneath, surrounded by golden clouds, a white dragon leading the way and a flying snake following behind. Floating freely over the clouds, she took ghosts and gods to the ninth heaven and had an audience with the Heavenly Emperor at Lin Men(2) where she rested in peace and dignity under the emperor. She never boasted of her achievements, nor did she try to win any renown; she wanted to conceal her virtues, in line with the ways of the universe.

From: Here

The Cosmic Egg
In the beginning, according to Chinese mythology, there was a cosmic egg filled with the darkness of chaos. A giant named P'an Ku was formed in the chaos and he slept, while developing, for eighteen thousand years. When he awakened he broke the egg and the darkness poured out, as well as the light which had been hidden by the chaos. The dark pieces fell and created the Earth, while the bright fragments joined together and floated up creating the heavens. Fearing chaos would return if the brightness above fell into the darkness below, P'an Ku made it his mission to keep the sky and Earth apart until he was certain the world was safe.


Foundation Tens of thousands of years passed until P'an Ku was sure his task was complete, with everything in place as it should be. He sunk down to the Earth in exhaustion and died. His expired breath became wind and clouds. His body and limbs formed the mountains and hills, while the blood flowed as streams and rivers. The hair took root as vegetation and his teeth fell to the Earth as precious jewels. By bringing order to chaos and sacrificing himself in the process, the giant P'an Ku created the foundation for all life.

Nu Kua Emerged from the Heavens
The dragon goddess Nü-Kua (also referenced as Nu Gua, Nu-Kua) emerged from the heavens to see the remains of P'an Ku. Described as a beautiful creature, half-woman half-dragon, she roamed the Earth and marvelled at its beauty. Lamenting the world had no one but herself to enjoy it and its offerings, she decided to create humans so P'an Ku's sacrifice was not in vain. Scooping up clay she lovingly made scores of men and women and lined them up in front of her. As perfect as her creations were, they were inanimate. Her heart reached out and she picked them up. One by one she breathed her Divine breath into their bodies, whispering the secrets of love and creation into their ears inspiring them to populate the Earth and create on their own.

Nü-Kua is also credited with teaching people art and passion, in addition to the importance of irrigation and agriculture. Her male consort Fu Xi, who was also half-dragon, later taught the skills of hunting, fishing and tending of flocks. He was a teacher of music and is credited with introducing the eight diagrams from which the I Ching was developed.

Upon realizing we have been animated by the Divine breath and given the gift of creation, we are empowered to evolve spiritually while still maintaining respect for the body of P'an Ku, our earthly home.

From: Here

Nü-kua is the Chinese divine foremother of humans who repaired the sky, and invented marriage. Some tales make her the wife of her older brother, Fu-hsi, one of the first sovereigns, whom She later succeeded. She was said to have created humans from yellow clay, but grew bored before She finished, and left some of them more blob-like. This is explained that the more finished ones represent the nobility, the blobs the poor.

Nü Kua was variously said to have the body of a serpent and the head of an ox, or ox-horns on a human head. She is also depicted as a serpent with a woman's head and may be of both sexes. Some legends seperate Her into a male named Nü and a female named Kua who were the first humans.

In a great battle, the monster Kung-Kung wreaked a lot of havoc, flattening mountains, tilting the earth and tearing a hole in the sky. Fires raged out of control, the waters overran the world, and the cardinal points became misaligned. Nü Kua restored order with five colored stones, fixed the directions on the legs of a tortoise, controlled the water and put out the fires, and repaired the sky.

Another version of the myth calls Nü Kua a goddess-Queen who defeated a powerful King; angered at being beat up by a girl, he ran to the top of a mountain and pulled down the Heavenly Bamboo, tearing the sky in the process, and letting in floods of water from the heavens beyond. Nü Kua then repaired the sky and restored order. The Heavenly Bamboo can be seen as a variant of the axis mundi, or axis or the world, representing the mythical center of the world.

She is also said to have tamed a dangerous giant called King-of-Oxen, by running a rope through his nose. She was said to have brought civilization, taming wild animals and teaching humans irrigation.

Nü Kua represents the restoral of order and innocence after chaos. She is the tempering influence that calms situations and brings level-headedness. This card is also representative of a return to innocence, the ability to adopt a new positive attitude after events threaten to make one jaded.

Alternate names: Nü-kua, Nü Kua Shih, Nü Hsi, Nü Wa, Nugua
Titles: "Mother of the Gods", "Defender of the Gods"

From: Thalia Took

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