Tao Magic: The Secret Language of Diagrams and Calligraphy

by Laszlo Legeza

Taoist graphic art is first and foremost a practical magic. It is designed to protect, to heal, to bring success in everyday undertakings, and to ensure long life, healthy and happiness.

Since earliest times, magic diagrams and scripts have been made and used in China by a wide range of artists including hermit scholars, recluses and illiterate villagers as well as priests, sorcerers and faith-healers. On a deeper philosophical level, the graphics express the Taoist vision of a universe of ceaseless change and all-pervasive vital energy.

They exist to help us to harmonize the yin and yang, the sexual polarities within ourselves, and allow us to place ourselves in harmony with the turbulent energies that act continually both on our lives and on the universe.

Artistically, they represent an aspect of the Chinese genius still scarcely known in the West, though no less vital than the celebrated bronzes and jades, ceramics and academic paintings.

Genres: Taoism, Art, Magic

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Ireneus László Legeza (University of London, 1970; University of Budapest, 1956) was a Sinologist specializing in Chinese art who organized the 1972 Chinese Taoist art exhibition at the Gelbenkian Museum of Oriental Art in Durham, England, where he served as Deputy Curator.

Reviews

[The Elves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although Tao Magick: The Chinese Art of the Occult is a short book, it is a very good one, packed with useful information about the Taoist calligraphic magic. We’ve been doing the I Ching everyday for over forty years so we are not entirely unfamiliar with Taoist as a magical practice, rather than its later incarnation as a religion. And we’ve seen numerous Chinese movies in which calligraphy is held in great awe but we never quite understood its connection to Taoist magic. We did see a Korean movie about a Taoist magician transported into modern times who counter acts the magic of the villains by casting pieces of paper at them that burst into light and create various magic effects, in the same way, more or less, that wands are often used in Western Magic and this intrigued us even more. This book explains how Calligraphy and Magic are combined in Taoist philosophy and how such calligraphic scrolls were made and used for magic. We love this book and unlike so many that we read and then get rid of, we’re holding on to this one and hope to find more on this subject.

The Silver Elves authors of The Book of Elven Magick: The Philosophy and Enchantments of the Seelie Elves & The Book of Elven Magick: The Philosophy and Enchantments of the Seelie Elves, Volume 2.

[Alicia]

I think my brother might really dig this book.

[Woody Debris · Rating 5 out of 5]

secrets of soroity girl tattoo design too