Ko Hsuan and the Serpent Vampire

I’ve quoted from Eva Wong’s ‘Tales of the Taoist Immortals’ here before, and I love this book. Not only great reading, but some nice hints and insights into the various kinds of Taoism.

In the “Magicians” section of the book appears a chapter on Ko Hsuan, who lived 220-265 AD and is thus a rough contemporary of Iamblichus :). He collected and edited the Ling Pao scriptures (‘sacred spirit’ or ‘sacred jewel’ scriptures) although he did not start the Ling Pao tradition which began well after him.

The folk tale of his life involves various healings using sigils and so forth, which is a technique also used incidentally in the ‘Dragon Gate’ book. This following one is particularly interesting given all the recent talk about reptilians, snakes, serpents and dragons:

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Ko Hsuan was walking on the north slopes of Mount Hua when he noticed a dark shape hovering over a house. Sensing there was an evil spirit inside, he transformed himself into a farmer and knocked on the door.

A scholar welcomed him in, and Ko Hsuan said, “I need someone to help me with the harvest today.”

“I will be glad to help you,” replied the scholar.

Ko Hsuan led the scholar away from the house and said, “There is an evil snake spirit in your house posing as your wife. She has already eaten alot of children in the village.”

When the scholar refused to believe him, Ko Hsuan took the man into the woods and showed him a pit filled with skulls and bones.

The scholar shook with fear and said, “What should I do?”

Ko Hsuan said, “Tonight you must occupy her attention so that I can capture her.”

The scholar went into the village and bought a bolt of cloth. That evening, he presented it to his wife and tried to get her to talk about the clothes she would make. Meanwhile, Ko Hsuan set up an altar outside the house, drew his talismans, and chanted incantations. When the woman realized that she had been trapped, she transformed herself into a large python and tried to swallow the scholar. Seeing this, Ko Hsuan drew his sword, threw it at the snake, and impaled it against the wall. Stench filled the room, and scorpions and centipedes crawled out of cracks in the wall to dissolve into a puddle of dark liquid.

Ko Hsuan drew another talisman, burned it, and told the scholar to eat the ashes. After the scholar swallowed the burned talisman, he began to vomit a thick yellow liquid. Hsuan said to him, “You were poisoned by the snake spirit. If you didn’t have a spark of goodness in you, you would have become a vampire yourself.”

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Obviously not a kundalini tale! 🙂 Since we were talking about Darth Maul, I have to note the similarity of this story to another pop tale for kids, C.S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair” – the plot and denouement are remarkably similar, right down to the smell! This wasn’t research, it was a story looking to be told. Fantasy authors pick up alot of those, I recall from when I was into all of them – they almost could be said to channel them…

In that Lewis story the man was enslaved by a silver chair, silver for moon. The moon tarot card shows a scorpion and speaks of the kidneys and sexual system. The full moon connects to the sexual system. These things are linked to a deep snakiness which is also linked to kundalini, but the dragon image is entirely absent. It is plain that our internal reptilianism can go either way. Was the woman a demon, or possessed by one? Such things could happen… especially if you believe bloody David Icke! 🙂 but what’s interesting is how vampirism and the need for human blood/flesh and this darker reptilianism seem linked again here… 🙂

Incidentally Ko Hsuan shouldn’t be confused with his rough contemporary Chang Tao-Ling, another magician-taoist who founded the ‘celestial masters’ school – that same magical taoist lineage which the westerner Michael Saso recently became involved in. Saso has been talked about a bit on here I seem to recall.

Also wanted to give the folk tale about the end of Ko Hsuan’s life, for no other reason than that I happen to really like it:

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When Hsuan knew that it was time for him to leave the mortal realm, he built a hut in the mountains and set up a furnace and a cauldron to make the elixir of immortality.

One winter day, he was out in the woods gathering roots and minerals, barefoot and dressed in a sleeveless shirt. [all taoists in folk tales are warm in the cold and cool in the heat! – j]. Two daughters of a woodcutter, who were helping their father carry firewood home, saw him digging in the snowy ground. Not knowing that Ko Hsuan was a Taoist adept, the sisters said to each other, “This man doesn’t even have shoes and a warm coat. We should help him.”

One woman made a pair of shoes and the other made a wool shirt. They brought their gifts to Ko Hsuan’s home and called to him, “Old man, we have brought you shoes and a coat.”

When there was no answer, the sisters opened the door of the hut and walked in. Inside they found a furnace with smouldering ashes, a cauldron, and a note that said, “I thank you for your gifts. If you open the cauldron, you will find two halves of a pill. These are my gifts to both of you.”

The sisters found the pill and swallowed it. From that day on, the women stopped ageing. They maintained their youth and vigour all their lives and lived for over a hundred years.

They also found a letter on a table. On the envelope was written, “An Invitation to the Immortal Ko from the Celestial Lords.” It was then that they realized Ko Hsuan had ascended to immortality.

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🙂 j