IncenseNine lampsVegetarian foodFlowersTeaA lamp for each of the nine stars
Invocation Approach
Tone
Reverent steady maternal
Address
DoumuDoumu NiangniangMother of the DipperLady of the Nine Stars
Relationship
A daughter before the mother who keeps the register
Warning
She holds the register of life and the dipper turns whether or not you are ready
Resonance
Women those in childbirth those facing disaster those who keep a lamp
Symbols
The dipperNine lampsThe measureSun and moon in her handsThe starsThe boar
Mythology Summary
Doumu, the Mother of the Dipper, is the Daoist goddess of the Big Dipper and of the nine stars that compose it — the seven visible and two hidden — and she holds the register of life and death that the Dipper governs. Her cult is attested from the Tang and Song, and she has a fixed place in Daoist liturgy, where the Dipper rites are among the most widely performed; she is identified with the Buddhist Marici (Molizhitian), and the boar-faced, boar-riding iconography belongs to that shared form. In Southeast Asia her devotion is bound up with the Nine Emperor Gods festival, which takes the ninth lunar month and keeps a vegetarian observance.
Modern Practice
The practice is the lamp and the Dipper: nine lamps, incense, vegetarian food and flowers, kept through the ninth lunar month at the Nine Emperor Gods festival, and a single lamp at the household altar for protection in childbirth, illness and disaster. She is asked to keep the register, not to rewrite it.