No matter its feng shui or Taoism and Taoist magic, you see the five elements and five directions all the time. You can spot this from my altar, the five directional flag, and its pretty cool looking sitting in my bucket of rice. What is the five elements supposed to be and what does these flags means or do? Here you will find out!
The five directions are actually the first most important energies that we use in magic and these are the preheaven energies that we are talking about here. The colors of these energies are actually explained in our theory of the 9 stars.
Here is a lecture of the five directional flags:
In Saam Law Sun Gung, we use these 5 direction flags to command energies, as if they are troops or soldiers. They are not soldiers, but it is a metaphor. To command energies around, you need a medium, a tool, and we have chose the flag in this case.
However, the flag does not just command any energies, it is programmed to command the cultivated energies inside our altar, which is all cultivated and trained, and not just "anyone". As you can see why the word soldier is nice for this metaphor. We cultivate preheaven energies at our altar everyday, and making them stronger than the normal energies you can find elsewhere. That is why you can do magic work with them and not just anyone can pick some "energies" or "chi" and be able to do magic. The flags are like a commanding device, like a remote control for your TV, and it is used to move the energies around, set commands and tell them to execute the work you want them to do for you.
The best way to look at it is that you have 5 camps of soldiers at the altar, and they are all differently trained and equipped. Every camp has their own strength and property, and so you must find the right guy to do the job for the best effect. It's a metaphor, but it makes it easier to understand and learn how to use the flag.
You can do any Taoist magic with these flags, such as exorcism, empowerment, luck boost, or even kicking your enemy's butt. The question is, are you ordained yet? Anyone can make or buy these flags, but it does not come with the power and methods. Without the power and the methods, the flags are nothing but decorative items. Without the knowledge and fully understanding their property, you will not be able to use them too. Therefore, you need a master, a person to teach and guide you to really master this art.
