Shen Dan( 神壇)
Shen Dan Worship is a private or individual Daoism set-up (a mini scale “Temple”) for Deities that one medium (乩童) served or a group of devotees (信徒) who believed or have faith in. Usually for Shen Dan , there’s no standard rule to allocate any Deity or standardize any Deities to be honored to.
Is Shen Dan considered as Un-orthodox (不正道)?
This is definitely NOT true. Even though Shen Dan is set-up by individual (non-registered Priests or Daoists), they are still considered as Orthodox (正道) and for some, More Orthodox than some major Daoist Groups, etc. Maybe the way the Shen Dan functions is not quite similar to those well-establish Groups, but usually their main objective is to serve the Public and help to solve their problems/issues in a short period.
So who’s the Leading-person in Shen Dan?
Sometime can be the medium him/herself or sometime, a Working Committee will be set-up to look into the Admin stuffs and the daily/regular function of one Shen Dan.
Can any individual one set-up a Shen Dan?
Yes you can, but first, before anything can be done, the one who are interested in setting-up the Shen Danwill have to seek the so-called “Permission (上天旨意)” from the Heaven and later, request for the help from the devotees, in-order to make it going and function well.
So what are the usual things/issues/events that we can see in a Shen Dan?
Usually it will be “Consultation (問事/指點迷津)”.
What is it?
Consultation is an event/action that the Shen Dan members invite the Deity (anyone) to the Mortal World and possessed onto the Medium (the chosen one/assistant of the individual Deity), now known as In-trance (降乩/落乩/起乩/扶乩/請乩), to allow devotees to do their consultations on any issues or requesting the Deities to help them solved their problems. In Chinese, it is called “Shen Ming Dian Mi Jin (神明點迷津)”, (Deities performing their routine tasks) - 辦功”.
Can anyone just walk in and do the consultation?
Definitely YES, and most of the Shen Dan will be there happily welcomed you to do so. In some Shen Dan, they will practiced the recording of walk-in devotees’ particulars in-order for easy contacting in the future, some will just welcome you and usually by words of mouth, inform you about their upcoming events or activities.
Besides Consultation, what other events/activities can We see/join-in?
Besides that, usually will be the Big Celebration (大日子) for the Shen Dan (can be on the Birthday of the Deities神誕 or the Anniversary週年 of the Setting-up/etc).Nowadays, some Shen Dan even hold Seventh Month (Ghostly Month七月中元會) Salvaging Rituals (超渡法會) for the suffering and lonely wandering souls during the “Nether World Gate Open Period” (鬼門開).
What Deities can we see in a Shen Dan?
Like what we have mentioned earlier, due to NO standard or fix rules that restrict the Shen Dan, in a Shen Dan, any Deities can be invited for the honoring or for the devotees to pay respect to. For the Main Deity (or sometime the Secondary Deities主神及副主神) for a Shen Dan, usually will be the Deity that the medium served or assisting. And ONE set of Deities that cannot be neglect will be the Five Directional Camp Marshals (五營將軍).
Why?
This set of Deities are invited into a Shen Dan for providing the support and the protection from the Heavenly Troops of Armies (天兵神將). While a medium is performing his/her Consultation Task, such Armies will be informed and sometime (or all time) be released to do the Guarding and Patrolling around (點時察尋) the Shen Dan area in-order to do the protection from other/out-bound negative energies (外邪入侵) from disturbing the nature routine of the medium, etc.
Another set will be the Nether World Deities (冥府諸神 -陰神). This set of Deities is invited in in-order to maintain the “peacefulness (安寧)” of a Shen Dan by not allowing any wandering or “Cultivated Spirits (修靈)” to enter one Shen Dan while the medium doing the “In-trance (起乩)”.
So what are the usual Deities for the Past?
In the Past, only certain number or widely known Deities were invited for Consultation or Big Celebrations
They were usually:
Guan Yin 觀音
Guan Gong 關公
Xuan Tian Shang Di 玄天上帝
Ji Gong 濟公
Qi Tian Da Sheng aka Monkey Sage 齊天大聖
Marshal Li Na Zha 李府元帥
Hu Ye aka Tiger General 虎爺,
Etc.
In the Past, we usually don’t invite the Deities from the Nether World (陰神), unless we needed to consult certain issues that were associated with Death or Negative side, etc. So if there were certain issues that urgently needed the advises from the Deities from the Nether World, we were need to get the permission from the Heavenly Deities (天神) and then through them, summon the Nether World Deities to the Shen Dan at night (usually no need Invitation Mantras, they will just come by themselves).
Who are the Nether World Deities that folks pay respect to in the Past?
Usually only:
Cheng Huang 城隍
Bao Gong 包公
Da Ye Bo 大爺伯
Er Ye Bo 二爺伯
Xiao Zi Ye 孝子爺
Niu Tou 牛頭
Ma Mian 馬面
Unlike today, we are able to see quite a lot of different forms of Nether World Deities.
How about Deities being invited Today?
Well, today, we are able to see a number of different forms of Deities (known and unknown) being invited to the Mortal World for Consultations, etc.They are:
The usually group (Heavenly Deities, refer to Top).
Shan Cai Tong Zi aka Zai Zai 善才童子
Da Ye Bo 大爺伯
Er Ye Bo 二爺伯
Xiao Zi Ye 孝子爺
Niu Tou 牛頭
Ma Mian 馬面
Shi San Tai Bao 十三太保
Jin Qian Bo 金錢伯
Bao Bei Ye 鮑貝爺)
Ri Xun Ye Xun aka Night/Day Patrol 日巡夜巡)
Cheng Huang 城隍)
From the list, you are able to see the trend of Nether World Deities are getting more popular and common.
So how about in the Future?
Maybe there will be Modern People (after passing-on 謝世) being invited to possess onto Mediums.