From Traditional Eastern Divination to Western Tarot and Energy Practices: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Spirituality

On August 28, 2026, “Between the Mysteries: An East–West Metaphysical Experience Night,” co-organized with the participation of the Taoist Association of New York, was held at Lately Cafe in Long Island City, New York. Centered on metaphysics, divination, and spiritual practices from different Eastern and Western cultural traditions, the event combined a panel discussion, open exchange, and interactive experiences, offering participants an opportunity to explore and compare different spiritual and metaphysical systems.

The event featured Chengze Wu, President of the Taoist Association of New York, and Tara Li, a specially appointed cultural consultant on astrology and Feng Shui for diplomatic missions and a practitioner and inheritor of intangible cultural heritage related to shamanic traditions.

As an academically oriented practitioner, Li has traveled to multiple countries to study diverse folk traditions and conduct academic research on folk rituals and ceremonial practices. She has also been featured as a “Light of Chinese Studies” in Figures of the New Era. Both speakers are recognized researchers of folk traditions in their respective fields, have received coverage and recognition from major media outlets including China Central Television (CCTV), and have long been committed to promoting cultural exchange between China and the international community while helping the public distinguish informed practice from misconception.

Approaching the discussion from the perspectives of traditional Eastern metaphysics and contemporary Western spirituality, the two speakers explored divination, energy, purification, protection, and the ways different cultures understand the relationship between human beings and the world around them.

Beginning with “Mysterious Experiences”: What Should We Believe When We Feel Something We Cannot Explain?

The discussion began with a question many people have considered at some point in their lives:

“Have you ever experienced a premonition, an unusual dream, an intense intuition, sleep paralysis, or an inexplicable sense of discomfort after entering a particular space?”

When confronting experiences of this kind, both speakers emphasized that the first step should not be to immediately label them as “supernatural phenomena,” but rather to examine, differentiate, and verify them.

From the perspectives of psychology, perception, and Western esoteric practice, Tara Li explained that some experiences commonly interpreted as paranormal may in fact have physiological or psychological explanations. For example, the phenomenon colloquially described in Chinese as “being pressed down by a ghost” can be understood through modern medical and sleep-science concepts such as sleep paralysis. Similarly, certain experiences described as a “sixth sense” or premonition may arise from the brain unconsciously integrating large amounts of information that never fully enter conscious awareness.

Human beings continuously receive information from their surroundings through vision, hearing, smell, and other senses. Only part of this information reaches explicit conscious awareness, while other signals may influence judgment without being consciously noticed. As a result, people may sometimes be unable to explain where a particular “feeling” comes from even though their minds have already formed a prediction based on subtle environmental cues.

Wu approached the question from the perspective of Eastern traditions and his own religious practice. He explained that some traditional systems distinguish among different forms of unusual perception based on whether information is perceived visually, auditorily, or through internal sensation and intuition. Individuals may also vary considerably in their sensitivity to different types of information.

Although the two speakers worked within different explanatory frameworks, they reached a shared conclusion on one fundamental point:

Something being unexplained does not mean it should immediately be attributed to supernatural forces.

Any unusual experience should, wherever possible, be cross-checked and examined for physiological, psychological, environmental, and cognitive explanations before other possibilities are considered.

This led to one of the central principles running throughout the evening:

Remain open, but do not abandon verification. Remain respectful, but do not abandon reason.

Is It Safe to “Create Magic at Home”? Eastern and Western Perspectives on Lineage and Transmission

The second major topic of the evening concerned the growing culture of self-teaching and self-created systems within online occult and spiritual communities.

“If lineage is not considered essential, can someone simply learn from the internet, books, or personal experience and create rituals or so-called ‘magic’ at home? Could doing so involve risks?”

The question highlighted one of the clearest differences between certain Eastern and Western traditions.

Drawing on the historical development of Western esotericism, Tara Li explained that formal lineage is not an absolute requirement in some modern Western occult traditions. Particularly as modern Western esotericism has increasingly incorporated individualism, psychological interpretations, and deconstructive approaches, personal practice and experiential verification have assumed a more prominent role.

However, “not requiring lineage” does not mean “creating anything one wants without foundational knowledge.”

Li noted that practices found in classical ritual traditions—including fasting, the preparation of ritual space, formal opening and closing procedures, purification, and banishing—can also be understood as structures that help practitioners establish psychological boundaries, ritual order, and a sense of safety.

Engaging in intensive spiritual practices without adequate foundational knowledge may carry real-world risks, including excessive psychological suggestion, obsessive thinking, sleep disturbances, or cognitive disorientation.

Wu, speaking from the perspective of Taoism and traditional religious lineages, took a more explicit position:

Within Taoist ritual and esoteric traditions, lineage and transmission occupy a central role.

He explained that a Taoist lineage involves more than the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student. It also carries ritual standards, accumulated experience, ethical expectations, and mechanisms for guidance and correction developed over generations. A considerable amount of practical knowledge is never fully recorded in publicly available texts, but is instead gradually transmitted through teacher-disciple relationships and long-term study.

“Previous generations plant the trees; later generations enjoy their shade.”

Wu used this traditional Chinese saying to describe the significance of lineage. For practices that genuinely involve religious ritual and intensive spiritual work, he argued, an established tradition provides practitioners with boundaries and guidance—helping them understand what can be done, what should not be done, and how to respond when difficulties arise, rather than relying exclusively on personal feelings to determine what is correct.

The discussion therefore revealed two different developmental trajectories. One places greater emphasis on individual experience and the possibility of deconstructing established systems, while the other gives greater weight to teachers, lineage, and historical continuity.

Yet both perspectives ultimately pointed toward a similar warning:

Freedom to explore does not mean the absence of boundaries.

“Can You Get Anything You Think About?” Rethinking the Law of Attraction and Manifestation

One of the evening’s most actively discussed subjects was the Law of Attraction and Manifestation, concepts that have become widely circulated across social media.

The discussion began by tracing the development of the New Age movement and modern spiritual culture, as well as the ways these ideas have changed within contemporary commercial and social-media environments.

Tara Li noted that New Age spirituality is not a single religious system with a unified doctrine. Rather, it is a loosely connected cultural phenomenon that has drawn from numerous religious, philosophical, and spiritual sources. During this process, concepts associated with yoga, chakras, meditation, and other traditions have often been removed from their original historical and religious contexts and repackaged for new audiences.

Through commercialization in particular, terms such as “high vibration,” “low vibration,” “manifestation,” and “the Law of Attraction” are sometimes further simplified into the idea that maintaining the “right” thoughts is enough to obtain whatever one desires.

This logic can create another problem. When people face illness, poverty, unemployment, or major setbacks, the complex social, economic, and personal circumstances surrounding those difficulties may be reduced to claims that a person’s “frequency is too low” or that they have “failed to manifest correctly.” Normal human emotions such as grief and anxiety may likewise be treated as undesirable “low-vibration states” that must be eliminated.

The discussion raised a clear objection to this approach:

Spiritual practice should not become a reason to deny material reality.

Wu responded to the question of whether human desire can change reality from the perspective of Taoism thought.

He used the metaphor of a container. Even if one accepts that human beings are connected to the universe in some way, he argued, that does not eliminate the practical limits of an individual life.

“A cup and a large vessel can both hold water, but they do not have the same capacity.”

In his interpretation, Taoism does not deny that human behavior, cultivation, and accumulated effort may influence the course of one’s life. But such change does not occur without conditions. Taoism ideas concerning merit and blessings (gongde and fubao) themselves connect what a person receives with long-term conduct, responsibility, and contributions to others, rather than suggesting that desired outcomes can be obtained simply through repeatedly visualizing them.

For this reason, Wu argued that instead of treating manifestation as a way to endlessly “make wishes to the universe,” it may be more meaningful to first understand oneself accurately, accept one’s present circumstances and conditions, and recognize the boundaries of one’s abilities, resources, and capacity.

From that foundation, a person can gradually develop through cultivation, accumulated effort, and concrete action, expanding what they are capable of carrying, achieving, and sustaining.

In other words, the most important task is not to repeatedly tell oneself, “I can have anything I want,” but to first answer three questions:

Who am I now? What am I currently capable of carrying? And how can I develop the capacity to carry what I hope to achieve?

Both speakers ultimately returned to the same conclusion: regardless of whether one uses Eastern or Western spiritual language, spiritual intention cannot replace action in the real world.

Why Did Eastern and Western Esoteric Traditions Develop Along Different Paths?

The discussion then moved into a deeper historical and theoretical comparison.

Tara Li traced a developmental path from classical Western magic, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticism through modern esoteric orders and later movements such as Chaos Magic. She discussed how Western esotericism gradually evolved from highly structured cosmologies and ritual systems toward modern practices that increasingly emphasize individual will, psychological mechanisms, and the deconstruction of symbols.

Wu approached the question from Taoism, explaining why teacher-disciple transmission and religious lineage have remained particularly important within Eastern religious traditions.

He argued that the long-term continuity of a religious system allows the practical experience of previous generations to accumulate over time. Transmission, therefore, is not merely a form of identity or certification; it also functions as a mechanism for preserving knowledge.

Scriptures can record theories and doctrines, but many practical experiences, ritual details, and methods of judgment still require long-term person-to-person instruction.

Using the system of formal memorials and petitions (biaowen) in Taoist ritual as an example, Wu also noted that religions are not completely static. Social institutions, language, and culture change across historical periods, and these changes inevitably influence the forms through which religious rituals are expressed.

“Tradition,” therefore, does not mean that every external form has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Rather, a tradition may continuously adapt to new historical circumstances while maintaining its core worldview and relationships of transmission.

The Eastern and Western systems thus presented an intriguing contrast. Modern Western esotericism has increasingly emphasized the individual’s direct relationship with the sacred, personal experience, and the deconstruction of established structures. Taoism, by contrast, places greater emphasis on lineage, teacher-disciple transmission, and the continuity of knowledge within a religious community.

The discussion did not attempt to declare one model inherently superior to the other. Instead, it proposed a principle for learning:

First understand how a system was constructed; only then discuss how it might be deconstructed.

Do Tarot Cards Have “Spirits”? Divination Systems and Mediumship Are Not the Same Thing

The event also addressed several common misconceptions encountered by people exploring metaphysical and occult subjects.

One question asked was: “Do Tarot cards have their own spirits? Can frequent divination harm the practitioner?”

Both speakers emphasized the importance of distinguishing among divination tools, structured systems of metaphysical calculation, and mediumistic or spirit-communication practices.

Wu explained that within Eastern traditions, divinatory arts and mediumship have historically been understood as different categories.

“Someone who knows fortune-telling does not necessarily know how to conduct religious rituals, and a Taoist priest does not necessarily practice fortune-telling.”

In his view, traditional systems such as Bazi and hexagram-based divination possess their own symbolic structures, rules, and methods of interpretation. Their practice requires logic, experience, and associative judgment. Mediumship or spirit communication, by contrast, belongs to a different category of religious or spiritual experience.

Interpreting every act of divination as “connecting with a spiritual entity,” he argued, can create unnecessary fear and misunderstanding.

The discussion therefore reminded participants that a tool’s association with mystical or esoteric culture does not automatically mean that its operation should be explained through the intervention of supernatural entities.

Rejecting Superstition Without Losing Respect for Tradition

Another theme running throughout the evening concerned how to find a rational space between superstition and complete dismissal.

Wu emphasized during the discussion:

“When encountering religions and traditions you do not understand, you can remain respectful without believing blindly.”

He argued that religion should not be treated as a means of escaping responsibility for real-world problems. When people encounter illness, financial hardship, or major life crises, they should not expect religion or metaphysical practices alone to automatically resolve every practical difficulty.

Likewise, the failure of a particular wish to come true should not be treated as sufficient evidence that an entire religious tradition is “false.”

Tara Li, meanwhile, warned participants about spiritual consumerism in the contemporary metaphysical marketplace. When complex historical traditions are compressed into products promising “instant luck,” “immediate manifestation,” or “energy transformation in minutes,” consumers may receive little more than short-term psychological reassurance rather than a genuine understanding of the traditions being marketed.

Both speakers therefore emphasized that a healthy approach to religion, metaphysics, and spiritual practice requires historical awareness, reality testing, critical thinking, and respect for what remains unknown.

How Can People Engage with Metaphysical Practices in a Healthy Way?

At the conclusion of the event, the speakers summarized the evening’s discussion through several practical principles.

First, people should understand the historical, geographical, cultural, and religious contexts in which a practice developed rather than extracting isolated concepts from social media.

Second, they should maintain the ability to test claims against reality. Any practice claiming to replace modern medicine, legal advice, or responsible financial decision-making should be approached with a high degree of caution.

Third, people should consider whether a practice is making their everyday lives, psychological state, and interpersonal relationships more stable—or whether it is causing them to become increasingly detached from reality.

The event also introduced techniques such as five-senses grounding and breathing exercises, which can help individuals redirect attention toward their bodies and immediate surroundings, while also discussing cultural concepts of personal and spatial purification and protection found in different Eastern and Western traditions.

At the conclusion of his remarks, Wu emphasized two words:

Respect and reverence.

Reason does not require ridiculing every tradition that cannot be fully explained. Reverence, likewise, does not require abandoning one’s own judgment.

In an era when metaphysical content can spread across short-form video platforms within minutes, and when “healing,” “manifestation,” and various forms of “certified spiritual guidance” are increasingly commercialized, perhaps the most important question is no longer simply:

“Do you believe in metaphysics?”

Instead, the deeper questions may be:

Do you know why you believe what you believe—and are you capable of testing and examining those beliefs?

This was also one of the central reflections that “Between the Mysteries: An East–West Metaphysical Experience Night” sought to leave with its participants.

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