Northern Dipper

Now the fire may finally be started. In the Nine Elixirs, this stage is also marked by a ceremony. The alchemist invokes the Great Lord of the Dao (Da Daojun), Lord Lao (Laojun), and the Lord of the Great Harmony (Taihe jun). He offers them food and drinks, and asks them to watch over the process, let the practice be successful, and let him become an accomplished man zhiren) and have audience at the Purple Palace (Zigong), in the constellation of the Northern Dipper. 

The Three Luminaries are the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets or the Sun, the Moon, and the Northern Dipper. On the Winged-Wheel Chariot (yulun zhi che) see Wushang biyao (The Supreme Secret Essentials ... 

The Big Dipper, an easy to see constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere, was known to the ancient Greeks as the Bear and the Wagon and to the Romans as Ursa Major (the Great Bear). 

The Great Bear, otherwise known as the Great Chariot, Arktos, the Big Dipper and Charlie s Wain is the most prominent constellation in the Northern Hemisphere. 

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