Qilin

1. This is one of the magic diagrams I am talking about, it isn't a normal chinese character, though it may resemble them. 2. I think these may be clouds or waves, not sure though. 3. This is the legendary figure Zhenwu standing on a tortoise and snake. I've highlighted in yellow the diagrams I don't know. Thanks for the help though.

Wonderfully explained; thank you! -- I do have another amulet that has taoist magic diagrams on it. This one should be much more difficult. I have found a translation of the middle text on the 2nd picture: "Lao Zi curses saying the Heaven is round and the earth is square The Nine Songs of the Six Temperaments The spirit of the magic writing will destroy the ten thousand ghosts everywhere Let it be executed as fast as Lu Ling." There is the bagua and taijitu at the top and the figure is Zhenwu. But I cannot find any translations of any of the 3 magic diagrams. Can anyone decipher the 3 diagrams? Here is what I know already:

Oh, got it. Thanks!! No wonder I was confused looking it up. The capital makes all the difference.

Sorry to disappoint! Can you tell me what the character I wrote as Earth in the picture is then? Maybe I got them mixed up. Thanks!

Can anybody help me identify the circled chinese character on this antique taoist charm I just bought? I'm pretty sure I've correctly identified the other characters, though I'm not positive. The other side of the coin has your typical 8 trigrams. Thanks in advance!

Hello! It's nice to sign on to such a helpful site. I consider myself to be a spiritual person with heavy Taoist leanings, though I can't say I'm truly Taoist because I subscribe to a lot of Hindu and Buddhist ideas and practices as well as Taoist. I'm more a admirer of the original Taoism of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and Nei Yeh rather than the Celestial Masters and other sects as I find the latter to be too dogmatic. Well enough about me. Nice to meet you all, -"Qilin"