Having been raised in a Taoist family, I have been exposed to and have participated in Taoist rituals for all my life. I know to set up offerings, to burn joss papers, and to kowtow. Yet it is fascinating to me that the it is not the divine who demands of these offerings, but the devotee who, in his prayers, demands blessings of the divine.


In a relationship between the divine and the devotee, who is serving whom?