Origin of the Queen Mother of the West
The Queen Mother of the West is popularly called Auntie Queen
Mother, Granny of the West, Queen Mother, Golden Mother and Golden
Mother Primordial Sovereign.
Her complete names are 'Nine-Soul Supreme Perfect Golden Mother and
Primordial Sovereign of the Jade Tortoise Platform'6, 'Nine-Phoenix
Supreme Perfect Queen Mother of the West of the Jade Tortoise
Platform', and 'Primordial Sovereign Golden Mother of the Supreme
Numinous White Rays of the Tortoise Platform". She is not
the 'wife' of Jade Emperor but a divine which of high status and
together with Lord Donghua(Dong Wang Gong), both of them oversees
people who had attained immortality.
The name 'Queen Mother of the West' was first seen in the Book of
Mountains and Seas9. West is the direction, and Queen Mother the
name of the deity. The Queen Mother of the West is a condensation
of the Subtlest Vital Breath of the Western Essence from the Vital
Breath of Dao of the Original Chaos.
The deity, surnamed Hou, is allocated the Western direction. The
Intimate Biography of the Wu Emperor of the Han Dynasty says that
'when she entered a hall, the Queen Mother of the West wore bright
gold ornaments, numinous cloud ribbons, a shadow-cutting sword, a
supreme flower hair bun, a hat of supreme perfection, and
black-brimmed phoenix-patterned shoes. She looked about thirty and
was extremely beautiful." The Wu Emperor of Han accepted her
instruction and orders with great respect. The figure of a human
boy with tiger teeth and a cat's tail, mentioned in the Book of
Mountains and Seas, was an envoy of the Queen Mother of the West
and of the White Tiger spirit of the West, but was not the Queen
Mother of the West herself.
Mistress of Female Immortals
As the ancestor of Female Immortals, the Queen Mother of the West
lives in the Kunlun Mountains, in a city of one thousand miles with
twelve jade mansions, green light halls, nine-storey primordial
chambers, and purple and green elixir chambers. To the left is the
Jade Lake, and to the right are the Green Mountains. According to
the Jottings of Rarities and Miscellaneous Stories, there are peach
trees by the Jade Lake which "bear fruit once every 3000
years".
All women who have attained immortality in the three realms and ten
directions, in Heaven or in the human world, are under the rule of
the Queen Mother of the West.