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Dǒumǔ (Chinese: 斗母; literally: "Mother of the Dipper (Great Chariot)"), also known as Dǒumǔ Yuánjūn (斗母元君 "Goddess of the Chariot") and Tàiyī Yuánjūn (太一元君 "Goddess of the Great One"), is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. She is also named through the honorific Tianhou (天后 "Queen of Heaven"), shared with other Chinese goddesses, especially Mazu, who are perhaps conceived as her aspects. Other names of her are Dàomǔ (道母 "Mother of the Way") and Tiānmǔ (天母 "Mother of Heaven"). She is the feminine aspect of the universal God of Heaven, also represented by the circumpolar stars of the Dipper (Great Chariot).
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She is considered the mother of the seven stars of the Dipper and two not visible ones, the Jiǔhuángdàdì (九皇大帝 "Nine Great Divine Kings"). The Great Chariot is in Chinese culture, as well as in other cultures of the world, a traditional symbol of the absolute origin of the universe (Tian). Therefore, Doumu is neither the chthonic goddess (Houtu), nor the goddess of fertility Bixia, but rather the "solar" or heavenly goddess. In certain Taoist accounts she is identified as the ambiguous goddess of life and death Xiwangmu. In her association, the God of Heaven is also called Dòufù (斗父 "Father of the Great Chariot").
Taoist esotericism
In the esoteric teachings of Taoism she is identified as the same as Jiutian Xuannü (九天玄女 "Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens") and Xiwangmu (西王母 "Queen Mother of the West"), representing the mother of the immortal "red infant" (赤子 chìzǐ) Dao enshrined at the centre of the human body. This links her directly to the myths about the birth and initiation of Laozi and the Yellow Emperor (whose mother Fubao became pregnant of him after she was aroused by a lightning from, or turning around, the Big Dipper), as attested, among others, by Ge Hong (283-343).
Buddhist interpretation
In Vajrayana traditions of Chinese Buddhism (Tangmi), Doumu was conflated with Bodhisattva Marici at least by the Tang dynasty. Marici too is described as the mother of the Way and the Dipper, at the centre of Brahma's Heaven of primal energy. Marici's chariot is drawn by seven pigs.