specific sect. These lay Daoist practitioners are called "kui-shih". Ceremonial Daoism Ceremonial Daoism focuses on ritual and devotion towards various celestial deities and spirits. The basic belief of ceremonial Daoism is that through various rites, human beings can honor the deities and these deities may then grant them with power, protection and blessings. Rituals and festivals can include chanting, offerings, and the reading of scripture. These rites are mostly performed by ritual masters who have trained extensively for this role and who may, through their mastery of ritual, intercede on behalf of laypersons. There are various kinds of festivals in Ceremonial Daoism, including "Great Services" (chai-chiao) and Ritual Gatherings (fa-hui) that can last for days and can focus on repentance, rainmaking, disaster aversion or petitioning. There are feast days which honor specific deities. 164 Funerals and birthday blessings are a common service. There is a complex and large pantheon in Daoism. It includes various deities classified into various ranks within an administrative structure, at the top of which are the celestial lords (t'ien-tsun). These include judges, heralds, officers, generals, clerks and messengers. The main division is between "earlier heaven" deities, who have existed since the beginning of time and "later heaven" deities, mortals who later became immortal. 146 Key earlier heaven deities include the Three Pure Ones, the Jade Emperor, the Queen Mother of the West, the Mother of the Bushel of Stars, the Seven Star Lords of the Northern Bushel and the Three Officials (Celestial, Earth, and Water). Some key later heaven deities include: Immortal Lu Tung-pin, and Emperor Kuan (Kuan-yu). Daoists may also honor local spirits and deities, as well Buddhist deities (like Guanyin, Amitabha, etc). The largest and most prominent sect of Ceremonial Daoism is the Way of the Celestial Masters, also known as "Orthodox Unity" (Zhengyi). The patriarch of this sect resides in Taiwan and this tradition performs numerous ceremonies which are often sponsored by the Taiwanese government. The training for Zhengyi priesthood, who are not celibate, focuses mainly on learning extensive rituals and liturgy, so that they can perform them flawlessly. Ceremonies are practiced, to a lesser extent, in the Longmen (Dragon Gate) sect of Quanzhen and in the Hsien-t'ien Dao (Earlier Heaven Way) sect, though these schools understand ritual as mainly a way to develop internal alchemy. During the Song dynasty, a popular form of ceremonial Daoism was the Thunder Rites (leifa), which focused