animates all things. It is the Tao, as Yiguandao doctrines explain. In the 16th century the Eternal Mother began to take the place of the Holy Patriarch. A mythology surrounding the Mother began to form, integrating the beliefs about Maitreya, which had been widespread since the Yuan dynasty. The Maitreya belief is millenarian, claiming that the world would come to an end soon and Maitreya would incarnate himself in the physical plane to save humanity. In the Mother belief, the Maitreya is one of the three enlightened beings sent by the Mother herself to bring salvation. Further myths explained the creation of the world and mankind: the Eternal Venerable Mother gave birth to yin and yang and two children, Fuxi and Nüwa, who begot auspicius stars and all sentient beings. The human beings were sent to the east and lost their memory of the Mother. The myth of Fuxi and Nüwa is found also in orthodox Chinese mythology. The figure of the Eternal Mother derives from that of Xiwangmu, the "Queen Mother of the West", the ancient mother goddess of China, related to the mythical Kunlun, the axis mundi, and thus to the Hundun. The Infinite Mother is thought as omnipotent, and regarded by Yiguandao followers as merciful, worried by her sons and daughters who lost their true nature, and for this reason trying to bring them back to the original heaven. Through its development, the Eternal Mother belief has shown the qualities of the three goddesses Xiwangmu, Nüwa and Guanyin. Gods and teachers In all Yiguandao temples, there are three lamps situated on an altar. The central lamp represents the Eternal Mother, while the two sides lamps, both evenly situated at a lower level, represent Yin and Yang. Generally, in larger public temples, a statue of Maitreya is placed in the central position, accompanied by the Holy Teachers, Jigong on the right, and Yue Hui Bodhisattva on the left. In private temples, there is no required configuration. Members can choose statues of other deities, such as Guanyin and Guangong, or they can even choose to have none at all. As Yiguandao's written material explains: The patriarchs of the faith are Zhang Tianran and Sun Suzhen. They are considered the final patriarchs of the divine revelation and are revered as divine entities. Cosmology Yiguandao conceives the cosmos as tripartite, consisting of litian (the right heaven), qitian (the spiritual heaven) and