The Notorious Five Ghosts (五鬼)

 

The statue of 5 ghosts ready made

 

 

The Taoist 5 ghost system is a well known system, one of the power Taoist rituals available since ancient times. If the 5 ghost altar is set up properly, then these 5 ghost brothers will make a person rich. For ordinary folks, this 5 ghost brothers can only be summoned once every 12 years. But for the capable ones, they can set up a permanent altar.

 

The 5 ghosts are:

 

·         The green ghost of east

·         The red ghost of south

·         The white ghost of west

·         The black ghost of north

·         The yellow ghost of center

 

The altar for 5 ghosts should be set up before 5^th day of the 5^th month of Chinese calendar. The altar for 5 ghosts must not be higher than the altar of other deities. One must prepare the below items:

 

·         Statue of the 5 ghosts if one wishes to set up a permanent altar, or cut out 5 pieces of paper manikins.

·         Prepare special candle holders, incense holders and food offerings such as chicken, duck, fish, pork, eggs and 7 cups of rice wine; 5 cups for the ghosts, 1 for the ghost king and one for the magician.

·         For ordinary people, cooked meats are offered, but for special groups who want more power; then raw meats are offered. This action has incidentally; make the ghosts more difficult to control.

 

The offering ritual can begin after 4pm daily. One must beware not to put the offering too long as once the 5 ghosts are too well fed, they become lazy.

 

In this specific system, the leader of the 5 ghost brothers, the “ghost king” is also worshipped together. Its function is to control these 5 ghosts so as not to create troubles.

 

The more traditional forms of 5 ghost system makes use of 5 human skulls or more recently, 5 human finger bones.