Luck Boosting With Joss Papers (金纸过运法)

There are many ways to boost a person’s luck with Taoist rituals. For example: the 7-star-lamps ritual (七星灯), life foundation (生基), 12-palaces-luck-boosting (十二宫补运), flower bath and many more ways that exceed our imaginations. Many of those luck boosting rituals are meant to be done by professionals only because of the complexity involved.

The best method of all to me, is the 12-palaces ritual which I have done for many people to bring up their luck on temporary basis. In this method, joss papers are burnt in so-called palaces which represent 12 basic necessities of our human life: food, companionships, career, clothing, life span, karmic debtors, luck, health, money, lodging, properties and ancestral blessings.

Having said so, it is tedious and time consuming to carry out this 12-palaces ritual as one ritual would take about 2 hours to complete and unless necessary, I would not do it for others. However, there is another simpler joss paper ritual that anyone can do to boost one’s luck momentarily. Of course, as the name implies; proper type of joss paper must be used. The preferred is the ‘gold ingot paper’ (金纸) which can be purchased in most shops selling Taoist praying materials in Asia.

The gold paper for short is normally burnt as offerings to gods, goddesses and spirits of higher order. It would be used in conjunction with the ‘silver paper’ when offerings are made to one’s ancestors. You can do this simple ritual: if you feel that your house altar looks gloomy, then you may just burn a few pieces of this ‘gold paper’ around the altar and you would suddenly feel the place has somehow became brighter. But just a word of advice, please don’t burn gold paper too often in the house or spirits may come into your house and create problems.

I have a businessman friend who tried the joss paper burning ritual twice a month in front of his shop and his business improved initially. So he thought to burn more to attract more luck. What he thought was wrong as this friend of mine was then possessed by a lady ghost and I had to remove the spirit before it can do more harm.

In that matter, we can also burn joss papers dedicated to ourselves. However, this ritual should only be done by the person for that person alone. If this joss paper ritual is done by a second person to another person, undesirable things may occur because only the dead deserved to accept joss papers. So beware.

If you want to boost your luck temporary, then it is best to perform the ritual in front of your ancestral tablets or in front of any higher Taoist deities. First thing to do is to get some quantity of joss papers and fold them into the shape of gold ingot. Then you may write a letter to your ancestors or the deities expressing your wish to ‘deposit’ some gold in your ‘soul palace’ (元神宫) which to be collected by your debtors, or any spirits which can help you as repayments; or merely as your underworld ‘fixed deposits’.

Please also remember to prepare 3 small cups of tea and 3 small cups of rice wine as offerings to the spirits. These tea and rice wine are poured encircling the burning ‘gold ingots’ to signify that the money belonged to you and no one else.

It normally takes a few days to see the effect. My friends who had tried it claimed to possess a brighter aura than before the ritual. Of course, I still have to throw out a reminder: the effects vary according to individual. And, no one can change his/her major fate for sure.