A Story From Vietnam

I met a Vietnamese Chinese known as Mr. Lim during one dinner function in Ho Chi Minh City last month regarding his aloe wood plantation Feng Shui audit. When this gentleman learnt that I am also interested in magical things, he told me this story:

 

“My uncle’s son, John once fell in love with a Hmong tribe young girl somewhere near the border of Vietnam and Guangxi, China during this young man’s expedition. The couple stayed together for around two weeks and John thought it was time for him to go back to his parents and bid the Hmong girl goodbye with the promise that he will return to fetch her and marry her in a year’s time.

 

My uncle is a very traditional Chinese man; naturally he wanted his son to marry a Chinese lady instead. John wasn’t very serious with the Hmong lady either; naturally his father’s objection automacially became John's excuse not to visit the Hmong girl and fulfill his promise. They soon forgot all about the Hmong girl and lived as if nothing happened.

 

Strange things happened to John after one year’s time. John’s stomach started to bulge day after day as if someone is pumping a balloon. Having observed John’s pain worsened day after day, with some knowledge of black magic practices of Hmong tribe; my uncle decided to hire a very old Hmong witchdoctor to John’s rescue.

 

The old witchdoctor having observed John for a couple of minutes and pressed on John’s stomach told my uncle, “It is not difficult to cure John’s problem. But if I cured John; harm will naturally come to the person who have casted this magic. I don’t wish to do that. It is best for you to give me some money as compensation to cover the person’s loss. If this person agrees, then your son will recover in 10 days’ time.”

 

In view of it was John’s fault as to break his promise, my uncle agreed and gave the witchdoctor some money and present. I was later learnt that on the day the witchdoctor received my uncle’s presents; John’s stomach gradually subsided and suffered no further pain.

 

That was my story. Do you believe it?”

 

A Million Dollar Ritual (百萬財神)

 

 

If you fancy having 1 million dollar in short time, then you can perform the below Thai money magic ritual to boost your luck:

 

First prepare two million dollar talismans as above, then get a $50 dollar bank note each from two reputable banks … say that if you want the currency in USD, then get the denominations in USD from American banks. The reason to get the bank note from reputable banks is so that we can summon two gods of wealth (Ngen Nai Kong and Thong Nai Ma) to help us to gain monetary benefits.

 

After that glue the money on the back of the talismans and start chanting any of your favorite fortune chants for 108 times.

 

This ritual must be carried out right at 4 a.m. in the morning because this is the time when the gods of fortune wake up to perform their tasks. Also please remember that you only have 1 hour to complete your ritual and invite the gods into your house.

 

The Secret Of Dense Bamboo (Buluh Tumpat)

 

There is a lot of information about buluh tumpat in the net.

 

 

Dense bamboo is a type of bamboo with solid stem compared to the hollow stem of ordinary bamboo. This type of bamboo can be found in Malaysian jungle. Scientifically it is known as Gigantochloa Ligulata. This type of bamboo is believed to have mysterious power for personal protection especially in the jungle.

 

Believers also say that not only a dense bamboo is good for personal protection; it can be used to suck out poison injected by animals and insects. A dense bamboo is also used to cure ‘santau’ as this type of black magic uses the hair of ordinary bamboo as medium. It is also believed that no poisonous creature dares to approach the person if he or she wears a section of solid bamboo as an amulet.

 

On the other hand, dense bamboo is just like any other bamboo and can be used for many mundane applications such as furniture production, prayer beads, agricultural plant supports, traditional toys etc.

 

By The Power Of Spirits

This is a real case but due to its sensitivity, I have altered many details as this is a tragedy and happened fairly recently; but the story is real let me assure you.

 

I received a call from a friend at around 9am whose relative was said to be ‘missing’ from his trip back. He would arrive at the house around 8pm daily, but now news since they last heard of him and he cannot be contacted.

 

It happened that there was an unforeseen incident on this gentleman’s usual route: a section of the building collapsed; damaging and covered a section of the main road below it. Search and rescue team were put to task but after about 3 days’ digging they announced that there were no more casualties than the previously reported. So this guy is classified as a missing person.

 

Now, come back to our story. I was required to dispatch my spirits to ‘call back’ this person wherever he was… Viewing the incident as serious, I obliged and asked for the person’s name and birth timing.

 

At around 4pm of the same day, I received another call from my pal, according to him; the rescue team had dug out a car chassis plate indicating that the car belonged to the missing person. They had feared for the worse. Sad to say, the digging work had to stop after the team found part of the flattened car and tires due to the fear of affecting the structure of the building in the surrounding. The body had never been found as there were heavy rains and sewerage water flowing non-stop.

 

The believer said that the Thai mountainous spirits are very powerful as they lead to the recovery of the smashed car. But I just recorded this incident down in my magic diary and share with you.

 

The Staff Of Mountain God (Kayu Tas)

 

The darker stick is the male and the fairer one is the female.

 

 

The Tas wood or “Kayu Tas” is also known as “kayu hujan panas” (the hot rain wood) is meant to ward off wild animals or some people say that this type of wood can act as a subjugator and it works on human as well. There are two types of Tas wood differentiated generally by graphical locations:

 

·         Kayu Tas of Borneo

o   Wild or cultivated normally in highlands.

·         Kayu Tas of Peninsula Malaysia

o   Usually in the jungle of Perak, Kelantan and Trengganu

o   Harder to get as it is protected by law.

 

Other rarer Tas varieties are the red Tas and the yellow Tas.

Local believe that Kayu Tas can be distinguished into Kayu Tas Jantan (male) and Kayu Tas Betina (female). The male has a darker skin compared to the female ones. It is a taboo to use a Kayu Tas to strike another person as this action will cause the person to be barren. The only remedy is to dip a female Tas in water and drink the water.

 

A section of Kayu Tas can be kept in the house for protection from wild animals and human with bad intention alike. The Penan tribe burns the bark of female Tas to ward off evil spirits. Other than that, the Tas wood can also be made into ring or wear as amulet.

 

Conjuring Mountain Ghost (山鬼)

 

An illustration of the beautiful mountain ghost taken from intranet.

 

 

“Mountain Ghost” (山鬼) originates from an ancient poetry work dedicated to please the gods. The below poem is taken from the ninth poem of “The Nine Songs” (九歌). This spirit is called a mountain ghost because legend has it that this spirit is not yet promoted to the status of god by the emperor of the heaven.

 

One only has to go to a mountain with some offerings and incense and sing the below songs repeatedly:

 

“It is as if someone passes through the deep valleys, wearing pumila and carrots as skirt. She looks around with seductive smiles; she is gentle and lovely with very attractive figure.

She is riding on a red leopard and followed by a beaver; she rides on an osmanthus car with magnolia decorative flag. She wears Shi Lan and Du Heng, and plucks a branch of Acacia while missing your company.

In the depths of bamboo shrubs where sun light cannot penetrate, and the road is steep that lonely you arrives late.

Standing alone on the peak of a mountain, in the rolling and dispersing of ​​clouds.

The mountain is as dark as night even in the daylight. The east wind is roaring while the gods are casting rain.

I'm waiting for dear you in infatuation and forgotten to go back, the flowers are withering and how can I keep the bloom forever?

I am picking the fungus of longevity in the mountain; the rock is high and steep with wounding spiky rattans.

With a sense of loss grumbling about you hence forget go back; you misses me but cannot find time to come.

The one in the mountain is as pure and fragrance as Azaleas; drinking the stream water from rock seams with conifers over my head. (My mind is secretly pondering about you) Are you really serious about me?

Rolling thunder with drizzling rain; the apes are tweeting as the darkness falls.

The wind rustling while the tree twigs are falling, I am sad thinking of you alone.”

 

(仿佛有人经过深山谷坳，身披薜荔啊腰束女萝。含情流盼啊嫣然一笑，温柔而可爱啊形貌又非常娇好。

驾着赤豹啊紧跟文狸，辛夷为车啊桂花饰旗。披着石兰啊结着杜衡，而且又折枝鲜花啊聊寄相思。

竹林深处啊暗无天日，道路险峻啊独自来迟。

孤身一人啊伫立山巅，云海茫茫啊浮游卷舒。

山色幽暗啊白昼如夜，东风狂舞啊神灵降雨。

我痴情等你啊忘却归去，红颜凋谢啊怎能永葆花季？

我在山间采撷益寿的灵芝，岩石磊磊啊葛藤四处缠绕。

抱怨公子啊怅然忘却归去，你思念我啊却没空到来。

山中人儿就像杜若般芳洁，口饮石泉啊头顶松柏。（心念公子啊暗自沉吟）

你想我啊是真是假。

雷声滚滚啊细雨蒙蒙，猿鸣啾啾啊夜色沉沉。风声飒飒啊落木萧萧，思慕公子啊独自悲伤。)

 

I use the above ancient song to call my Vietnamese Ngai spirit together with the Thai Phi Phop. Personally I think they work well together as the Ngai spirits are mainly of animals origin while the Phi Phop are of plant or human origin… At least they appear to me in that way.

 

The Mysterious Lushan Magic (廬山法)

 

 

Lushan (廬山) is said to be one of the famous mountain in China located in the northern part of Jiangxi province (江西). Not many people realize that there is a rarely known magical system being practiced here.

 

Personally I would call this system “Taoist mountainous school” because the practitioners will need to call upon all 5 mountain gods to bestow them power. All the complete mountain gods are:

 

·         Lu (盧)

·          Lee (李)

·         Xiao (孝)

·         Jin (金)

·         Fo (佛)

 

Their corresponding mountains are:

 

·         In the center is Lushan (廬山)

·         In the west is Caoyanshan (曹巖)

·         In the north is Fenglaishan (逢萊山)

·         In the south is Kunlunshan (昆侖山)

·         In the east is Wudangshan(武當山)

 

The Lushan magic is as with all other Taoist and Lupan magic systems, comprises of many rituals: there are magic for attacking opponents, for healing and for exorcism. The practitioners of this system will need to perform a simple ritual to invite the five mountain gods to bestow power. Ideally it is best to carry out this exercise on a mountain top but I guess we can visualize that we are standing on top of Lushan and recite the below mantra once for each five directions:

 

老君學法終南山，四大名山聽我言；

敬請諸神下天界，用心用意接下山。

 

(The elder learnt magic at Zhongnan Mountain, listen to me thou all four mountains;

I invite gods to descend from the heaven, whole heartedly I fetch them down the mountains.)

 

The practitioners should blow a breath onto their palms after one recitation and wipe down from heads to toe signifying that the power of gods descend from heaven to earth. This is quite different with the Thai and Malay magic where the energy of the earth is lead from the earth into the practitioners’ body. If one is persistent and continue the practice for 100 days, he or she will be ready for the more advance magical practices. Otherwise this person will still feel energetic and refreshing hence improving his or her own health.

 

I think the Lushan magic has a very close link with the Yao, Lupan and the Vietnamese Ngai magic but will need to perform further research.