Conjuration With Umbrellas (雨伞招魂术)

In Taoist ritual, both soul banner (招魂幡) and umbrella can be used to summon a lost soul. The difference is that conjuration with a soul banner is a more formal way to call up a lost soul and it is used by orthodox Taoist mainly for deliverance services. Many Chinese believe if a person died outside of his/her house due to accident, then his/her soul must be summoned using a soul banner together with his/her worn clothing or the person’s soul may become wandering spirit and haunts the place where he/she meets his/her doom.

On the other hand, a sorcerer would prefer to use an umbrella or more to perform soul summoning rituals for various purposes. Below method is a fairly simple but dangerous way to gather lost souls of a place that I would like to share here. Of course, the below method can be used to summon the soul of a person if the sorcerer’s mind power is strong enough:

First, a person need to buy or make 8 numbers of umbrellas of any sizes and arranged as shown above. He/she also need to gather some joss paper (溪钱) for opening the portal to the spiritual realm; and of course the standard incense, candles, food offerings etc.

At the place of interest, the umbrellas are opened up and propped up as shown and the person should stand in the centre holding some joss papers. When the time is right, the person must stand in the centre of the umbrella array holding some joss papers. He/she should first walk to the east and throw some joss papers into the air and shouts: “I am opening the spiritual gate towards the east!” After that the person should take an about turn and return to the centre. He/she should do the same with the south, west and north.

When all of the four directions are done, the sorcerer should sit in the centre and pay attention to the umbrellas. After a while, if the spirits give reactions to the summoning; then one or more of the umbrellas will move or topple. At this point, this ritual is considered to be successful. The sorcerer should quickly walk in a counter clockwise direction starting from the south to collect the fallen umbrella(s) and close it. The sorcerer must walk a full circle and then take the nearest exit made by the toppled umbrella.

It is believed that one or more souls are trapped in the umbrella(s), at this point the person can bring the umbrella back for further ritual, or throw it into the river to get rid of the spirits.

The directions of the umbrellas will give a tell-tale signs of the gender of the spirits too:

North – middle age man

Northeast – young man

East – elder man

Southeast – elder woman

South – middle age woman

Southwest – granny

West – young woman

Northwest – grandpa

However, if this umbrella ritual is used to catch the soul of an enemy, then it is sufficed just to face the direction of the person’s house using one umbrella.

Lastly, only try this ritual if you think you can handle the spirits please.

German Doctor Vs Lord Of Death (德国医生与阎王)

There is an old grave situated behind now abandoned old German consulate at Chongqing (重庆), Sichuan Province, China. It is said the grave belonged to a German doctor by the name Dr. P. Assmy who died around 1800 if I have not mistaken.

According to a local legend, when the good old German doctor arrived at Chongqing; there were many people suffered from epidemic. So this doc used his modern medical knowledge of that time to save his Chinese patients; and as expected many lives were saved. The local people were certainly grateful of this kind hearted doc but by saving their lives. On the other hand, by saving lives; the doc also indirectly offended the ‘Lord of Death’ and this god of dead vowed to settle the numbers of lives that the doc has saved.

After the death of the doc, he was buried just behind the old German consulate that was built on a hilltop. There is a rocky lane that leads down the slope of the hill and it was once the main passage way that connected the Chongqing town and nearby village. As the story goes, many people mysteriously fell to their death when using this lane at night. The reason is that the Lord of Death wanted to take back the lives the good old German doctor saved. So, unless the number of casualties equals that of the death toll; the Lord of Death will not cease.

Luckily, the place is now more or less abandoned and the lane is no longer in used.

My local Taoist bro told me that anyone who passed through the lane should pray at the good doc’s grave for help and protection as this will protect the person’s soul from being taken by the Lord of Death. Since no one really knows what is the exact number of lives the Lord of Death is looking for, so it is best just to pray than sorry…

Perhaps this is one of the more interesting spiritual conflicts between the East and the West; where the Eastern Lord of Death vs the Western God… As to the question of who will win this spiritual tug of war; maybe no one really knows!

Love Magic Using Shy Plant (含羞草爱情术)

Do you know that shy plant leaf can be a potent ingredient in casting love magic? But think twice as the person you love now may be your pain-in-your-ass later! Do you want to live in limbo for the rest of your life?

The leafs of a shy plant can be used to cast love magic specifically for those marrying couple:

First one of the couple must get one hair from his/her partner and then tie a knot.

Then this person must wait until a full moon night.

At that time, he/she must go outside under the moon light and stands in front of a shy plant (Mimosa Pudica).

By holding the entangled hairs, the spell caster should make a wish that the two persons should live happily after the marriage.

After that, the hair is placed in the centre of one of the shy leaf and the leaf would shut automatically.

At this point, the person must quickly use a scissors to cut the leaf that holds the hairs.

After cutting the leaf, the person should immediately wrap the leaf with a piece of red cloth and tie the cloth up with a piece of red string.

Now, quickly bring the wrapped leaf back to the house and put it a box or container; and place it on one’s altar if he/she has one. If not, just hide the shy leaf in a secret place.

This love magic is very good if a marrying couple can do it together if they vowed to live and die together. But just a word of warning though:

Please think if this person is the one you love and wanted to live together for the rest of your life; otherwise you may find difficulty to get rid of him/her.

Of course, the magic will not work if you just want to have fun.

Please avoid fooling with other person’s life; or you will spoil your chances to get to know your soul mate.

Hachiojo Castle (八王子遗迹)

An old man told me that it is best just to walk up the trail and not walk down. Because walking down will not only bring bad luck; but spirits in the forest may also follow the person back.

The Hachiojo castle is one of eight renowned historical sites in Japan but unofficially; this castle is believed to be haunted.

Actually, Hachiojo Castle is built on the peak of a hill. Normally hill top castles are mainly built during the warring period for defence purposes; and as with all historical warfare incidents in Japan, there would be many casualties. The worse scenario is that if the castle is concurred by the enemies, the soldiers would either be killed or committed suicide. It was said that this Hachiojo castle has seen a horrible war involving 20,000 strong men.

According to history, the Hachiojo Castle has a tragic ending. Hojo Ujiyasu (北条氏康) asked his 3^rd son, Hojo Ujiteru (北条氏照) to build the Hachioja Castle to defend against the attack of Takeda Shingen (武田信玄). About 3 years after the castle is built, Takeda Shingen attacked the Hojo family. At that time Hojo Ujiteru escaped to Odiwara Sastle (小田原城) and the Hachiojo Castle was taken by the enemy. The defending generals were either committed suicide by harakiri (切腹) or died by then; and all women in the castle committed suicide. After the wall, Hachiojo Castle is abandoned until today.

It was said that the water of this waterfall turned red and flew for 3 days and 3 nights... And this waterfall is haunted!

As described by a description board at the site, when the Hachiojo Castle was concurred by Takeda Shingen, the generals and women committed suicide at a waterfall nearby. It was said that the water few from the waterfall was red in colour for 3 days and 3 nights.

There is a small incident that happened to me at the waterfall. I was some sort of lost while hiking to the waterfall. So, I waited for my friend to get me… And suddenly I heard the disembodied voice of a woman humming a song. It sounds like: “he.. He… HE… HE.. he…”

I thought it was the wind but later my pals told me that many people also heard the disembodied voice especially at night. Just as when we were talking at the waterfall, the voice was heard again and we all quickly left the place for good…

The Evil Ou-ba-sang (邪恶的欧巴桑)

My Japanese and Taiwanese friends call old busybody ladies as ‘ou-ba-sang’. Not so long ago, employment is a lifetime engagement just like marriage in Japan. A person’s first job would also be his/her last job naturally; switching employment was almost never heard of in those days. My friends did tell me about their experiences with an evil ou-ba-sang spirit during their stays in a hotel situated at a lake near Mount Fuji. You heard my words right: not just one friend, but many! I just list down some of the more exciting ones to share:

A couple stayed in the said hotel for a few nights during their honeymoon. During their last night, when they were soundly sleeping under a piece of thick blanket; the wife dreamed of an old lady came to her and pulled the blanket away and in a half-awaken state, she kept her eyes shut and continued to sleep. After a while, she shivered due cold and she thought it was her husband who had pulled the blanket all to himself during slumber. So, the lady tried to push her husband with her hands but maintained shut eyes. To the lady’s surprise, all her pushes have failed to reach her husband. It seems that her husband was not beside her… Reluctantly this lady opened her eyes and only to find herself sleeping in the hotel corridor outside of her room!

In the morning, a hotel housekeeping lady told the couple that the wife’s ordeal was caused by the restless spirit of an ou-ba-sang who worked under the previous hotel owner but committed suicide when the new owner took over the building and asked the ou-ba-sang to take early retirement. After all, the ou-ba-sang was already in her 70’s at that time.

A friend arranged a trip for his parents to visit Mount Fuji. It was a coincident that he booked the said hotel and his parents stayed on the second floor.

At night, my pal’s mother suddenly heard a voice whispering beside her ear: “Wake up and follow me…”

In a dreamy state, the mother opened her eyes and saw an ou-ba-sang standing beside her bed. She recalled later that she couldn’t resist the ou-ba-sang’s call and as the ou-ba-sang turned her back and walked towards the corridor while she followed the ou-ba-sang at the back. So, as my pal’s mom walked, and walked until she felt a sudden pain on her cheeks.

It was due to pains that the mom opened her eyes only to find her husband standing in front of her continued to slap on her cheeks. Before she come to her senses; her husband shouted: “Are you trying to jump down from the balcony?”

Only now the mom opened her eyes, she found herself standing at the edge of a railing under which was a deep ravine…

My pal said if it was not due to his dad, his mom would have jumped down from the second floor into the ravine… interestingly speaking, that was the place where the ou-ba-sang fell to her death many years ago… It seemed that she wanted someone to accompany her to stay in the hotel for all eternity…

Another Use Of Tofu (豆腐的妙用)

Obviously, tofu is a type of food that we consume or used in Asian cooking…

There is a Chinese saying: 吃人豆腐 which means ‘taking a lady’s advantage’.

In Taoist offering to spirits, tofu is a must item; and do you know that we can use tofu to attract ghosts?

The method is simple:

You will need a few pieces of big tofu, a bell, some incense sticks, joss papers, some flour or chalk and 1 ~ 5 pieces of soul banners (招魂幡).

You will also need at least 2 players including you; but best if you can get 5.

The best place to perform this game is in a cemetery or a known haunted place and the time should be after 9pm.

First, at the designated place and time, the tofu pieces are placed on the floor and 3~5 pieces of incense sticks are plugged into the tofu. After that, spread the flour/chalk around the tofu evenly. Then some joss papers are thrown into the air to open the spirit portal (开路).

One of the participant should hold the bell and sound the bell slowly and best if he/she could chant some mantra, this would tell the spirits that the food is served and they shall come ASAP.

While the companions hold the soul banners and walked towards the 4 directions slowly. If anyone feels his/her arms felt heavy; that is the sure sign that the spirits are gathering. There should be some wind or breeze too. At this point, the person who holds the soul banner should return to the starting point and plug the soul banner into the floor.

Now, everyone can start inspecting the surface of the flour/chalk and there should be some patterns that resembles footprints but the sizes could be smaller than the human feet.

There are many explanations to these mysterious patterns:

It could just be that the ground is wet and the flour/chalk that has absorbed the ground moisture and forms some interesting patterns. Whatever case that might be, please just treat this as a game if you chose to play it. Please also remember to burn away all of the banners and joss papers before returning. This is to prevent any spirits from following you back.

Dwarf Imperial Army (小皇军)

My pal Richard and his wife went to Japan for a tour and they stopped over at Osaka for a few days.

At the meantime, the couple stayed in a hotel beside a very famous noodle shop.

All went well and they enjoyed the sightseeing trip very much and only to return to their room to rest.

In the middle of the night, Richard faintly heard some thumping noise came from the left side of the room wall. He thought it was the noise of hot water pipe shaking; which is normal when the boiler has just heated up. So Richard continued to lie in the bed and tried to shut his eyes…

Then the thumping noise became more audible. Now the thumping noise resembles the marching noise of a troop of soldiers. It was ‘thump, thump, thump…’ sound of leather boots storming the ground in a rhythmic order. Slowly the ‘thump, thump, thump…’ became louder which caused Richard to fix his gaze on the left wall. Not long after that, he saw a trop of soldiers in WWII Imperial Army uniform marched out from the left wall. The soldiers were about 3 feet tall. They marched in the mid of the air and slowly passing Richard and his wife who were still lying in the bed.

Richard wanted to turn his body so that he could wake up his wife but he just couldn’t move or open his mouth. Some invisible force seemed to have taken control of him. So, Richard could only watch the dwarf Imperial Army procession passing him and his wife in the mid of the air.

Gradually, the procession entered into the wall on the right side. And row by row of ghostly Imperial Army disappeared into the opposite wall and as the last row of soldiers disappeared into the wall; so are their thumping sound of their boots…

Finally, the thumping noise subsided and Richard found the binding force on him has also gone. So he jumped out from the bed and rushed to inspect the walls on both sides of the room but he found no traces of any sort. Richard’s action stirred his wife from her slumber and she asked what Richard was doing. At this point, he could only squeeze out a bitter smile; he just couldn’t tell what he just saw to his wife. There was no sign or no proof whatsoever.

One afternoon when I happened to meet Richard in a coffee shop, he just poured the strange incidents onto me and wanted some explanation to the ghostly phenomena he saw in Osaka hotel.

Personally, I think what Richard saw was only a snap shot of images somehow ‘recorded’ from the past and this image was ‘released’ when the temperature, time and humidity are right. Since the ghostly figures did not react to Richard’s presence; it is safe to assume that they have no intelligence and they are just mirages of the past.