lindsay
August 1st, 2006, 02:10 PM
Be very careful this month. Here's a story from the Los Angeles Times explaining why:
"Taiwanese endure anxiety during ‘ghost month’
"Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwanese are ghost-crazy – or rather, crazy to avoid them. A recent survey of Taipei college students found that 87 percent were believers, and some say that could be on the low side.
"Some people admit to altering their behavior to minimize the chances of being attacked by rogue spirits.
"This is especially true during midsummer “ghost month” – the seventh month of the lunar calendar – when the gates of the underworld open and the living delay weddings, medical procedures and even swimming because of the potential for bad luck.
"This year, because of a calendar anomaly, there a double ghost month, from July 25 to September 21, extending the time the spooks are wandering around. Facing the prospect of a long drought, some wedding halls are cutting their ghost-month prices 15 percent.
"Construction crews apologize to wandering ghosts before blowing up mountains or moving dirt. Police occasionally suggest that an unsolved crime is complicated by “unexplained phenomenon.”
"And courts in Taiwan periodically hear cases in which defendants claim that ghosts told them to commit crimes, although these arguments don’t get very far.
All this makes sense when you consider the state of the world today. It seems our governments and would-be rulers have been intent on creating as many ghosts as possible. No sign of flagging enthusiasm for killing yet. Especially among the religious. Not hard to suppose most of the new ghosts are angry (I would be!) - not difficult to imagine they require something from us, the living.
You know, of course, the oldest divination records frequently appeal to the dead for information and favors. Who is talking to you through the Yi? The Chinese have always supposed it was the dead. And now there are so many more of them. How will that affect divination? There may be a lot of "static", confusion, even malice. Be careful.
This month you may literally get a reading from hell.
Lindsay
"Taiwanese endure anxiety during ‘ghost month’
"Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwanese are ghost-crazy – or rather, crazy to avoid them. A recent survey of Taipei college students found that 87 percent were believers, and some say that could be on the low side.
"Some people admit to altering their behavior to minimize the chances of being attacked by rogue spirits.
"This is especially true during midsummer “ghost month” – the seventh month of the lunar calendar – when the gates of the underworld open and the living delay weddings, medical procedures and even swimming because of the potential for bad luck.
"This year, because of a calendar anomaly, there a double ghost month, from July 25 to September 21, extending the time the spooks are wandering around. Facing the prospect of a long drought, some wedding halls are cutting their ghost-month prices 15 percent.
"Construction crews apologize to wandering ghosts before blowing up mountains or moving dirt. Police occasionally suggest that an unsolved crime is complicated by “unexplained phenomenon.”
"And courts in Taiwan periodically hear cases in which defendants claim that ghosts told them to commit crimes, although these arguments don’t get very far.
All this makes sense when you consider the state of the world today. It seems our governments and would-be rulers have been intent on creating as many ghosts as possible. No sign of flagging enthusiasm for killing yet. Especially among the religious. Not hard to suppose most of the new ghosts are angry (I would be!) - not difficult to imagine they require something from us, the living.
You know, of course, the oldest divination records frequently appeal to the dead for information and favors. Who is talking to you through the Yi? The Chinese have always supposed it was the dead. And now there are so many more of them. How will that affect divination? There may be a lot of "static", confusion, even malice. Be careful.
This month you may literally get a reading from hell.
Lindsay