Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 2: Supernatural Babylon
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 5: Destruction in the Year of the Boar
An Explanation of the Magic System
Spirit Possession and Mediums: The practice of temporarily causing divine or evil spirits to inhabit a person in order to receive revelations or prophecies is called “spirit possession.” When the spirit of the dead is summoned, it is also called “spirit summoning.” The people who become vessels for the summoned spirits are called mediums. Mediums are typically children or young adults with special temperaments and strong sensitivity to spiritual sorcery.
Shikigami: Also simply called shiki. Said to be invisible demons employed by sorcerers, or artificial humanoid assistants created by sorcerers. When cursing someone, this fabricated spiritual creature is sent against the target. The shikigami possesses that person and takes their life. A cursed person cannot be saved unless they immediately ask a more powerful sorcerer to send the shikigami back at their opponent.
Dōman Seiman: A protective charm in the shape of a pentagram. It exists almost universally throughout the world and was originally used to divert the evil eye. (In this context, “evil eye” means an eye possessing the magical power to kill people by staring at them.) It has power similar to the mirror used to defeat the Gorgon Medusa in Greek mythology.
In Japan, it is generally called the Seimei Seal, after Abe no Seimei, the greatest sorcerer in history and the founder of the Tsuchimikado family. Dōman Seiman is the name for the talisman used in and around Kii Province; Dōman refers to the famous sorcerer Ashiya Dōman, and Seiman to Abe no Seimei.
Curses: A curse technique involves possession by animals, developed in China and widely used in Japan until around the Heian period. Magical essence is extracted by special methods from creatures with magical power or poison, such as snakes, scorpions, and insects. This concoction is then drunk or carried by the cursed person. In ancient Japan, curses were so popular that prohibitions against them were often issued by the government.
Listening Mirror: One method of prophecy and precognition using the clairvoyant spiritual power of mirrors. It was used in China. There are many other variations, such as reflecting one’s face in a well with a mirror sunk into it. In the West, a similar tradition appears in the fairy tale Snow White. Mirrors were and are seen as objects for divination because they reflect the truth.
Worm Within: One of the demons appearing in Chinese magical beliefs. It enters the human body and sometimes speaks from within. It was also regarded as a kind of possessing spirit.
Ichibodō: A secret society of sorcerers that gained influence in northern China in the nineteenth century. Its aims included cursing enemies to death, communion with the divine realm, and the quest for immortality. At that time, China had many similar magical secret societies.
Nine Hand Seals: A traditional method of warding off evil. An incantation is recited while lines are drawn with the fingers, as though forming a grid. Four vertical and five horizontal lines create many “eyes,” causing the gaze of demons with the evil eye to become fixed upon them. While the demon counts the number of “eyes,” one may flee or take countermeasures.
Qimen Dunjia: A Chinese divinatory art. A form of directional sorcery used to hide oneself or avoid disaster in accordance with the movements of yin and yang (see below).
Divine and Demonic Sorcery: With the aid of nine celestial bodies of heaven and eight trigrams of the earth, it determines which cardinal direction is auspicious or inauspicious at a given time. It is also used to disappear without a trace or to lure enemies into traps.
Feng Shui: An ancient Chinese art of geomantic divination. It was transmitted to Japan, where it came to be called the study of house physiognomy or tomb physiognomy. A magical, comprehensive civil engineering technology that makes the fullest use of natural energy to create cities in which the living and the dead can peacefully coexist. Its basic principle is to read the forms of mountains and rivers and the flow of wind in order to find channels of life energy called “earth veins” or “dragon veins.”
Yin-Yang and the Five Elements: A cosmogenic system that establishes the fundamental principles of all magic in China and Japan, including sorcery and feng shui. Originally, the yin-yang system and the five elements system were separate. Yin and yang is a doctrine explaining the workings of the world through the positive and negative activity of qi, the primordial substance of all things; more recently, it has also been called the Tao (Way). When this was introduced to Japan and used for divining the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of events, it was called sorcery or yin-yang sorcery.
As for the five elements, all beings in the universe possess spiritual or material qualities. The Chinese five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each of these elements interacts with the others, either nourishing or overcoming one other element. For example, wood burns and becomes fire (a compatible combination; fire nourishes wood), while wood absorbs nutrients from the earth (an incompatible combination; wood overcomes earth). Such relationships determine the compatibility of things, people, and even dates. I Ching, a representative divinatory art, is also founded on these principles.
Astronomy and Calendrical Methods: In Japan, astronomy was an art for discerning changes in the heavens and interpreting auspiciousness and misfortune. It was always paired with sorcery. Calendrical methods likewise led to magical techniques for selecting dates and differ in many respects from modern astronomy and calendrical studies.
Fox Possession: A supernatural fox spirit that possesses people. In the past, there were many “fox handlers” who caused others to fall into a state of fox possession.
In the Kantō region, there is a strange spirit called a pipe fox (kudagitsune), comparable to Shikoku’s inugami. This fox is small and can be kept inside a bamboo pipe, hence its name. When cursing someone, the fox is released from the tube. Only very skilled sorcerers were able to return the fox to its tube after it was released.
Ritual Abstinence: A practice performed for a fixed period of time in order to ward off demons, curses, and various misfortunes. During this period, one exercises restraint, observes taboos, and recites prayers (sutras). The period of mourning observed at funerals today, as well as giving up favorite things until one’s wish is granted, may broadly be considered forms of ritual abstinence.
Chinese Alchemy: While Western alchemy chiefly aimed to transform base metals into precious metals, Chinese alchemy emphasized refining elixirs that granted immortality. Later, around the thirteenth century, Chinese ideas of alchemical practice were transmitted to Europe as well, becoming a driving force in transforming Western alchemy into a system for pursuing longevity.
Doshakaji Ritual: The act of scattering spiritually empowered soil, including soil from Mount Kōya, over corpses, graves, or bones, and purifying them by chanting prayers (mantras or sutras). In secular practice, this soil was also swallowed to heal illnesses and wounds. According to the Dutchman Isaac Titsingh, doshakaji was also practiced among foreigners in Nagasaki.
Ise Face Powder: This is not connected with magic, but is a form of cinnabar (mercury sulfide). Similar substances are used for moxibustion, and especially used to induce abortions.
Diagram of the Eight Formations: Included among the techniques of Qimen Dunjia. Chinese tradition claims that it was devised by Zhuge Liang in the literary epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Huge boulders are arranged in the Diagram of the Eight Formations, into which enemies are lured. The interior resembles a maze that confuses enemies.
Bow Hook Talisman: An implement used in magical medical practices that once flourished on the Korean Peninsula. A Taoist possessing spiritual power writes the kanji character for “bow” on paper, burns it to ashes, and has the sick person consume them. The Bow Hook Talisman was said to cure all diseases. Treatment of illness through talismans was supposedly practiced by the leaders of the Tonghak secret society.
Sword Dance and Soaring into the Sky Technique: This was a secret art of the Korean Tonghak secret society. The practitioner holds the legendary treasured Ryūsen Sword and dances while singing special incantations. The sword bearer can then fly, and the sharp blade of the Ryūsen Sword will strike down enemies. Koreans of the time sought to ward off Japanese and Western imperialist invasions and corruption within Korea’s imperial court by using this technique.
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