May 18 2008
Satan’s Taoists overtake Diner. Film at 11
My buddy Rabbit and I live across the street from each other. We used to work within five blocks of each other and take the train home together, but she recently started a new job so now we meet up on the weekend and go to the diner together. (We'll also geek out and play board games like Talisman on Saturday nights.) Usually, it'll be me, Rabbit, and her girlfriend Duck, and the three of us will go to a diner down the block from us on the other side of Queens Boulevard (aka THE BOULEVARD OF DEATH). More often than not the three of us wind up talking about religion. It being Sunday morning after all...
Now Rabbit and I were both raised Catholic - she of the Hong Kong colonial variety, and me of the Irish/Italian scourge yourself with a rock variety. Duck on the other hand was raised in a Taoist household of the folk variety. This isn't the Tao of Pooh cushy Westernized variety, but the 'I can talk to spirits, drink draino and be unharmed, and cast magic spells' variety. Her dad talked to spirits.
I repeat: Her dad talked to spirits.
He made them do things. They entered his body. Sometimes the family would be eating dinner and her dad would stop eating all of the sudden and say in another voice: "Tell your cousin not to go to the hospital today." The dad could also perform various feats of endurance and see ghosts. Duck remains skeptical but she has seen some weird shit. I am certainly quick to point to a bio-physical cause for these things. But still -- fascinating stuff.
One thing that came up in the conversation is the fact that Folk Magic, and in particular Black Magic, is widely practiced by criminals involved in the drug trade. The whole Golden Triangle is a necromancer's playground. Gangs will resort to sorcery in order to achieve their ends: curses, spiritual combat, guardian demons -- the whole bit. Overall it was a very interesting conversation, but I was a bit pissed 'cause the waitress refused to come over and refill our coffee cups.
You'd think she was scared of us or something.
Now Rabbit and I were both raised Catholic - she of the Hong Kong colonial variety, and me of the Irish/Italian scourge yourself with a rock variety. Duck on the other hand was raised in a Taoist household of the folk variety. This isn't the Tao of Pooh cushy Westernized variety, but the 'I can talk to spirits, drink draino and be unharmed, and cast magic spells' variety. Her dad talked to spirits.
I repeat: Her dad talked to spirits.
He made them do things. They entered his body. Sometimes the family would be eating dinner and her dad would stop eating all of the sudden and say in another voice: "Tell your cousin not to go to the hospital today." The dad could also perform various feats of endurance and see ghosts. Duck remains skeptical but she has seen some weird shit. I am certainly quick to point to a bio-physical cause for these things. But still -- fascinating stuff.
One thing that came up in the conversation is the fact that Folk Magic, and in particular Black Magic, is widely practiced by criminals involved in the drug trade. The whole Golden Triangle is a necromancer's playground. Gangs will resort to sorcery in order to achieve their ends: curses, spiritual combat, guardian demons -- the whole bit. Overall it was a very interesting conversation, but I was a bit pissed 'cause the waitress refused to come over and refill our coffee cups.
You'd think she was scared of us or something.
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