The ceremony we will be doing during “ghost month” is basically a soul releasing and healing ceremony, which also offers the opportunity for the dead souls to ordain and become a Taoist of Saam Law too. Here we will explain how it works and what the ceremony involves.
First of all, the ceremony can be done on a big or small scale, depending on the disciple’s knowledge and level, etc. However, the main goal and principle doesn’t change. It all involves 3 major parts:
- Channeling and summoning a bunch of dead souls
- Giving them the treatment and help
- Sending them off and guiding them to go to where they want to go
The dead souls do get a chance to ordain into Saam Law at the end, and they can choose to take it or not. If they do want to ordain and become a Taoist, then they will be guided to go into your altar, being governed by the ground altar (ground God and Landlord will take care of them), and they will become a worker in your altar system. As you cultivate the altar throughout your life, they also get to be there, working and earning their “ticket” to go to Dai Law Tin. When you (the altar owner) die, then they will be also transferred over and be reborned in Dai Law Tin. What makes them deserve the ticket if they never contributed to the lineage and to the Tao? Well, they get a lifetime of being a member of your altar, working for the altar, and that’s why! Any dead souls that you have helped who wants to transition to the DLT side will all need to EARN their ticket; they cannot just be beamed over there magically.
For a smaller scale, let’s say you just saw a roadkill deer, and you know there is a dead soul already. What you can do is connect to it, and do some simple things such as doing the Wong Sung spell 往生咒 and such, or even just the jing spells for the dead soul. Then after you are done, you will disconnect, and the dead soul will already be better with your help. With your help, they will at least cycle better and not just get “stuck” at that stage.
For our BIG ceremony, there will be a straight flag (Faan 幡) involved, which is used for summoning a big group of souls to your place. Once you have the Faan, you will summon a specific group of dead souls for joining the treatment. Your Faan will be taken care of by the Landlord, who will have the power to grab in the souls and get them treated later on. We will have another altar setup for the ghosts, with offerings and even some MM for them. After the ceremony and chanting is done, we burn off the Faan and release the dead souls, and they will get their final chance to ordain.
For a Taoist, if you can make that many dead souls ordain and get into your altar to work, that is a big TE, and also a big upgrade in your altar’s working force. This also means that your magic power at the altar is growing rapidly, especially if you do this ceremony every year, or whenever there are massive deaths going on that have a linkage to where you live or where it matters to you. Remember that doing the ceremony and offering the ordain is one thing, but whether or not they want to actually ordain is another thing. If your altar sucks, who wants to be there to suffer? Therefore, what attracts the souls to ordain will be the quality of your home, your altar, and yourself (including how much you feed the altar) and such.
For all disciples, including newbies, if you DO happen to bang into any deaths on the road or anywhere that you might be, it is always good to do something for them and release the souls from its suffering state. If you really don’t know anything yet, the best way is to clamp your palm together at the chest level, and then bow and say Tai Yuet Gau Fu Tin Juen 太乙救苦天尊, which is the name of one of the deities who takes care of death, and let the deity deal with it for you.
