The Ofuda

Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see...

TRANSMIT - initiate the shinsha song - RECEIVE - initiate the musubi cadence - TAKE THE EVILS, DISASTERS, AND SINS - initiate the warding protocol - PURIFY THE SIX ROOTS OF MY SPIRIT - open the gates to shinkai - WITNESS - the Ofuda.

A kyonshi, one of the hungry dead, lies on the ground. A piece of paper stuck to its head. Pray the wind does not blow it away. Pray time does not eat the parchment. Ley lines are writing on the macro scale. Written letters are ley lines on the micro scale. The written prayer holds the monster down with the weight of a continent.

The ofuda. Issued by the Shinto shrines. Charms. Household amulets. Gofu and shinpu. Inscriptions of names - the names of Kami and the names of the shrines. Names have power. Lines of scrawl form circuitry. Casting spells is just the grammar of the cosmos. Grammar is the sorcery of language. Every dictionary a grimoire. It's all just spelling, spelling, spelling!

Kami, we call upon your names. Omoikane and Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu Omikami and Susanoo-no-mikoto and Sarutahiko Okami and Ryujin and Kotoamatsukami and Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Inari Okami and Hachiman and Tenjin and Suijin and Fujin and all of the spirits of land, sky, forces, and ancestors.

Scrawl their names upon the parchment, cloth, wood, and metal. Hang the talismans upon the pillar, the door, the ceiling. Nail them to the foreheads of the hungry dead. Defy the calamitous powers.

If the right sort of writing has the power to protect, it follows the wrong sort of writing has the power to harm. Eh, sweetling?