Mufti calls for law to govern practice of black magic

2009/12/17
By Mazlinda Mahmood

Malaysia-SHAH ALAM: Selangor mufti Datuk Mohd Tamyes Abdul Wahid wants a law enacted to govern the practice of magic, especially black magic. He said such a law is necessary to prevent the use of black magic by people who want to control their spouses and those who employ it for criminal activities

Tamyes said black magic practitioners and those who used magic for evil purposes were getting away with it as there was no law against it.

"Black magic is difficult to prove in court as the practice is abstract and cannot be proven by the five senses.

"Therefore, legal practitioners and the authorities must think of a suitable form of law to charge black magic practitioners in court," he said after launching a seminar entitled Muzakarah Pakar: Bentuk Sihir Pengasih dan Metodologi Diagnosis (Expert Seminar: Forms of Love Magic and Diagnosis Methodology) organised by the Selangor Mufti's Department here yesterday.

Tamyes said the resolutions from the seminar would be referred to the state Fatwa Committee for discussion before they are taken to the National Fatwa Committee.
He said the law on black magic could be included in the Syariah Criminal Enactment for offences committed by Muslims, while a new act must be created for non-Muslims.

One of the panellists, Datuk Dr Haron Din, said attention must be given towards having a legal provision to stop the use of black magic, especially among Muslims, as there is a pressing need for it based on the current situation.

He said black magic, which is against the precepts of Islam and would ultimately bring harm to its practitioners, is widely used for criminal activities, such as casting spells during robbery as has been reported in several jewellery heists recently.

"Criminals were said to have tapped a victim's back or blown cigarette smoke on a victim's face to cast a spell, making them unaware they are being robbed."

He said black magic practitioners usually have special rooms and use specific tools like an animal skull, rosary beads, incense, old weapons like parang, kris, sword, and yellow or blue cloth and these could be used as evidence by the prosecutors to charge them in court.

Haron proposed that black magic practitioners be charged under the Takzir law where the punishment for an offence would be up to a judge's discretion.

He said a charge under Takzir is easier as it only needs direct and indirect evidence compared with Hudud which needs proof without any doubt.

Haron added that the punishment could include jail and whipping according to syariah and banishment from the district.

The Himuro Mansion Haunting

UPDATE: In the ill-fated Paranormal Searchers 2014 investigation during several cell phone conversations. Dr Matt Adler had mentioned he had uncovered correspondence linking a one Miyuki Ishikawa to Himuro Mansion.  That she had lived briefly in Himuro before moving to Thailand and then finally to Venice, Lousiana.

In a strange coincidence Dr Matt Adler, the leader of  the Paranormal Searchers team had made that year an announcement that he had discovered the location of Himuro Mansion and had in 2011 conducted an investigation there.

In 2014 Dr Matt Adler and his team investigating Stuart House in Venice, Louisiana, were listed as missing.

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According to urban legend, lying just beyond the city of Tokyo is one of the most haunted locations in all of Japan. The exact location of the Himuro Mansion (or Himikyru Mansion as it is sometimes known) is widely unknown but the legend puts the mansion in a rocky region just beyond the city limits of Tokyo.

A Purported Image of the Himuro Mansion

The mansion is said to have been home to one of the most gruesome murders in modern Japanese history. Local lore has it that for generations, the Himuro family had participated in a strange, twisted Shinto ritual known as “The Strangling Ritual” in order to seal off bad karma from within the Earth, every half century or so.

The most popular version of the tale states that bad karma would emerge each December (other versions simply say “toward the end of the year”) from a portal on the Mansions grounds. In order to prevent this, a maiden was chosen at birth by the master of the household and isolated from the outside world in order to prevent her from developing any ties to the outside world, which would in turn, jeopardize the effect of the ritual.

On the day of the Strangling Ritual, the maiden was bound by ropes on her ankles, wrists, and neck. The ropes were attached to teams of oxen or horses to rip her limbs from her body, quartering her. The ropes used to bind her appendages would then be soaked in her blood and laid over the gateway of the portal. They believed that this would seal off the portal for another half century until the ritual had to be repeated.

During the last recorded Strangling Ritual it is said that the maiden had fallen in love with a man who tried to save her from the ritual. This “tie” to Earth tainted her blood and spirit and ruined the ritual altogether. Upon learning of the maidens love, the master took up his sword and brutally murdered all of his family members, before finally, in fear of what would soon happen, fell upon his own blade.

This is the basis of the “haunting” of the Himuro Mansion. Local legend has it that these souls of the murdered family wander the mansion attempting to repeat the failed ritual using whomever enters the abandoned building. Blood splashes on the walls are reportedly seen, as if they were flicked from the blade of a sword that had recently sliced through flesh. Many have reported seeing spirits and apparitions dressed completely in white, rinsing cloths and preparing the grounds for the ritual.

A Purported Image of the Himuro Mansion Hallway

Interest in the Himuro Mansion has peaked due to it’s inclusion into the back story of the popular game, Fatal Frame. Here is a quote from Makoto Shibata, Chief Producer of Fatal Frame, regarding the legend:

“In an area outside Tokyo, there lies a mansion in which it’s said seven people were murdered in a grisly manner. On the same property, there lie three detached residences that surround the mansion, all of which are rumored to have ties to the mansion’s troubled past. It’s said there is an underground network of tunnels that lay beneath the premises, but nobody knows who made these tunnels or what purpose they served. Many inexplicable phenomenons have been reported occurring on the property. Bloody handprints have been found splattered all over the walls. Spirits have been spotted on the premises… even in broad daylight. A narrow stairway leads to an attic where a spirit-sealed talisman is rumored to be locked away. Men have sought this talisman, only to be found later with their bodies broken and rope marks around their wrists. There’s a crumbling old statue of a woman in a kimono, but its head is missing. If you take a photo of a certain window, a young girl can be seen in the developed picture. These incidents have provoked fear in the people of Tokyo, and many believe that those who live near this area will become cursed. The deaths of those seven people are unexplained to this day.”

Now, the question is, did any of this really happen? Probably not. The core allure of this legend is also it’s silver bullet. If such a grisly murder did occur (sources put this between 30 and 80 years ago) in such recent times, where is the record?

It is highly unlikely that no police station or newspaper have records of this mass murder taking place just outside of Tokyo.

Regarding the mystery of the location, some believers have offered the notion that the Himuro family has once again taken ownership of the mansion and is currently living there.. but that conflicts with the legend in that all family members were supposedly murdered AND the “firsthand accounts” of events witnessed on the property by locals and researchers.

Another peculiarity of note is that Tecmo advertised the game in North America with the tagline: “Based on a true story,” but without on the original Japanese release. Because of this, some have theorized that the entire legend was fabricated by the game developers.

In conclusion, I have this to say:

Maybe there was a murder and all of this really happened, or maybe it’s somewhat more likely that it was made up by some creative game developers, but I don’t believe we’ll be finding out exactly what that truth is anytime soon .. so why not enjoy the legend of the Himuro Mansion for what it is? A good old fashioned, creepy urban legend.

Source

Nihon no Kuromajutsu: Japanese Black Magic

Original credit to http://www.xeper.org/australasia/japanese.html

Exploring Japanese Black Magic.

"Pyo (hand sign of the great diamond) The physical imitation of the diamond, symbol of the power of knowledge which transcends the worldly limitations, the (sign) is used to inspire personal power through the channelling of energy to the appropriate area of consciousness for the purpose at hand" Hayes: Ninja: Warrior Ways of Enlightenment. 1981.

Recently, I had the opportunity to question Mariko, a Japanese Setian about the Black Magic of her parent culture. I found the dialogue fascinating.

"This is an area ignored by most because of false assumptions that Asian magical and religious systems are all Right-Hand Path based. This is due to the unfortunate tendency of Western anthropologists and magicians to insist on projecting their own cultural biases in publishing scholarly papers on Japanese traditions."

"A recent readers' column in a Japanese occult magazine contained a letter from a reader who wanted to know how he can obtain a copy of the _Holy Bible_, as he was told by a friend that one can only purchase them from a Christian church and there was not one within a reasonable traveling distance. The editor's response was "you should be able to special order it from your local bookstore." This would be unheard of in Australia or the United States; where there are as many churches as MacDonald's restaurants." Christian missionaries were severly frowned upon in their early contact with Japanese society. Some enterprising public servant thought up a good way to weed out closet Christians by creating sculptures of the cross to stamp on. Some in museums are very worn.

Although Mariko now lives in the United States, she has regular contact with Setians in Japan. "There was also a little known LHP group known as the Blue Wolves, who practice a syncretic LHP system based on British and Germanic traditions, The head of this group published an introductory book on Black Magic in 1989 in Japanese, in which the Temple of Set and Dr. Aquino are briefly mentioned. The copy I have is 12th printing, published in 1992, so the group may not be around anymore. The "Blue Wolves" (or "Seirodan" in Japanese) book on Black Magic was written by Nagare Chiaki. According to his biography, he was born in 1933 --- that makes him 64 years old. He was born in Tokyo, attended Tokyo University, worked as a writer and copy editor, studied astrology at Cambridge University, and has published numerous books. This one seems to be the only one on Black Magic, however. The Publisher is Futami (Tokyo)." (see picture of Kuromajutsu below).

"In the wake of the Aum Shinrikyo subway gas incident, the negative publicity thrown onto "cults" has made it difficult for many groups, I am told." There are right-hand path groups, such as the OTO, Golden Dawn, and IOT initiates in Tokyo, and the Left-Hand Path is gradually becoming better represented.

"The LHP tradition is hidden in Japan. Dr. Stephen E. Flowers has a section in _The Lords of the Left-Hand Path_ pertaining to esoteric LHP Buddhist traditions. I consider esoteric teachings of Old Shinto to be LHP as well. Not much of it has been published, let alone translated into English, but the teachings are alive in some martial arts traditions. For instance, Ueshiba Morihei (in Japanese, last name is first, followed by first name), the renowned Aikido practitioner, based his system on esoteric Shinto teachings. In addition, Ninjutsu, in my opinion, is *the* school for LHP practitioners, incorporating extensive Lesser Black Magic and Greater Black Magic training. The particular school Bujinkan (literal translation: Hall of the Warrior Gods) is currently headed by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, 34th Grandmaster of the Togakure-ryu (literal translation: Hidden Door). _Mind of the Ninja_ by Kirtland C. Peterson is a good open source to glean some aspects of this, although his book emphasizes mikkyo (esoteric Buddhism)."

Another Setian Black Magician who is practicing Ninjutsu emphasized to me that although Ninjutsu may have it's Left- Hand Path aspects, most practitioners would probably use such comments as a good excuse to use such a speaker as a "practice-dummy"!

That said, one Ninja theorist, Peterson (1986: 211) writes that "regardless of which way you turn, the Ninja represent the Devil incarnate" - and further, that the Devil "also has many positive attributes" - this puts the Ninja firmly in the antinomian field. There is an intruiging chapter on Ninja magic in Turnbull's "Ninja" (1992). He mentions magical transformations, learning magic from spiders and the connections of ninja with the tengu - mythological crows. Another ninja magical techniques is the nine kuji-in hand postures with their related mantras and concepts.

As for other Asian magical traditions, says Mariko, if you track the development of various martial arts systems (or fine arts such as calligraphy or dance), you will inevitably run into esoteric traditions or secret societies tied into them. This is because most of the martial arts were, at one time or another, suppressed, and even modern practices of certain arts are considered antinomian. The excerpt of the Triad initiation ceremony in Peter Houston's _Tongs, Gangs, and Triads_ is worth mentioning for historical purposes. It recites the 18 military arts developed at the Shao Lin Temple and their correlating weapons. In much of the USA, and Australia mere possession of most of those weapons are illegal, although it is said you can purchase them in Chinatown. Mariko asked me to stress that neither she nor the Temple of Set endorses the aquisition of banned weapons.

Another tradition adaptable to Left-Hand Path ideas is Butoh: probably one of the most antinomian dance expression existing in Japan today. The literal translation of the art form is "Dark World Dance Steps".

Mariko sees similarities in Japanese magical systems with black magical systems such as the Runes. "Where the runic tradition meets Old Shinto is most interesting. There is a English publication called _The Essence of Aikido: Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba_ compiled by John Stevens. Ueshiba is of course, the reknowned founder of Aikido, which is basically a martial art form embodying some principles of Shinto. Those who have studied the runes would immediately recognize the galdr and the way the teachings are presented in doka or waka, the Japanese equivalent of rune poems. Aikido has an advantage for the English speaking magical researcher as more information is available regarding Aikido in English.

There is Black Magic in Japan, and seekers such as Mariko are bringing these traditions to life. One of the main benefits of doing so is overthrowing the silly idea that Asian philosophies are not self-conscious, or all emphasise denial or disintegration of the self. This is far from true. The discerning magician may find many tools in Japanese magic to aid in the Quest, whether it be the arts of invisibility, dance, combat, stealth, transformation and antinomianism.

Bibliography & Further Reading.

• Chiaka, Nagare. (1992). Kuromajutsu (Black Magic). Futami, Tokyo.
• Flowers, Stephen E. (1997) "Lords of the Left-Hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent". Runa-Raven Press, TX, USA.
• Hatsumi, M. (1981). Ninjutsu History and Tradition. Unique Publications, Hollywood USA.
• Hayes, Stephen. (1981) "Ninja: Vol. 2. Warrior Ways of Enlightenment", Ohara Publications, USA.
• Petersen, Kirtland. (1986), "Mind of the Ninja", Contemporary Books, Chicago, USA.
• Stevens, John. (1999) "The Essence of Aikido: Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba", Kodansha International. Japan.
• Turnbull, Stephen. (1992), "Ninja: The True Story of Japan's Secret Warrior Cult", Firebird Books, NY, USA.

Mherhy Cthulmhas!