Fox Sorcerer excerpt

http://www.extasybooks.com/the-eternal-fox-sorcerer/

Ashiya Doman rushed toward the cave, which was their meeting place. He cursed his faith in the demons. What had that devil Vatapi done? The day seemed extraordinarily dry, and he was relieved when he finally veered off the road and started into the wooded area. The trees made it dark and brooding. Fear began to tamp down the rage that was bubbling in his breast. He realized that he could do nothing against the demon, but just remembering his helpless anguish as the demon quaffed the contents of the vial made his anger blot out his sanity.
He had concealed the opening of the cave with branches and leaves. As he snatched them away, he smelled the vile odor of the demon. It was a stench similar to that of a snake, but with undertones of decay and something indescribably worse. He heard the demon’s rasping breath and rage welled up in him.
“Explain!” he screamed.
The oni Vatapi was leaning against the wall of the cave eating the leg of some animal—or was it a human? He scratched the place between his massive horns with a hand that sported horrifically long and sharp yellowing nails. He wore bright red hakama trousers and a sort of vest that was decorated with what appeared to be human nails and teeth. He smiled, letting the blood drip from his fangs.
“Ah, so you come to complain. Well, I did what you wanted and gave Abe no Seimei the poison.”
Doman was trembling with rage. “Then why does he live?”
The oni shrugged. “It is poison for us demons. Abe no Seimei is one of us, you know, but he is also one of you.”
“What do you mean by that? What did you give him?” Ashiya sputtered.
“I thought the nectar would kill him. It kills demons. I told you, that is why I did not take it for myself. You wanted him dead, and that was the only way, but it seems that he is equally human. The nectar made him immortal. You should have considered that.”
“But the nectar was for me! It was so that I could become immortal, not him! And then why did you drink the poison?” Doman’s voice was sore from screaming.
“It is poison to humans and animals. Demons can drink it and it will extend our lives at least twice. It was really quite good.”
“If you suspected that Abe no Seimei might survive drinking the nectar, then why did you not give him the poison, so that I might have the nectar still? You idiot!”
The demon’s rumbling laughter filled the cave. He roared with amusement. “Poor Doman, you are the idiot. Did you think I would trust you to live up to your agreement? You scheme and plot against an innocent man. How can I have faith that you would not do the same to me? Look at you! You are so feeble that you can barely stand. Your teeth are falling out and your balding head shines in the sun like a polished copper pot. If you had drunk the nectar, it would not have made you young. You would have had to be immortal in your present body—an eternal geezer. I was doing you a kind of favor. Anyway, we demons feel a sort of kinship with the half demons like Abe no Seimei—mostly because you humans despise us so much.” He took a savage bite from the leg he’d been gnawing on, and spit a large piece of cartilage in Doman’s direction. He beat his chest and roared, causing Doman to flee for his life.

The Eternal Fox Sorcerer--Abe no Seimei

http://www.devinedestinies.com/the-eternal-fox-sorcerer/

 The fox spirit is revealed in its shadow—Japanese folk wisdom.

     

    Andre finally learns the dreaded truth, the secret of how Abe no Seimei became the eternal fox sorcerer. He also ends up entering into a pact he didn’t expect. He is shocked when Seimei insists on going back home with Andre, who doesn’t know how he will deal with a thousand-year-old man in his own world. Will Seimei’s demon associates crash the plane? Will his mother, a hereditary miko shaman woman, guess the truth of Seimei? He is too frightened to think of the possibilities, but he is also ecstatic to think that they can be together. When Seimei decides to accompany Andre to see his Harvard advisor, the situation turns dire. Seimei reveals to him that the man he thought was his professor may actually be the reincarnation of his archenemy, Ashiya Doman. Will Andre and Seimei survive the encounter?

Yurei--Other Kinds of Ghosts in Japan

Another kind of Japanese ghost is the “Ghost Mother,” the spirit of a dead mother who returns to care for her living child. There are many stories from various areas of Japan telling of ghosts who may, for example, buy sweets for their babies and young children. The mother’s tie to her child allows her to remain to care for it. She is a benevolent figure, as long as the child is not harmed by someone, such as an angry father or stepmother, at which time she may become enraged.

Malevolent ghosts are another sort of ghost. Quite often they cause mischief and destruction. The ghosts of people who have died while trying to cross a mountain may try to mislead a person so that he or she will die and join the ghost in their lonely existence. Sometimes a ghost may create the illusion of a nice inn, for example, which in reality is the cave of a hungry beast. 
People who die at sea and become ghosts may follow a ship demanding to get a pail without a bottom. If they don’t get it, they will fill the ship with water so that it sinks. 
Fallen armies often come back in mass hauntings. Some individual dead samurai may return under specific circumstances or places associated with their deaths.

Hungry Ghosts

Why do the gaki ghosts merit a meal on O-Bon, the Japanese All-Soul’s day? Because ghosts can be the cause of misfortune, or even insanity. The separate altar for the ghosts is called the “gaki-dana,” and it serves the purpose of placating ghosts who may be hanging around waiting to do mischief. Buddhist monks will often set out a meal of rice for them before they take their own meals.
Ghosts are appeased so that they will stay away from the family, whereas it is hoped that the ancestors will take part in the family affairs as givers of good advice and good luck.
Especially in the case of the recently dead, people will communicate with their spirits, often relating their day’s events. This seems so much nicer than the way we tend to forget the dead.

New Book--Oni Devils

http://www.extasybooks.com/oni-devils/

Folklorist Andre Minamoto has returned to Japan to gather data for his doctoral thesis. Most of what he comes across has already been studied. He needs a breakthrough. He needs something new and wonderful. When he discovers a man who claims to be the legendary yin-yang wizard, Abe no Seimei, he is skeptical. After all, a man born in the year 920 has to have been dead and turned to dust by now. Little does he know that he is about to enter an uncharted world where what we think is fantasy is only too real.

Andre is forced to open his mind to the existence of devils, demons, ghosts, and monsters that defy description. He also finds himself opening his heart to the greatest of wizards who has ever lived—Abe no Seimei.

Seimei, the son of a magical one-thousand-year-old fox and a human, lived during the rich Heian period, when the Imperial family still held its power with the help of mighty magicians. Andre takes notes madly as Seimei regales him with tales of his exploits. Andre hears them with new ears as he finally begins to absorb the insane notion that they aren’t just tales, but true stories. As he melts in Seimei’s hot embrace, he wonders still how to learn of his powers of immortality.

Tanuki Demons

My dear friends, this guy really has balls....

Tanukis—Raccoon Dog Spirits
www.devinedestinies.com/oni-devils 
Raccoons are a big problem on my farm. They look cute and furry in pictures, but they are ruthless killers. To protect my exotic chickens, at night I put them into cages with ½” very tough rabbit wire. That was fine for a while, but the raccoons figured out a way to kill them anyway. First they frighten the chickens by banging on the cage and growling. This sends the chicken off their roosts, running—well, like chickens without heads. Then the raccoon will squeeze a stealthy hand through the wire and wait until they can grab a chicken’s foot. When that is accomplished, they simply keep pulling and eating so that the poor chicken is eaten slowly and agonizingly. For this reason, I hate raccoons. At first I tried humane trapping and dispersing a mile away, but they always came back. Now I double cage the poor birds…but I digress…
I wanted to talk about Japanese Raccoon Dogs, better known as Tanukis. These creatures resemble the real Raccoon dog very little. Some people say they look more like badgers. The mythical Tanuki is roguish and mischievous. A tanuki can disguise itself as a Buddhist monk, begging for offerings, which it may also steal outright. In my Fox Sorcery series, it is depicted as a musical creature who will use either its inflated abdomen or scrotum as a percussion instrument. It is depicted in popular Japanese myth this way. One can buy images of lewd looking tanukis playing with their scrotums in Japan. The little guy above has a big sack indeed!

The Mind of a Devil--the Oni

The Mind of a Devil

As an oni can shape-shift, why do they appear in a horrid form? The answer is that they are evil by nature. They are cannibals, and enjoy human flesh cooked or raw. Onis were once human, at least some of them. These humans may become onis because of something horrible that has happened. The oni can be a monster deserving pity, because it is quite often the cruelty of humans that has caused the transformation to this form as a devil. For example, in Fox Sorcery II, a young woman’s father makes up an elaborate ruse to make her believe that her lover had died. He does this because he doesn’t think the lover is her equal socially. This causes her intense grief. Women in particular are thought to be given to jealousy and shame. Japanese people were taught to avoid emotions such as anguish, longing, frustration, anger, or resentment, because these strong sentiments can cause one to wander in the world after death. The Buddhist idea of samsara, an Indian philosophical concept literally meaning to wander, is expressed in the concept of a ghost wandering ceaselessly in search of closure. While samsara referred to transmigration, even Indians understood the state of being a ghost as one of the possible bodies one might have to endure.

To avoid this cursed existence, one should avoid situations that might cause one to become distraught. As a devil, an oni is capable of violence, but at the same time, it is a soul aching with some sort of unimaginable pain. Only such anguish can cause a human to take such a form. This is the reason that onis are so often represented in Japanese stories as having human frailties and very human grief or anger. In Shinto this malevolent quality, aramitama, arises when a human or kami feels insulted or wronged. The oni is ensnared in the world of humans, being unable to move on to another body or to the realm of the ancestors, because of a strong emotion such as grief or rejection. The oni is a liminal creature—a part of the world, yet not of the world.

If one were haunted or possessed by an oni, there were specialists who could deal with the problem. The Onmyoji was a ying-yang magician skilled in exorcism. One might also approach a Buddhist monk for help. I will explain how they exorcised demons, devils and other spirits in my next entries.
See my book:
Oni Devils at devinedestinies.com/oni-devils/ 

On Japanese Devils-Oni

On Japanese Devils

The way that Japanese understand the world of spirits, kami, is very different from our understanding. The world teems with spirits. They may be good, bad, or neutral with many shades in between. In my series, Fox Sorcery, I delve into this world to show just how varied these spirits can be. In the next few days, I will explain some of these entities. My first will be Onis, a kind of devil.

The kanji character for the word comes from the Chinese character for the spirits of the dead. The character can denote a spirit that is ancestral or an evil ghost. In common Japanese belief, an oni is a spirit that is terrifying, and looks rather like the Western idea of a devil. These creatures might be thought of as coming from a hellish abode to frighten humans who sometimes deserve to be haunted. Onis are sometimes illustrated in popular Japanese art as having horns on the forehead, and sometimes a third eye in the middle of the forehead. They have horrid faces with gaping maws sporting one or more rows of sharp teeth. The skin of an oni may be black, yellow, blue, or red, but quite often it is red. Red is the color of a common oni mask used in the performance of the Japanese Noh theater productions.

Onis can be shape-shifters. They can appear as normal humans until something forces them to reveal their real forms. An oni can be a male or female, but they are often depicted in art as male. There is one sort of female oni called the Yomotsu-shikome oni, who is the result of a woman who is shamed by her husband.

Next, I will talk about the nature and psychology of onis.

Read Kitsune Tsuki-Possession at http://www.devinedestinies.com/kitsune-tsukis-possession/

The fox spirit is revealed in its shadow—Japanese folk wisdom.

Andre sees things in his dreams and his heart yearns for more, but he doesn’t know it yet. Bent on gathering data for his doctoral thesis on Japanese folklore, Andre finds more than he ever hoped for. When an informant suggests that Abe no Seimei, an Onmyoji, or yin yang magician of the Heian Period, is still alive as myth claims, Andre is intrigued. Legend claims that Seimei was the son of a magical fox, and that he cannot die. Andre is not so gullible as to believe such nonsense, but he checks it out anyway. When he meets the man who calls himself Seimei, the very foundation of his belief system crumbles under his power. His world changed forever, Andre finds that he cannot be satisfied until he knows it all. He must know Seimei, and he gets what he wants, but the cost of it was not what he expected. 

Read at:

http://www.devinedestinies.com/kitsune-tsukis-possession/