We seem to have had our fill of house blessing recently as you will have read. Today was one more but a bit different. Wanna had only a few days back, been to see the local religious man who is also something of a ‘Fortune Teller’. He provided some advice and fixed a time for a follow up prayer session and extra blessing at the house. That was all happening today.
Basically there were prayers, candles being lit, water bowls filled, cotton string pulled out etc, and then at one stage he went outside into the garden and walked around the plot, even buried a large rock in a hole adjacent to the house and placed some nails ( metal) in several corner locations. This was accompanied by prayers at the different locations around the garden then back into the house to bless the family.
It was a brief ceremony with only Mum, Dad, a couple of cousins and us.
During it all I was conscious of my trying to take photos. Difficult in these situations. Not sure if it shows some sign of disrespect or whatever. That said I did manage to get a half reasonable photo of ‘Dad’ and a side view of Mum. The others were even worse shots!!! Again as you can see problems with my ‘flash’ with the strong shadows in the background.
The Fortune Teller advised us on the reorientation of the Buddha’s in the prayer room and suggested we made some offerings to the ‘Land Spirits’. (now done).
He also advised we purchase a Spirit House for them as a permanent home. We should set it up in the garden, probably near the existing rice storage hut. No doubt it will be prudent to have him back then to let us know best location etc. Might do that next week. See how time goes.
I say he, but there were two of them. One older guy and the other a sort of apprentice as you can see in the photo. Anyway I hope some good comes of it all. Even if nothing comes of it, no harm was done and it was a relaxing experience. However I do wonder in a positive way, if there is something in all this prayer and the ability of ‘forward looking’…for want of a better description, as a few comments he had made last week to Wanna on some things have already come to pass. I’ll wait a bit longer and see what transpires in the next week or so. If it turns out as he has predicted well I’ll let you know. If not I’ll conveniently forget to mention it again!!!
Basically there were prayers, candles being lit, water bowls filled, cotton string pulled out etc, and then at one stage he went outside into the garden and walked around the plot, even buried a large rock in a hole adjacent to the house and placed some nails ( metal) in several corner locations. This was accompanied by prayers at the different locations around the garden then back into the house to bless the family.
It was a brief ceremony with only Mum, Dad, a couple of cousins and us.
During it all I was conscious of my trying to take photos. Difficult in these situations. Not sure if it shows some sign of disrespect or whatever. That said I did manage to get a half reasonable photo of ‘Dad’ and a side view of Mum. The others were even worse shots!!! Again as you can see problems with my ‘flash’ with the strong shadows in the background.
The Fortune Teller advised us on the reorientation of the Buddha’s in the prayer room and suggested we made some offerings to the ‘Land Spirits’. (now done).
He also advised we purchase a Spirit House for them as a permanent home. We should set it up in the garden, probably near the existing rice storage hut. No doubt it will be prudent to have him back then to let us know best location etc. Might do that next week. See how time goes.
I say he, but there were two of them. One older guy and the other a sort of apprentice as you can see in the photo. Anyway I hope some good comes of it all. Even if nothing comes of it, no harm was done and it was a relaxing experience. However I do wonder in a positive way, if there is something in all this prayer and the ability of ‘forward looking’…for want of a better description, as a few comments he had made last week to Wanna on some things have already come to pass. I’ll wait a bit longer and see what transpires in the next week or so. If it turns out as he has predicted well I’ll let you know. If not I’ll conveniently forget to mention it again!!!
We have also bought the toilets, showers sinks etc. Not much else to sort out. Roof sheeting, well a chap called round on Saturday morning, he introduced himself as an Agent for a local roof sheeting supply company. 
Wanna did a check and he was cheaper than the roof sheeting we bought for our house. Added to which he offered 24 hour delivery. Dark green we ordered in case you are curious! More to follow.
