125. Ghosts of Shanghai – 上海的鬼 (☰/☵)

The Way through Baguazhang - 八卦掌道 - A podcast by Peter Hainzl

I would have never picked up the book, if I had known otherwise. But I took the chance because recently I had reached a certain level of proficiency in manifesting wealth around me as a bagua master. The rules were simple: 陽氣 Yang energy projects the manifestations in an outwards direction so the wealth and environment I seek to have, happens outwardly around me. While 陰氣 Yin energy draws what I want, to manifest in towards me. Non-fiction books are yang and deal with consciousness, while works of fiction are Yin and allow the subconscious to create a new reality. After that first division, the next level down is male authors are yang and female authors are yin. A fictional story written by a female author is a double yin, meaning that what I'm pulling into me is twice as strong. And just to anchor it in triple strength, the main leading character has to be female as well. And there was a book that I borrowed from the Chatswood library that had it in spades: Fiction (check), female author (check), female main character (check). And it was set in China, which is yin (check again). And set in the past but not too far back in time – something still relatable, 上海 Shanghai 1926 (check again). If it wasn't for all this Yin energy, I normally would bypass the book because the subject matter is about ghosts and being a ghost hunter. But since I'm starting to kind of dabble in the mystical realms of a yinyang master 阴阳师, I thought "What-the-heck. Why not give it a try? It's a kid's book. Maybe I get some added bonuses in the form of sweet Kungfu. What would be the harm?" Well it turns out, that after reading a bit of it, somehow the author's name changed from Julia to Julian. Normally, when I'm confronted with a situation like this, it's typically certain key sentences and phrases that will change within a book to reflect my growing understanding of a topic important to me. It is as if a deeper layer kept hidden, now allows me to know it. The words themselves literally are different. And I'm aware some people hearing (or reading) this will have the hairs on the back of their necks standing up on end. So I asked my daughter why this could be so: Julia Sedgwick becomes Julian Sedgwick? And she reminded me, that if it had been a man's name on the cover, I would have never borrowed the book from the library. Both the book and I need each other to allow whatever needs to be manifested, to be manifested. Oh okay, I said. That's good enough for me. "Ghosts of Shanghai – 上海的鬼" it is then... For further details the publisher is Hodder Children's Books ISBN13 9781444923902