Language of the Heavens

"Kong kong kang san Chiang si kang san yi si kong kang ki ki chiang si kang ku...

Kang kiang kong kong ki Ko
Kana Yi kong San chiang si
Kaaaang..."

And on and on and on. I have no idea what the lady is saying, neither does my mum. It sounds like a between Vietnamese and Japanese, Taiwanese and Hakka. But it's none of those. It's supposedly the "Language of the Heavens", with which you can summon deities down to earth and ask for their blessing and protection.

The lady chanting asked mum and I to follow along. "Not with your mouth, but with your heart..." The chanting is lyrical to the ear, sometimes sounds so sad, as she is wailing, but sometimes also so forceful and energising.
Before she starts, she always hands me a large pieces of yellow paper, all filled on one side with unintelligible scribbles and lines in black and red marker pen. Follow with your finger each "character" (or whatever symbol they are...), and "read" it with love, I was told.

For a while I felt like a fool, but cancer, and illness in general, makes fools of us all. When "traditional" arts of western medicine do not seem to work, or work well enough, you seize whatever other options you can. With limitations of course. The chanting and "text" reading can do no harm. It's not as if mum or I are being asked to drink potions made from the blood of a black dog and toad's foot, or to use lotions made from the eyes of crow and baby's urine. It's just chanting, and a kind looking lady gesturing with her hands and fingers and as if communicating with some unseen persona in the room. All mum and I have to do is sit there and listen, and chant along with our hearts.

Believe it or not, mum said before se started going to the daily morning sessions of chanting, she said she felt a lump in her bowels. It's supposed to be the "unseen", a euphemism for so angry spirit or demon which has sought refuge inside mum's body and is causing her stomach to be congested and causing her to vomit so wildly. After attending two days of chanting, the lump was gone. I don't know if I am under their persuasion, as everyday they keep on saying that mum's complexion is getting better and she looks like she has more "qi" (energy in the metaphysical sense) than before, but mum does indeed look somewhat a little better. At least not worse off than before.

The chanting continues and half way through the session I'm always asked to take the pieces of text and burn them. So I burn them, and bow to the heavens with great reverence, and ask for their blessings. It's what I do anyways, so it does not surprise me or make me feel in any way odd.

"Believe in yourself," the lady says to mum every single day at the end of the sessions, "Believe you can beat this demon! Love yourself and be happy. Don't think of anything else, but just be happy!"

I don't know what religion or customary practice these people perform, but anything that talks about self-love and being happy gets my support. Anything that will boost mum's confidence and health and wellbeing is worth a try, even if I don't understand a thing they are chanting.