10
JULIAN PAS
must be important: at home she could go to the temple at any time of the day, any day of the month. The same oracles are available there, for Matsu's counseling is standardized with few variations. If a grandchild has an aching tooth, grandma will rush to the temple and ask Matsu whether the pain will soon pass or not. Today, however, is not an ordinary day: the occasion is solemn, the questions asked concern matters of great importance: a planned wedding engagement, difficult relationships in the family, matters of life and death. Therefore the correct stick must be ascertained. The woman's eyes look up at the large decorated image of the goddess; with confidence she throws up the blocks, and click, clack, they drop noisily on the floor. Both flat sides are up, the curved sides touching the floor tiles. The goddess is laughing. Perhaps the woman did not concentrate enough, but at least, Matsu is in a good mood. If the blocks fell both on the flat side, they would express the goddess's anger, and one would interpret it as rejection for one's insincere, impure motivation. The woman picks up the blocks, returns the bamboo stick, shakes the bundle again and repeats the whole process. Her face is more concentrated and shows more tension, even anxiety. After a short pause, she drops the blocks once more, and look: they fall in the correct, desired way: one flat side up, one down. It shows harmony, for if the blocks are held together their opposite sides match like the yin and the yang. The goddess has said that this slip expresses her true advice in this particular situation. The woman picks up the blocks, returns them to the altar table and then holding the selected bamboo stick requests the corresponding slip of paper from the temple attendants. Several of them have their desks along the side wall of the major hall: they receive donations, write out receipts, hand out oracle slips and protective talismans, and upon request, explain the meaning of the oracle, if the text is not clear enough by itself.
Later, back in the touring car, I ask the woman about her oracle. She tells me she had consulted the oracle several times: some relatives had commissioned her with their own problems, but the very last one was her own. The result was not too encouraging: the slip she received was no. 16, one of rather gloomy forecast. The question addressed to Matsu was whether a proposed engagement between her son and a young girl from a neighbouring village would be advisable. From a merely human viewpoint, everything