Haunted Ruins in the Gobi Desert

While I was working on the fifth book in the RHUNA series, namely Rhuna, The Snow Dreamer, which is set in Tibet, I was planning ahead and paving the way for Rhuna to journey northwards towards China.   Naturally, she would take the ancient Silk Road, and  I browsed the internet for interesting and unusual places along this famous trade route which might provide further ideas or inspiration for the next books in the series.   

I wasn’t expecting to find much in that region of the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia, so I was thrilled and delighted when I came across articles about the ruins of Etzina, known locally as Khara-Khoto, which means Black City in the Mongolian language.  And there was the title of my sixth book already, namely Rhuna: Black City!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZLM6RF3

When I read this opening sentence of a National Geographic article, I knew I had found the real life inspiration for my next novel:

“Ghosts live here. That's what the Chinese say. They claim this place, a walled fortress abandoned in the 14th century and called Khara Khoto—Black City—is inhabited by demons and spirits.”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/surface-of-the-earth/alashan-plateau-article/

Today, these ruins are a tourist attraction, and you can find the site on Google Maps using this link:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Heicheng+Historic+Site/@41.7628543,101.1436327,1325m

It’s actually quite beautiful, isn’t it?  But these ruins can be very frightening at night, according to local legends and many stories about seeing moving lights and hearing strange sounds.  Most people are intrigued by such ghost stories, so I was inspired to include them near the end of Rhuna: Black City when Rhuna and her party investigate the ruins.

Magic and supernatural events are frequently mentioned in describing the city’s history and ultimate demise as well.  Imagine my surprise when I read about the ruler of the Black City using Black Magic in “Men and Gods in Mongolia” by Henning Haslund, a Danish anthropologist and travel writer who explored Mongolia in the 1920s.

“And then I began to hear the legends of Khara-Khoto, “The Black and Dead city”, which once was ruled by Khara-Bator Janjyn…who bore the name of Khara because he could talk “Khara ugge” (black words = magic formulas)”

It was exciting to find that real-life historical texts mirrored the villain in my Rhuna series whom I had named ‘the Dark Master’ because he wore black and practiced black magic!  For example, in one text, the ruler is called “the Black Hero”, and when his city was about to be defeated, he killed his family and tried to escape using black magic. 

There are several different versions of the Black City’s demise, but most are similar in describing the attack on the city by first re-directing the course of its river and thereby cutting off the city’s water supply.   Some records describe the Chinese Emperor destroying Black City in this way:

“The (Chinese) Emperor himself threw a magic stone into the river, which gave water to the besieged, and the stone, falling between the town and the sources of the river, caused the water to leave its ancient bed and break a new course for itself far to the westward of the town. 

 (from “Men and Gods in Mongolia” by Henning Haslund)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939149436

When the site of Khara-Khoto was excavated and documented by archaeologists early last century, many scrolls in an unknown language were discovered. 

“But parts of the documents were never deciphered, because they were written in a language unknown to the researchers.  According to one of the versions, ancient priests had encrypted magic texts in the scrolls. And according to others, those were probably the only documents serving as proof of the ancient civilization that built the city of Khara-Khoto.”

http://ancients-bg.com/curse-of-the-dead-city-of-khara-khoto/

It is quite surprising that this ancient city has so many legends and stories involving magic, the supernatural and continual hauntings down to this present day.  You could almost believe that the Dark Master really did exist and caused such supernatural chaos in the Black City!

http://www.silkroadtourcn.com/attractions/Khara-Khoto.html

What really is Magic?

What do you think of when you hear the word Magic?  Do you think of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or maybe you prefer a more sophisticated illusionist like David Copperfield?  Maybe you think of Merlin the Magician from the Arthurian legend, or Harry Potter’s fun world of magic.  You might even think of New Age subjects like Wicca or Shamanism, perhaps even esoteric and occult teachings about angels, demons or our own inherent abilities to create “magic.”

Whatever people may think of magic, it has been around for many thousands of years, and in all countries and cultures of the world.  It is probably the only thing that is as wide-spread and universal throughout mankind's history as religion and the concept of God.  (In fact, some might even say that they are one and the same).

So, if the subject of Magic is so all-pervasive throughout mankind's existence, then what exactly is Magic?  In the most basic sense, magic is something that cannot be explained by science or technology, and this is the foundation of everything we call magic today.

Imagine life not so many centuries ago, when people had no knowledge or understanding of bacteria, for example.  An air or water-borne contagion infects many people, but no one can explain how they got sick.  It is easy to grasp for the nearest plausible explanation, such as the ugly old crone down the road who despises people and therefore cast a spell to make them sick.  

Other people living close to nature came to believe that spirits guided, helped or even attacked them, and performing certain rituals could either appease these spirits or call upon them for some assistance.   There are many examples of how the idea of something supernatural and magical came to be the popular explanation for events that were not understood in the past.

Image by Enrique Meseguer on Pixabay

Myths, folklores and tales from every country, race and group of people are full of superstitions, belief in the supernatural and in magic. 

But then magic began to be deliberately practiced by an organized group of people, and magic became a belief system like religion.  The foremost example of this is Ancient Egypt, and it spread to the rest of the ancient world such as Greece, Persia, Mesopotamia and beyond.  Such organized magic made belief in such things like protection amulets, curses and supernatural powers a common and everyday thing:  maybe just like we take for granted that lights come on when we flick a switch, or we see an image on our screens, without understanding the exact nature of electricity or the functions of a microchip.

But did the magic of the past really work, like our lights and computers work in our day?  For magic and the people who performed it to flourish for centuries, if not even millennia down to our day, there must have been something to it.  Or was it because there was no other knowledge available to replace the belief in magic, according to what the priests and other practitioners of magic were saying?

Image by Enrique Meseguer on Pixabay

Magic did not seem to fade away as civilizations advanced, but rather seemed to become more established in the age of books, science and medicine.  The scientists, physicists and doctors of the Middle Ages were alchemists who studied astrology and believed they could turn lead to gold.  Some of their books still exist today, and are full of conjurations (spells) and mystical symbolism. 

https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/magic-ancients-five-incredible-texts-spells-curses-and-incantations-020408

The confusing language and codes were meant to protect the knowledge of performing magic from being misused or abused by people unworthy of wielding it, and this led to secret societies, initiations and masters who trained apprentices in the works of magic.

This led to the concept of hidden knowledge and activity, which is the meaning of the word occult, while the word  esoteric means something is known to only a select, elite few people.

Thanks to the Internet and an open society nowadays, most of these occult and esoteric traditions are well known, and no doubt gaining many new members all the time.  You’ve probably heard of the main ones such as Jewish mysticism called The Kabbalah or Qabalah, Hermeticism, The Rosicrucians and even the Freemasons whose traditions go back to Ancient Egypt.

The general teaching of these secret societies that is made public in many books is the

path to personal enlightenment, empowering each person to have control of one’s life and destiny.   But another much less-known theory about the purpose of these societies is that ancient knowledge must be kept secret and only revealed to a chosen few.  This ancient knowledge could contain science and technology not commonly known today, and which has been suppressed over millennia.

Whatever the case may be, magic is as popular as ever, judging by the endless variety of Fantasy books and films as well as the ever-growing range of non-fiction books about ancient magic, New Age themes, mysticism, esoteric societies and even the occult. 

But why is this so?  Do people just need an escape?   Is it an alternative to belief in a deity?  Is magic just another form of religion?  Or is there really something to it?  After all, research and study of the Paranormal has been undertaken by governments and other serious establishments, and the latest books on the subject are bestsellers!

Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Magic-Ancient-Science-Universe-ebook/dp/B073YZZZBL

Are these some of the ancient secrets that have been carefully guarded down the ages?  

Like many people, I have been fascinated by magic and the paranormal since my childhood, and I have based my Fantasy series on some research into ancient magic.  For instance, books 2 & 3 are set in Ancient Egypt, and Rhuna, The Star Child deals with the use of amulets, curses and illnesses believed to be performed by people with special powers.

The fifth book in the series, Rhuna, The Snow Dreamer features Tibetan lamas with supernormal abilities, as described in another popular book:

Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities

https://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Science-Evidence-Extraordinary-Abilities-ebook/dp/B00B3GMOIQ

Inspired by Tibetan Magic!

One of the many things that inspired Rhuna's adventures in my Fantasy/Magical Realism series is the mysticism surrounding Tibet.   Maybe you've heard the eerie chant of the Buddhist monks living in isolated monasteries high in the Himalayas, or you've heard about the legends of sacred ancient texts hidden in some inaccessible hiding place in Tibet. 

What fascinates me most about Tibet, however, are the persistent stories about certain people who appear to have superhuman powers, such as monks that can levitate or become invisible, or do other strange and wondrous things.

Reading snippets like these prompted me to read up on the subject some more, and I got a lot out of a book entitled "Tibetan Magic and Mysticism" by J.H. Brennan.   Some of the chapter headings are: Strange Powers, Illusion and Reality, Void Mind Meditation, Implications of Unreality, and my favourite chapter:  Tibetan Tulpas.

So, what are Tulpas?

Tulpas are creations of the mind that look like real people, but are the result of many hours of intense concentration by adepts or masters.    The theory is that with the right kind of meditation and concentration, the human mind is capable of creating something tangible and visible.  Like when you imagine something so intensely, that it feels real, only after some hours or several days of continuous concentration, it actually becomes real.  Or almost real.  And that's called a Tulpa.  

Read more about Tulpas on this excellent site:

Mystery Files Blog page about Tulpas