The Fourth Pilgrimage – The Khata Sealed Sak Yant Back and the Transference of the Spirit of Suea Yen.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

– The Tyger by William Blake from Songs of Experience. ​​​​​​​

In 2017 I undertook what would be my first pilgrimage to Thailand. Up to and before this point I had studied and actively taken part in various lineages of Buddhism since the very late 1980s and into the late 1990s. Over the next three years (2017, 2018, and 2020) I would undertake three separate pilgrimages (the second pilgrimage of 2018 you can read about here) each one having its own particular flavour, characteristics, and itinerary of events. During these journeys I was initiated over time into the specific pathway that now forms the central part of my spiritual life, that being the philosophical aspects of esoteric and occult based Thai Buddhism. Upon the completion of each pilgrimage to Thailand I would find myself returning home to the UK, slowly but surely over time absorbing and processing all that which had occurred; the various magickal applications of Sak Yant tattoos onto my body which eventually migrated into my mind and spirit, experiences from the short and long term effects of numerous astrologically triangulated magickal rituals undertaken by Ajarns, the taking onboard of direct spiritual guidance from the Ajarns (now my teachers), working with the acquisitions of many numerous pieces of magickal technology that have assisted me in my day-to-day living be they amulets, takruts and takrut belts, See Pung (enchanted beeswax), khatas (mantras), bucha (statues of deities which have spiritually active necromantic ingredients) and ruminating on the blessings and offerings received and made at many temples and shrines. As a Buddhist practitioner I sincerely felt that attachment to any fetters (be they mental fetters, attachment to people, ideas, perceived chains, or bonds (Pāli: samyojana, Sanskrit: saṃyojana)), was an important issue for me to understand and identify. Upādāna is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for “clinging”, “attachment” or “grasping”, though its literal meaning is “fuel”.

I quietly worked to cut free from any addictive patterns, any manipulative and controlling personal relationships, without prejudice, and any associations which I felt may be deemed to be regressive and dissolute in their character. This act was in no way ever meant to be an elitist or ‘holier than thou’ attitude on my part whatsoever. I sincerely hoped deep down that by cutting any perceived fetters it would assist me in opening up to any new, novel and potentially invigorating scenarios for fresh and progressive inner development and enlightenment. It was after one particular major paradigm shift over ten months ago that I came into contact and began to communicate regularly with the Italian Thai Buddhist website and ritual specialist Magia Thai. Magia Thai have been embedded in Northern Thailand for well over the past 15 years with many deep local contacts and numerous far-reaching connections internationally. It was over this period of ten months in what I could now in retrospect call trust building exercises, I acquired amulets, Pha Yant, Bucha (statues), booked remote rituals with various Ajarns, and began a regular correspondence with Magia Thai that accumulated in late July 2023 with the death of my mother. I knew that while I was my mother’s 24/7 carer and at a later stage her full time palliative carer, any further pilgrimages to Thailand would not be a practical possibility whatsoever. In the dark shadow of grief, sadness, and personal devastation surrounding my mother’s death, I knew immediately inside my heart that I needed to consider another pilgrimage to Thailand, once again setting up an itinerary to explore and undergo healing, rituals, magickal explorations and Sak Yant experiences with the Ajarns, Lersi, Kruba and monks of Northern Thailand. It was with this firmly inside my mind that I approached Magia Thai so that they could help me to establish an intensive and event filled two-week itinerary from mid to late September 2023. Little did I know that my fourth pilgrimage would become an incredibly profound and intensive bombardment of raw, vital, sublime, and transformative peak experiences that would forever change me inside the boiling pot of Thai Buddhist magickal working, entering into new unchartered personal realms of unadulterated magick and personal transformation. The veil would not just be lifted but completely ripped away. ‘Peak experiences’ have been described by psychologist Abraham Maslow as “moments of highest happiness and fulfilment” in his 1964 work Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. I would indeed find myself in trance states of bliss and overwhelming joy. For the sake of brevity I will identify a number of notable incidents (not all of them) and then discuss them in this blog. To be brutally honest with you I am still living in the exquisite residuum of a series of extreme, powerful, and very beautiful rituals that have just quite simply blown my mind away.

On the 16th of September I spent the morning acquiring Sak Yant with Ajarn Daeng, master of masters. On the guidance of Ajarn Suea I had the Sak Yant Phra Pi-Ganesha Barami. This sublime piece of magick promotes success and prosperity in the arts and business while imbuing the wearer with other traits. In total I had five separate Sak Yants placed onto my back. In this five-hour session I went into a trance state and had a vision relating to something Ajarn Suea had warned me about. This occurred when the Sak Yant Phra Rahu Kan-Wan (day) Kan-Kuen (night) was put onto my lower back. I feel it is a strong possibility that Sak Yant will open up channels within you if you are a dedicated follower and hold the precepts as directed by the Ajarn that gives them. There is of course no barrier for a practitioner from another different philosophical or magickal pathway to have Sak Yant delivered to them by a master. I would say however it would be beneficial for you to have some basic working knowledge of this very specific and unusual practice before considering it. It is quite simply impossible to receive Sak Yant from a regular uninitiated tattoo artist who has not received the transmission of wisdom, techniques, and the training of an authentic Sak Yant master. Copyist tattoo artists are not Sak Yant masters. The training can take anywhere from seven years to a lifetime for more specific ‘wicha’. ‘Wicha’ is the knowledge of the magical practices from a specific and unbroken lineage of masters. The ‘wicha’ is the tattoo’s source of power, which can encompass a myriad of designs, sacred spells, types of ink, the ingredients of the ink, techniques of application (time, location and precise astrological positionings), the specific verses chanted to control spirits and the supernatural powers summoned at the beginning, during and at the end of application of the Sak Yant. Anyone attempting to receive Sak Yant from an uninitiated master or copyist is acquiring a hollow, empty, and completely pointless set of tattooed ink drawings that is devoid of any meaning, magickal functionality, supernatural power or transmitted spiritual divine essence. The lights are on but nobody and absolutely nothing is at home. It is essential that Sak Yants are undertaken by true masters inside their Samnak (a consecrated shrine and workplace of a Sak Yant master). I am labouring this very specific point because there is a growing movement of tattoo artists giving Sak Yant copies to people who then think that they have the real thing. They don’t. It’s like buying fake medicine from a dark website, it won’t and can never work the same way, so with the deepest of respect please don’t even try or consider it.

Then on the 26th of September the day before I left Chiang Mai in an epic six-hour session my entire back was enclosed by khata, encapsulating all of the other Sak Yant into one harmonised whole by the master Ajarn Daeng, in a ritual who’s beginning arch began seven years earlier. This was the completion of a seven-year magickal cycle. Engagement with Sak Yant is not an overnight dalliance. You are taking a long and slow journey that will unfold at its own pace, while through complete absorption and samādhi hold the teaching in and on your spiritual and physical body. The becoming of an open mandala is not a responsibility that one takes lightly. You will notice changes in your psyche. You will see, when you follow the teacher’s rules of Sak Yant to the letter, real and manifest transformations both inside and outside of you. Sak Yant is a sacred pathway and not a quick toll booth to short cuts of behaviour. The Sak Yant rod itself is being held by an endless line and lineage of great masters, all of them holding the same rod here in the present day. The teachers are watching you. The teacher’s teachers are watching you. May you all have the opportunity to hold Sak Yant on your body and may it bring many positive and nourishing benefits to your life.

On Sunday 17th September I finally met Lersi Nawagod. I have greatly admired him from afar and now finally experienced his magickal presence undertaking a gold face blessing which had the extra added strength by using the late and great Kruba Pornsit’s robe underneath my head to increase the blessing. This excellent Lersi has been trained by the best and most prominent teachers one could ever hope to imagine. He pulled out a Khun Paen amulet from a jar that was half filled with a heavily scented liquid concoction that nearly made me faint on the spot. I of course plucked up the courage and purchased this extremely powerful amulet, noting its raw chunks of heavy prai (necromantic ingredients which can include bone, hair, and skin) which were embedded throughout. Large and very beautiful handmade candles inscribed with my birth date and full name were then taken outside and lit while I made a series of wishes.

Later on that day Magia Thai very kindly took me to the immense temple Wat Sri Don Moon where I acquired a small Buddha and donated to the temple which was then blessed by the magnificent Kruba Noi. In the final moment of the blessing Kruba Noi slapped my hand which was very cool and yet still slightly startling. Buddhas as a rule cannot be taken out of Thailand. However, if they are small and under a specific size this rule is waivered. If you are in doubt when purchasing a Buddha ask your guide for the size limitations. An intense tropical downpour then ensued after the blessing which I captured on video. I took this to be a good omen and was at peace while we waited for the rain to cease its gushing rivers from the sky. All things were alive with abundant moisture, the Naga spirits slithering downwards endlessly in streams from up above.

Wikipedia states that animism (from the Latin: anima meaning ‘breath, spirit, life’) is “…the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things – animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in some cases words – as animated and alive.” Peter Grey in his work Apocalyptic Witchcraft says, “Animism is not embedded in the natural world, it is the natural world.” While I concur with and accept Peter’s and Wikipedia’s definition I would also like to add and say that the transference of spirit into human beings is very much an essential and important part of this idea and happens more regularly than we otherwise admit to ourselves. Indeed, Mat Auryn in his very engaging work Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation goes on further to say, “As all things come from and are imbued with the quintessence of Spirit, all things are holy and alive in their own right – and anything that has a physical existence contains within it a unique personality, energy, and expression of Spirit.” And being unique, a thing unparalleled or sole of its kind, unequalled or unparalleled, for my own mind each particle, each layer, each single point of light and dark has its very own texture, essence, intelligence and ultimately consciousness. In Thailand Spirit Houses punctuate the entire landscape and are a firm part of the ancestral worship that takes place there. Narrye Caldwell & Robbie Staufer, Foundation for Shamanic Studies faculty members in their article What is a Shaman? state, “Animism is a worldview that posits the aliveness of all things in the universe, as well as the unity and harmony of all life. It sees humans as a part of the living universe, but not superior to any aspect of it. This view is universally accepted in shamanism. That said, though all shamans could be considered animists, not all animists are shamans.” In Tim Ingold’s postscript in Animism in Southeast Asia by Kaj Århem and Guido Sprenger (2016), he suggests that the ‘ism’ in animism is suggestive of rigidity and that it would be better to use the term ‘animic’.

I would like to acknowledge that my time in Thailand from the 15th to the 27th of September 2023 while upon my fourth pilgrimage was quite literally crammed and packed to the gills with many profound and extraordinary esoteric experiences (which Magia Thai was instrumental in giving me access to). However, I would like to focus the rest of this blog on just one single specific day that has stayed with me since it’s remarkable unfolding. Like the jewels on a crown each day of my time spent in Chiang Mai was precious, sacred, and holy to me. And yet I will offer here my honest and sincere telling of the transference of the spirit of Suea Yen, the Northern Thailand Lanna tiger deity during the ritual of Sak Yant as it was undertaken by my teacher Ajarn Tui. Suea Yen literally means ‘Cool Tiger’ and is a heart-cooling Metta Type of tiger magick. The Suea Yen also has what is called ‘Serm Yos’ (the improvement of status and promotion) within its magickal functionality and is very often used by soldiers and policemen in Thailand who have commanding positions. My only hope is that I honour my teacher in writing this recollection and relate to you dear reader this ancient Lanna traditional ritual with the respect, awe, integrity, honesty, and dignity that it so truly deserves. On Tuesday the 19th of September myself and Magia Thai prepared for my first visit to meet Ajarn Tui at his Samnak around the environs of Chiang Mai. Ajarn Tui is the former Luksit of Ajarn Nanting whom I have had the great privilege of meeting on a number of occasions. Ajarn Tui is a great master of ancient Lanna Sak Yant and a very highly gifted maker of amulets. We arrived outside his home in good time. While getting out of the car I felt a dizzy and surreal sense that the area was flooded by unseen movement and invisible energies writhing and spinning in the very air itself. Since I’m predisposed in terms of being very sensitive to comprehending unseen things I counted this incident as just another day at the cosmic office. Then it happened. While approaching the Samnak I automatically reached down to touch the 9 Cat Yantra Takrut Prai Amulet that I had been wearing by Ajarn Tui whom we were to meet. It had vanished. Gone. Startled I alerted Magia Thai that maybe I had lost the amulet somewhere between Ajarn Tui’s and where we had started our journey. I looked down at the shredded cord around my neck. The amulet had quite literally been ripped off by some force unseen to me. How could this be? I panicked and looked for the amulet. How on earth did this amulet get ripped off its cord? I quickly went back to car and there on the floor in the long grass near the car was the square amulet, quite safe and undamaged. Inside I related this to Ajarn Tui who wisely said, “The cat has come home to its maker and couldn’t wait to see me again.”

A number of very specific offerings had been accumulated that morning which had been directly requested by Ajarn Tui in order to undertake the ritual blessing defence against curses and the implementation of Suea Yen Sak Yant containing ancient Lanna magick. Offerings are a very important and essential part of Thai and indeed any form of occult rituals. They are the rocket fuel and spiritual food upon which Spirit feeds itself and thus is able to expand itself upon, granting abundance in return, and offering back to the devotee success and accomplishments you may be seeking in any given ritual. For this specific ritual raw meat, animal blood, offal, liver, stomach lining, a garland of flowers, cigarettes both modern and ancient Elephant brand, whiskey (the stronger the better), beer, incense, and a requested donation of money were offered and given with an open heart. During the previous evening Ajarn Tui in a separate unseen ritual had called upon his Spirit teachers to come down on the very day I would be present in order to help, assist, give teaching, protection, and guidance during and throughout the ceremony. I can very safely say that this was likely since I felt during the ritual the room was full of unseen Spirits. I felt lighted headed, a bit hectic and a little bit chaotic, almost as if I was standing inside a full flow running stream, an invisible force pushing through my entire body. I did my utmost best to stay centred and calm during this peak experience, calling upon deep inside myself reserves of calm to not become unseated or lost in this extraordinary overwhelming energy and power. I was then handed a glass of water. The glass was filled with a light grey translucent liquid. The liquid had been enthused and consecrated with limes, Sompoi, and various other herbal elements. I was told to drink it down. I was advised that I was full of Metta (loving kindness) but also had small amounts of negative energy inside me that I’d held onto which needed to be dealt with. I was told the liquid I’d just consumed might make me vomit up the negative energy. This made me nervous since I really hate vomiting. I was then advised that if I didn’t vomit up the negative energy it would pass naturally through my body in the form of urine. Fortunately my body opted for the urine option. After I had completely drank the liquid, a thorough cleansing bath of the very same liquid was performed on me by Ajarn Tui, the shock of which knocked me sideways. Afterwards drying myself off after this full body soaking I began to inexplicably weep at one point. The same hectic feelings surrounding my mother’s death from only two months previous still rattled around inside me.

Then Ajarn Tui chose for me a very specific Sak Yant from his collection of ancient Lanna Sak Yant designs. This would turn out to be the Suea Yen Sak Yant, imbued with an encrypted magickal square on its head along with various highly esoteric script embedded within and around the tiger’s body. The design was pressed flat against my upper right forearm using the traditional method, wetting the design with ink onto my arm, leaving a clear diagrammatic trace of the tiger Sak Yant. I was then told to sit next to Ajarn Tui and his Luksit, and to make myself ready for what I can only say was one of the most painful, powerful, and profoundly intense experiences of my life. Receiving Sak Yant is ultimately a test of character, spirit, and devotion. As one sits next to the Ajarn you merge with them into a deep connection that such an extreme ritual will create. The Luksit next to him firmly held my arm so that the skin would not move or wrinkle as the long, needle-sharp steel rod pounded again, and again, and again, and again, into the thin and tight skin of my right forearm, the ink slowly but surely spelling out the supernaturally empowered magickal design. Tiny, speckled blood spots appeared momentarily upon my skin.

The ink used is in itself is a form of magick. The black ink had within it the liver essence of a tiger and a bear. This is seen to take the very attributes of the tiger and the bear and then transfer them to the recipient. In Thai Lanna Buddhism animals and their body parts cannot be deliberately killed for any purposes whatsoever and must have died under a very specific set of circumstances, namely under supernatural or natural conditions. This makes the acquisition of such necromantic materials all the more difficult and rare to come by. As the Sak Yant ritual proceeded I became lost in a fluctuating haze of gentle swooning delirium, my other hand’s finger and thumb tapping out rhythmically in order to try and balance and circumvent the pain I was experiencing upon my right forearm. Stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, the magnificent Suea Yen the tiger deity became real and alive creeping up onto my arm. When the design was finished after what one could call a considerable amount of time which had been tattooed onto my forearm using the ancient and traditional ‘fish egg’ method, my body, and my mind still luxuriatingly swimming in the enormous amounts of endorphins now swelling inside of me, Ajarn Tui asked me to sit directly in front of him for the blessing.

An extraordinary and incredible thing then inexplicably happen to me. I suddenly found it quite difficult to stand up or indeed sit upright in any way whatsoever. My breathing had begun to perform short, shallow panting breaths, very much like what one would imagine a thirsty tiger would sound like after hunting for prey. I automatically hunched down upon all fours of my hands and knees and then unprompted assumed the shape of a tiger on the floor in front of Ajarn Tui. I couldn’t move or do anything other than this. I watched myself slowly become a tiger. I hunched down sitting before Ajarn transfixed in tiger mode. I continued breathing with the panting breath and hunched posture, the blessing, which was now fully underway, Ajarn Tui’s powerful voice reciting the khata (mantra) of the blessing for the Suea Yen Sak Yant. I had become a tiger. Deep inside me panting growls waited to come out. I panted and stayed in this posture throughout the ceremony. It was observed and confirmed by one of our party that I had indeed taken on board the spirit of a tiger and that they had seen my energy jump up as if it were a tiger, leaping up from the depths of my body. The transference of the spirit of Suea Yen had taken place in Ajarn Tui’s Samnak and the tiger’s spirit was now within the Sak Yant upon my right forearm. At the end of the consecration of the tiger Sak Yant Ajarn Tui ended the formal recitation and summoning with a long and tiger eyed “Grrrrrrrrrrr!” directly into my face. After my trance state had subsided somewhat and I had dropped out of warp so to speak, I had managed to actually move and sit down on a bench that was to the side of the shrine. Ajarn Tui then clearly instructed me in the techniques of working with the powerful Suea Yen Sak Yant of which I took very careful notes, making sure that his exact instructions could be followed to the letter. At this point things calmed and geared down even further, a sense of relief now filling the Samnak, as if some kind of powerful spirit machine had been placed onto a lower and more mellow setting. Amulets were purchased and blessed, conversations bubbled forth, a beautiful lunch was served by Ajarn Tui’s kind and generous wife, and the magick candles that had been prepared earlier were lit and my sincere wishes surrounding this ritual were silently made in my mind. I had arrived wearing a cat and now left Ajarn Tui’s Samnak as a tiger.

If by some chance you personally feel that you may possibly be interested in experiencing or participating in something like this ritual or indeed have any interests in the many sublime aspects of Thai Lanna Buddhism as a subject to explore you may consider following a number of avenues. One such avenue is to contact Magia Thai’s website to buy amulets or organise remote rituals or indeed to visit as I’ve done the Ajarns in the environs of the Chiang Mai area of Northern Thailand. You can scroll down on the landing page of Magia Thai’s website and fill in the contact form and email them or message them on Instagram. There are Google translate flag icons on the top right-hand corner of their website for full translation services. If you would like to know more about Thai Buddhist amulets my Guide to the Underworld, Magical Amulets: A Personal View of Thai Buddhist Esoterica is now available on Hadean Press.