Who is afraid of ghosts?

I was surfing morning television last week when I chanced upon Anthony Taberna and Pinky Webb discussing in Umagang Kay Ganda August being the ghost month.

Unfortunately, airtime is so precious on TV that they were unable to expound more on this superstitious belief that actually gets me more scared than the supposed ghouls of Halloween.

The late great Nick Joaquin states in his Almanac for Manileños that “grim is the word for August, which in Philippine superstition, is a month of ill omen.” In the past, “the first day of this month,” Joaquin continues, “was believed to be specially sinister that parents fearfully kept their children home on August 1 even if it was a school day.”

My curiosity about the so-called ghost month made me seek out feng shui master Jeffrey Ventura, who I met only less than a week ago at the recent opening of the Belo Medical Center in Greenhills.

Born and raised in Cagayan de Oro, Ventura is actually a civil engineering graduate from Ateneo de Cagayan Xavier University. He also has a master’s degree in structural engineering from an English school the name of which he refuses to divulge anymore because he is not comfortable talking about himself — and that made him more of a challenging subject for me.

Ventura insists that he wants to keep his privacy as much as possible and, please, don’t even bother calling The Philippine Star office to get his number because he doesn’t want that published. The truth is, and don’t tell him I told you, he has another business that brings food to his family’s table (his wife’s name is Glenda, that much I extracted). He is a very simple person and, according to Dr. Vicki Belo, she likes Ventura because “unlike other feng shui experts, he doesn’t make me buy this and that object as protection and is never materialistic.”

From our informal conversation, I gathered that his psychic powers were inborn and not studied. When he was still in his mother’s womb, his Mama’s friends kept telling her that she would have a gifted child. His mother somehow knew what it meant because psychic powers run in the family. A maternal grandmother who lived until age 107 was also psychic.

Ventura as a child didn’t know he had the gift and it was only later that he understood why when he was in school he kept insisting to his teacher that he be allowed to occupy a particular seat because he felt he learned more from that spot (his knowledge of feng shui is obviously natural). It wasn’t until he was 17 that he realized the full potential of his gift (he studies people through their eyes).

But no, he is not some weirdo who dresses up like the stereotyped fortune-teller. He is even the first to assure me that there is nothing to fear about the supposed ghost month.

According to Ventura, the ghost month appears yearly and starts usually in August. But every 24 years (falling always on the Year of the Tiger), there are positive and negative ghost months. This is one of those years.

The positive ghost month that already started last July 10 brings the positive chi (energy) that if used properly could double or triple a person’s luck. The positive ghost month ends on Sept. 22.

The negative ghost month, on the other hand, will begin on Aug. 24 and will end on Sept. 24 (the two will merge). To protect you from the said effects of the negative ghost month, you may choose to observe the following don’ts (but it is really up to the person):

Don’t build your house/office/ building during this period.

Don’t get married until the negative ghost month is over. 

Don’t open any business — wait until after this period.

Don’t sign major contracts — although minor deals are allowed, like if it is just a mall show for celebrities, that’s okay.

It’s also okay to have a baptismal even during the ghost month because christening is always positive.

You can go on trips, but travel with the right people — family or company you can trust.

Like most other feng shui beliefs, the so-called ghost month is also backed up by science. Ventura points out that during this time of the year, weather conditions are very abnormal and can hamper navigation. Nick Joaquin affirms this in his book and says that August “has its alternations of vehement heat and violent typhoon.”

There is protection against the ghost month that can counter the supposed harm it can bring — like wearing lucky colors. However, I still believe that prayers will always be our best defense against any form of danger. Even Ventura agrees with me. A devout Catholic and an Infant Jesus devotee (because of his Cebuano roots on his mother’s), he asks everyone to pray for each other and especially “for the peace and prosperity of the world.”