| Abstract: | Spirit writing is a rare form of trance mediumship in contemporary urban Hanoi and part of the resurgence of popular religious practices in late Socialist Vietnam. This article explores the transmission of otherworldly messages from heroic political and military leaders of the past via an urban female spirit medium and examines practices of translation, decoding and implementing celestial directives. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the paper investigates how efforts to execute instructions from the beyond are intertwined with mediation, materiality, and technology. Drawing on an analysis of messages from the spirit of H? Chí Minh and other heroes of the past, this paper argues that spirits interfere in Vietnam’s current political matters by questioning issues of injustice and by advising the authorities with regard to ritually safeguarding the country’s borders. |
