The Red Thread of Fate is the method that Yue Lao or The Old Man Under The Moon uses to bind people together who are fated to meet and spend the rest of their lives together.

Also known as the Matchmaker Deity, he travels at night with his bundle of red silk cords, connecting people who will later be brought together inexorably by the threads.

Usually the string will connect people from birth, and they live out their lives unaware that they will eventually run into the person connected to them by Fate.

Less usually, events will cause Yue Lao to make a moonlit visit to somebody no longer very young, to tie his thread and leave it to gradually pull the recipient and their partner together. There are several methods you can use to encourage him to visit you.

He has a number of temples where you can go to pray for luck in love, and to look for your own fateful partner, but if you cannot travel to Yuw Hai Ching in Singapore or Longshan Temple in Taipei to carry out the red thread rituals and hand gestures they recommend, there are ways you can gain his attention and favour without leaving the house:

Tie a red thread around a red candle, and sleep with it under your pillow for a week.

Get yourself set up in a quiet room alone, with no drafts or breezes.

Put the candle in a secure holder in front of you, and place a mirror next to it, so you can see its reflection.

Light the candle, and let it burn down. Tie the loose end of the thread to your little finger. Watch the smoke rising from the candle, both in front of you, and in the mirror.

If the smoke streams upwards in an unbroken thread, you are not currently connected to anybody via The Red String.

If it becomes broken or streams sideways briefly, this is a sign that somebody’s Red String is tied to yours. You will meet them soon.

Dual Red String cocktails can be drunk together by interconnected people to strengthen their string bond, or to attempt to draw Yue Lao’s attention their way, if they wish to be tied together.

Red String Cocktail

2 teaspoons Ginger simple syrup

4 dashes Angustora bitters

2 maraschino cherries

1 red liquorice bootlace

1 teaspoon grenadine

2 shots bourbon whiskey

Club soda to finish

Shake the syrup, bourbon, bitters and granadine together in a shaker with ice, then strain into 2 glasses, top up with the club soda, agitate with a swizzle stick and drop the cherries in.

Tie the glasses together with the red bootlace, and keep the glasses connected as you drink. The ideal way to consume the bootlace would be to each nibble away at their end after the glasses are emptied until their lips are brought together in a kiss, like the romantic dogs in Disney’s “Lady & The Tramp”.

Red is the colour of witchcraft, and a bright red is considered lucky. This cocktail should be very lucky for the drinker.

Wearing a red thread or string for magical protection has been a thing since the Early Times, and having a red string tattooed around your little finger to encourage Fate to link you with somebody, or around your wrist for defense against evil influences has become quite popular in recent years.

You can use simple red threads for protection and luck around your left wrist (the left is the receiving side of the spiritual body) or around your little finger for luck in love.

Whether you choose to charm yourself with threads or drinks or both is up to you, but remember…

Although the threads can stretch or become tangled, they can never break!