Anito Anum

In Philippine Mythology, Diwata are forest spirits, protecting the vast rainforests of the archipelago. One such nameless Diwata was said to have eyes so beautiful she could turn anyone she gazes upon into wood and stone.

Flavio the Blacksmith by John Dimayuga

My redesign of Panday’s (blacksmith in Filipino) Flavio, a Filipino comic book character made in 70s. I’d like to think he had a game, it would be like The Witcher.

“After a meteorite falls from the sky, Flavio, a noble blacksmith, forges its ore into a dagger (balaraw in Filipino), which magically turns into a sword when he raises it and points to the sky. He uses this sword to fight the demon Lizardo and his supernatural minions who are oppressing his hometown, and other evil forces.

“Buwan ng Babaylan sa Haliya. Ito ang ilang Panel para sa babaylan medico-spiritual drama sa Kabuwanan. Mayo 2017″ by Dead Balagtas 

Trans. “Month of the priestess in Haliya Publishing. This is the panel for the priestess medical-spiritual drama called Kabuwanan” 

Babaylan Knowledge: A Complete Tutorial About Herbal Medicine in the Philippines

bawang/garlic 

akapulko/ringworm bush

bayabas/guava

ampalaya/bittermelon/bitter gourd

lagundi/five leaf chaste tree

niyog-niyogan/Chinese honeysuckle

ulasimang bato/pansit-pansitan

tsaang gubat/scorpion bush/ wild tea

sambong/blumea camphor

This has all the links to my ridiculously Filipino urban-fantasy “The Crocodile God,” and will be updated as the chapters go up. Reblog from my post only, hearts and comments are welcome. Teaser from Inkitt: When the conquistadors came, the Tagalog sea-god Haik lost his family, his community, and the stories they told about him. In California, grieving and near-forgotten, he’s an undocumented immigrant. Link to the cover photo

⛰️🌱🍚ANITO🍚🌱⛰️  

A term referring to ancestor or nature spirits in Filipino polytheistic belief. It also refers to statues made to represent these spirits (also known as likha, taotao, larawan, bulul, and more).

“…they worshiped a deity called among them Batala, which properly means “God.” […] They said that this Batala had many agents under him, whom he sent to this world to produce, in behalf of men, what is yielded here. These beings were called anitos, and each anito had a special office. Some of them were for the fields, and some for those who journey by sea; some for those who went to war, and some for diseases. Each anito was therefore named for his office; there was, for instance, the anito of the fields, and the anito of the rain. To these anitos the people offered sacrifices, when they desired anything—to each one according to his office.”

“[Batala] lived in the sky; but the anito, who was of such a nature that he came down here to talk with men, was to the Batala as a minister, and interceded for them. In some places and especially in the mountain districts, when the father, mother, or other relative dies, the people unite in making a small wooden idol, and preserve it. Accordingly there is a house which contains one hundred or two hundred of these idols. These images also are called anitos; for they say that when people die, they go to serve the Batala. Therefore they make sacrifices to these anitos, offering them food, wine, and gold ornaments; and request them to be intercessors for them before the Batala, whom they regard as God.“

Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (June, 1582) by Miguel de Loarca.

Fellow Filipina witch, @mangkukulam-mariel asked me if I have taotao or anito statues, so I decided to make this post and show off the two that I made from model magic! Hopefully I can make others in the near future with sturdier mediums, lol. These two in particular were made to remember and honor my lolo and tita, who both recently passed away this year. Though I’m still a baby witch, a few spiritual practitioners in the Fil-Am community have been giving me very helpful advice in terms of communicating with ancestral spirits, so hopefully these two anito statues can assist in that in the near future. 🙏

Bikol translation

Paano kita minamahal? Bibilangin ko ang mga paraan. Mahal kita hanggang sa lalim at lawak at lipad na abot ng aking kaluluwa, kapag ‘di namamalas ang mga hanggahan ng ngayon at ng hangad na biyaya. Minamahal kita tulad ng walang imik na naisin ng bawat araw, sa tanglaw ng liwanag at dilim. Malaya kitang iniibig, habang nakikibaka ang lahat. Dalisay kitang minamahal, na walang papuring hangad. Iniibig kitang sinlakas ng rubdob ng noon ay pagtangis, at ng musmos kong pananalig. Mahal kita sa pagmamahal na tila naglalaho sa kabaliwan ng mga banal. Mahal kita sa hininga, mga ngiti, luha, ng aking buhay; at, kung naisin ng Maykapal, higit pa kitang mamahalin pagkatapos ng kamatayan.

12 March 2018 at CBSUA CDE Reading Center. Attended the Book Launching with my blockmates.

GAPO is a Bicol term that when translated in Tagalog, it means “bato”.

We met the Bicolano writers and I took a photo of Mr. Elbert O. Baeta, the author of the book. He was a former instructor in the univ and in present, he’s pursuing his Master’s degree at University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

I decided to buy a book of him to have his signature on its first page. This is my simple way to show my appreciation and support on Bicolano works. 

Then, I got this message:

3/12/18

Para ki Maan

Magsurat, mamoot!

Padagos sana

- Bert

[ Para kay Maan

Magsulat, magmahal!

Patuloy lang

- Bert ]

Basic Egg Cleansing (SPIRITUAL) -raw unbroken egg -cup of holy water -apostles creed

“In 1885, Canada’s Indian Act outlawed the potlatch, an exchange of wealth practiced by the Aboriginal nations of the Northwest Coast. An 1895 amendment to the Act widened its scope to include “any Indian festival, dance, or other ceremony.” […] any occasion featuring dance regalia made out of feathers or furs. Similarly, in 1883, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a circular entitled “The Code of Religious Offenses,” which declared Aboriginal ceremonies punishable by imprisonment.

A Department of Indian Affairs circular dated December 15, 1921, and endorsed by Duncan Campbell Scott — the top official who declared his intention “to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada” — states that the Indian agents who represented the department at the local level were to “use [their] utmost endeavours to dissuade the Indians from excessive indulgence in the practice of dancing.” Mr. Scott was of the opinion that dancing was a “waste of time” that encouraged “sloth and idleness.” Such “demoralizing amusements” were an “obstacle to continued progress.”

To discourage the sun dance, Indian Affairs employed the services of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and devised a pass system wherein any Aboriginal person absent from his or her reserve without permission of the Indian Agent could be arrested as hostile. This was a treaty violation and amounted to forcible imprisonment. But Aboriginal peoples are creative subversives: we modified our customs to make them harder to detect, and we gathered on European holidays to celebrate our traditions. Still, a number of people were charged with violating the anti-dancing laws, and most went to jail.

In one infamous case, a blind 90-year-old man in Fishing Lakes, Saskatchewan, was convicted of dancing and sentenced to two months hard labour – until public outcry forced authorities to suspend his sentence. In 1922, during a series of potlatch prosecutions, those convicted were told they could avoid prison terms if their fellow villagers surrendered all ceremonial masks, rattles, and jewelry. The villagers complied, and many of these objects were sold to the Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and private collectors. Still other items were simply piled up and burned on the beach.“

[source]

The psychological damage and cultural trauma was so great that it wasn’t until the 60′s and 70′s that pow wow’s experienced a revival in US & Canada. Generations of families under strict assimilation made people fearful and ashamed of expressing their culture and language, or unable to due to lost family traditions.

Think about that stain on the pages of history next time someone flippantly calls a group meeting a “pow wow”.