Magical Nature of the Philippines

It's been about 23 days into my time in the Philippines and each day has brought surprises. I've spent the majority of the time thus far on Cebu which is the middle island of the country, known for its industry, its agriculture and for its festivals. It's the place also where the Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived bringing Christianity and colonialism under the soverignty of Spain and the place where he was also slain by the Visayan chieftan of Mactan, Lapu Lapu. When I arrived the Sinulog celebrations were coming to a finish, an annual series of festivals which commemorate that period of the arrival of colonialism and Christianity.

The way that the Philippines practices Christianity has its unique characteristics. Originally the spiritual practices of the region were animistic, with regions like Mindinao already practising Islam brought over by Arabs. In both cases animism remains a part of the culture particularly in the rural areas. The elderly people have passed on a legacy of folklore that includes mention of faeries, elves, mermaids,vampires (aswangs) and nature spirits. At Mount Banahaw on Luzon I did a pilgrimage in 2000 to this sacred mountain and witnessed Christian beliefs and animistic beliefs coinciding with holy sites there named after holy cities and saints, including religious tasks to purify the soul found in the natural setting there. An example was Jacobs Ladder, wherein the pilgrim descends an chain ladder into a fissure of water in the mountain and submerses themselves 3 times. In an eating area known as Jerusalem I saw several paintings of faeries, looking strikingly European adorning the structures. I was told to ask one of the old women there about it but she only replied, "ask me another time." On that same mountain was also a spiritual cult leader known as Suprema, who led a cloister nun convent of sorts, followers of Christ but with motifs that again depicted many faeries. I met Suprema who put me up for the night in the convent and told me that the mountain was a sacred place which needed to be respected. She had an otherworldly quality to her that I'll never forget.

Another example of the intermingling of animistic and Christian beliefs was at the home of my parents in Alegria, Cebu, a small fishing village in the southern province. When they hired a Christian well digger to produce water for the property he suggested that there be sacrifices made to the spirits of the land. My parents, practicing Catholics, went along with it. My mother is no stranger to such practices. They had already done such a thing when they had an old Narra tree cleared to make space for their house close to the waterfront. Several chickens were slaughtered as sacrifice in both cases. The well after 3 months of drilling deep into the ground still produced nothing but salty water and the well digger said to my mother that there was a mermaid holding the pipe preventing them from reaching good water which he suggested required bringing in a spiritualist to make an offering to aleviate this situation. This signaled the termination of his credibility in my parents eyes and his contract.

I was later to learn that the property on which my parents house resides has a history of being haunted. Our elder relatives describe giant ghost dogs the size of bears that have been known to appear. When the house was first being built and had no doors or windows my mother would sleep inside with the house caretakers in the other room. Once the caretakers saw a womens figure in a white gown passing through the house thought to be my mother initially and then revealed as a ghostly apparition.

Another common folklore found throughout my times visiting the Philippines has been the notion of haunted trees, particularly older Balete trees, remanants of the jungle ecology that has larger been removed from the Philippines by overdevelopment over the past 60 or more years. I recall being told a story once of my Lolo (grandfather), now diseased who was playing hide and go seek as a child and who went missing for many hours. He was found in a trance by an old tree where he had been hiding and needed to be brought out of it by special means. It is customary according to the older generations to show respect around these aged forest grandparents and to always utter "tabi po" (excuse me elder) when passing them or urinating near them. When i first heard this concept I was a teenager visiting the country and on an excursion to a mountain spring with family. By the spring was a balete tree. During the course of being there my cousins and I got rambunctious and made a lot of noise playing and splashing around the tree in the spring and I made the error of picking a beautiful orchid growing off the side of the mountain. Shortly afterwards a series of mishaps occurred with a minor accident and some things going missing. Whether related or not it drove home to me then the importance of being more grounded and serene around old trees and to this day I show this reverence around old growth varieties of trees everywhere I encounter them.

I have come across a book before whose title escapes me that details the animistic and folklore surrounding the Philippines. Many are legends with jungle creatures who animate moral lessons and many magical beings associated with sacred groves and ocean sites protected by mermaids are seen as ecological guardians. It is an interesting phenomenon that sacred areas are also precious ecosystems that benefit from scaring away the wrong kind of people who might bring harm to it. I remember hearing in Manila that the colleges there were haunted due to building on sacred sites. Only some have been preserved which remain in the city park. I visited it once and felt such a strong contrast to the insanity of the city.

I feel a call to learn more about the pre-colonial nature of the Philippines and write this mainly to hold in my memory how I've been gathering a sense of the mystical nature of the islands here in my own lifetime. I hope to research deeper and come in contact with the elderly folk who still retain the ability to see faeries and nature spirits. What are dismissed as superstitions seem also to carry with them a fear of the unknown that causes people to turn away from going deeper into their mysteries. I hope that as a people however that filipino's will recognize the richness of their cultural make up which includes it's indigenous roots and native folk beliefs.