Ritual Gathering of Sacred Music, Dance & Poetry - Pictures II

Please click here to view Leny's photo album of this magical event>>
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Ritual Gathering of Sacred Music, Dance & Poetry - Pictures

Please visit the Picasa Photo Album by Bill Naiditch and Nus that generously shares the images of this special evening of Sept. 19, 2009.
Click here to view pics>>
Click here to get more information on this past event>>

Join our facebook group to get announcements and event updates>>

Chanted Poem/Song by Mila Anguluan-Coger

YA PALLABBET | ANG PAGBABALIK LOOB | THE JOURNEY HOME
By Mila Anguluan-Coger, 09.18.09

Chanted Poem/Song at the Ritual Gathering of Sacred Music, Dance & Poetry
Saturday, September 19, 2009. Berkeley, CA

Intan intan… labbet tan intan
Intan intan… labbet tan intan
Halika na uwi na… halika na uwi na…

Kaam ta kunukunnay ya kwammu?
Bakit nyo po ginagawa ito?
Why do you do this, Lola? As a child I’d wonder
Why grandmother chanted to call me, even while beside her
After visiting strange places and it was time to go home
Why do you do this, I would repeat
And slowly, she’d look at me, and say gently
Whispering a secret known only to both of us
So that you won’t get lost, my child
So that you won’t go wandering too far
Too far that you’d never return again.

And then she’d chant and do it all over
Intan intan… labbet tan intan… Intan intan…. labbet tan intan
Imploring with her voice, singing softly with the wind, distinctly
Calling… for my fragmented selves in fragmented places
Come home… come home… time to come home…
Come to this body again… come to this mind…
Come to this heart… come back into this inner space
Come… all you wandering selves together
Come home… and be whole again.

And she’d take hold of my hand
Wrapping my tiny hand, enclosing it in hers
In her strong hand, her nurturing hand and
All at once I’d feel like it was the safest place to be
Despite the creeping darkness, despite the chilling night.

Other nights have come: nights of doom, nights of sorrow.
Many other places: places of torment, places of pain
Many lands traversed, many more to be traveled
Lands that are jagged, cruel, leering, eerie
Oceans that are frothing, seething, smearing
Places where our many selves go
Wandering into…peering into… swallowed into.



Lola, like other ancestors, was babaylan
She whose voice kept calling with the wind, dispelling despair
She whose pungent herbs curling in burning coals would flow into dreams
And deep sleep where soft smoke soothed the unseen pain
Healed the open wounds, brought together flesh and soul torn apart
So that healed, daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters
Sons and grandsons, sondaughters and daughtersons
Heir to her power of peace, silence, resilience, song, dance, touch
Animate once more the babaylan legacy of dispelling darkness
Healing pain, praying peace, chanting to all our little selves

Intan intan… labbet tan intan… intan intan… labbet tan intan
Come home… come home… time to come back home…
Come to this body again… come to this mind…
Come to this heart… come back into this inner space
Come… all you wandering selves together
Come home… and be whole again.


YA PALLABBET
ANG PAGBABALIK LOOB
THE JOURNEY HOME
By Mila Anguluan-Coger 091809

Intan intan… labbet tan intan
Intan intan… labbet tan intan
Halika na uwi na… halika na uwi na…

Kaam ta kunukunnay ya kwammu?
Bakit nyo po ginagawa ito?
Why do you do this, Lola? As a child I’d wonder
Why grandmother chanted to call me, even while beside her
After visiting strange places and it was time to go home
Why do you do this, I would repeat
And slowly, she’d look at me, and say gently
Whispering a secret known only to both of us
So that you won’t get lost, my child
So that you won’t go wandering too far
Too far that you’d never return again.

And then she’d chant and do it all over
Intan intan… labbet tan intan… Intan intan…. labbet tan intan
Imploring with her voice, singing softly with the wind, distinctly
Calling… for my fragmented selves in fragmented places
Come home… come home… time to come home…
Come to this body again… come to this mind…
Come to this heart… come back into this inner space
Come… all you wandering selves together
Come home… and be whole again.

And she’d take hold of my hand
Wrapping my tiny hand, enclosing it in hers
In her strong hand, her nurturing hand and
All at once I’d feel like it was the safest place to be
Despite the creeping darkness, despite the chilling night.

Other nights have come: nights of doom, nights of sorrow.
Many other places: places of torment, places of pain
Many lands traversed, many more to be traveled
Lands that are jagged, cruel, leering, eerie
Oceans that are frothing, seething, smearing
Places where our many selves go
Wandering into…peering into… swallowed into.



Lola, like other ancestors, was babaylan
She whose voice kept calling with the wind, dispelling despair
She whose pungent herbs curling in burning coals would flow into dreams
And deep sleep where soft smoke soothed the unseen pain
Healed the open wounds, brought together flesh and soul torn apart
So that healed, daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters
Sons and grandsons, sondaughters and daughtersons
Heir to her power of peace, silence, resilience, song, dance, touch
Animate once more the babaylan legacy of dispelling darkness
Healing pain, praying peace, chanting to all our little selves

Intan intan… labbet tan intan… intan intan… labbet tan intan
Come home… come home… time to come back home…
Come to this body again… come to this mind…
Come to this heart… come back into this inner space
Come… all you wandering selves together
Come home… and be whole again.

mangotahiti.com by margarita certeza garcia

margarita has graciously offered to design the logo for the babaylan conference of 2010.
Please take a look at her online gallery at mangotahiti.com.

Babaylan Mandala

Babaylan Mandala I-I

Beginning over 400 years ago, the coming of Westerner colonizers shaped the identity of Filipinos. As the gold of our ancestors and the motherland were wrested away and loaded upon Spanish galleons to be delivered to the conquerors' home across the seas, so too was the richness of Filipino identity and spirituality replaced with dysfunctional perceptions of the superiority of the Westerner's race, religion and ways and the innate inferiority of the indios'. 

Filipinos today who awaken and stand strong in their identity, history, heritage and the center of their being(Loob), find their inner light, their inner gold. The Babaylan Mandalas and all their symbols of the 4 elements and baybayin scripts represent the reclaiming of the Filipinos' Inner Gold... We know when the Babaylan Spirit rises within any one of us when She guides us to help our Kapwa find theirs. 

This art piece, on 29x29 sugar cane watercolor paper, is up for silent auction as part of a fundraiser for the Center for Babaylan Studies, Babaylan Rising, this December 5th in the Bay Area. 

These are also available for order on 18x18 watercolor paper. You can place your order at www.babaylan.net.

Babaylan Conference of 2010: Call For Papers

*CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS*
Please email in word doc form to admin@babaylan.net

Center for Babaylan Studies
*Babaylan Conference of 2010*
April 17 – 18, 2010
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park CA

http://www.babaylan.net/callforpapers.html

Deadline for Abstracts: Nov. 30
Notification of Acceptance: Jan 30

RATIONALE AND VISION: We believe in the power of the Indigenous Soul
and the Indigenous World View, as embodied by primary/land-based
babaylans in the Philippines and contemporary babaylan/culture-bearers
in the Philippines and in the diaspora, to provide a narrative that
restores a sense of wholeness, beauty, and integrity to our
pagka-Pilipino. In a world that aches for peace, justice, and healing
from the violent effects of colonial and imperial histories, our
Babaylan and our indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP)
offer a path to re-membering and remembering the sacredness, strength,
beauty, and the creativity of our Filipino Loob.Those who have done
the deep work of reconnecting with the spirit of the Babaylan would
like to share this experience with our communities. We would like to
reflect together and celebrate this wealth from our spiritual and
cultural heritage so that it might nourish and nurture the work that
we do to heal and bless, to make peace, to create justice, to teach
our kin and communities the values of Kapwa, Kagandahang Loob,
Pakikiramdam, and Panagtagbo.

*CALL TO PRESENTERS: *

If you are a scholar/educator, artist (visual, literary, performance),
culture-bearer/advocate/activist and if you deem that your work is
Babaylan-inspired and Babaylan-informed, please submit a 250-500 word
abstract describing the content of your paper and a paragraph about
how you think it fits into the conference themes mentioned above. If
you are an artist and would rather submit a video sample of your work,
please do so but also include a 250-500 word abstract of your
presentation and how it fits into the conference themes.

*There will be two tracks to the Conference/Gathering:*

*Main track: *

Key resources from the Philippines on Babaylan and Kapwa Psychology
(Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices)

*Bridging track: *
How the Babaylan practice is appropriated in the U.S. by those in
search of a Filipino practice that is all at once spiritual, creative,
and politically and socially conscious. Areas: Arts, Spiritual
Communities, Academic research, Craftmaking, Education, Cultural
Activism, Political Activism, Social Justice

If you are a scholar/educator, artist (visual, literary, performance),
culture-bearer/advocate/activist, and if you deem that your work is
Babaylan-inspired and Babaylan-informed, and would like to present
your work at the conference, please see below:

For Paper Presentation, please submit a 250-500 word abstract
describing the content of your paper and explain how you think it fits
into the conference themes. Paper presentations are usually 20minutes
each and if you are submitting individually, we may assign you to an
appropriate panel with a moderator.

For Creative Work presentation, e.g. film, video, visual art,
performance, please submit a 250-500 word proposal of your
presentation and how it fits into the conference themes. You may also
submit a sample of your work, if you like.

For Workshops on a specific topic relevant to the conference themes,
please specify the number of hours you require for the workshop and/or
if you are team-teaching. Workshop blocks of 2-4 hours will be
allocated.

For Panel presentation, please submit the names of the members of the
panel, the title and 250-500 word abstract for each presentations, and
the name of the panel moderator.

For all of the above, please include:

1. One paragraph bio for each presenter including moderators.
2. Equipment that you will need for your presentation.

*Deadline for Abstracts: Nov. 15
Notification of Acceptance: Jan 30*