Sacred Journey exhibit by John Paul "Lakan" Olivares'

For those of you in Manila, please view John Paul "Lakan" Olivares' Sacred Journey exhibit of stunning, contemplative, mind-bending, soul-baring drawings... Prof. Olivares shares drawings that reflect his spiritual journey during his 11-year hiatus. 

February 28 - March 14, 2011
Galerie Y, 4th FLR SM Megamall Artwalk

Cocktails will be on March 4, 2011, 6:00PM, Galerie Y. 

Click link for more details...

You might be able to get a glimpse of some of his works online here:

Meditation Mandalas

Song of the Babaylan

(Lyrics and melody by Lissa G. Romero)


I have been waiting for you
Outside of time
In the forest of your dreams

You have heard my voice on the wind
Calling you back home
To the warmth of my embrace

I have heard the beating of your heart
Yearning for a love
Deeper than the sea

I am in the silence of your Soul
Hear my love come home
Like waves on your shore

When you meet the Other in your Self
Feel your heart unfold
To take in the Sun

Let this Love break the walls within
And pour into the world
The balm that heals all wounds

I have heard the beating of your heart
Yearning for a love
Deeper than the sea

I am in the silence of your Soul
Hear my love come home
Like waves on your shore

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>>
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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.

Baybayin and Decolonization

In my blog Baybayin Alive, I encourage people to explore an indigenous way of thinking in order to understand the deeper meanings of the Baybayin Symbols. You can read that post at Holistic Approach: Returning to Ancestral Thinking.

Here is my latest post:

Fertility Symbols, Feminine Principle and BA

In summary it talks about the BA baybayin symbols...

both of which are yonni symbols or fertility symbols.

I also talk about the fertility symbols of the  lingling-o and the dinumug...

lingling-o on left and dinumug on right

(Source: Kipas Gallery - http://www.kipas.nl/Beads/BontFertSym.htm)

The lingling-o is a common ancient artifact symbolizing fertility found around Southeast Asia and the Philippines(ca. 500 B.C.–100 A.D.); dinumug is a fertility symbol and symbol of prosperity and love found in the Ifugao, Bontoc and other Cordillera regions of the northern Philippines.

This particular post at Baybayin Alive goes on to talk about how the fertility symbol shape could very well be the imagery from which the BA baybayin symbol (clefted version) evolved from.

Artistic Expressions - Painting the Brown Face Red

Painting the Brown Face Red
by Leny Strobel

grateful for the invitation
i entered the arbor and sacred ceremony
honoring maiden, matron, elder.

saying prayers to the four directions
in my mind's eye, i was bowing
palms together in front of my chest
I say silently:
I am Asian. Filipino.

holding the talking stick
i share my answer to the question:
what has been your burden this past year?
how did you heal?
i listened to everyone else's answer to same.

after the talking stick made its round
i wished to respond
to go deeper into intimacy
i say silently: I am Filipino.
I want more Kapwa.

drumbeats accompanied wailing time
sage purifying, healing, honoring
after the tears
a holy silence.

drumming began again
i feel the earth vibrate
shy at first, we dance in a circle.
my mind returns to Iloilo
dancing with my tribes
i wished to be back there
with my kin.

but i am in indian canyon
with native sisters
with white women
with black women

we say: it's all good.
it is what it is.
then someone interrupts:
it's not all good. sometimes it sucks.
sometimes it hurts.

the elders pontificate around the fire
wisdom we need to hear
advice on sex and death
on learning to listen.

the wind was howling
we were freezing even around the fire

then before midnite we say
goodbye and thank you

we walk back to camp
pitch dark, the stars are almost within reach.

our hearts are large
our souls feel blessed.

as for the things i didn't say ...
as for the things i didn't understand ...
as for the unaswered curiosities ...
as for the feeling of uncertainty...
as for the longing for more...

the next night i dreamt of a long-absent lover
who has returned to marry me.
oh what bliss!

Link accessed 7/19/2009

Portrait of the Filipino as Kidlat Tahimik

Kidlat Tahimik popularized the term "indio-genius" in reference to contemporary culture-bearer/artists whose creative expressions come from Filipino indigenous themes. He and Katrin de Guia (one of our conference keynoters) co-founded Heritage Arts and Academies, Inc (HAPI) and organized the KAPWA national/international conferences/gatherings of 2004 and 2008. Our Babaylan Conference/Gathering 2010 is modeled after these conferences."

Portrait of the Filipino as Kidlat Tahimik
By A.Z. JOLICCO CUADRA
Manila Bulletin - July 19, 2009, 3:08pm

Excerpt:

Who does not know Kidlat Tahimik? Who is Kidlat Tahimik?

Kidlat Tahimik, to put him in the words of E.M.Forster, stands at a slight angle to the universe. We see him look at it askance, imbibe what his eye perceives, refine what he gets, in the cauldron of his poetic imaginative fire...

Choose a name he was to resound to, resonate with his own brand of Filipinism. Kidlat Tahimik, therefore. In those syllables contained in this name, rebound so spiritually strong with his character; always quick on the Go; here, there, everywhere and nowhere.

In himself, he knows the Buddhism of his heart, best to interact with his reverence for all living things; like his love of nature. Eric de Guia: Eric so Germanic meaning ruler; de Guia so Spanish meaning guide; so: Kidlat Tahimik It Is; this No nom de guerre. But true, as real as his flesh and blood. His truest identity and name will be part and parcel of his vision and art. Being Baguio-grown, he inclined himself to follow the cultures of the Igorots, Ifugaos (like reverencing in their cultural rituals aspects of nature). Adopted as Igorot bagani, he sired The Balik Bahag Movement; if the situation calls him, he dons the bahag without affectation, embarrassment, trepidation. He can look the Igorot brave.

The full article appears on the Manila Bulletin site.

Links accessed 7/27/09

Artist Expressions: Suku, New Sun Artistry

Christine Balza of Suku, New Sun Artistry is a ceramics artist based in San Francisco. Recently, Leny Strobel asked Christine about her connection with babaylan practices. This is an excerpt of her response.

Babaylan, Deeper Understanding
by Christine Balza

Leny asked: Do you feel an emotional connection to babaylan concepts such as kapwa, babaylan, baybayin, bathala?

Christine writes:

Yes.

I feel the knowledge and understanding of the concepts of Kapwa and Babaylan that is within me, but have not had an opportunity to articulate or express before. I see flash backs of memories of a relative or family friend practicing message, or “helot”. They focus a spiritual aspect, much like meditation or prayer, towards healing and cleansing the body and mind. I had been approached by the same Aunties’ and Titas’ declaring they feel a sense that I was somehow gifted with this power to “helot.” As a child, I took the comments and spent hours trying to understand and focus on this power. Having little understanding of these concepts left me with an energy that I couldn’t focus on. It seemed too far-fetched and eventually my Fil-Am understanding took a dominant perspective and I not only forgot about these notions, but I mocked it as well.

Moving forward in life’s experiences, marriage, four children and finding this familiar feeling in my art, I am developing a better understanding of the metaphysical and spirituality. Its relation to caring for my family came first. Eventually, it was finding a sense of self and how necessary it was to care for my needs in order to maintain a balance. It was art that fueled the renewable energy to keep a healthy cycle going. But my creations were not moving out of my realm, except as tokens and gifts to those I love. It was the first piece I made written in Baybayin that affected someone other than one that I love. A Mother’s Day gift to my sister that said “Ina’” made a street fair vendor ask her if I could make more in bulk; thus, leading to my learning aspects of my culture that has widening my perspective and understanding.

My understanding of Kapwa and Babaylan at its most basic and fundamental form is as a mother. The obvious role is to my four children. However, I can see how I have been developing and practicing far before I gave birth to my oldest daughter of 16. I had not put much thought into this role in relationships I’ve had throughout the years until lately.

The complete article can be found on the Suku, New Sun Artistry site. All links accessed 7/6/09.

Performances: diwang ilaw: inner dance spoken word

diwang ilaw: inner dance spoken word @ grace exhibition space in brooklyn 2/6/09

diwang ilaw: inner dance spoken word @ grace exhibition space in brooklyn 2/6/09 from Philippe Garcesto on Vimeo.

Philippe Javier Garcesto is a NYC-based Filipino-American Multi-Disciplinary Artist who transforms and energizes each venue according to the essence of the performance piece. Leaving his homeland of Iloilo, the City of Love, at the tender age of 8 for the exotic suburbs of Maplewood, New Jersey his work is about balance between worlds. He walks a fine balance between two aspects of the brain hemispheres of intellect and intuition, science and spirituality, west and east. He often metamorphs into his alias Diwang Ilaw, which is translated as “Spirit of Light” in the Earth-rooted language of Tagalog, who is a holistic healer fusing the Babaylan techniques of Inner Dance with surgical lyrical barrages of Spoken Word Poetry. He summons the spirits of all humans living or dead, all creatures and plants, the Earth, and the Universe to flow through him to reawaken humanity to the collective power found within themselves as individual co-creators of our reality. He considers his art movement as Multi-Media Holistic Arts Activism designed to raise consciousness and awareness of the interconnectedness of all things and the Love that binds us all as One.

Submitted by Leny Strobel
Links accessed June 3, 2009

In The News: Bay Area Artists Revive Old Filipino Writing

Bay Area Artists Revive Old Filipino Writing

Sharon Chin reporting for CBS5, San Francisco

Some Bay Area residents are trying to revive an ancient writing system from The Philippines they say hasn't been used in centuries. It's a forgotten script that many in the Filipino community are only just discovering.

The language is called Baybayin, and Filipino-American artists are trying to keep it alive, to connect with their heritage. Babybayin migrated from the island of Java from a script called Kavi. But the script was replaced by the Western alphabet soon after the Spanish colonized The Philippines.

Our video report has more. Features artists Christian Cabuay and Christine Balza.

Submitted by Leny Strobel

Link accessed 6/8/09. Note that the feed was slow.

Performances: MEBUYAN/The Mebuyan Peace Project

Mebuyan, a women-led music group based in Davao City, Philippines, is composed of Geejay Arriola (artistic director, percussionist), Gauss Obenza (music director, guitarist), Maree Contai (percussionist), Maan Chua (guitarist), Paolo Sisi (bassist), Chico Zambrano (drummer, percussionist), and Lolong Gonzaga (keyboardist), is a child of the Mebuyan Peace Project.

The group has released its first album entitled Mga Kuwentong Bata

The album features compositions by Geejay Arriola, Bayang Barrios, Gauss Obenza, Maree Contaoi, Maan Chua, Maia Tampoy, and Sheila Labos.

Mebuyan Peace Project is a group of 18 women arts and development workers based in Mindanao, Philippines. These women have worked individually or as members of other organizations in various peacemaking and theatremaking projects for at least 10 years.

On May 18 2001, the women of these music and theater groups gathered and gave birth to Mebuyan Peace Project—a theatre and musical storytelling group. The idea is to produce artistic performances that will respond to women's and children's concerns in relation to the issues of personal, domestic, community, regional, and global peace.

We also aim to help develop artists and peacebuilders through trainings and workshops in:

—creative writing
—child rights
—children's theatre
—improvisational theatre
—cultural action
—dance and movement
—environmental awareness
—gender in development
—global education
—music and voice
—music writing
—organizational development
—peacemaking
—storytelling
—theatre (acting, directing, playwriting, production design, lights design)
—theatre in education
—visual arts

We also hope to encourage and popularize women's arts and theatre through storytelling, music, and theater performances, and to popularize women's and children's issues through workshops and performances.

Our mat is a world

where arts is the norm rather than a specialty.

where there are no sounds of war and greed, only sounds of music and laughter.

where men and women are given equal opportunities.

where every woman and child knows no hate nor fear.

where every home is the safest and most peaceful place on earth.

where arguments end in songs, not in fistfights.

where cultural diversity is celebrated, not wiped out.

Submitted by: Geejay Arriola
All links accessed date of this post.

Bahala Meditations: Renewal of Filipino Spiritual Practice

Perla Ramos Paredes Daly writes:

In the Jewish Tradition it is Yahweh. In English it is God. In Spanish it is Dios. In Islam it is Allah. In Christian tradition it is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. In pagan traditions it is Goddess or Great Mother. For the American Natives it is wording that translates to Great Spirit. Left-brainer, atheists may not believe in any god but they may believe in a Cosmic Intelligence that underlies the laws of physics and atomic existence in space and time.

And for the Filipino the Great Divine is called Bathala or Bahala. Even before the coming of the West the natives of the Philippine islands have had a spirituality and awareness of the Nameless-Many-Named-I-Am. By coming to rediscover the use of Bahala, so many more Filipinos today, cut-off and unaware of their spiritual roots, can come to discover and know that ancient traditions of the Philippine Islands have always carried Universal Wisdom...

Perla provides the meditations and contemplations online, noting:

There are three sets of exercises here.

1) Contemplation over the baybayin symbols that form the word Bahala.
2) Finding renewed meaning in saying Bahala Na
3) Saying Bahala or Bahala Na as a prayer/meditation entry point or as a spiritual chant.

Sites accessed 5/28/09

The Bathala Project

Finally after years in raising consciousness about our Filipino Spirituality, Bathala enters into the Fil-Am hip hop generation through the inspired Bathala Meditations. The magikal connection of Baybayin, our Ancient Philippine Script, and Bathala is finally understood!

bathala nawa!






For more information, go to The Bathala Project

Submitted by: Mary Ann Ubaldo

Book and CD Review: The Shared Voice by Grace Nono

The Shared Voice: Chanted and Spoken Narratives from the Philippines by Grace Nono
Anvil Publishing. ISSN:97127-20437 (2008)

Leny asked: Letecia - Can you please write a review of the book from your perspective as a second generation, daughter of Manong?

Letecia responded: I am so use to just having my own epiphany in the wee early morning hours.  Often words don't form in my brain, much less sentences.  I just sense something is different inside of me...an energy release, a veil lifted, a 'knowing' revealed.  The odd thing is that the 'knowing' is not just mine, Letecia's, it seems to an echo of what simply is, has been, always was and never was not.  The 'knowing' is not something that was 'spoken' to me in a literal sense, perhaps only hinted at, or l observed it (whatever it is) and it lived in my presence. You know when you are looking at a picture and suddenly you see the white space between the pixels of colored dots...I feel myself sort of 'shake it off' and zoom out again to see the picture ever more clearly.  Sometimes words are spoken in my head, phrases or a story takes shape as images flash by.

I felt something had shifted in me after reading 'The Shared Voice,’ it happened in my sleep....Like Magic!  Really I am not sure what happened, or why, but I have a sense of 'rightness' in the world.  LOL and perhaps if we were in a room sharing stories and thoughts about the book, more words would flow freely in the dialogue which allows for the connectedness, reflection, warm smiles and laughter.  Writing is essentially a monologue and I am not so sure what I have to say is interesting or important, or will even make sense to someone else.  And if I fix my thoughts into print (either on paper or on a screen) it feels a bit rigid....the words reflect a moment in time....not what is happening as my fingers are tying the letters to this sentence.... they are reflections of the past.....always trying to catch up to the present moment.

And even with all that being said....I wonder if 'tacit knowledge' is asserting itself rising from ancestral waters and has me qualifying my words as 'not very important' to deflect anyone from noticing 'the words of power that I speak'   I learned of a concept called Buyag when I was in PAWWA (Philippine American Women Writers and Artists accessed 5/26/09)

"Buyag" or "Pwera/Purya Buyag" is an expression that is meant to ward off "Evil Eye" when you praise or take notice aloud of someone, especially a baby. Old folks believe so and there is no harm if the younger generation say it too... " Yahoo Answers (accessed 5/26/09)

I realized then and even today, how Buyag or Pwera/Purya Buyag whispers in my blood.  I don't even really know how to pronounce the words, so I look forward to someone calling me up and speaking it into a voice mail for me (smile), or send me a video message on Seesmic.

See what I mean...the deflect away from my own shared thoughts...for now, I have quieted the voice some by getting a piece of garlic and setting it on my altar (if I had a pocket in what I am wearing, the garlic would be in it!)...

For those of you who want the short version 'TWO THUMBS UP', 5 out of 5 stars.  'The Shared Voice: chanted and spoken narratives from the Philippines' by Grace Nono is a Divine Find. 

I am listening to the CD as I type to you.  Nono's book provides a bridge from the past to the future of a Filipino Spirituality that lives - a living tradition.  One that is represented not only by the primary oralist, but also by the secondary oralists and each of us who identify as Filipino and Spiritual - beyond organized religion and inclusive.

Grace is a good storyteller.  As I read, I felt the conversational tone of her writing open my mind and heart - stretching me open to my own paradoxical nature of living in two worlds - the natural world and a constructed world.  I read to myself out loud, letting the sounds of the words work like incantations, not holding tightly to my own pre-conceived ideas about what Filipina/os are like, or who I am being....just allowing and listening.   I would read some and then listen to the CD.

Even the academic models, the history and statistics flowed like nectar.  If you asked me now what was said I would have to pull out the book to quote it....and I am not sure if there was anything specific that touched me other than the wholeness of the presentation.  Hmm, I guess if I looked at it like a faceted jewel, one of the facets that etched in my brain is Table 1. Oralist and Literate: A Comparison on page 22.  I am making a copy of it and posting it on my wall as a reminder of my own dynamic flow between these two systems and ways of being. 

I am not one or the other, I am an AND/AND, a both, not an either or.  Even now I laugh at myself knowing that in future days I will use this table to support my desire to 'not write' to continue to 'be-speak the world into being.'

I felt properly introduced to these 10 elders, to know their place, their families, their people and I realize how limited the introductions are here in the USA - your name, what you do, where you live.  Here in the USA, it is your intimates that you share the information about your ancestral place, your people, etc.  What rich and vital traditions each of these 10 elders come from.  For the secondary oralists, those that bridge the ancient/future lineages, they are my She-ros and He-ros.  They find ways to live a continuum... NOW, NOW, NOW the past is now, the future is now, the present is now, if this is making any sense.

Almost 20 years ago when I started my training in the Dianic Tradition, we were asked to research a goddess from our ethnic background.  During the next 5 weeks, I was to spend time with Her, using whatever written information I could find and if there was not much - to meditate with Her, Her symbols or any means to listen to what She might have to share with me personally and if there was something She wanted to share with the women of the class.  In the last class I invoked Her, using the skill set we learned in class and to aspect Her (let Her speak through me) so that the women in the circle might be able to meet Her.  It was through this process, the invocation of Gamaogamao* and time spent with her that stepping forward on my spiritual path of service as a Dianic is forever entwined with my ancestral spirituality. 

Grace's book provided a deeper context from which I could understand my own spiritual calling - from the ancestors and the elements.  As a daughter of a Manong and a Filipina war bride, I was not raised speaking either language of my parents or Tagalog - only English.  I think the ancestors had to speak to me elementally - through nature and through many other earth-based traditions that are rooted in the lands they originated from.  It is only now, and in the last 20 years, that FilAm's like me have had access to information about our culture and traditions in English.  I used to think my experience was unique, and as my mother use to remind me, to keep quiet about it (she was after all a good Catholic).  I feel fortunate to be living in a time where information is shared and I can see that I am not unique, but one of the many displaced Filipinas who have managed to stay steady and listen.

I have honed my lens/worldview as a feminist - radical at that.  The good news is the mentors and teachers encouraged me to do my own research, be in the center of my own life and comfortable in my own skin as a woman.  The Shared Voice has added to the context of who I am in the world - how I am in service to my communities and has me questioning, if I was raised in the Philippines and had access to elders of these living traditions would I have made my way to their mountain tops or to their remote villages in the same way I have found elders here in the USA? 

I’d like to think so, but I will never know what could have been.  I only know what is and what might be...I feel fortunate to have found this virtual circle - each of you who are on this list has contributed to the bridging and integration of my spirit calling and how it out-pictured itself in me as a Priestess in European-based Goddess Traditions.  On this list our conversations, book suggestions, gatherings, etc., have helped me to own the gifts that are from my/our ancestral pool of wisdom.  All the formal training, reading, references in the Goddess traditions I am ordained in are from other lands, not even from the land from which I was born (USA).  They are from the lands of the colonizers, reaching back into their roots, to their ancestors, to the roots of their religions, consciousness, medicine, philosophy, science, literature, art - all the way back to the neolithic.

The Shared Voice reminds me....we are all connected to lands, ancestors and nature.  Living Traditions need to include the her/history and all the diversity and richness we represent.  The Shared Voice helps me to feel even more at home in my own dance - in my own body by giving voice to what I did not know needed to be spoken.

In closing, I add my voice in gratitude and blessings of a work well done.  I am changed by the work in subtle ways....which will bubble up through my own words, works, songs, dance and stories....

Thanks Leny for asking.  Thanks Baylan for getting a copy of the book to me....and Thanks Grace for writing and sharing your words, images and song.

PS. Do I need to be worried about Buyag or Pwera/Purya Buyag ? (smile)

*From "The Colourful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental" by Ursla Cinco Valderrama, pg 30. The making of a Balyan: "Gamaogamao is believed to be the goddess of water..."

Review submitted by: Letecia Layson.

Editor’s note: This post appeared originally on the Yahoo listserve group “Babaylan” on May 9, 2009 and has been edited slightly to correct spelling/capitalization errors and smooth paragraph transitions. Every effort was made, however, to maintain the conversational quality of the post. The editor apologizes for any subtle changes in meaning as a result.

Artist Expressions - Urduja Custom Jewelry

Understanding the babaylan means more than just reading about the past and critiquing the present. The artist expresses the principles of the babaylan through her work.

Mary Ann Ubaldo writes:

I am an artist that deeply relates to our Filipino culture. It is a decolonization process(pagbabalik loob) for me of reconnecting with the past to get a better understanding of the present and be able to envision the future.

Going through this process strengthens the cultural connection to the Filipino indigenous culture, ideology as a source of grounding.

In this way, it promotes cultural and spiritual connection making it possible for us to identify with one's people and history despite personal, generational, education, economic classes and other forms of differences.

Language and the way of writing are foundations of one's culture. By using Baybayin/Alibata in my art it is a deeper search of our identity and understanding how the loss of language, ancient scripts affects our Filipino identity, that the Filipino culture is the soul of our people, a connection to our folk soul.

I could really say, I am on a LAKARAN, that inspired me to do it, a spiritual journey/ pilgrimage, towards understanding a little bit better our spiritual heritage. It is a pilgrimage back to my Filipino cultural roots, a search going back to our KATAALAN.

I see the power of art as a tool to educate and raise consciousness about our indigenous roots. I am reinventing who we are, making sense of what is it to be a Filipino/Filipina, not defined by colonizers.

I believe, there is an inner guiding spirit which I identify as my MUTYA, the spiritual force (diwa/soul) of Inang Bayan (Motherland), that leads me in my art. I am guided by BATHALA & our ancestors.

Through her different lines of jewelry, Mary Ann expresses the intricate relationship between the artist and her beliefs, providing a tangible method for others to connect with the deepness of the babaylan world-view.