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

REFLECTIVE WEAVINGS ON MY INNER BANIG, by Mila Anguluan-Coger

February 2011


The banigs or hand woven mats said it all. It was Thursday evening, January 27, 2011 and as I spread them out and looked at them, they looked back, crumpled, dirty and forlorn. I carried them, laid them on the tub and tried to scrub them clean. But as the soap and water were flowing, so flowed my tears. The banigs have been in the building basement far too long and have become moldy and badly stained from the rains. How could I have allowed this to happen? As the keeper, I have been remiss in my duty. Now, how could I ever unfold the intricate weavings and the vibrant colors that tell of my people’s tales? They who have lovingly woven these mats in the caves, where the right temperature and amount of moisture helped bring out the best colors, the soft but resilient strands? How was I to help launch Virgil and Lane’s books without the magic of the mats’ stories? I cried, blamed myself, blamed my husband, blamed myself again and cried some more.

The tears were forgotten when the books were launched two days later, on Saturday, Jan 29, at the Silver Lake Center. Three banigs were not so bad after all and were put up on the walls of the center, accompanied by a happy array of indigenous cloth from the Cordillera and Mindanao. The splash of tribal colors and images brightened the center and were reflected on the faces of those who attended. The community came joyfully together to celebrate the books’ L.A. debut. Music, dance, performance and talks flowed and filled everyone. The joy spilled over until the early hours of the morning, when we of CFBS and FilAm Arts celebrated some more – with songs, stories and games, in Roque’s home.

On Sunday, Jan. 30th, the well in my eyes spilled tears again. I heard the news of violent clashes in Egypt and the total communication blackout. My daughter was there, working as an RN and I could not reach her; there was no telephone, no internet, no Skype, nothing. It was just a few days ago that I was looking at her Facebook, how it beamed with pictures of her visit to the pyramids, her childhood dream realized at last. A week after that tour, the Sphinx seemed to have awakened and brought total chaos to the country. It was the most frustrating and stressful time, having to face this dark and ominous wall of silence in Egypt, worried sick about a daughter’s safety. I could not sleep and was glued to the TV and my laptop for news updates. I called the Dept of Foreign Affairs in Manila. Someone said the officials were still assessing the situation. I kept calling them the following days for updates, but no reassurance came. I was on a thin wire, suspended indefinitely, precariously, and the only release were my tears.

Worn out with anxiety, I remembered the last mid-January weekend retreat in Sta. Rosa, the playing like children in Sonoma, the comfort of Leny’s kitchen and couch. I remembered the warmth of bodies and hearts, all 15 of us, settled like birds in a nest, treasuring the home we found in one another. I remembered the sheer bliss of rediscovering deep friendship, the sweetness of laughter shared as a family, the passionate play of being community. We were, as Perla so aptly described it, a bowl. We contained each other, our laughter and our tears, our smiles and even our fears, our bodies, our spirits. We were a bowl yes, but at the same time, we were also a boat on the river, flowing with our dreams, rowing to the rhythm of our vision - for service to our Kapwa - rowing towards liberation, always moving towards freedom.

But what of freedom, a part of me asked, when at any given moment one is clutched by fear and anxiety that grinds unceasingly, unmercifully? If we are to look at the big picture, are we not mere pawns of those in highest authority, those who wield imperial powers and have the resources of the world at their feet, unmindful of the groveling majority, and the wanton destruction of environment and humanity? Is our rowing at CFBS merely a pathetic simulation of movement that cannot get us anywhere anyway? What of the bowl or the boat?

I checked myself and recalled that this time is the same February of our People Power Revolution in EDSA, ignited 25 years ago in 1986. It was this same bloodless revolution that inspired others to bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989, and now, the same people’s revolution that is sweeping Egypt into an unprecedented era of change in 2011.

Buoyed by these thoughts, I again confront the same fears that have shadowed me as a child, even as an adult, assailed by my own and my people’s colonial mentality and the internal oppression that made me feel how painful it was to be “The Other.” I see you, and I accept you as part of me, I tell my fears. But now, I am someone else, I add with conviction.

I am of the same spirit as my ancestors, indestructible and free. It is this same indomitable spirit that connects me to the eternal strand woven into all of creation, animated by its divine Source, regardless of time, matter and space. I am the container of the past, the present and the future. I am part of the tree of transcendence. I live with its roots embracing the earth, I am one with its branches merging with the sky. And together with the rest of my Kapwa, we shall unravel the promise of freedom, whether fighting for it in the streets of EDSA or Egypt, or realizing it in the deepest frontiers of the inner self, and in the realms beyond.

I cry with joy for this life which is a banig of exquisite weavings, of amazing dancing images, imbued with nature’s textures and fragrances, and astounding rainbow hues. I am grateful to be sharing the banig of life with my CFBS family and community, whose nurturing support sustains, and yes, contains as it moves, our personal and collective dreams.

Mabuhay tayo kailanman!

An Encounter with the Babaylan By Rhea Claire E. Madarang

Sr. Mary John Mananzan was a keynote speaker at the FAWN 2005 Conference in New York City. The conference was constructed upon the 5 babaylan leadership archetypes of Warrior, Teacher, Healer, Visionary and Priestess. Sr Mary John's keynote was how the power roles of the babaylan are a deep part of her work and own journey. 


At the recent Bahay Nakpil booklaunch of the Babaylan book, here's a young writer reflecting on the event:

An Encounter with the Babaylan

By Rhea Claire E. Madarang, November 2010

Warrior, teacher, healer and visionary. This was how Sr. Mary John Mananzan described the babaylan, the historical figure whom before then I only knew through my history schoolbooks as a healer and priestess in Filipino indigenous communities during the pre-colonial era.

Mananzan, a contemporary babaylan herself, spoke these words with a quiet force. I listened, together with a rapt audience of around 40. They were also attendees of the book launch of “Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous” on that warm Monday afternoon at Bahay Nakpil, Quiapo, Manila. Writers of the book, all with deep involvement with the babaylan tradition, and people significant to the creation of the book were speaking in turns.

Warrior, teacher, healer and visionary? I felt overwhelmed by the immensity of the power and significance of the babaylans in pre-Spanish Philippines.

Prof. Fe Mangahas corroborated the power of the babaylan in her sharing, saying that in indigenous communities back then, there were three significant roles - the datu, panday and the babaylan. The datu was the ruler and the panday ensured the livelihood of the people through farming for example – both roles addressed material concerns, while the babaylan was solely in charge of the spiritual realm and also had influence on the material concerns such as determination of the best time for farming.

But the power of the babaylan is not only possessed by women, as I had thought – and as many others had thought, I believe. It is also wielded by men. According to Katrin de Guia, one of the book writers, some northern provinces have men performing the roles of the babaylan. To the Ifugaos, this is the mumbaki.

With every speaker’s words, I felt my awe and respect for the babaylan grow, but I was most jolted by Mananzan’s sharing, for she shared how, in these modern times, she took on the roles of warrior, teacher, healer and visionary in her work for women’s empowerment and social transformation.   

The babaylan is thus not just a powerful historical figure but a very real and present power anyone can access at any moment. As Teresita Obusan, another of the book’s authors, put it: “The spirit of the babaylan never dies.” It is always there, available to everyone.

Upon realizing this, I felt the faintest stirring in my body of – dare I say it? – the babaylan spirit. Is there not a babaylan in me – in all of us? I wrote down this realization in one of the pieces of paper given to us for reflection after the speakers’ sharings.

At the end of the book launch, professor and modern babaylan Grace Odal, performed a babaylan ritual dance, scattering rose petals, lighting incense and singing along the way. In a white flowing dress and with flowers crowning her head, her movements were both graceful – as befitting her name – and forceful.

Slowly, she led almost all of us to dance along with her and urged us to make any movement that came naturally to us. We danced moving in a circle, as though in a trance, but still conscious. The air was electric, charged with the energy of this ancient ritual performed in the present.

After that I had no doubt as to the reality and power of the babaylan spirit. And through that experience I believe I’ve glimpsed the babaylan in me too.


(Thank you for sharing, Claire! And may you continue to be inspired and empowered by the babaylans of our history, our lives today and our country's future.)

Honoring Our Ancestors

New CFBS video/footnotes

A Healing at Salmon Creek by Lissa Romero

We must've looked a sight to the residents of sleepy Salmon Creek, off Highway 1 past Bodega Bay. A motley crew of thirty-odd participants of the Babaylan Conference that had just taken place at Sonoma University, we had come to the quiet beach with Babaylan Reyna Yolanda and five other members of her group to join in a ritual for healing the earth. Malongs of every size and color peppered the sandy landscape as we piled out of our cars parked on the narrow road leading to the beach.

Along the way, most of us took off our shoes. Despite the cold wind, the sand felt warm and comforting under our feet. As we made our way over the dune, I beheld the sea—not calm and pretty like those touted in tropical vacation brochures, but wild, roiling, dangerous and majestic. Spray filled the air as the waves crashed onto the hardy brown sand. It was like being on the edge of a whirlpool, the movement of the water expansive, erratic and unpredictable. One was drawn to the sight of the endless sea, yet mindful about keeping a distance. Also, this was the Pacific Ocean. The water was numbingly cold.

It was my first time to participate in a ritual of this sort, that is, not one of those prescribed by my Catholic upbringing. I suspect this was true for most of us present. And except for Reyna Yolanda and the spirits she seemed to be listening to, no one really knew what was about to happen. I knew at the start that I was about to experience something special, but had no idea that by the end of it, the event will have profoundly changed the very core of my being and my understanding of what it means “to be in the world”.

She began by tracing a sacred space on the ground, an “altar” upon which she and her helpers arranged the fruits and flowers we had brought with us. She walked back and forth swiftly, following the requests being whispered to her by Spirit, and we all patiently watched and followed her subsequent orders like obedient children. She led us in a series of actions whose order I can no longer remember: writing on the ground; running, jumping or walking; tracing circles in the air with a sprig of flowers held in the right hand. We seemed to be outside of Time, completely focused in the moment, the sun hidden behind a thick layer of clouds that covered the entire sky above us. And slowly, with each completed action, Nature seemed to be responding to us. Seagulls, at first in pairs and small groups, began to fly over us from a northern to a southerly direction, from the right side of the beach to the left. They flew right above us, zooming to within ten to fifteen feet above our heads. Our breaths caught, for we all instinctively understood the symbolism of this act: Nature was hearing us, and She was pleased.

I had no expectations at all in coming to the beach to participate in this ritual. I was in “beginner’s mind”, my cognitive self stretched like a blank, white canvas. So what happened at this point in the ritual was completely unexpected. She asked all of us to form a straight line facing the sea, facing west. She told us to offer our own personal petitions to Bathala, to the wind that swirled around us. We all, as though rehearsed, raised both hands up into the air, our faces held skyward as we silently offered our prayers. I asked for the regeneration of life on earth, for the healing of its parts that may have been badly or even irretrievably damaged. I asked that humans may care for the earth, not in this business-like, politically correct manner, but in a deeper way. Just as I was trying to define in my mind what I meant by a “deeper way”, I heard Reyna Yolanda singing out to the sea in spirit language. As I heard her sacred communication, something began to move within me. I looked at Reyna Yolanda’s figure, clad in a green satin dress, miniscule against the backdrop of the wild sea. And I began to feel a Presence speak inside my bones, my muscles, my heart and mind: “I am a part of you, as you are a part of me. We are not separate. Your being is intertwined with mine in ways that twist and turn and dig and reach. I am not Other. You are my Beloved, and I am Yours.”

I began to cry. In the grip of such truth whose veracity I felt deep in my bones, something collapsed inside me, not walls, but a belief that had been sold to me, to all of us, as truth: that Nature is something outside of us that we must care for just because it’s a vital part of the planet we live on; that we call or label her “Mother Earth” in a metaphorical sense; that we segregate our trash or engage in other “green” actions in the perfunctory way that we make our morning coffee or pay our bills; that the health of our planet is intrinsically linked to ours as a fact of nature, a function of nature, rather than the essence of our relationship with it.

These beliefs but scratch the surface of what may pass as “reality” or “truth”, and to continue to hold on to them would be to deprive one’s self of the truth of being and reason for existing. It would be akin to living a lie, in the same way I pretended as a child to believe in Santa Claus long after I discovered the truth so I could keep getting the presents. In such a self-serving deception, we deprive ourselves of life-transforming epiphany—the truth of who we are.

Then Reyna Yolanda asked us to crouch down, put our palms flat on the ground and start drumming. As I drummed the wet sand, I could feel Nature rise up to meet me. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” I told her, for the first time as Beloved to another (although there really is no “Other”) Beloved. I felt her saying, “I bask in Your love. I need Your love. When You love me, I begin to heal. I am not Some Thing You need to fix. I am One who also needs to be loved.” The tears that flowed out of my eyes seemed to be drawn straight from my heart. I love you, I love you, I love you. Never again will I forget my Mother, for She is my Kapwa, too.

As if in response, the sun broke through a crack in the clouds. Nature received our offering of love into her heart, and we basked in her warmth.

One action after another. We were doing a series of mini-rituals to complete a whole one. In doing them, I began to understand the importance of ritual as a way to experience the intrinsic sacredness of All That Is. At one point, in the middle of one ritual, we all saw a large, white plastic drum, half filled with water, bobbing slowly towards us from the water. At first it was upright, almost as tall as a man, before it fell on its side and was dragged up to the shore upon Reyna Yolanda’s orders. Was it a mirage? A mass illusion conjured up by the skipped meal and unusual circumstances? It was like we were in the middle of a dream, playing roles in an allegorical tale instead of merely being its passive audience.

The phenomenon of the floating white drum was laden with meaning, Reyna Yolanda explained. “That drum represents our intentions, floating in the sea of hopes and dreams,” she said in Tagalog. “By bringing it onto the shore, we have pulled it in to safety. We have made it possible for the success of our petition to become reality.”

When we finally left the beach, we were euphoric and peaceful. Long goodbyes were said, as some of us would be heading home to wherever we had traveled from: Oakland, Stockton, Los Angeles, Toronto. When I checked the car’s dashboard clock, I was shocked to see that three hours had elapsed since we arrived at the beach. I thought we had just been there an hour. I chuckled at the memory of sci-fi movie episodes that had portrayed similar phenomena. Had Time folded, or did we simply step outside of its confines temporarily, somehow? I suppose that the mysteries of this Universe will unlock slowly, one at a time, dimension by dimension, truth by truth. For now, this is more than enough to ponder on…

I honor and thank the shamans and babaylans of this world, who with courage and perseverance undertake the task of bridging all worlds, bringing healing and helping evolve consciousness. Thank you. Maraming salamat po.

Posted with permission from the author.

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

Gather with us at the Babaylan Conference This April. Plan Now!

1st International Babaylan Conference, 2010
April 17 – 18, 2010 at the
Sonoma State University, CA

We would like you to join us in bringing about this very unique and special gathering through your efforts and presence. Info on getting to conference and on lodging here now!

about the Babaylan Rising, Dec. 5 2009 Event

date Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 4:19 AM
subject Re: Babaylan Rising event


Dear all -
It is past 1am and am still awake because of the warm and exhuberant energy of the evening. Tonight we raised [funds for CFBS] -- thanks to Felicia, Jennifer, Marisza, Holly, Baylan, Lizae, Trixie and San Jose State U students, Ingrid, Mylene, Jodie, Mel Orpilla and Sam, your partners, friends, and family. Thanks, too, to the donors of the auction items: Perla's mandala, Jennifer and her artist friends, Christine Balza, Holly, Dustin/Sloat Garden Ctr, and many more. Consul Ver also came briefly and shared the support of the Philippine Consulate for the conference - thanks to Baylan for this connection. Thanks also to the Filipino vegan caterer - No Worries -- for the delicious pancit and the other donors of our vegetarian spread.

I finally got to see the beautiful Dugso ritual. Baylan, Holly, Ingrid, and Jennifer -- Bai Liza will be proud of you! The water ritual by Lizae with the singing bowl is beautiful and the invocation of the seven elements was very moving. Together with the beautiful altar set up in the Talaandig tradition and with Bai Liza's permission -- it all came together. I felt the energy pulsing through. I love how we came back to the altar at the end to partake of the brown and white rice. And what was in that holy water -- it is aromatic and sweet!

Felicia and Jodie - thank you for your poetry. I know your Dad is happy to hear your words of gold, Felicia. Jodie -- am glad you are getting your spoken word out; the dance next time...move those hips. Felicia - we are so proud of Sebastian who relished his bird-man role. That was a brief but good and creative presentation of the creation myth and what made it really special is the participation of the youth - Sebastian, Trixie and her partner (sorry, i'm blanking on his name). Smart props!

Mel - it was good to point out that the warrior in the indigenous community worked alongside the babaylan in protecting the community. Thanks for showing off the tattoos, too, and sparring with Sam. Thank you for sharing the work that you do with youth as they seek indigenous ways of reconnecting to their roots.

Thank you to everyone who made bids on the silent auction items and those who won and came home with the goods. Perla, the beautiful mandala went to Luis, Jen's partner. The kalamansi tree went home with Lizae, the antique baskets went home with Marisza. I came home with Jen's "Peacock" line of beauty products that she made herself. Oh, there are so many other items that I would tell you more about later. (Or you could tell us your story of the evening, too. Please do!)

On this night there were so many events going on around the Bay Area and I thank all those who chose to spend the night with us. We didn't get a full list of attendees, pls help me compile the list by sending us the names of those who were present because you invited them.

Each one of you inspires me.I never thought I would live to see this day ...a beloved community of babaylan-inspired women and men, young and old, gay and straight, long-haired, short-haired -- coming together to honor our babaylan ancestors, reclaiming our indigenous spirituality, and sharing this with our community and beyond. We bear and bare the beautiful fruit of our decolonizing process as we reach out to our families and friends and tell them about the necessity of decolonization. Together we manifest our gifts of Kapwa, Pakikiramdam, Loob through our deepening connection to our inner selves and each other.

I am looking forward to the holy days/holidays with gratitude and appreciation for all of you, for all of us. We've only been together a few months and already I feel like I have been adopted into a clan of the wise and compassionate. May our tribe increase.

It's past 2am and I will write more tomorrow and I look forward to your sharing. Please post photos on facebook.

Love to you,
Leny

Reflections by Mila Coger on the Los Angeles event

For the past nights, I've been in and out of dreams, the mind barely remembering details, but the imprint on one's consciousness so finely etched that one simply knows of a different traveling, of a different realm. The Babaylan event last Sunday, Nov 22, in L.A. at Tribal Cafe has been like a dream, softly flowing, almost magical, and yet at the same time, impelling and transfixing in the images and meanings created.

There we were, sharing our various expressions of music, dance, poetry, story, visual and healing arts; artists and audience engaged in this beautiful ritual of coming together for a purpose. We were all defining and honoring the Philippine indigenous healer, not only those who were figures from the past or practicing in the present. We were most of all, honoring the healer within us, acknowledging it at first with a tentative smile, and then later, the acknowledgment fully emerging as joy filled laughter and resounding applause. In that moment, we have all realized and felt the truth of our indigenous roots, and now in celebration, were ready to embrace its full expression within ourselves, and with one another!

Danny Espiritu, the L.A. Deputy Consul General and Vice Consul Charmaine Chua, expressed their appreciation when they cited L.A.'s usual endless social events but none more deep and meaningful than the one on the babaylan. Danny reiterated that the time has come for us to rediscover ourselves and our inner essence through expressing and strengthening our indigenous culture. He also strongly encouraged the continuation of similar presentations and stated his willingness to support the babaylan cause.

It was an evening that capped weeks of preparation, an event whose structure was formed not simply by positioning people and time frames together, but more from intuitive listening of what guiding signs emerged and the subtle messages they whispered. Mostly, we listened while we helped one another and watched ourselves flow like rivers, merging, just in Lizae's closing ritual harp music, as sacred waters of the great ocean. It was an incredible flowing, individually and collectively, as thread after thread of artistic and healing expressions from different sources wove themselves together and the wondrous tapestry of a babaylan event unfolded.

As time moved towards the event, so did people. Some came in, others went out. Leny flew out to Florida to be with her family; Lizae flew in from Frisco and met a new harp friend; Virgil drove away in meditation and weeks after, drove back again in full commitment; Vedel in the meantime danced with the babaylan mandala, while Mila contemplated on it some more; Venus and Frances cheered from Hawaii, Bernie danced her way from south to north, Tita brought stunning visual amulets and son Jose; Mandala admonished his tongue, Lilibeth plunged into pandan tea, Virgie crooned while she cooked Bicol Express dishes, Ben strummed his heart strings, Rudy serenaded and read people, Charmaine came and left with Michael, Aqui waged her brave battles on stage, Ric floated with his wonderful notes and Bibiana came toothless but told the Bernardo Carpio legend anyway, and with gusto!

There were more people than usual at Joshua's Tribal Cafe that evening. First they trickled in and then during the next moments after 5 pm when the program started, they made it into a full house! So full was it that one cozily sat shoulder to shoulder with another, while I had to do the indigenous incantation "tabi, tabi po (please pardon my passing)" just to navigate from one point of the cafe to the next. Towards the end, after announcements on the babaylan website and the forthcoming April 2010 Babaylan Conference were made, and appeals for generous donations delivered, a number of books from Linda Nietes were excitedly being plucked, a number of people stated interest in registering and attending the conference, and donation funds were gathered (cash and checks) .

Already, buoyed by the waves of inspiration and encouragement from everyone, the next babaylan event in L.A. is beckoning on the horizon of early 2010. New artists who came and attended have expressed their anticipation in sharing, while the initial group of Vedel, Lizae, Mila, Tita (?) and Virgil have their wings ready to fly again. In the meantime, our inner ears and subtle senses are once more starting to glean messages that will guide us into the exact time and place of that moment and the people who will animate it with their arts and healing energies. The babaylan mandala is like the deepoceanocean that invites the strong and pure hearted to continue their journey of merging with its sacred waters. Shall we enjoy the dive once more?

Reflections by Lizae Reyes on the Los Angeles event

My Babaylan experience.

The weekend of Nov. 20-23, 2009. I left Oakland on Friday, Nov 20th via Southwest Airlines for L.A. It was very windy and rainy. I imagined the plane experiencing turbulence which is not something I cherish when traveling. It ended up that our plane was delayed due to an accident; the luggage truck that carried the luggage to the airplane crashed into the airplane we were on. Passengers were waiting for take-off. But we had to switch planes. I wonder, how could that ever happen? Finally I arrived in L.A after an hour and a half delay, so ecstatic and looking forward to meeting Sister Vedel, Mila, Vedel's parents, Virgil Apostol and others!!! As I walked into Vedel's abode, I heard the most haunting voice singing Tagalog love songs, kundiman reminiscent of Mr. Ruben Tagalog. I grew up my parents listening to Ruben Tagalog's songs. Suddenly I was easily transported back to my childhood. It was beautiful. It was nostalgic. The man singing is Manong Rudy (family friend of Vedel's parents). He is a healer; quite humble. He told us many stories of his profound healing journey that brought him the gift to becoming a healer. I realized I was listening to the stories of a man who embodies the Babaylan Spirit. Laughter, food, camaraderie, connection, deep listening, nostalgic feelings of my childhood.............all these were worth the flight to L.A., the delay, the waiting and the turbulence. I flew to L.A. to support the Babaylan fund-raising. It came to me that it was a flight to more heightened consciousness instead.

Sunday, Nov. 22. The Babaylan Fundraising event at Tribal Cafe. The space was quite cozy. The food served was superb! People started to trickle in slowly. All the participants' contributions spoke and expressed our beautiful indigenous origin at many different levels. I was very honored to be present in that event; very happy and delighted to meet more kindred spirits, with special mention of Manong Faustino, another healer. Before the program started, I was tuning my harp. It turned out that on my way to the Tribal Cafe, a string loosened immensely that no amount of tightening it could do the trick. I tried and tried. Oh dear, of all times, why now? (I told myself). That never happened to me and I could not imagine playing a harp piece with a note out of tune. Such dissonance!!!! Another realization came to me. This particular incident of the string bringing dissonance is a metaphor of my own life's journey. I announced my experience to the audience with sincerity. "We all experience dissonance in our lives. The lesson of the harp's string loosening up is but a lesson of the Spirit, of Life. It is okay to have dissonance; always embracing Life's imperfections; acknowledging it and even sharing it as I did to the audience. We constantly fine-tune our consciousness to strike a balance. Just like Life.........as in music, when I experience dissonance, I begin to appreciate the other elements. I begin to honor the dissonance in my Life as honoring my Soul".

My experience of this weekend is an unforgettable one. Everyone I met shared their world in a capsule; shared their gift. The Babaylan community is growing in number and it is quite amazing! Bringing the Babaylan consciousness to the lives of the people is healing. As I connect with that which I love, my physical body is energized, my emotional state is uplifted, my spiritual connection is strengthened, my mental capacity becomes clearer and my creative expression is released and shared. As we begin to share the Babaylan Spirit with others, we create an opportunity for others to open and connect to that Spirit within themselves where their gift resides.......the healer within. This is an act of Sacred service.

The circle continues................................

Reflections by Vedel Herbito on the Los Angeles Event

here are some reflections i said i'd e-mail that arose from our momentous gatherings last Sunday that can be shared that has been inspired by your insights.

i felt moved from reading what you wrote to share from my pov of growing up in LA in a Filipino community, living in close proximity to Historic Filipinotown as a child before, and now coming back again to LA.

i know that in Historic Filipinotown and throughout the pockets of Filipino enclaves scattered throughout the city, from personal experiences and stories from family friends that the "healers, cultural bearers, etc..." are still very alive and present as the strength of their gifts are carried over from the homeland.

i grew up with my parents sharing these stories of these "gifts" from our own family, of the "village healers" in their provinces where they were raised, those with the "gifts" of sight, of sound, of sense, of dreams...

and now in this modern day city, i remember when Ate Venus and i were ill as children, and even now, our parents hoped to find these similar "village healers" of their upbringing and they thankfully did.

by word of mouth, it's been kept "underground," as common news among the "believers," as we would have to ask around from friends, and friends of friends, to find the common network of the "healers" that can help regardless of the degree of the ailment. the stories shared a common theme: the spirit was ill or disturbed and doctors weren't helping, test results even proving everything is "ok" but the symptoms persisted. our ancestors needed prayers, a spirit was "visiting" or disturbed they would say, and they would recommend a ritual, or some herbs for healing...

and now to see a public gathering where such a "safe" and "open" space has been created for this kind of genuine sharing about healers and our indigenous ways of healing i believe is truly birthing something profound, long needed by our communities. it has its own life force, building towards something sustainable as it always has been. in essence, i feel our spirits have been longing for and calling for this reawaken.

as we all get deeper, the truth of what we are here for becomes brighter each time, with every new gathering, more energy, more light is emanated into the cosmos: that we are here to awaken the gifts within each one of us in whatever shape or form they are called to be expressed, and to support one another as a community, just as our ancestors have done, for the healing of ourselves, each other, and essentially all who are part of this wondrous creation...

let us all continue to create and share with love our gifts of love... :)

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.
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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.

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*

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.

Drumming for Babaylan sponsors and volunteers

Literally, if I had a drum, I'd be drumming for volunteers right now, hoping that you will step forward and dance with us. For as Agnes Miclat-Cacayan writes about the babaylan: "she dances in wholeness."

We have this beautiful vision for the Babaylan conference of bringing culture-bearers and babaylan-inspired artists and scholars from the Philippines. Our dream budget is $50,000. We are holding this vision and sharing it with you so that you can help us in making sure this vision happens on April 17-18, 2010.

A sponsorship solicitation packet is now available. It describes the categories by which businesses, media sponsors, community organizations, and individuals can support the conference. If each one of you who has expressed an interest in supporting the conference will contact at least five potential sponsors, we will be on our way.

In addition, watch for "grassroots" sponsorship opportunities or create your own by hosting an event at your location. It could be something small like a special dinner or movie viewing at your home where funds could be gathered from guests and donated to the Center for Babaylan Studies through the International Humanities Center, the Center's fiscal sponsor. Center organizers and supporters will also be creating small sponsorship opportunities that will be posted here on the Babaylan Files.

We also have a list of volunteer opportunities on the Center for Babaylan Studies website. If you can help, please notify us by sending an email to: admin@babaylan.net

Submitted by Leny Strobel with additional edits by Bec Mabanglo-Mayor.

Conversations: Lakandiwa - The Way of the Warrior

Lakandiwa: The Way of the Warrior
by John Paul 'Lakan' Olivares*

When we contemplate the concept of a warrior, we often conceive a person who is trained in the martial arts, engaged in the thick of battle, or celebrated for conquering his foes. When we think of the ancient warrior (or even the present), the professional soldier comes to mind. These warriors come in various images, from the Roman gladiators or legionnaires, the Japanese samurai, or the medieval knight.

We often romanticize these people because of their exploits and most especially because of their warrior codes, such as Bushido for the samurai and Chivalry for the knight.

However, in my research on ancient/traditional(1) Philippine cultures I discovered that the concept of the warrior is completely different from what we would expect. There are many historical accounts and mythical epics about warriors and their exploits in battle, ranging from our national heroes (such as Andres Bonifacio), to early chieftains (such as Lapulapu), to even epic legends (such as Lam-Ang).

However, if we delve deeper into their stories, we will find that they were not professional soldiers. Warriors/heroes lead completely different lives when there was no war. In the pre-Hispanic times, the warriors were also landowners who were greatly respected not just for their martial prowess, but also for their leadership in administering the care of the land. In other words, they were also farmers and patrons of the various rituals that governed the daily lives of the people under their tutelage. Yet in times of war, these men would raise their arms and defend their homeland to the death.

I have observed these traits associated with a Bagobo man, whom I have met. Within this man's clan, he is one of the chieftains in the council of elders, but he is also their chief magani, or warrior. Yet, on an ordinary day, he was a farmer, with several families under his care. On special occasions, he was a poet and a musician.

This is a warrior who is a far cry from the professional soldier we often think about. I can also say this for a whole range of people of traditional cultures, whom I have met in the course of my research and journeys around our archipelago.

There were the Tausug MNLF (Muslim National Liberation Front) soldiers, whom I met up in the mountains of Patikul, in Sulu. Having recently returned from skirmishes with the Philippine Marines, they immediately transformed into Pang-alay dancers performing in a wedding ritual.

There was the Mumbaki (shaman) of the Ifugao, whom I met in the hinterlands of Banaue, who was a farmer by trade, yet a seasoned warrior in clan wars of the past. In fact, in the ancient headhunting practices among the Cordillera cultures (Ifugao, Kalinga, Bontoc, etc), they would only start their forays after the planting or harvesting season was over.

There were the Aeta of the Subic area, who practice their martial arts in a dance that is also a ritual of fertility.

In other civilizations (and it seems to be continuing in the present), the professional soldier was created not in defense of the homeland, rather for conquest. They had no other duty but to be warriors, and were sustained by taxes from the common people. However, to augment their salaries and give justification to their existence they needed to go to war and collect loot by pillaging others. It is just common sense not to pay taxes for an army, if there was always peace, thus a war is needed.

In fact, the popular warrior codes such as Bushido, were guiding principles among the samurai and their daimyo, anyone lower than these were treated as lesser people and not treated with respect as dictated by the code of honor. Among the European knights, the Code of Chivalry was drafted to curb the barbaric acts of the knights against other people. The code of the Cavalier (the mounted knight) has been overly romanticized, yet hardly enforced in the Dark Ages.

No matter how idealized were their codes of conduct, their lives revolved around the killing of others and not the defense of the people.

Looking back again at our ancient warriors in the Philippines, their lives revolved around creating, as in the tilling of the land and managing the lives of the families under his tutelage, rather than destroying through war. Because of these traits, we can view our heroes as builders rather than destroyers. In fact, the name hero or bayani, is derived from the ancient name for warrior; the magani for the Bagobo or the bagani for the Manobo. Thus the warrior/hero was more than just a fighter, he was a defender of the way of life, in battle or in the daily participation and administration of duties; such as farming and ritual. And, in my opinion, if they ever rose up in arms, it was not just to defend their lands and people, but to defend their way of living, their culture.

To summarize this concept, I have come across an ancient Tagalog word, ‘Lakan’, which means warrior, the freeman/landowner caste, or even chieftain. This seems to cover the range of responsibilities of the warrior/hero, from madirigma(warrior) to magsasaka(farmer) to mamanmanhala (leader).

Yet there is also another word, Lakandiwa, which is commonly described as a judge. Yet, if you breakdown the word into its components, you get Lakan (warrior) and Diwa (spirit). Thus, Lakandiwa may also mean the spirit of the warrior or the way of the warrior. And from this word, we can derive our own code of the warrior: a hero who, in times of war or times of peace, leads us in our maintaining the very essence of our lives, our culture.

Author's Notes: (1)In this paper, the Traditional Cultures are those ethno-linguistic groups whose cultural identity and practices are still very much the same from before Spanish, American, and Modern colonization. (2) 2009 June. (3) I wrote this as a Father's Day gift to the men out there, to be the warriors of their families.

Biography: Artist, Designer, Advocate, and Teacher; John Paul 'Lakan' Olivares' work is is inspired by his travels around the archipelago and living with different urban, rural and tribal communities. In these travels, he has searched for the Filipino spirit, which he tries to share in all his activities. In his paintings, he reflects a soulful connection with the various traditional indigenous cultures and the sensibilities of the people. Passionately rooted on Philippine lore, the free-spirited artist orients his audience to his journeys by way of graphic representations of nationalistic concepts which are simply expressed, yet sincerely articulated by his meditative art process. Beyond native motifs etched in his art, Olivares conveys themes that celebrate universal connectedness by his environment, which inspires him to share his own visions of beauty through his varied works.

He may be contacted through via email - lakan70 (at) hotmail (dot) com

The original article has been edited for style and grammar.

Reviews: Kapwa - The Self in the Other by Katrin de Guia

Kapwa: The Self in the Other
Katrin de Guia, PhD









From Kathang-Pinay, the blog of Leny Strobel:

Friday, March 10, 2006
I hold in my hand the new book by Katrin de Guia, Kapwa: The Self in Others published by Anvil.

This book is dedicated to Ver Enriquez. He passed away in San Francisco, 1994. He was traveling from Manila enroute to U of Michigan to take up a teaching post there. He had been ill the months before but refused to submit to hospital procedures for diagnosis. By the time he arrived in SFO, he was too ill to continue on to Michigan; he was hospitalized and diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and died a week later. We had a beautiful memorial for him before his remains were flown back to Mla. To many of us, he will always be an ancestral spirit who guides our lives towards decolonization and reaffirmation of our Filipino Loob.

I first heard about Katrin from Ver. He told stories about mentoring a German woman living in the Philippines as she worked through a ph.d. program in Sikolohiyang Pilipino. It is all a blur to me now what he might have said exactly about Katrin being in the program. He told me many more stories I couldn't put together until much later; he just told them as if I had been an audience to a saga going on at the University of the philippines - which I wasn't. I relished his trust though, for telling me.

Now I hold KAPWA in my hands -- and I see the impact of Sikolohiyang Pilipino -- it is a beautifully designed book: art work by Filipino culture-bearers; KAtrin's personal narrative interwoven with her scholarly exploration of Kapwa, Pakikiramdam, Loob, Dangal, Paninindigan -- as core cultural concepts; how these values are lived and made manifest in the art of Filipino culture-bearers. She features the work of Kidlat Tahimik, Roberto VIllanueva, Angel Shaw, Rene Aquitania, and others.

Mila, Katrin's friend who forwarded the book to me said: "this book will hold you even as you hold it." How true! This book is more than a text; it is an experience. Thank you, Katrin!

Saturday, March 11, 2006
I'm now 60 pages into KAPWA: The Self in Others. For a reader in the diaspora like me who has been away for almost 25 years and whose connections to the homeland is held tenuously by family, a few friends, and popular media (sporadically accessed), and one Philippine-based listserve, it is soul-nourishing to read about Filipinos like Roberto Villanueva -- an artist who used, exclusively, found indigenous materials, always involved the community's rituals and dreams, expressed the wholistic view of KAPWA. Katrin included photographs of Villanueva's art installations. As I meditate on these images, I am touched by the same Spirit that must have been Villanueva's inspiration as well. Still, these words are not enough to convey the experience.

Katrin says it well when she talks about "tacit understanding" as pakikiramdaman - that deep feeling that connects us, not just to other human beings, but to all that exists in nature - above, below and in all directions.

In light of the recent depressing news about the latest coup against GMA, this book reminds me/us that if only we look deep and close enough, we can still access the Filipino as a mythic man (NVM Gonzalez' term)...as a beacon of hope. Katrin writes: we are sick, but we aren't dying yet. Look to the Filipino artist-culture bearer for healing.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The beautiful soul, Katrin de Guia, sent this email and it's too precious not to share with you. She is responding to an email that I, as editor of a forthcoming book on the babaylan tradition, sent to the contributors re update on the book project.

From Katrin: What makes the babaylan tradition unique among the remaining shaman traditions?

Precisely the colonial experience! You mention 3 layers, Zeus Salazar mentions 4 affiliations of filipino psychology (which go- hand in glove- with what the babaylan knows, and not merely because the babaylan is a Pinay psychologist but also because as a Filipina culture-bearer that is her history). however, what is hardly mentioned is the Buddhist influence and the Muslim influence which overturned the Buddhist influence on the Filipino culture in at least half of the archipelago (akin to Indonesia). Maybe because the Buddhist and the Muslim heritage is not mentioned either in English or Spanish texts, it just fell under the rug. These patches of clothes in the dress of the babaylan are hardly mentioned and yet this very integration of global animist, Asian buddhist, oriental muslim, traditional European, modern American and postmodern global culture makes the shamanic tradition of the babaylan so unbelievably rich. Its not even the layers that are important, but the retention of ancestral memory despite all the layers, integrating the matching elements due to the inherent "including" strength of the kapwa culture.

That is what I tried to do telling stories about traditional babaylans in the mountains side by side with modern Pinays around the globe. They are babaylans because they keep remembering and connected to their archipelagic ancestors. Angel shaw is such a good example for this, in my eyes. (so are you, Leny, from what i made out of your book and all you other kindred spirits whom I yet have to meet)

Because the babaylan has never forgotten how it all began, (s)he hears the environment talk, like all the other shamans around the globe. (s)he hears mother nature and father wind. That is quite a feat after so many centuries and millennia. (S)he does not need to live in a forest without being artificial or self conscious about being a babaylan even in the city world.

There is that great love for life which comes with this obligation to serve. No shaman without that. But isnt it great that the babaylan can serve in so many ways-- telling her stories even by writing books or painting or making films, or healing as a nurse or doctor or yaya or a cook?

I believe this also plays into the question of diaspora. Here, where life is so fast, how much space and time can you realy devote to your ancestors without just repeating old rituals and their forms? Does your life express the ideals of the babaylan which are rooted in non-confessional spirituality? Do you dream and understand your dreams and become a self sufficient member of society who contributes something, whatever small to humanity each day, wherever you are? Do you know how to soul-travel and visit other worlds? Can you be a leader when asked to lead?

Such questions have to do with critical consciousness. It is the door through which the babaylan must step to claim her wings and humility keeps the feathers of these wings well oiled for flying across those oceans, forever finding a space for its own and its kin to survive.

Warm regards from a soggy mountain overseas.

Thank you, Katrin.

Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference

Links accessed 6/23/09

In The News: Filipino Women Power

Originally published in Filipinas Magazine in the March 2009 issue, reprinted with permission from the author

Filipino Women Power
by Allen Gaborro (Filipinas Magazine, pg. 45-47)

It was with the arrival of European colonialism in the 16th century that the high ideal of an indigenous Filipina woman and its practice was uprooted alongside much of the pre-colonial culture and society that it had been embedded in for centuries. One of those feminine ideals was that of the “Babaylan” which is akin to something along the lines of a spiritual leader. Several definitions have been attributed to the term Babaylan. It is said to be the Visayan word for either “priestess,” “shaman,” “medicine man/woman,” “miracle-worker,” “mystic,” or for all of the above.

While both males and females could be babaylans, it was women who made up the majority of them during the pre-colonial period. Not relegated to being simply spiritual leaders, babaylans also assumed specialized roles in their respective pre-modern communities. Babaylans performed as healers, as receptacles of knowledge, as skilled practitioners in shamanistic traditions, and as native philosophers and therapists. Other duties ascribed to the babaylans included social mediation and spiritual mediumship.

What is perhaps most fascinating about the responsibilities of a babaylan is the amount of political influence and power they wielded. There is a considerable amount of historical evidence showing that babaylan women functioned as important counselors in their tribal communities. Babaylan women in addition, were valued as political and economic administrators in the service of the ruling tribal chiefs (datus). They also acted as communal custodians, oracles of wisdom, and as authoritative leaders of their people. In short, the babaylan were a pillar of social stability, or more precisely one of the four pillars—datu (chief), bagani (warrior), panday (native technologist), babaylan—of the barangay community. Indeed, they were what one writer termed as their community’s “central personality.”

In a sign of the more egalitarian ethos they lived in, the babaylan women were afforded comparable, if not entirely equal, status with men in their community’s social hierarchy. In some cases, they found themselves even more powerful and influential than their male counterparts. In fact, few decisions were reached without the consent of the babaylan.

While most babaylans were female, their male versions deserve some mention. It is said that the babaylan was the symbolic manifestation of both female and male power, an approximation of the yin and yang principle. Interestingly, babaylan men were believed to have worn feminine attire. This goes back to the idea that some babaylans were androgynous in nature and that they were endowed with the sexual properties of both genders.

The process of becoming a babaylan involved supernatural occurrences and paranormal states. According to babaylanic traditions, a person can begin developing into a babaylan by experiencing dreams that express a sacred summons, or a “rukut,” emanating from a mystical being. It should be pointed out that a person can become a babaylan by way of inheritance. A descendant can transmit a babaylanic tradition down to their successors.

Sometimes a sacred summons comes to a person in a trance. This trance resembles somewhat the phenomena of spiritual possession. If a person receives such a summons, they are deemed to be especially chosen by supernatural spirits to be a babaylan.

The chosen ones are then escorted by a “surog” or a spirit guide on a spiritual expedition. This journey will take them to a transcendental endpoint where they will be able to communicate with ancestral spirits. The completion of this unworldly journey, as it is indicated by the surmounting of the trance stage, signals the chosen one’s readiness for interaction with supernatural entities.

Under the auspices of an active babaylan, the newly-discovered babaylan is immersed in the essentials of babaylanic rituals and practices. Once the babaylan finishes their training, they receive amulets and other small ornaments (“pangalap”) which they use for a variety of ritualistic customs. Typically, these rituals entail ancestral spirit worship. Babaylanic rituals also have therapeutic powers that are utilized for the benefit of the sick. Ritualistic chanting is conducted by babaylans whenever a community is hit with an emergency or with trouble of some kind. The babaylanic rituals are intended to mollify the spiritual entities that are believed to be the origin of the difficulty.

Why is the memory of the babaylan so faint in the collective Filipino historical consciousness, given the leading positions that they held in pre-colonial society? Probably a key reason was the advent of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines in the 1500’s. The Spanish colonizers brought with them notions of masculine vanity, a dominant patriarchical paradigm, and a Catholic clergy that cast aspersions on the babaylan. This foreign clergy would supplant the babaylan and their rituals and instill Christian teachings and sacraments in their place.

It was not beyond the Spanish to use unadulterated violence in repressing the babaylan. In her publication, “A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan,” Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel writes that, as recounted by historian Mila Guerrero, babaylan women were physically slaughtered with wanton cruelty. Their bodies were consequently, in Strobel’s words, mutilated as well: “as if to make sure [the babaylan] bodies never return, their bodies were chopped and fed to crocodiles.”

The Spanish legitimized their pogrom against the babaylan by invoking the preeminence of Christianity in the new colony. The babaylan and their philosophy were seen as an anathema to the colonizers’ religious beliefs and therefore had to be eradicated for the sake of the Christian faith. As part of that strategy, the Spanish friars demonized the babaylans as the “monstrous feminine.” Accompanying this perception was the friars’ claim that the babaylan were malignant enchantresses who were endowed with black magic powers.

The Spanish onslaught on the babaylan disrupted the generational inheritance of babaylanic knowledge and traditions from babaylanic mothers to their daughters. Attempts to revive that inheritance with the defeat of the Spanish and the dawn of American colonialism were futile for the most part as the babaylans were regarded as heretical by American Protestants in the Philippines as they were by the Spanish Catholic friars.

At present, the babaylan tradition is being rejuvenated as a Filipina expression of feminine power, independence, and wisdom. As Neferti Xina M. Tadiar writes in her essay “Filipinas ‘Living in a Time of War,’” contemporary Filipinas are reinventing “the role of the babaylan.” This role, Tadiar suggests, encapsulates the power that Filipinas exert. She means both the “the power over life” and “the power for life” that Filipinas utilize “in struggle” against social and political repression.

This 21st century version of the babaylan is a fresh take on the tradition, one that keeps its followers engaged in the pre-modern understanding of the sagacious babaylan female. This version at once, espouses a babaylanic spirit that characterizes modern-day Filipinas’ collective empowerment and resistance against historical subjugation and inequity.

Filipina intellectuals and activists have divided Filipina women into two definitive archetypes: the Maria Clara type and the babaylan. The Maria Clara type is identified with the image of the submissive, compliant Filipina. In contrast, the babaylan type constitutes the politically-conscious, autonomous, and enlightened Filipina female.

Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel, through her writings and scholarship, has emphasized the postcolonial bearing that has been attached to the babaylan. Strobel reprises the babaylan as a revolutionary force, as a symbol for tearing down the psychological edifice of colonial dispossession and domination that has plagued Filipinos. She writes that by invoking the babaylan name, Filipinos everywhere can draw on its “power to heal” and its “power to call the wandering, colonized soul, back into its own body and home.” Strobel also tells us that babaylanic traditions “provide us a language for talking back to the [American] empire that we now paradoxically belong to.”

The babaylan ideal has been modified over the course of Philippine history. And yet, even in its evolved state, how the babaylan heritage is understood still revolves around its pre-modern past. That compelling and significant past is very much alive today thanks in part to the restoration of the babaylan tradition.