b SPIRITUAL SELF

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

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BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL
RELIGION
• Religion maybe defined as set of attitude, beliefs,
and practices pertaining to a supernatural power,
whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts
or demons
Anitism, Animism and Bathalism
- Many natives of the archipelago also engaged in ancestor worship —the reverence for the “anito” or spirits of their
ancestors, whom they believed ascended to godhood in “langit,” literally the Skyworld, where a pantheon of deities
lived.
- Ancestor worship being what it was, idolatry wasn’t far behind: The natives made representations of their
revered and deceased ancestors in the form of anito statues, also called bulol, carved of local hardwood. These
bulol were so called for their absence of mouths, for the dead no longer speak.
- The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “animism” as “the belief that all plants, animals, and objects have spirits.”
Animism may also be defined as the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material
universe. Just like any believer in any of the world’s religions, animists believe in the existence of The Almighty.
- “Babaylan” is used in the Visayas and parts of Mindanao to refer to women who are healers, intercessors
with the local deities, and keepers of herb-lore, as well as valued spiritual advisers to the communities’ top echelons
and political leaders. The males who practiced the same rituals are called “bayot” or binabae and they donned
feminine garb when exercising the functions of their office.
- In Luzon, they people who filled these capacities as spiritual leader and healer were called catalonan,
whatever gender they may be.
- Catholic friars demonized the animism and ancestor worship of the indios they had been sent to
convert, making malignos (evil spirits) of their mythical creatures, reducing the powerful diwata (mountain guardians
or goddesses) to small fairy creatures like Tinkerbell of JM Barrie’s Peter Pan, and forced the animist priestesses and
priests to resort to dark magics: Kulam (hexes) and barang (killing curses)