Siquijor is famous for its shamans and healers. Known and feared across the Philippines as an island full of dangerous supernatural forces, it has become central in the practice and preservation of folk healing and traditional beliefs.
We went to visit the most powerful healers of Siquijor,
An elderly wizened lady who lived at the top of a steep ridge that the tricycle had difficulty ascending. Renown for her ability to cure people of both natural and supernatural illnesses, she did not charge for her healing but relied on donations.
Our tricycle driver explained that she was called, or chosen, when she was a young girl. At the back of her village hut ran a stream, in which she would bathe every evening. One evening, in the gloaming as the shadows lengthen, she took off uher clothes for her swim. Once refreshed, she returned to the bank to find three small black pebbles on top of her clothes.
Puzzled, she pocketed the pebbles and returned to the village to ask the elders the significance of this occurrence. It was the elders that explained that she had been chosen, that people had been called in this way for generations, and that she harnessed great powers.
It is these very pebbles that she now uses to deduce the ailments of her customers. She places them in a glass of water, blows bubbles in the water through a straw and a certain amount of dirt is released from the three black pebbles into the water.
If the water becomes very dirty, the person may be suffering from a serious illness, supernatural possession or a curse. She must keep refilling the glass, blowing into it and throwing the water away, repeating the process until it runs clear and the customer is cleansed, their body and soul purified.
Sceptics would say that she blows the dirt through the straw, that it doesn't come off the magic pebbles. Even so, she would then decide how much dirt to blow into the water depending on her judgment on her customers state of health, so there is still an element of diagnosis.
While I don't have real faith in this practice, and remain sceptical, I think the boundaries between reality and the realm of the imagination are thin; if you believe in something you can make it happen - belief in curse can ruin your life and health, a healing can cure.
For this reason I didn't have a healing session. Our tricycle driver, Noel, informed me that if she believed you were possessed by a supernatural force too great and dangerous for her to deal with, you would be referred to an even more powerful, specialist shaman. We had one last day on the island; the last thing I wanted was to be diagnosed with something terrible and then have to leave, carrying the worry with
me into the new year. Lala also said that the last time she went the healer took about an hour with a customer, who endlessly turned the water dark black- I didn't like the sound of this scenario either - I'd rather be the judge of my own spiritual state. I have such an over- active imagination as it is, I don't need anything to fuel my darker fantasies.
Mum, Lala, Dyl and even Lotty had a healing. Lala was worried because in Palawan the locals told her that Lotty had been frightened by a spirit she met on the first beach we had visited, which was a place where spirits roam. Lotty had suffered an uncontrollable crying fit on the first night in Palawan. Majika, the owner of the cottages, though she herself may have unwittingly given the child the 'evil eye'. Many people who live in the isolated island provinces believe they have this power, to which children are particularly susceptible, and are careful not to look children in the eye. Majika went to great lengths to avoid looking directly at Theo or Lotty.
As Lotty cried, several local women filed into Dyl and Lala's cabin with herbs and stones to release her from the influence of Majikas dangerous stare or the beach spirit. All this happened in about half an hour- this response to her crying fit was incredibly prompt. When she was calmed, Lala pinned an amulet, a tiny cross in a pouch, given ito her by their family shaman, to protect her for the rest of our visit.
The healer in Siquijor blew her bubbles and moved the glass all over Dyl, Lala, mum and lottys bodies, one by one. She declared all of our party cleansed. Nobody produced much dirt in the water, mum was the healthiest, Dyl, Lala and Lottie suffered a little from the pollution of Manila, which showed up cloudy in the glass. They returned to the tricycle feeling relieved, having had the all clear, and with healthy resolutions for 2012.
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