Posted to the Babaylan Rising event volunteers...
Dear all -
It is past 1am and am still awake because of the warm and exhuberant energy of the evening. Tonight we raised quite a bit -- 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
