Wednesday, August 29, 2007
One more babaylan story...from Germany
Received a 23-page narrative from Ceres today about her Lola as a Babaylan. I post excerpts here to acknowledge that we are each never more than six degrees of separation. I've never met Ceres and I've only talked to her once over the phone. But already I feel that we are sisters connected at the navel, our roots belonging to the same Tree.
Because Lola was a collector of lost souls, both human and animal. To us she was the gifted healer, our live-in and much-beloved manogbulong, our ever-present tambalan, our babaylan of some incredible healing events in our individual lives which made us who we are today.
***
Lola used to tell me that her Spirit Doctor had appeared to me when I was a baby. Although I have no recollection of this event, I knew this was Lola’s way of introducing her grandchildren to her Spirit Guide that we may be protected by this transcendent power all our lives. And although many people came to seek Lola’s help, claiming the efficacy of her medical wisdom, it is us, her grandchildren, who were the biggest beneficiaries of her special gift and the most blessed by its influence. She had always amazed us when she was alive and we were always in awe of her gifts. As children, we were sure she could heal anything and all of us were proof of her healing talent. In the following recollections, my brother Jovi and my cousin Joerita share their personal experiences of being healed by Lola. Theirs are eyewitness testimonies of the power of this gift which they had close personal knowledge.
***
Early this year, my path crossed Leny Strobel’s in Cyberspace—a serendipitous meeting that has set me on my way to recovery. She mentioned that she was putting together a book on the Babaylan Tradition in the Philippines and I told her that my Lola was a healer. In her next email, Leny proffered the invitation for me to write my Lola’s story. When I accepted this invitation, I had in mind to honor my grandmother and the long line of wise women ancestors whose healing talents cost them their lives with this tribute. Most of all, it was also something I needed in order to dispel the gathering gloom in my soul that living on the liminal edges of an alien culture engendered. What I had not anticipated was the tremendous surge of healing energies that would come from the writing of this story.
***
It dawned on me that Lola might indeed have been touching me through Leny, using her as an agent for my own healing. Throughout the writing of this story, Leny hovered with my grandmother on the fringes of my consciousness, showering me with vital positive energies and urging me on when I was slowed down by unfathomable loneliness. For nurturing in every way, Lola would do anything to protect and heal her own, her drive so strong it would transcend time and space, even life and death. To this day, although she had passed over into another world, my siblings and I always know when she is reaching out to touch us with her loving ministrations. Writing this story allowed me to write myself back into the world and Lola/Leny are leading the way. It is the beginning of my journey home. Writing Lola’s story has brought profound healing into my own life.
Received a 23-page narrative from Ceres today about her Lola as a Babaylan. I post excerpts here to acknowledge that we are each never more than six degrees of separation. I've never met Ceres and I've only talked to her once over the phone. But already I feel that we are sisters connected at the navel, our roots belonging to the same Tree.
Because Lola was a collector of lost souls, both human and animal. To us she was the gifted healer, our live-in and much-beloved manogbulong, our ever-present tambalan, our babaylan of some incredible healing events in our individual lives which made us who we are today.
***
Lola used to tell me that her Spirit Doctor had appeared to me when I was a baby. Although I have no recollection of this event, I knew this was Lola’s way of introducing her grandchildren to her Spirit Guide that we may be protected by this transcendent power all our lives. And although many people came to seek Lola’s help, claiming the efficacy of her medical wisdom, it is us, her grandchildren, who were the biggest beneficiaries of her special gift and the most blessed by its influence. She had always amazed us when she was alive and we were always in awe of her gifts. As children, we were sure she could heal anything and all of us were proof of her healing talent. In the following recollections, my brother Jovi and my cousin Joerita share their personal experiences of being healed by Lola. Theirs are eyewitness testimonies of the power of this gift which they had close personal knowledge.
***
Early this year, my path crossed Leny Strobel’s in Cyberspace—a serendipitous meeting that has set me on my way to recovery. She mentioned that she was putting together a book on the Babaylan Tradition in the Philippines and I told her that my Lola was a healer. In her next email, Leny proffered the invitation for me to write my Lola’s story. When I accepted this invitation, I had in mind to honor my grandmother and the long line of wise women ancestors whose healing talents cost them their lives with this tribute. Most of all, it was also something I needed in order to dispel the gathering gloom in my soul that living on the liminal edges of an alien culture engendered. What I had not anticipated was the tremendous surge of healing energies that would come from the writing of this story.
***
It dawned on me that Lola might indeed have been touching me through Leny, using her as an agent for my own healing. Throughout the writing of this story, Leny hovered with my grandmother on the fringes of my consciousness, showering me with vital positive energies and urging me on when I was slowed down by unfathomable loneliness. For nurturing in every way, Lola would do anything to protect and heal her own, her drive so strong it would transcend time and space, even life and death. To this day, although she had passed over into another world, my siblings and I always know when she is reaching out to touch us with her loving ministrations. Writing this story allowed me to write myself back into the world and Lola/Leny are leading the way. It is the beginning of my journey home. Writing Lola’s story has brought profound healing into my own life.
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