Though I never met her in person, I knew that my Lola Marcy, my grandmother, was a folk Catholic healer, a type of herbal ritualist whom they called a meriko in Bantayanon. She used a secret orasyon (mantra) to heal the sick, a whispered spell passed on to her as the eldest daughter of the eldest daughter, in a matriarchial lineage of faith healers. Although she passed it on to her eldest daughter before her death, my aunt never really used it. On the contrary, I’m the youngest daughter of the youngest daughter, and the only one amongst my maternal relatives with any real interest in plants, bodywork, or healing arts.

During COVID lockdown, sleeping in my ancestral home in Bantayan, I finally met my Lola – & she blessed me with a gift from the spirit realm.

It is common for anyone with heritage from the islands known as the Philippines to uncover hidden spiritual lineages.

Many of us are alive today precisely because we are descendants of specialized spiritual healers who were highly valued by animist societies, who honored the sacred relations between material human world and spirit realms though rituals.

That being said, I also began to uncover a deeper mystical lineage from Bantayan...

When I decided last July that I would return to practice kalaripayattu (the oldest martial arts in the world, with origins from Kerala, India), a week later, I would coincidentally meet an elder “kali” or arnis/eskrima (native martial arts of the Philippines) master along the side of the beach.

Master Lot Villabrille, who graces the cover of the book, Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth, carries the Bantayanon Llave Cadena Eskrima tradition, which propagated in the US through his uncle, Grandmaster Floro Villabrille. Though he is no longer teaching, Man Lot transmitted his knowledge to Master Pompee Batindalan, from whom I have been humbly learning our traditional Bantayanon warrior arts.

Even our Bantayanon warrior lineages have mystical origins!

In November 2024, while at the Folger Shakespeare Library for an Artist-Research Fellowship looking through premodern collections for traces of ancient pre-Philippines, I snuck in some contemporary readings at the Library of Congress, regarding the fisherfolk cultures of the Visayas. I found myself struck to find this chapter on the meriko and mystical orasyon traditions of Bantayan island (highlighting the work of Antonio Tinga, a neighbor & family friend of my Lola!)

All this time, quietly brewing, a mystical ancestral lineage of word-wizards & warrior-healers, in search of esoteric embodied wisdom…

Learn more about Sulud (Inside) virtual learning offerings in the Tindahan (Store)!

From Visayoga: Visaya in Yoga, Yamyam: Whispers of the Heart, & Sakra Circle: Sacred Sexuality in Precolonial Visayas, immerse in recorded videos (combining research lecture & embodied Yoga practice), links to research references, lists of Yoga practices, and join an invitation for 1-on-1 integration sessions. Engage in a mystical approach to historical precolonial & contemporary research!

Now that I know this about myself, about my island home & its ancient/contemporary traditions… I feel like I’m starting over. A new chapter, rooted in ancestral power.

If your ancestral heritage is from the Philippines and you would like to work with me on guided ancestral research, I am accepting requests from now until mid-April 2025. Please email kalamispiritarts@gmail.com with the subject “Panaw sa Ugat: Journey to Roots” with details of your ancestral origins.