Rediscovering the anting-anting

There are a few things I have to say. First, politically, I do not speak for anyone except the silent majority who are being driven up the wall by the ridiculous rallies and inane Senate hearings. Second, thinking non-politically, looking at the larger picture and ruminating for a possible solution, I could only come up with one good thought. Admittedly we have a highly damaged culture. We must do something about it.

I was talking to a friend. She said that in a project she was working on they had decided to return to the time when men and women collaborated to build the Banaue rice terraces. “That’s pre-colonial times,” I said, and she gave me a loud, resounding “YES!” So I began to think of the practices then and stumbled on the idea of anting-anting.

The anting-anting is a relic from our pre-colonial past still on sale outside churches, where we have many relics of our pre-colonial past. Like the male and female candles. Originally, those were used for witchcraft. Now here in the Philippines, if you are praying for a miracle to be done on a man, you buy a male candle and light it. If you are praying for a woman, you get the female version. We do that today — yes, even to this day. Does it work? I don’t know but I have often wondered what worked — the prayer or the witchcraft?

Then there are the anting-anting; they are relics from our pre-colonial past. They are still for sale outside churches, by people who sell religious medals.  The anting-anting must have survivalist instincts for how could they have survived hundreds of years? People must come in to buy them. I do not believe in their magic. To me they are symbols. Once upon a time, we tried to stand up to the Spaniards as they tried to convert us. We took their images — the Sto. Niño, for example — and turned it into an anting-anting by adding an organ and making it a gift for finding love and motherhood. 

Maybe if we rediscover the anting-anting, we can find ourselves again, become truly Filipino again. Then maybe we can build a better culture for our beloved country. So I went out, bought anting-anting and designed them into contemporary jewelry. I will sell them at my market stall at the Sunday market at Legaspi Village, which I have chosen to call Twee’s Atelier. There I sell my paintings, framed and unframed, my postcards, and I put into my blurb Atbp., meaning at iba pa, or “other things.” Now I know what those other things are: anting-anting.

Do I believe in them? I don’t believe in their magic but I believe in their symbolism. Through them we can revisit the time when we were tribes who lived side by side. Some of those tribes were ruled by women who enjoyed the love and support of their men. Maybe remembering that we can feel what it is to be Pinay again, stand proud and powerful. Maybe we can build a new culture, a stronger, truly Filipino one. Maybe we can build a better country.

Now I have a fuller range of anting-antings. I have the Mata, for business, the Pitong Angel to grow your business, the San Benito for a good trip. Those are just openers. Later I will have the Pamilya Sagrada, which should be our symbol. It makes us fix our mess and gives us peace. Don’t you think everyone should wear one of those these days?

I took a friend on a tour of the Legazpi Market last Sunday, the first one I have taken.  It made me make a list of things I want to try. We offer quite a variety of food there, from Wagyu beef burgers to kalderetang itik. We have frozen steaks, raspberries, and blackberries and delicacies from Korea, China and Japan. We have oil paintings and watercolors, china for tableware, all the drinks you can imagine, a section for organic food and vegetables, and soaps, cosmetics, colognes. We have jewelry from three booths now turning into four if you consider my anting-anting as jewelry. And we have a Kenya souvenir shop with everything from bowls to earrings. We have Carica stuff there, too. And clothes. There is such a wild variety of things to choose from.

You can really have fun. Forget the politics. True, I wrote about it, got 98 responses two Saturdays ago, did nothing but respond but now I am temporarily done. I was tired. Now I am resting and trying to save our culture because, like I said earlier, someone’s got to do something about that.

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