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Ignis Fatuus: hidden paths to strange encounters

My Scholarship entry - A local encounter that changed my life

PHILIPPINES | Sunday, 22 April 2012 | Views [3213] | Comments [15] | Scholarship Entry

The Voice of Mount Banahaw

The mountain speaks at night. It draws its breath from the sky and echoes the prayers of pilgrims in its caves. It whispers through leaves, screams through waterfalls and sings through nocturnal birds and kuliglig. In the darkest part of its rainforest, the mountain murmurs its secrets beneath the thick canopy of trees. Spiked palms, poisonous snakes and blood-sucking bulalangwan guard the mountain’s mysteries.

On March 17, 2007 I visited Mount Banahaw and asked the locals about their mountain. The jeepney driver who brought me to Kinabuhayan Village said that it was a sanctuary for cults. An old woman who sold rosaries and amulets narrated the story of Agripino Lontoc, the man who was told by a Santong Boses that the Holy Land had been transferred to Mount Banahaw. Nick, the pator who led me to St. Jacob’s Cave, told me it was the home of engkanto. Some caves lead straight to the spirit realm.

After dinner with other travellers, one of my companions suddenly spoke in a language unlike any other. The strange sounds that poured from his mouth made the hairs at the nape of my neck stand up. What I saw in his brown eyes made me divert my gaze quickly. I looked at Nick, who was sitting before me. “The spirits are talking,” he whispered. On my right a woman was lost in trance. She stared at something beyond our wooden table. “April,” she said, “you can surpass all the trials that you are undergoing right now.” She was translating the unknown language to English. She said other things that made me hold my breath, but I didn’t confess that I had tried to commit suicide. I barely slept that night.

The next day I awoke to a symphony of life. Monkeys chattered, roosters crowed and goats bleated as the sun rose and bathed everything in gold. I listened to the laughter of children playing in the stream and breathed in the fragrance of scented candles and coffee. Nick tapped my shoulder. “Are you alright?” he asked. I nodded, unable to speak.

Tags: travel writing scholarship 2012

 

Comments

1

goodluck kabayan! :)

  audrey Apr 22, 2012 5:04 PM

2

salamat! para makita naman ang kagandahan ng pilipinas :D

  apriljsun Apr 22, 2012 9:30 PM

3

ikaw na ang dyosa ng kagubatan :)

  Ian May 12, 2012 11:56 AM

4

It's such a wonder how one place, never been visited, be so familiar and beautiful to you solely because you've read it from an article incredibly and superbly written.

  Meg Soriano May 12, 2012 12:51 PM

5

good luck anak, sana manalo ka

  jay May 12, 2012 8:16 PM

6

What a beautiful write-up, I like it. Hope to meet you in person :)

  analyn May 12, 2012 8:18 PM

7

I sure want to experience Banahaw having read this! Awesome article. It gave me a new of eyes

  may May 12, 2012 8:58 PM

8

now i'm thinking if I should try climbing Mt. Banahaw!

  nao May 12, 2012 9:18 PM

9

April, I didn't know that you could write this well! And you've really captured much of the essence of Mt. Banahaw. I've been there so I know. Good luck and God bless to you! =D

  jesguerra May 13, 2012 12:55 AM

10

Short but full of imagery. :)

  Julia May 14, 2012 12:24 PM

11

Is this a true story? Cause this is really cool if it is. Can you do magic now? I need to go to Banahaw!

  jay May 14, 2012 1:27 PM

12

Thanks for the support and compliments everyone! :) It's good to know that this entry made people interested in Mt. Banahaw. I actually had a difficult time writing it because there are so many things to write about that mountain, like the Cave of Judgment, the Rizalistas, the rivers of blood and milk (as the locals called them) and the grove of kneeling trees.

To those who want to visit Mt. Banahaw, you can ride a bus headed for Lucban then alight at San Pablo Highway. From there you can take a jeepney to Kinabuhayan. There are many guides in the village, so you can just ask around for one, but these guides have specializations. Some guides are for tourists who simply want to see the caves and waterfalls; others are pilgrim guides or "pator" like Nick. Pators are different because they know the prayers for the grottos. For example, there is an small underground lake in St. Jacob's Cave. I had to hold my breath in it as Nick prayed over me and held my head to keep me underwater. Then he pulled me out and told me to submerge myself again three times and gulp some lake water on the third. It was like a baptism for the mountain's pilgrims.

I'm sorry I didn't record my expenses at that time, but I remember that I spent about PhP2000 for the whole trip (2 days and 1 night).

This is a real story, one that I have never told my friends because I honestly doubt that they - or anyone really - would believe it. I couldn't believe it myself when it was happening ( I had to excuse myself at one point so I could silently freak out by myself in the bathroom). I went to Mt. Banahaw to pray; I didn't sign up for a seance. But it happened and it was real. I know because the people who got possessed were my companions (they couldn't remember what happened and complained of pain and heaviness in the shoulders and head). You just had to be there to know.

No, I can't do magic (though that would be nice, haha!) but I became more hopeful and courageous because of this experience. I actually recorded what was said in that seance. I was studying Floro Quibuyen's "A Nation Aborted" for an exam so I wrote down the messages at the back of my readings. Rey Sibayan also witnessed that seance, so he interviewed me and other witnesses in his radio program, MisteryoLohika, at DZRH.

  apriljsun May 14, 2012 7:43 PM

13

Congratulations! Good essay! :)

  fan May 15, 2012 4:01 PM

14

"The mountains speaks at night", indeed. And I know that there are "spirits" out there, somewhere. 'Cause I tend to talk to them, when I'm emo-ing. :D

Nice one! Good luck!

  bek May 16, 2012 11:57 AM

15

ooo.. finally you posted it... now I know there is another mystery-filled mountain beside Mt. Makiling..

  Mel May 16, 2012 8:24 PM

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