In ancient times, before the monopoly brand religions and their
intolerant jealous gods began to demand obedience of thought and belief, ritual
animist traditions were the normal viewpoint, not just in Southeast Asia, but
the whole world.
Many vestiges of these traditional views still survive,
often even intertwined within the usurping religions, which predominate the
intellectual and spiritual languages of many cultures.
Where Hindu and Buddhist countries are more readily able
to absorb the cultural legacies of ancient tribal practices, the posture of
‘unquestionable truth’ propagated by both Islam and Christianity, at least on
the surface, leaves little room for coexistence.
Despite this, and even with the superseding modern
empiric doctrine of science, many beliefs and practices persist today, though
many have of necessity expediently adapted their visible iconography to the
prevailing psychological milieu.
No one in the modern world can be unaware of the
contemporary extreme application of radical Islam in certain parts of the
world, but in many ways these uncompromising attitudes have precedence, even in
ancient times, and were famously also deployed in the often violent promulgation
of the Catholic Church as it sought ascendancy in Europe.
The obsession of witch hunting in both catholic and
protestant Europe is legendary, though whether the actual practice of heresy, sorcery
or witchcraft, or indeed what defines such, was ever involved is at best
questionable and is a scourge which still plagues parts of Africa.
In the modern Philippines, the inheritance of Spanish
Catholicism remains the overarching prevailing force, so it may be surprising to
find the ostensible practices of black magic still being adhered to in the
Sorsogon region of Luzon and the islands of Siquijor and Samar, in the form of
Kulam.
Although Kulam, with many parallels to Voodoo, is being
rebranded as an exclusively positive force, not least because of its
understandable fascination for tourists, the traditional practices are normally regarded
as malevolent, and like voodoo involve the use of dolls, tied with a string to
symbolise the witch’s control, and pins, submersion in water or fire to invoke
the intended spiritual attack on the target.
These curses are implemented with the aid of numerous
potions, incantations and spells aimed at inducing the desired effect of the
petitioner for whom the Mangkukulam (witch) is acting, be it the death of an
enemy or rival, a love or charm spell, a healing or harm spell, or as part of a
divination ritual. Sometimes the traditional embodiment of a doll to represent the
subject is now replaced by a photograph.
Interestingly, these rituals often invoke the use of
Catholic saints and even Christ in their deployment, a clear illustration of
the practical accommodation of the political realities of former practitioners.
Indeed the empowering legitimacy of belief in witchcraft is paradoxically at least as much
promoted by the church itself.
The perceived power of Mangkukulam in local societies is
often a source of paranoia, engendering fear when people get ill, who then
attribute the onset of illness to the witch, and conjecture whom of their
acquaintance might have cause to seek the use of witchcraft against them, and
may even lead to counter spells through the use of a rival Mangkukulam.
The psychological fear of dark power at work and the
notion that one has been cursed, in those prone to believe it, can itself lead
to unwholesome consequences, preying on their minds and aided by an assumption
of self-guilt.
Conversely, in many places the Mangkukulam is often seen largely
as a healer or magician for good, and regarded as a ‘white’ witch, using their
herbal knowledge and incantations for entirely benevolent aims.
It is often cited that where modern medicine has failed
that the Magkukulam is able to induce cure. For many, whether any actual
spiritual power can be attributed to such apparent anomalies is an irrelevance.
Even in science, the power of belief and placebo is well acknowledged, and
indeed honest science, even if sceptical, is perfectly well aware that indeed
it does not know all things.
The island of Siquijor, accessible from the southern tips of Negros, Cebu and Bohol, is the favourite destination for
tourists with an interest in Filipino witchcraft from a perspective of
curiosity, and if your own beliefs lead you to conclude that you can obtain
that promotion, pay rise or love interest through magic, the ever resourceful
Mangkukulams will be happy act on your behalf in exchange for a few of your hard-earned holiday Pisos.