Babaylan Mandala II.I on Book Cover

The Babaylan Mandala II.I, is a red version of the mandala fine art print series and is on the cover I created for Leny Mendoza Strobel's new anthology "Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous."

14 essays by 14 authors are shared in this book: Sr. Mary John Mananzan, Teresita Obusan, Katrin DeGuia, Karen M. Villanueva, Venedel Herbito, Maina Minahal, Michelle Bautista, Tera Maxwell and more.

The golden mandala has baybayin and other symbols of life, the elements, cosmos and more. Even the numbers of rings and symbols have meanings. The baybayin helped this mandala come alive for me as I created it and has given this artwork deep meaning for me as a Filipino. I believe in the beauty of the Filipino people, and that as we decolonize we reclaim our inner gold.

This book will be launched at the First International Babaylan Conference, April 17-18, 2010. visit www.babaylan.net for more information. Hope to meet you all there!

Baybayin Vendor Table at 1st Int'l Babaylan Conference, April 17&18, 2010

We have invited several Baybayin artists to share a table and sell their products and services at the 1st Int'l Babaylan Conference, April 17&18, 2010. It will be held at the Cooperage at Sonoma State University in California. S we may not only present at the forum "Baybayin in the Diaspora" that Saturday, but also share our jewelry, tattoos, books and other indigenous products available at this conference event.

Currently we hope that the following artists(myself included) will be there to speak and present their art and books:

• Christine Balza (suku-art.com)
• Christian Cabuay (baybayin.com, author of Baybayin)
• Mary Ann Ubaldo (urduja.com)
• Bing Veloso (author of Saysayin ng Baybayin, can no longer make it)

I hope to present baybayin jewelry, the Bahala Meditations book and music(with Ubaldo).

Also joining us at the table will be jewelry maker Lorial Crowder.

We hope you can join us and visit our table. 
Click here for more information.

Sikolohiyang Pilipino, the Baybayin of Bahala, and a Westerner's Mockery of Filipino Beliefs and Subjectivism

Bahala na is an old saying in the Philippines that means many things to Filipinos. 

In the Bahala Meditations, the words of Bahala na provide many meditative points.

In Sikolohiyang Pilipino, it is one of the traits of Filipinos that indicates determination.

Even the baybayin of bahala na provide many points of interpretation through tacit knowledge and other subjective translations.

In Kapwa*, Katrin DeGuia shares this:

The oldest known form of bahala na, the alibata[baybayin] version of the term, renders its root word as "God." ... and bahala is made up of the three letters B, H, L, spelled BA-HA-LA. The syllable BA stands for woman (babae), LA for man (lalake), the central HA for "breath" [hinga or ginhawa] or "wind"[hangin] (both of which signify God [or Spirit]).³ These three glyphs BA-HA-LA represent an ancient Filipino trinity where woman and man stand side by side on the base of a triangle and God unites them in the elevated midpoint. Bahala na then is a unique Filipino expression which could loosely be translated into "Leave the final outcome up to God!"  

(also read The Baybayin for Bahala and Bathala)

 ³Odal, G. "On the Word Bathala". Unpublished position paper. Quezon City: University Philippines, 1996.

...This proclaimed submission to a force larger than humankind was thoroughly misinterpreted by American social scientists who mistook bahala na as fatalism.

Most westerners cannot comprehend wholly Filipinos' philosophy, applications and interpretations of "Bahala na," Bahala and Bathala.

For a recent example of this, please see Morrow's sensationalized trivialization of Filipino beliefs called "Da Bathala Code"(the play between Filipinos' accents of "the" and the title of the controversial Dan Brown novel is not lost on us as part mockery, part tongue-in-cheek) at: http://www.pilipino-express.com/history-a-culture/in-other-words/483-the-bathala-code-part-2.html or download this pdf. Unfortunately, his online article does not allow any dialogue to take place with the public. No one, including Filipinos, cannot post their feedback whether neutral, positive or negative.

*page 85, Kapwa, the Self in the Other: Worldviews and 

Lifestyles of Filipino Culture Bearers by Katrin De Guia.

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Related posts and web pages:

• Tacit Perceptions of Symbolism
• Da Bathala Code
• Filipino Personhood | Indigenous Filipino Values, 2 of 2
• Sikolohiyang Pilipino

Other Baybayin Alive Posts On Bahala Below:

• Meanings and Diwa (Idea or Spirit) within "Bahala" and "Bathala"
• "Bahala Na" and "Bathala"
• The Baybayin for Bahala and Bathala
• Other Posts On Writing Symbols with Deeper, Hidden Meaning:

• YHWH - Deeper Meanings in Hebrew Symbols for the Divine
  
• Example 1: The Buddhist Symbol of Om
• Example 2: Tibetan symbols of Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum
• Example 3: Nordic Mythological Runes
• Example 4: Hebrew Letter of Aleph

Other online articles

• Is God a he-she?." by Manya Brachear