The Deeper Meaning of Baybayin Symbols - Part 2 of 2

 The Baybayin Oracle is meant by B. Veloso

to enjoin many, especially Filipinos, 

in finding beauty, goodness 

and truth in baybayin's ancient treasures. 

This is the second part of The Deeper Meaning of Baybayin Symbols. Click here for part one.

Bing Veloso took time to study the baybayin symbols on an esoteric level by way of meditation and contemplation. The interpretation of the baybayin symbols can be multi-layered and have nuanced pathways of interpretation. And then there are different approaches to using them as an oracle tool. There is also an emotional aspect to the interpretations. One can even use the cards to see what word is formed by the combination of the symbols and then the word itself is interpreted. 

(Click image for large view)

Please see Bing's explanation above. This is what is enclosed with her 2002 edition of the Baybayin Oracle Cards.

Bing recently explained the purpose of her work:

It was conceived for the purpose of education and development through appreciation and operationalization of a Filipino cultural element. Thus the reading of the baybayin through the cards is an ongoing experiment since 2000 on how it is to read the baybayin in all possible aspects, including archetypal and symbolic reading. As it has yielded positive results of clarification and alignment from the very first reading, I have continued the experiment.

Thus, the baybayin oracle is not meant to predict the future nor serve as a fortune telling tool. It is meant to enjoin many, especially Filipinos, in finding beauty, goodness and truth in its ancient treasures.

Writing symbols of other ancient cultures have also deeper meanings. Esoteric traditions within those cultures have explored and applied those deeper meanings. (See links below)

As I have learned in my older years, good intuition alerts you when to pay attention. I know Bing's work has taught her colleagues and fellow baybayin enthusiasts in the Philippines to pay attention, with their insight and intuition, to the deeper meanings of baybayin symbols. She has also taught me this.

If you would like to contact Bing about her baybayin work you can email her at: baybay_in [at] yahoo.com. (please replace at with the @ sign to create correct email addy).

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Here are other posts on the deeper meanings of writing symbols around the world:

• Deeper Meanings of Sanskrit Writing Symbols 12.21.2010 
• Parallels: Reiki Symbols and Meanings by Rahul Thadani 12.24.2010
• Parallels: Phoenician Ancient Letters, Divine Writing 12.20.2010
• Parallels: More Instances of World Alphabets and their Deeper Meanings 12.19.2010
• 2 meanings of "spell" 9.01.2009
• Wisdom, Dreams and Symbols 8.28.2009
• Parallels: Example 3 - Nordic Mythological Runes 7.22.2009 

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Here are additional Baybayin Alive posts about Bing Veloso or that mention her:

• The Deeper Meaning of Baybayin Symbols - Part 1 of 2 Feb 27, 2011
• In defense of the mystical experience of being Filipino Oct 31, 2010
• Baybayin is Alive for Bing Veloso October 10, 2010
• Of our Filipino Ancestors, Wu Li Masters and Ancient Greek Muses July 27, 2010
• Baybayin Books Nov 21, 2009
• Saysayin ng Baybayin by Bing Veloso Nov 02, 2009
• Concept of Leadership (Konsepto ng Pamumuno) Oct 31, 2009
• Bahala Na Aug 30, 2009  
• Tacit Perceptions of Symbolism July 17, 2009

The Deeper Meaning of Baybayin Symbols - Part 1 of 2

The Baybayin Oracle Cards were created circa 2002 by Rhodora "Bing" Veloso. 

By meditation and contempation, understanding the sounds in words in various Philippine languages, and applying metaphorical sight or talinghaga, Bing worked on interpreting the various baybayin symbols over time.  This work of interpreting the symbols is also much like dream interpretation.

Here is the matrix of Bing's symbols interpretations of the baybayin. She uses baybayin as an oracle tool. when working with the symbols in this manner, intuition is used and the symbols are interpreted in a variety of ways and on several levels.

(Click for large view)

Writing symbols of other ancient cultures have also deeper meanings. Esoteric traditions within those cultures have explored and applied those deeper meanings. (See links below)

Stay tuned for Part 2 of 2 which talks about Bing's work in more detail on using the Baybayin as an oracle tool.

-------------------------------------------------
Here are other posts on the deeper meanings of writing symbols around the world:

• Deeper Meanings of Sanskrit Writing Symbols 12.21.2010 
• Parallels: Reiki Symbols and Meanings by Rahul Thadani 12.24.2010
• Parallels: Phoenician Ancient Letters, Divine Writing 12.20.2010
• Parallels: More Instances of World Alphabets and their Deeper Meanings 12.19.2010

Here are additional Baybayin Alive posts about Bing Veloso or that mention her:

• In defense of the mystical experience of being Filipino Oct 31, 2010
• Baybayin is Alive for Bing Veloso October 10, 2010
• Of our Filipino Ancestors, Wu Li Masters and Ancient Greek Muses July 27, 2010
• Baybayin Books Nov 21, 2009
• Saysayin ng Baybayin by Bing Veloso Nov 02, 2009
• Concept of Leadership (Konsepto ng Pamumuno) Oct 31, 2009
• Bahala Na Aug 30, 2009  
• Tacit Perceptions of Symbolism July 17, 2009

Stone age jottings the seeds of written communication

Below I am sharing an informational graphic on stone age jottings published at NewScientist. As we wonder about how baybayin writing system came about I think it is interesting to look at the symbols marked in stone and found in sites around the world and wonder how communication via symbols began in human history.

The chart below focuses primarily on the French caves prehistoric rock art 26 symbols but also gives us a glimpse of symbols found around the world.  

(Source: New Scientist, Genevieve VonPetsinber, Andre Leroi-Courhan, David Lewis-Williams, Natalie Franklin)

"French caves are known for their prehistoric rock art. But also marked on the walls around the paintings are 26 symbols that have appeared again and again at Fren sites across 25,000 years of prehistory. Early signs suggest that many of these symbols crop up in other parts of the world too, leading some to wonder if symbolic communication arose with early humans."---NewScientist

Genevieve von Petzinger, then a student at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, [found] and brought together all the records of the markings, found alongside the French cave paintings, to compare them. Under the supervision of April Nowell, also at the University of Victoria, she devised an ambitious masters project whereby she compiled a comprehensive database of all recorded cave signs from 146 sites in France, covering 25,000 years of prehistory from 35,000 to 10,000 years ago.

What emerged was startling: 26 signs, all drawn in the same style, appeared again and again at numerous sites. Admittedly, some of the symbols are pretty basic, like straight lines, circles and triangles, but the fact that many of the more complex designs also appeared in several places hinted to von Petzinger and Nowell that they were meaningful - perhaps even the seeds of written communication. [The writing on the cave wall, Kate Ravilious, New Scientist]

Upon further study and examination of their findings,  Petzinger and Nowell found that:

...our ancestors were indeed considering how to represent ideas symbolically rather than realistically, eventually leading to the abstract symbols that were the basis of the original study. 

"It was a way of communicating information in a concise way," says Nowell. "For example, the mammoth tusks may have simply represented a mammoth, or a mammoth hunt, or something that has nothing to do with a literal interpretation of mammoths." Other common forms of synecdoche include two concentric circles or triangles (used as eyes in horse and bison paintings), ibex horns and the hump of a mammoth. The claviform figure - which looks somewhat like a numeral 1 - may even be a stylised form of the female figure, she says.

The real clincher came with the observation that certain signs appear repeatedly in pairs. 

Negative hands and dots tend to be one of the most frequent pairings, for example, especially during a warm climate period known as the Gravettian (28,000 to 22,000 years ago). One site called Les Trois-Frères in the French Pyrenees, even shows four sign types grouped together: negative hands, dots, finger fluting and thumb stencils (a rare subcategory of the negative hands).

Grouping is typically seen in early pictographic languages - the combined symbols representing a new concept - and the researchers suspect that prehistoric Europeans had established a similar system. "The consistency of the pairings indicate that they could really have had a meaning," says Nowell.

"We are perhaps seeing the first glimpses of a rudimentary language system."

For more details also see:

 The writing on the cave wall, Kate Ravilious, New Scientist at SOTT.net, Feb 17, 2010.