Around this time last year, I lost a piece of jewelry, a gold bracelet that is worth more or less $300. The strange thing was, I put it with my other jewelries in an easy access cabinet in my room, and the rest of my jewelries were there and remained untouched. At first I was thinking that perhaps one of my kids played with it and probably misplaced it around the house. So I let the days go by, hoping that somehow the missing jewelry will be recovered somewhere in the house.
Then I started getting suspicious with one of my house helpers because she was acting strange. She was actually the most responsible and most trusted of three nannies that I had, and suddenly she wouldn’t even look me in the eyes when we talked.
In the Philippines, it is commonplace to resort to black magic and witchcraft and things that are considered taboo and superstitious in this modern world. So it is not a surprise to hear stories about skulls and magic oils or cards and beads that has some kind of spell or trick that can help solve a mystery.
I was particularly curious as to the veracity of these things so what perfect opportunity for me to venture into these unchartered waters.
Did you even hear about the saint that has no mercy? They call him, St. “Merciless” Anthony or simply put, St. Anthony—Without Mercy. People believe that he is the helper of people who have been robbed of their material possessions. According to tales if you seek help from this saint whatever things that are stolen from you will be returned or else the thief will lose his sanity. In Cebu, there was this place wherein you just find these believers and they do practice the art of seeking help through this kind of worship. I went to the place, all on my own and knowing that it was in the slums, of course I had to look as rugged as I can, knowing that in that place not only worship and black magic abounds but some gangsters and drugs as well, just to give you a clue to where I went. I met this old lady. She was all relaxed while she spread her deck of cards out in a piece of concrete in an open roadside spot. Her name was Antonia—the female breed for Anthony. She had this strange look about her. She looked like she was left in time. At first her face really looked scary with all the black spots that accented her old wrinkly face. She then asked me, “What are you here for? What did you lose?” I thought well, you’re the witch with the tricks, tell me! But it was easier to just fess up about my lost jewelry. She then told me that I have several options and of course it came with a price. She said that whoever was my suspect, I can just write her name on a piece of her custom-made paper and she’s going to feed it to her treasured skull inside a chest and the thief will---DIE! So I thought, OMG, I don’t want to be a murderer or an accessory to it so I told her NO. Then she told me to just write the name of my suspect as an addendum to a prayer and she was going to say the prayer every night for the next 7 days and it will cause unrest to the thief and possibly drive her insane. She said that her prayer was so effective that as soon as she starts the seven-day ritual the thief will be awaken in the middle of the night and will hear strange murmurs from the skull that she hid in a chest and she worshipped to. So I thought to myself, wow, I can’t believe that in this day of advance technology, these practices are still thriving. Out of curiosity and I was there anyway, I opted to take choice B. Antonia, the witch doctor then spread the deck of cards one more time and asked me to take two cards. Whatever numbers were on the card that I took represented the amount I needed to pay to her for her service. Luckily it was just two figures in Philippines pesos. I left and really had doubts about the truth to the effectiveness of the practice. In fact, I came as a skeptic, and went home even more in doubt, but I had a unique experience.
Then the next few days I was just paying close attention to my aides in the house and see if there was any visible manifestation of black magic spell. Then I noticed that one of my house help who was the suspect was obviously not sleeping well at night with her red tired eyes but I didn’t confront her because I didn’t have proof that she did it.
When I went to see my pedicurist I casually shared the incident. She then told me that she knew of a spiritual psychic who can shed some light on what happened. She said that the woman she is referring to had solved several similar mysteries in the past of missing stuff. So off we went to see her the following night.
As we entered the house and met her, I was able to sense a feeling of lightness around her. I was able to feel that the lady had some honest sense in her unlike other fake psychics or spiritists. So we played and picked the cards, then right away she gave me a very fitting description of the person who took my jewelry. I was amazed because I didn’t even tell her anything about who were the people in my household and how they looked but somehow her description was right up the nose. She said that she will pray for her to feel the guilt and return the stolen item to me. This time, I was sure that indeed my jewelry was intentionally and willfully taken from where it was kept.
Things progressed in the house and indeed, I was able to feel the suspect’s guilt even more. This time, she would no longer talk to me and if I wanted her to do an errand she did it quickly and disappeared right away as if she couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with me.
A week later, I went to Bohol for my Christmas vacation. I confided to my sister about the missing jewelry. She then told me that they knew of someone who can help me recover my missing piece and so we decided to see him but deep within my heart I was resigned to the fact that whatever was gone, was not meant for me. It was gone for good.
Then I met this healer who was probably in his mid 20s. They told me that he had the power to tame people. In fact, his second wife was a tall, fair-skinned, beautiful Filipina that you would not even imagine to have wanted to live a simple life with a quack doctor in the mountains of Bohol. They told me that this guy was exceptionally gifted and he can clearly decode to you in a picturesque outline who took what from you.
As soon as we arrived in this small shanty in a little hilly part in Bohol, we sensed a really different world that was way too domesticated and probably a bit crude fit for a life away from the hustle and bustle of the city. But mind you, these people still have cell phones. I had my cell phone too, just in case I need to call backup. No, my point is, in that place, the contrast of the modern world and the unsophisticated life in the mountains is eye-catching.
Anyways, we sat for a few minutes and waited for the guy to come out. As soon as he came out, immediately he told me what I lost. He even described in full detail what color it was, and how thick it was. I was baffled and surprised because we never said anything—not a word to him. But my sister told me that the guy was really blessed with something that was supernatural. I tell you, I had never been so completely amazed in my whole life. But this guy really brought the house down. This guy had one thing, one thing that you and I would want to have in this high-tech age. And it’s one thing that is probably more sophisticated than any modern gadget that we have these days. I’d compare it to a display screen or a monitor that you can mentally influence to graphically display a vivid image of things that you want to see. You know what he had?
He had this little bottle with oil inside. The oil rises with the rising of the tide, I was told. So if it’s high tide the bottle is filled with oil. If it’s low tide, the bottle is half empty. And that bottle was probably his most effective weapon in doing what he did best--healing and solving mysteries. With just a drip of that oil, sick people from different places who came to be healed were cured. And amazingly without replenishing the oil in the bottle, the bottle never ran dry. According to tell tales, he once preempted a second attempt to burglarize a home by giving the victim a forewarning based on what he visualized in his bottle of oil.
Then the healer went on to tell me that the thief is a short lady, with a stout frame, and she has straight hair at shoulder’s length. And boy, there was only one person in my household that could fit the description that he gave, perfectly. She was my once most trusted aide and now my suspect.
He didn’t stop there. He told me that if I can find that blue overnight bag with a red trim and zip opening, my bracelet is concealed under a layer of folded shirts. As he said this with utter certainty and confidence, he was looking at his bottle as if he had closed-circuit TV that broadcast the information that he just gave me. Right away, I felt blood rushed through my entire being. It was like finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I was glad I had my cell phone at that time, and so I immediately called up my other sister who was in the house in Cebu and told her to find the bag. You could hear me repeating the description that the healer gave. They tried to locate the bag but they couldn’t open one big luggage that had a lock on it and my suspect was nowhere. So I told them to just abandon the pursuit of recovering my missing jewelry. For me, it was enough to know that people that I entrusted with so much confidence are after all, not worthy of it.
I immediately told my sister to send all maids home for a Christmas vacation. My ulterior motive was to finally clear the coast. I didn’t want to go back to Cebu and deal with the issue of confronting the culprit. I just want to let go of the incident. My suspect at that time seemed like she was at her wit’s end. In fact, the other people in the house in Cebu were telling me that while we were in Bohol the maid kept staring on thin air and was obviously overwhelmed with guilt and didn’t know how to atone for the wrong that she had done. To me her being without peace was enough punishment for the wrong that she did.
I was convinced that she did it, but whatever it was, something was stopping her from returning the item to me. It could be the desperate need for money or it could be the big ego that surpasses all form of shame or guilt.
Then my brother knew about the incident and he reacted strongly to it. In fact, without my knowledge, he himself went to another spiritist/healer in Cebu. According to him, once he got to the healer’s house immediately the healer knew what he was there for. The healer held his pulse, then told him that he was asthmatic as well, and amazingly enough, it was true. When my brother directed his attention to the missing jewelry and asked the spiritist who did it, meaning who stole my jewelry, the lady immediately told him that it was someone who is a not-so-distant relative. That really struck a chord with my brother because what he was just told was absolutely true. The maid’s middle name is the same as my last name. (In the Philippines people take their mother’s maiden name as their middle name, so the middle name always bears some kind of relative consanguinity or blood relationship. By the middle name alone, you can tell if a person is somehow an expanded part of your family tree.) The lady told my brother that the one who took it already pawned the item at a local pawnshop and that she (the thief) has no plans of returning it, no matter what.
My brother was so furious that as soon as he found out, he immediately wanted to confront the suspect, but I pacified him, telling him that even if all fingers are pointing towards her, still we didn’t have any solid evidence to support our suspicion. So I told him to just forget it, because all material things in this world just come and go anyway. It’s our dignity and honor that stays with us even when we’re gone. Besides, being a thief for a person and being dishonest is truly a curse—and it’s enough punishment.
The experience drew me to acknowledge the existence of unseen forces in human life that were clearly manifested in the strange coincidences. It’s almost as if those three people were looking at the same crystal ball even if they were geographically distanced being located in different parts of the Philippine islands.
I didn’t even think that remnants of black magic or witchcraft still exist in this modern age. But quite frankly, I was proven wrong. Good or bad, the experience really was an eye-opener for me. There are things in this modern day that make you think with reckless abandon that technology is in and old practice is taboo. But guess what? There are things in old practices that are much harder to decode than a well-written programming syntax or a precisely programmed integrated chip designed to perform complex as well as extraordinary functions. Truly, we cannot disregard or deny the fact that technology at its best still co-mingles and breeds with the purest form of supernatural existence in some unheard of corners of this planet.
That healer—I’d probably refer to him as the guy with a crappy cell phone but with a very sophisticated bottle of oil.
Still to this day, I haven’t stopped figuring out the obvious puzzle surrounding the existence of supernatural beings. Hard as I tried, there are no explanations for why some things are, the way they are. There’s only room for acceptance that no matter how advanced technology can get, you can still be taken aback by something so pure, and just SUPERNATURAL.
For most Filipinos abroad it is an undeniable fact that a big part of our earnings overseas is being sent back to our loved ones back home in the Philippines. Even for those who have migrated to places outside of the Philippines, the obligation continues. Yeah it is, in fact, weird as it sounds, an obligation.
