A Filipino witchcraft book is a publication that explores the practice of witchcraft and magic in the Philippines. These books provide insights into the rich tradition of folk magic, rituals, and spells that have been passed down through generations in the country. Filipino witchcraft is deeply rooted in the country's history and culture, blending together indigenous beliefs with elements of folk Catholicism. It is commonly referred to as "barang," which means magic or witchcraft in the Filipino language. These books delve into various aspects of Filipino witchcraft, such as the use of herbs, charms, talismans, and incantations to harness supernatural powers and influence the natural world. They also often feature instructions on spellcasting, divination, and protection against evil spirits.

By Women of Color – The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

I remember when I had $100 worth of books in my arms at the bookstore. The problem was, I didn’t have $100. I ended up having to put most back and only buying two. I had such a hard time deciding which books I should get, but I knew one of them had to be The Bone Witch by a Filipino woman, Rin Chupeco.

Synopsis

(copied and pasted from Amazon)

Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there’s anything I’ve learned from him in the years since, it’s that the dead hide truths as well as the living.

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.

In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha―one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.

Title and Cover

If attraction could kill, this book would be a serial killer. At least, it would have killed me. The Bone Witch is such an elegant title that just rolls off the tongue. Add that with an absolutely gorgeous cover AND the tagline “Let me be clear, I never intended to raise my brother from his grave”? It was impossible for me to not buy this book, guys. It just was.

Plot

The plot here is what I like to call the Harry-Potter-plotline. A character finds they have strange powers, they go to a place to learn how to use those powers, regular school life for a bit, then something more sinister happens that keeps the character from having a “normal” life. I personally love this kind of plotline. It just works. There are so many different ways you can take it, and I love the way Chupeco handles it.

Characters

Let me get this out of the way: I love Tea. She’s a perfect flawed, but likable character. In fact, almost all of the characters fall under this category (but Tea is my favorite). The characters are extremely realistic and if there’s one thing I love, it’s realistic characters.

Setting

The world that the novel takes place in is just beautiful. There are so many different cultures and I would honestly love a book that goes into each and every one of them in detail, textbook-style. A lot of the cultures are touched briefly in the novel and there’s an overview of each of them in the back. Not to mention there’s a sequel (that I haven’t had the chance to read yet) that hopefully explores them even more!

Style

The writing style of The Bone Witch was not one that I was used to. I think an important fact that I kept forgetting was that the book is a novel that read as if it was told by mouth. This results in a lot more telling than showing, which really works! I just wasn’t used to it myself.

Overall

Basically, the book is just beautiful. Not just looks-wise, but the writing as well. If you want a fantasy novel that leaves you feeling enchanted, I think this one would be a good pick. Four and a half stars ****/*

If you want to read The Bone Witch yourself, you can buy it on Amazon*.

*These links are affiliate links, meaning that buying from them will give me a part of the money at no extra expense to you!

Prevalence of Witches, or The Exorcists – Filipino Style Escaping Darkness

Folklore has always been a part of people's lives, making it an all-encompassing body of culture which persists to exist from pre-industrial times even up to this day (Barber, 2006). Part of its persistence is the values it carries, which have shaped and helped us make sense of the world around us. By purposively selecting texts with the most read counts in a cyber archive, this paper aims to understand Philippine urban legends from a segment of texts archived and circulated online. Employing the structuralist framework by Leach (1973) and folktale category by Propp (1958), it aims to identify forms, motifs, and functions embedded in each creature discoursed in the urban tales. Results revealed that creatures are confined to the Aswang, White Lady, and Diwata tropes which are mainstream figures in Philippine urban legends. Motifs reinforced a gendered image attached to each monster which consequently led to men as victims and viewed as objects of hostilities, wherein the employment of palette was effective in evoking the intended effect in an urban horror tale. Consequently, these motifs justify the function they play, wherein each is discursive towards social and justice issues, including ecocritical concerns. It can be concluded that the internet as an archiving space is not an enemy of folklore but a critical factor in its diffusion and central propagator of our collective consciousness as Filipinos. Furthermore, it is recommended that expanding the scope of creatures and the amount of corpus to be included in the analysis will provide an array of findings that will reflect more of our rich folklore and literary traditions.

Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment

Culinary descriptions in Quechua oral narratives often emphasize the important role food plays in the construction and maintenance of vital kinship and community bonds. References to the culture's foodways signal important plot twists, establish the tone of a scene, foreshadow impending doom, or allude to the intentions and personality of a character. In Southern Peruvian Quechua narratives, food-related aberrations frequently emerge as a result of inappropriate or unsanctioned sexual relationships, and a character's blatant disrespect for the culture's food decorum signals the impending disintegration of family relationships. Supernatural cooks often adulterate meals in order to punish family members for these violations of food etiquette. Through an analysis of four Quechua narratives, this article demonstrates the ways in which narrators use food symbolism to instill and reinforce cultural mores. ***(Las descripciones culinarias en las narraciones orales quechuas a menudo enfatizan el importante papel de la comida en la construcción y mantenimiento de lazos familiares y comunitarios vitales. Las referencias a las formas de comer de la cultura señalan giros importantes en la trama, establecen el tono de una escena, presagian una fatalidad inminente o aluden a las intenciones y la personalidad de un personaje. En las narrativas del quechua del sur peruano (departamento de Cusco), las aberraciones relacionadas a la comida con frecuencia surgen como resultado de relaciones sexuales inapropiadas o no autorizadas o de la flagrante falta de respeto de un personaje por el decoro alimenticio de la cultura. Los cocineros sobrenaturales a menudo adulteran las comidas para castigar a los miembros de la familia por estas violaciones de la etiqueta alimentaria. A través de un análisis de cuatro narrativas quechuas, este artículo demuestra las formas en que los narradores utilizan el simbolismo de la comida para inculcar y reforzar las costumbres culturales.)***

TransMissions: The Journal of Film and Media Studies

Vampires, zombies, and phantoms – histories of horror stories. Review The second half of the year 2016 was generous for Polish fans of dreadful stories as two interesting books came along. The first, Wiedza potworna. Horror w badaniach kulturowych (The Monstrous Knowledge. Horror stories and cultural studies) published by the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press, contains seven essays by faculties and PhD candidates of the Cultural Studies Department of the same University. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from Polish folk tales to Japanese horror stories. The second book is an anthropological monograph of the horror film Upiór w kamerze. Zarys kulturowej historii kina grozy (Phantom of the camera. The cultural history of the horror film) by Magdalena Kamińska, published by Municipal Gallery Arsenał in Poznań, Poland. This book is the outcome of a series of lectures on the history of horror films conducted by Kamińska in the Gallery. These publications complement each other, providing the reader with a wide range of contexts and references of horror stories. The authors of the essays contained in the The Monstrous Knowledge, who work in the field of anthropology and cultural studies, deal with a wide range of issues from folk tales to video games. Each essay is devoted to a specific problem that may be genre, national context, or a figure such as a vampire or zombie. The opening essay by Dariusz Brzostek is somewhat out of the box; it takes up the figure of an anthropologist coming back from field research as a monstrous character and a source of threat for his/her people. The threat is based on the transition of the scientist from Western rationality to the savage (monstrous) knowledge of the people who were supposed to be the subject, not the source of wisdom. The anthropologist is presented as a double stranger: for both the researched community where he/she arrives and for his/her own people upon return. This initial essay is not only an self-referential game undertaken by a culture researcher, but also introduces the primary theme of the whole book: monstrous knowledge as a non-scientific, non-rational (in the academic, Western understanding) pattern of world interpretation and possible scenarios of action. It is knowledge that permits the supernatural as the actor in reality, as it dresses up the otherness in monstrousness.

Brief summary and critique of a selection of Philippine literature: the two novels of Jose Rizal, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, two short stories, one in Tagalog and the other in Hiligaynon, and selected poems including Balagtas' Florante at Laura. (I delivered this paper to the West London Gastronomico and Philosophical Society, UK on 10 November 2020.)

My Life Changing Witchcraft Ceremony In Siquijor, Philippines

1.5K If you watched a lot of fairytales when you were a kid, you are probably one of those people who hated the witches. Witches are usually portrayed as antagonists. They are often perceived as ugly, hateful, envious, miserable, and evil beings. They destroy the lives of those gorgeous princesses that you adore, that’s why you developed a fear and hatred of them. Let’s admit it. We, women, wanted to be princesses. Nobody ever wants to be the witch. But have you ever thought of knowing the truth behind witches, healers, and shamans? Fantasies and fairytales aside, I’m talking about the real deal. Would you believe if I tell you, that I had an encounter with legitimate witches? Let’s get straight to the point. This topic revolves around witches, healers, and magic. If this topic tickles your curiosity, then this article is meant for you. If it challenges your beliefs, great! This is one of my extraordinary experiences that not many people can easily grasp. As a matter of fact, I only confessed this to a few people, I can even count them with my fingers. Out of those few people, only one person pushed me to write about it. So here you have it, my life-changing experience in a witchcraft ceremony.

They also often feature instructions on spellcasting, divination, and protection against evil spirits. Importantly, Filipino witchcraft books go beyond mere instructions and techniques. They often provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying philosophy and worldview that informs the practice of witchcraft in the Philippines.

How I experienced my calling to Siquijor

Never in my life I thought about a witch encounter, but the universe has a funny way of leading us to the unanticipated. I was going through one of my toughest battles when the universe communicated with me through a dream. One evening, I woke up from a dream where I was in a beautiful city with pristine beaches and green mountains, dancing with witches. The image of the witches in my dream was very typical. They were dancing while wearing their black dresses and their iconic hats, with their brooms in their hands. The dream was so vivid that, until now, I am still able to recall every detail of it, even the song I heard while dancing. The dream was so enticing that it haunted me, but in a good way. So I went straight to my phone and searched for this city, based off from what I saw and experienced in the dream. The very first result that came up was Siquijor.

This includes concepts such as the interconnection between humans and nature, the belief in spirits and unseen forces, and the importance of maintaining harmonious relationships with the spirit world. Furthermore, these books shed light on the role of witches, known as "mangkukulam" or "manggagaway," in Filipino society. Witches are regarded with a mix of fear and reverence, as they are believed to possess supernatural abilities that can be both beneficial and harmful. They are sought after for their spiritual guidance, healing powers, and protection against malevolent forces. Filipino witchcraft books not only provide a glimpse into the esoteric practices and beliefs of the country but also serve as a means of cultural preservation. They document traditional knowledge and rituals that might otherwise be lost to modernization and Western influences. In conclusion, a Filipino witchcraft book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding the rich tradition of witchcraft and magic in the Philippines. These books offer a deep dive into the practices, beliefs, and cultural significance of Filipino witchcraft, ensuring that this unique heritage is passed on to future generations..

Reviews for "The Influence of Filipino Witchcraft in Literature and Media"

1. Jennifer - 1/5 stars - I found the Filipino witchcraft book to be incredibly disappointing. The content was poorly organized and lacked any real depth or substance. The author seemed more interested in providing a brief overview of various witchcraft practices rather than delving into any specific topic. Additionally, I found the writing style to be dry and unengaging. Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for an informative and thought-provoking read on Filipino witchcraft.

2. Kevin - 2/5 stars - Although I had high hopes for this book on Filipino witchcraft, I ultimately found it to be underwhelming. While it did provide some interesting information on different practices and rituals, I felt that the author barely scratched the surface of the topic. The book lacked a comprehensive exploration of the history, beliefs, and cultural context surrounding Filipino witchcraft. Furthermore, the writing style was quite dense and not easily accessible for someone new to the subject. Overall, I believe there are better resources available for those genuinely interested in learning about Filipino witchcraft.

3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I was excited to read this book on Filipino witchcraft, but sadly, it fell short of my expectations. The content felt disjointed, and the explanations of various practices and traditions lacked clarity. It seemed like the author assumed prior knowledge that most readers may not possess. Additionally, the lack of references or sources made me question the authenticity and credibility of the information presented. Overall, I felt that this book was a missed opportunity to provide a comprehensive and well-researched exploration of Filipino witchcraft.

The Role of Healing and Shamanism in Filipino Witchcraft