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House of Memory PDF

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Kouji Tomas
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210 views6 pages

House of Memory PDF

Uploaded by

Kouji Tomas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What healing means cain isa word one often hears nowadays. From a complex of esoteric remedies herbs, crystals, pyramids, dowsing rods, water, massages) to charisms of th, from the healing of bodily ailments tothe healing of souls, rom the healing o individual brokenness tothe healing of nations, and the world — ital seems, at times, as though we have just stepped intoa veritable supermarket of secrets, formulae, sciences. ‘The plurality of ways" of healing isn surprise. Healing, after al, is essentially ‘amatterof divination (diagnosis, ifyou will) and involves skill that is not as straightforward asit may seem. Sincea person is nota mere bundle of bone, blood, and tissue, buta complex of emotions, ideas, imagination, and will —the vessel of *soul, ifyou will — divining what ails the human person is not only a matter of “science” but of art and faiths well If there are many ways of healing it is because we are not always looking for the same things; or, nding them, know them in the same way; or, knowing them, choose «exactly the same means for responding to what itis we have found. {tis useful to fil back, in the face of such perplexity, on native conceptions of health, disease, and healing. From such conceptions, we can then move forward, whether to higher perplexities or the simplicities that suffice. Folk beliefs (Filipino or otherwise) form a veritable forest of'ideas, practices, and symbols.Yet, there is as well, to all that surface diversity, a deep structure that is {if we can find it) quite simple, r In Malay and Filipino belief, “health” is ultimately a matter of having a well- defined, well-bounded ‘soul. Itis firmness and wholeness of soul for, even in English, “healing’isetymologically the at of*making whole and tobe sick istobe infirm’), Healthisdefinition and boundedness. For the Malay for whom concentrationand centerednessare a condition of power, weakness, sickness, and death are caused by the decrease and decentering of soul Suchis the diversity oflanguages, cultures, and religions, thatthe soul is named and understoodin many ways. Mang, semanga,nyawa, kaluluwa, and kalagarejust some ofthe words used in the Malay world, Across such dillerences, however, we gravitate around certain key notions. We conceive ofthe soul asthe vital force (elan vital), cenergy or‘life-breath’ that animates the flesh and gives toa life particular form and shape. We recognize a well that while it is contained ina mortal, finite body, it tends towards something an origin, an end, anendlessness) beyondit. For how else does one explain the souls restlessness? How else explain sickness and death? Inthis light we begin to understand what healing means. In folk medical belief, ‘variousailments (physiological, mental, spiritual) are explained interms ofthe condition ofthe soul. Inthe child, a soul as yet insecurely lodged is what makes the child vulnerable to what ails or isill In sleep, person’ soul can wander, and so we wake him up gently to allow the soul time to slip back into place, Orelse, the person is seized by acondition called*soul fright.” A weak soul can be invaded, dominated, by another soul and thus — never finding its way to being a whole and bounded self — is hounded by an essential listlessness and unwholeness-The soul can be tempted out of| the body, or its vitality diminished, when weare tired, beedless,or distracted. Such is our capacity to be mindless or perverse that the soul is always slipping away from “TheVisayan words for healing, bu/ongor ali, take on meaning inthis context. Bulong,*to heal’ essentially means*to find." It refers to the act of divination or discernment, the reading of symptoms or signs, the determining ofthe cause or deed (aconfessing of*sin’) that has brought on particular infirmity orimbalance. Inthe spirit-illed native world, this translatesinto the identifying of those forces or ‘spirits? — _ hichtaveimadedthe bo, o enticed the self awa, resting inaslippage igh which have inv ; or momentary loss of soul, Alito heal, suggests the act of ministering or nurturing (afime).Ithas more encon ! nore practical procedures of applying remedies or medicines). I evokes soul mur, passing sense than the more commonly-used éambal(which refersto he the repairing or restoring oflost balance, arecentering, a making* whole” Inf ealing, sickness implicates not justa single body ora particular person Ang soit ng kalingkngan ay sikit ng huang katawan Tagalog proverb withparllsin Visayanand other local languages) speaks not only ofan anatomical body but of »atural, social, and cosmic body aswell. An imbalance inany of the body partsis an imbalance inthe whole, Itisor this reason that native curing rituals are charactried by chansand prayers, communicative acts, speaking" not only to what les within us butto whatisout there in the world The soul that has strayedis petitioned to leave or toretur, “Negotiating” with spirits, an anger s appeased, asin redresed, 2 ‘threat subdued, boundaries redrawn, alot balance restored, (illustrates how we are dealing witha common complex of ideas to note that, inTagulog, bulongalso means*to whisper or speak" or that in Manobo, tocureis wh ‘meaning"to return’ or‘return to one’s origin.") Allthisis not arcane knowledge. Whether itis ‘magic, art, religion, or science, ‘wearethrustintoa common search for wellness and wholeness, evenasitisa earch

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