Like Filipino culture, our mythology and folklore is colorfully diverse, and frustratingly ignored. Reading about them might be a bit confusing as they are tainted and erased not only because of our colonizers, but also because of the way we were deprived of knowledge about them, hence our ignorance towards them.
I made this tiny compilation in high hopes of encouraging people (specially Filipinos!) to learn; and more so, create art & literature about our mythology. And if you happen to see/know about Filipino mythology & folklore, my ask and chat are both open! I’m actually really new to this fandom (is this a fandom?????) pls feed me info :DD
the deities
deity: alunsina god/goddess of: the eastern skies originated from: visayan
@silahis MY FRIEND I AM HERE FOR YOU BUT FIRST I MUST ASK YOU TO SEPARATE PANTHEONS BECAUSE IT’S GONNA GET CONFUSING FOR PEOPLE IF YOU MIX THEM
FOR EXAMPLE, VISAYAN DEITIES ARE DIFFERENT FROM TAGALOG DEITIES ARE DIFFERENT FROM BIKOLANO DEITIES ETC ETC
YOU CANNOT LUMP THEM IN THE SAME LIST YOU MUST SEPARATE THEM
for example I made this Tagalog gods guide back when I was a wee thing
Which may serve thy purposes
My knowledge is specific to Tagalog gods because my dad is Batangueño and I’m born and bred Tagalog and also because I kind of fell in love with Lakampati / Ikapati / Lakapati as a deity
You can ask me about the stuff I’ve learned over the years about Tagalog gods and general Philippine folklore
I’ve got lots of stuff in my “philippine mythology” “tagalog gods” tags so you can take a look at em
Also I suggest you take a gander at William Henry Scott’s “Barangay” because there are small portions there about the belief systems of early Tagalogs and Visayans plus insight on their ways of living also gives you a LOT of insight about their beliefs and how those affected their deities
FOR EXAMPLE Bathala is the supreme god and the anito aka the other gods were kind of his intercessors, they were patron gods of different things but NO HUMAN BEING WAS ALLOWED TO TALK TO BATHALA DIRECTLY so they had to pray to the anito, who in turn spoke to Bathala
Also some notable gods are Ikapati/Lakapati/Lakampati, the hermaphrodite mother goddess of fertility who was the most compassionate of all the gods and who people left plates of rice out for for care and good harvest
And Lakambakod was a god with a giant penis as long as a rice stalk and gilded (covered/pierced in gold down the shaft, in tradition of old Filipino penis piercings) who was the god of fences and protection, specifically for fertility in agriculture
Apolaki was a great god but there’s contention on whether or not he was Bathala’s son or Anagolay and Dumakulem’s son (which makes for good family drama when I’m writing about them tbh)
There are also some stories about Ikapati being Bathala’s wife instead of Mapulon’s but there’s also contention whether she was a primordial god like Bathala or an anito
