Agimat
Encyclopedia
Filipino language
This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
word for amulet
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
or charm
Touch pieces
A touch piece is a coin or medal attached to attracted superstitious beliefs, such as those with "holes" in them or those with particular designs...
. Although stereotyped as a cross, a flat, round or triangular golden pendant accompanying a necklace or a necklace-like item, it is also depicted as an enchanted stone that came from the sky or from the heart of a banana tree at midnight (mutya). In relation to the latter, it is usually ingested. It is usually accompanied by a small book of magic incantations which must be read during Good Friday or a certain special date to attain the amulet's full power and benefit. An agimat could also be in the form of a clothing with magic words inscribed on it, or even in the form of edible enchanted mud (in Tagalog, mud is putik). Other methods of obtaining an agimat is by getting the liquid that is drained from an exhumed body of an unbaptized child or aborted fetus or offering food and drinks to the spirits in a cemetery during midnight of Holy Wednesday or Holy Thursday. Most of the amulets bear Latin inscriptions into it, and most of the places these Agimat are sold near churches or on its courtyard or in the market near the church, like in Quiapo district in Manila. Filipino fighters also wore anting-anting to battle against the Spaniards and the Americans. Filipino hero Macario Sakay wore a vest that has religious images and Latin phrases to protect him from bullets. Former Philippine-President Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
, was given an anting-anting by Gregorio Aglipay
Gregorio Aglipay
Gregorio Labayan Aglipay was the first Filipino Supreme Bishop of the Philippine Independent Church.-Early life:...
that could make Marcos invisible. Marcos said that the agimat is a sliver of wood that was inserted into his back before the Bataan campaign
Battle of Bataan
The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast...
on 1942.
Anting-anting is also a Filipino system of magic and sorcery with special use of the above mentioned talismans, amulets and charms. It is part of a wider South-East Asian tradition of tribal jewelry, as "gantung" in Indonesian/Malay
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
means "hanging", and "anting-anting" in Javanese
Javanese language
Javanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
means "ear pendant". Earliest reports of anting-anting are from the records of Spanish priests in the early colonial period. Pardo de Tavera defines the anting-anting as "an amulet, of super natural power, that saves lives." With the Christianization of the Philippines, anting-anting appropriated the forms of the new religion, and incorporated as well the esoteric symbolisms of Freemasonry. An Islamic version of anting-anting exists in the Southern Muslim islands.
In Filipino films, the wearer of the agimat gains superhuman strength, invisibility, heightened senses, self-healing and elemental powers. With it, the person can also be able to shoot or fire lightning via hands, or generate electricity throughout one's body. The person can also perform telekinesis, stop a live bullet, can have premonitions, morphing abilities, camouflage abilities like a chameleon, can have extreme good luck, invincibility or miracle curative powers. In his Filipino films, the actor Ramon Revilla, Sr., as Nardong Putik
Nardong Putik
Leonardo Manecio aka Nardong Putik was a Filipino gangster turned folk hero. An amulet-wielding hoodlum from Cavite province, Putik credited his ability to survive and escape numerous ambushes and gunfights to his anting-anting...
, was depicted to have protection from bullets and slash wounds, provided he eats a certain special mud.