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Ligaya talked about Anituo
What is Anituo?
Anituo is a modern Reconstructionist religion and is the collective name for the Pre-Hispanic belief system of the ancestors of Filipinos. It is a term deriving from the words “Anito” and the Bisayan root word “tuo” meaning “belief”. Anito is a term found and used widely throughout the archipelago and is a term to refer to the spirits, which includes the ancestors and nature spirits as well as in some cases depending on the ethnic group, the deities.
As a modern tradition, Anituo compromises all the indigenous beliefs and practices of the different groups in the Philippines. It is a nature based, animistic and polytheistic religion with the importance of nature, the spirits, ancestors, and deities, to work with them and to better our lives and the lives of our family, friends, and community. Anituo is both a spiritual path and a religion based on culture and the decolonization of the Pilipino. It is both a religion of connecting with nature, the ancestors and nature spirits, and the divine, as well as one focused on culture pride and identity through native dances, music, arts, martial arts, and traditions like our tattooing culture.
The Anituo Religion
Long before the Spaniards arrived on the islands of what is now known as the Philippines, there were many different city states (banwa) and minor kingdoms (puod) that flourished throughout the islands. Between them all, they all had different beliefs and practices that were similar to each such as ancestor worship, the belief in different spirits whether they were of the ancestors (anito or umalgad depending on the ethnic group) or nature spirits (diwata/anito). They also all had their own deities and Priestesses (Babaylans, bailan, mumbaki, katalonan, etc.) who communicated with these spirits and the deities for the benefit of the community. Though local beliefs and practices differed they still shared similarities.
Today the islands and people are united as one nation though we all come from different ethnic groups, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Ilokano, Cebuano, etc. Most of us, minus the indigenous groups who have kept their beliefs and practices, have lost our old beliefs, practices, and traditions prior to the Spaniards. We have forgotten our past and lost our connection with the anito and diwata. In the words of our national hero Jose Rizal, “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan. ” (He/She who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his/her destination.)
Anituo is a modern Reconstructionist religion that is indigenous to the Pilipino. It is a religion formed by the beliefs, practices, and traditions of our ancestors. It’s a religion that’s new in terms of unifying all of those beliefs, practices, and traditions as one organized system, but in regards to those beliefs they are much older. Anituo is a modern spiritual and organized system of beliefs indigenous to the Pilipino and is the Pilipino’s native religion.
Anituo is in no way connected with Neo-Pagan religions such as Wicca. It is a Reconstructionist religion, and like other Reconstructionist religions, such as Asatru, Religio Romana, Rodnovery, Hellenismos, etc. it is a religion based on historical and written primary sources that literally reconstructs the beliefs and cultural practices of a group of people prior to the arrival of monotheistic faiths and revives them into the modern day.
(Source: anito-spirituality)
https://anituo.tumblr.com/post/41450740287/what-is-anituo
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