The Final Trinity of Tagalog Mythology

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Hello everyone! Kumusta ka! Welcome to today’s episode. And welcome to our discussion on the final trinity of Tagalog mythology. 

But a note before we begin. While I’ve largely considered this each and every subject in a sort of bubble--because that’s just how this podcast is structured--this final trinity marks the point where that’s… Not exactly a perfect approach. I mean, I could justify it in the past because well obviously, no one sat down and wrote out the exact date when one deity stopped being worshipped and the populace shifted over to another. That just wasn’t the sort thing that was done. First of all, it seemed kind of needless, and second, there also would never be an exact date. It’s not an instantaneous change. Rather, it’s the sort of thing that happens overtime. It’s part of the ebb and flow of ideas that just happens when a bunch of people are together.

However, there are events that… essentially force conscious changes. There are historical markers that are known and need to be known in order to understand the subject you’re looking at. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

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When we left off, Bathala, Lakapati and Meylupa were the deities who were… Well, it’s a little heavy-handed to say that they were in complete control, but they were definitely the top dogs of this pantheon. And if you want to think even further back, Bathala had always been there. From the very beginning. So maybe you would think he’d always be there… Maybe you would just expect him to stick around. Or maybe I gave you the impression he would always be there. I mean, it did come up once that he’d disappear to give his maybe daughter… a chance in the spotlight. But yeah… I needed to take more time to map EVERYTHING out. Maybe even make a good visual mapping of some kind…

But that’s a project for another day. Or year. Or at least very different circumstances because the current ones are bizarrely but not unexpectedly tiring. 

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Anyway, it’s between the third and fourth trinities that Bathala fades from view. Some say he died, which might seem problematic to someone who was born into and shaped by the dominant Judeo-Christian worldview what with its eternal God and eternal forces. But I should remind you that the whole of Tagalog mythology started from a war between two gods. A battle Bathala won, killing the deity that challenged him.

Of course, there are other alternatives to that tale. Some say that he just went away. After the mortal woman who bore him three daughters died, as was inevitable, his sorrow led him in a different direction, an isolated one. Or--perhaps related and perhaps not--he just fell asleep. Into the sort of deep slumber that is not death but is not one that is meant to be awakened from.

Who is to say? Regardless, he was gone. And his daughter, as some knew Mayari to be, took his place.

On this podcast, we’ve met Mayari before. But to refresh your memory, Mayari was the goddess of the moon, war, and revolution. In some stories, like a story I told you on this podcast, Mayari had to fight for this position of status and privilege. Not a solitary place, might you. This was not a goddess lusting for power. She did not want to rule alone. She did not want her power to be absolute. She only wanted a space that was rightfully hers. A space of equality. Such a simple request led to a war, a war between her and another god who took her eye in an act of aggression that was quickly regretted and remembered with great sorrow. An unending sorrow you could also say. One that turned the sweet taste of power to a bitter one. And this challenger faded away, a bit, leaving Mayari to take what had been her father’s.

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Apolaki, the offending god who took the eye as a price for his humility, would find some place in this final trinity as well. Lakupati never went away, mind you. She remained a deity of great importance. But perhaps you could say that with the moon taking the place of an ultimate power, the world could have fallen out of balance. Something that would have never happened with Bathala. Bathala was all that there was. He was the ultimate god, after all. And in many ways, not even a child of his would be able to replace him. Certainly not the goddess of the moon, a celestial orb that only guided the world half the time. And with the loss of her eye, only half as brightly as the sun.

Mayari and Apolaki needed to be together to achieve some sort of balance. They needed equality. The same equality Mayari had first fought for, the desired equality that started the war between the two gods, the equality she lost her eye for. The two gods needed to stand together in true equal measure, in full respect for each other with nothing to advantage one or the other.

That was the right way of things, according to Tagalog mythology. This was the way things should be. And in many ways, the fierce nature of the Filipino woman seems to speak to an inheritance along these lines. But of course, there’s more to the story than that. But I’ll have to tell you that one some other time.

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Meylupa was not set in his ways or he was set in a different set of ways than staying put in one place, even if that place were a position of power. It seemed that he was destined to follow in the footsteps--or flight patterns--of they who came before. Much like Amihan did, Meylupa also decided to take on a hermit-esque lifestyle. 

But from this choice, Sitan rose to fill the space left behind. And therein lies the problem. Or one that could lead to many.

Because it leaves questions, doesn’t it? Is it, as Jocano would argue, that Sitan was a concept that just existed within the mythos, finding a place in the spotlight now, just before the Christian missionaries came. But he was always there, of course: the keeper of the souls a la the Greek Hades to give you a reference point that lives in the popular consciousness whereas… Well, actually you might think you know this story.

You might think that the story of Sitan is a story of a being intertwined with the evils of humanity. A deity that always seems to trip the careless up, ensnaring them in a web of misery and woe. A wailing and gnashing of teeth might be the Biblical way of putting it. And in some ways you would be right. In this legend, Sitan sprung up from nothing: a process that--while ignoring other rules of the natural sciences--was initiated by the evils done by people. That it was their action that awoke the deity of evil and chaos. In this origin, there is a word of caution. For in that tale, humanity retains a sense of agency. Sitan can be avoided if people avoid evils and ills, after all, but there’s more of a protection than that. For as Sitan is well aware, he is nothing without those he can tempt and attack.

And so, Sitan cannot fully destroy humanity. And an unexpected balance is reached between all parties. 

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That is… if the stories can be believed. With Sitan being so reminiscent of the Christian Satan, it can be hard to say. Was the true name of this deity lost to time out of convenience? So that the missionaries could have a good versus evil dichotomy that their religion would more easily fit against. There’s even an account that describes the initial battle of creation being Bathala against Sitan. 

How convenient. Or a divine blessing might be the other way of saying it. 

Or do you believe Jocano? Who thinks the idea and concept of Sitan might actually be related to the Arabic Saitan. And that, in turn, is sourced from the Abrahamic religions. As in Judiasm, Christianity, and Islam. But that would mean the early Filipino were far more connected to the rest of the world than what the missionaries originally suspected. 

There are reasons someone would be inclined to believe that and why they, or someone else, wouldn’t. It may depend on the understanding of history you carry into this tale. Or maybe you want to know more about this mysterious researcher that I love to refer to. But even travelling that route is harder than it should be.

Many of his works have fallen out of print, you know? I would have loved to buy his books to have them, but even though he died in 2013, his work is hard to find. It falls in that… odd copyright limbo where it is still owned by his estate and the publisher but no one is both interested and or able to invest the money in reprinting his work. 

And with many libraries being closed, rightfully so. There’s a lot more legwork I need to do. But after doing this so long, well, I find it hard to be optimistic.

But at least, there’s more Filipino content coming out. Including--and this is a bit shameless--The Mountain’s Heart: an audio fiction podcast based in Filipino lore. A new episode will be going up soon, so you might want to check it out wherever you are currently listening to my voice. 

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