#santiguar

[unidosconelpapa]

En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo... Amén.

[quiquecabanillas]

1 of many shot for @santiguar with @whereisfenix More coming soon #santiguar (at Bushwick, Brooklyn)

[anitoanum]

Santiguar

"The santiguar, a Spanish term meaning, "to bless" or "to make the sign of the cross," is an adopted term for at least two known indigenous practices of talado (divination). One involves the use of an egg, while the other uses a lambon (shroud), but both are usually part of a larger ritual that may involve healing rites, which in this case are used to divine the source of an illness.

After prayers are offered, the healer holds dialog with guiding spirits. On an inverted latok (wooden plate) or old white pinggan (porcelain plate), an egg is made to balance on end, sometimes on an old coin with the aid of the bottom edge of the plate. At the same time, various possible reasons are silently uttered. Once the egg balances, the possible cause that was uttered at that moment is accepted. Cracking the egg into a glass of water and reading its formation and consistency further confirms this. The appropriate measures for healing or placating the offended spirits then follow.

The other known version of the santiguar involves covering the sick person with a lambon while that person extends his or her hand out from underneath. If the individual is sick due to the indwelling of a spirit, a key or other pointed object is pressed into the tip of the forefinger (tammudo) while holding dialog with the spirit who speaks through the person covered by the lambon, followed by the appropriate healing measures."

- Virgil Apostol, Way of the Ancient Healer

"Divination methods vary considerably, but one of the most common is santiguar. In santiguar, a plain white plate is marked with a cross or three crosses in oil (usually holy oil from a church), and then passed over a candle, so that the soot forms patterns in which the healer can read the site and cause of the patient's encounter with the tawo.

[...]

I have already described the santiguar method of divination, using a white plate and oil crosses. Several methods for diagnosing the cause of illness seem to be variations on this; the healer may use wax dropped into water on a plate which forms patterns, for instance. Most healers use pulsetaking ( pulsohan), and decide from the speed and regularity of the pulse whether the illness is spirit-caused or caused by other agencies. A weak, rapid pulse seems to be connected to the idea of spirit-loss and illness caused by the tawo. Some healers look into the patients' eyes; a reversed reflection in the pupil also indicates that the person's spirit is absent from their body. Other healers may use an amulet or orasion (prayer/spell) on a piece of paper and pass it over the patient's body; if it sticks in certain places, this too indicates the absence of the person's spirit from their body.

[...]

Elsa described being treated by the same Doro Munoz, using an alternative kind of santiguar; "You have a plate filled with water, with a cross in the centre of it..and a candle, which you melt on a spoon, and a second spoon...then they call your name..for example.." Elsa, give a signal if your soul is being threatened by the people who we cannot see...o soul, whatever it is that ails you, give a signal". Then, drop some melted wax in the water, and the part that sticks to the cross will take on a shape...whether of a forest...or sometimes of a kalag..."

[...]

When he had the plate, Kalintikan marked three crosses on it in the usual way, but using rum instead of oil, passed it over my body, and then held it in the smoke of the insence-burner.

[...]

Santiguar-divination using a plate and candle or other method."

- Fenella Cannell, Catholicism, Spirit Mediums and the Ideal of Beauty in a Bicolano Community, Philippines