Third eye?
What a novel concept, you will excuse my bemusement.
THi is my daligmata.
Its eyes open to see all in creation.
The physical and metaphysical are in its sights.
Nothing is beyond its view.
Not in this nor in the many layered worlds.
This is its 37th eye, it can look at the pillars of creation and their caretaker, the goddess Dagau.
The 52nd glares at Kabalalan, grave of the Kurita, slain by Sulayman.
The unmoving crab the size of a mountain rests in the view of its 23rd eye, sometimes glancing its master, Lumawig.
It has seen all of Ngapal’s travels through the cosmos, one eye on him and another on his enemy, the moon eater, Sowu. Those are its 2000th and 857th eyes, respectively.
The birth of spirits is always a welcome sight though these days they are of destruction and not protection. The elementals of storm and heat fill up the peripheries of its hundredth orbs to those displacing or even extinguishing local spirits like the Tamyaw.
That isn’t to say it is unmoved by what it sees.
All the daligmata have madness set upon them as not even the sweet sights of beauty and splendor could cover the sanguine horror it views every moment.
Some eyes it pulls out because it cannot take the atrocity.
Numbers 87, 153, 210 and 563 were plucked because it couldn’t take seeing the next child victims of the aswang, tigabulak, sirena and sagay.
I have used my powers to glean small visions of eternity., but I am not a fool. Evey moment I look through its eyes is one step closer to breaking my own sanity. But I will share its burden.
Each vision that is shared is a moment of weight lifted from its dementia.
I will not pretend to know the burden it carries.
The day will come when it will be overwhelmed enough to destroy itself.
Until then it is under my care.
I bid you goodbye, sojourner.
I will keep an eye on you.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Daligmata entry in 101 Kagila-gilalas na Nilalang. Samar. 2015 and CURRENT RESEARCH IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, Vol. 4 = Jose` S. Buenconsejo : Songs and Gifts at the Frontier : Person and Exchange in the Agusan Manobo Possession Ritual. Philippines. Routledge, NY & London, 2002. Pg 113
Illustration by Klyde Sosa used with permission from Rob Martin of Pine Box Entertainment and Secret Garden Games
