Max Woodside
Journals from an Indigenous Philippine Sorcerer “Invisible II; A Visit to Xagas”
I always liked adventures with Arik, because it gave me long opportunities to talk to him during the voyage. This week would be spent visiting one of Arik’s school brothers, Xagas. (Pronounced ‘Zagas’). We would be traveling from Cebu City to Sante Fe, Bantayan where Xagas was staying. Also, it was nice to bring my wife along. I may need her for translation purposes as well. But, of course, she couldn’t speak native Manobo. Ylime,…
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Journals from an Indigenous Philippine Sorcerer. ‘Invisible’
Arik, Nyle and I were having a beer at an outside bar in Minglanilla, Cebu. We had delivered some hand-carved hardwood bookshelves to a well-to-do foreigner in a subdivision nearby. Arik was a furniture maker by trade, and his work sold fairly successfully around the area. He primarily got his customers by word-of-mouth, and thru some Filipino photo catalog exchange that always kept him making something. His workspace was a simple corner in his apartment…
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Journals from an Indigenous Philippine Sorcerer. The Bell of Truth and Cave Drum.
I’m a retired psychologist and college professor. I moved to the Philippines for many reasons, among them -the incredible sweetness of essence I noticed in my Filipino students. While retired, I’ve been talking to and chronicling an indigenous Philippine sorcerer. We had been excellent friends for almost 7 years. Now, he has since left Cebu City for Mindanao as of August 2017, and I miss him. But, I’m hopeful he’ll return. I have many notebooks…
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Retirement! What Retirement? Journals from an Indigenous Philippine Sorcerer.
Retired! What? Wow, I’m still not off the hook. I’ve been ‘retired’ 8 years, and I’m still pouring over my journals of Arik’s teachings. I’m not busy grading exams or preparing lecture notes, but busy organizing my journal writings of an extraordinary indigenous Philippine teacher. For an impending book, no less! Lord, I never thought I’d be doing this in my retirement. But, as challenging as it is, it has been an enormous pleasure. I’ve…
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Journals from an Indigenous Philippine Sorcerer. The Bridge.
We were at Arik’s Cebu City apartment for supper. He often had these dinners to teach and allow questions. Tonight, we had the Bridge exercise. Several students were present, Nyle -a young physician, myself, and another young woman named Zybel, (Zee for short), and Ylime. Arik had his cook and housekeeper Ylime prepare us pork steaks, Panzit, Kalamoongi, tomato and okra soup, and, of course, the buckets of that dam white rice Filipinos require for…
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Gift of ‘Touched’. Journals from an Indigenous Philippine Sorcerer
While retired, I’ve been talking to and chronicling an indigenous Philippine sorcerer. We had been excellent friends for almost 7 years; now, he has since left Cebu City for Mindanao as of August 2017, and I miss him. But, I’m hopeful he’ll return. I have many notebooks full of his material, a vast teaching, and I’m trying to connect it all accurately in accordance to what he meant to say. He spoke good English but…
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