Geronimo Cristobal

Tag: Magic

  • Pustaha

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    The name pustaha is borrowed from the Sanskrit word pustaka meaning “book” or “manuscript.” The pustaha of the Batak in North Sumatra often contained dark and secret knowledge passed down through ritual specialists (datu). Among its most striking tales are those of black magic, where the text describes methods to destroy enemies through gruesome rites.…

  • Amulets of historical imagination

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    In 2021 after numerous museum visits in Southeast Asia, I began reflecting on what collections revealed and concealed about history. The objects that most profoundly shifted my thinking were not the canonical works of art but the agimat, talismans seized under colonial regimes and now dispersed across museums. Just last week (September 21, 2025), while…

  • Cebuano Sorcery: Malign Magic in the Philippines (Richard Q. Lieban, 1967)

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    Book Review of Cebuano Sorcery: Malign Magic in the Philippines   The practice of witchcraft in the Philippines has long fascinated observers, with early Spanish explorers documenting its prevalence among locals who employed sorcerers to inflict illness on adversaries through magic. By the 1960s, anthropologist Carl Lieban noted that such practices were still deeply rooted…

  • Azimat (Rolf Bayer, 1958)

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    I discovered a wonderful website that archives film locations in Singapore called www.sgfilmlocations.com. Browsing through the copious material, I found a rarely-seen 1958 movie called Azimat or Seal of Solomon, written and directed by Rolf Bayer, who did the screenplay for iconic postwar Filipino film, Anak Dalita. The movie stars Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran…