Filipino shamans

A performer depicting a shaman in a recent Babaylan Festival of Bago, Negros Occidental

Filipino shamans, commonly known as babaylan (also balian or katalonan, among many other names), were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine Islands. These shamans specialized in communicating, appeasing, or harnessing the spirits of the dead and the spirits of nature. Babaylan were predominantly women serving in spiritual leadership roles. Effeminate men (asog or bayok) could also be shamans and adopted dress and roles commonly associated with women within indigenous spiritual practice, albeit they are usually less common than female shamans. Shamans were believed to have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits and deities (anito or diwata) and the spirit world. Their primary role were as mediums during pag-anito séance rituals. There were also various subtypes of babaylan specializing in the arts of healing and herbalism, divination, and sorcery.

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