“He has two abyan?!” Lolo Gani thought to himself. “How is that even possible? This is the first time I have ever seen someone with two abyan.”

Lumawig, oblivious to his lolo’s shock, just continued his chanting. At the start, he was able to do it effortlessly, but as the process of nurturing both abyan and buntot pagi continued, he felt more and more exhausted, physically, and mentally. At this point, Lolo Gani stood up and lightly tapped his apò on his shoulders, the young man, feeling someone tapping him stopped his chanting.

Exhaling a turbid breath of air, Lumawig slowly opened his eyes and tried to stand up. But his action caused him to feel dizzy and almost fell to the ground. The whole experience made him feel like he did some heavy lifting and other physically arduous tasks and studied exhaustively for an upcoming exam at the same time.

“Careful apò, you are tired. Just sit down for now, bring out your agimat and hold it in your palms. It will help you recover.” Instructed the old man.

Hearing his lolo’s instructions, Lumawig sat back down and held his agimat on his hands; shortly after, the agimat started to get hot and a warm soothing energy started to flow into his body. Lumawig immediately recovered physically, while his mind also recovered considerably. After cleaning up everything the two went back to their house. It was already late in the afternoon, but the sky is still bright.

As the maglolo reached their house, the old man proceeded to slaughter four chickens, to be cooked as adobo and tinola (chicken soup with green papaya and chili leaves) and cooked rice good enough for eight people.

Lumawig assisted his lolo in the preparation as well but thought that his lolo was expecting some visitors so he did not bother to ask why he was preparing that much food. Lolo Gani then decided to talk to Lumawig about the dungan as they were preparing dinner.

“Apò, do you know what a dungan is?” Lolo Gani started their conversation.

“Dungan? I have heard you mention it before, but I am not really familiar with it. All I know is that it has something to do with one’s spirit or soul.” Lumawig answered.

“You are right, it does have something to do with a person’s spirit or soul. For a long time, the dungan has been one of the bases to measure a babaylan’s prowess. The stronger their dungan, the stronger the babaylan. However, the dungan itself is a vague concept, it can be equated to will, aura, or presence, as well as soul. A person’s dungan signifies how strong his or her soul is, this directly equates to how corruptible a person is or how easily they can be influenced by others, as well. Of course, this is the simplest understanding of the dungan.” Lolo Gani started explaining.

“In the context of its spiritual use, in the case of the babaylan, the dungan has more functions than I have mentioned. Firstly, the dungan determines what kind of abyan a babaylan could form a connection with, those with a stronger dungan can attract a more powerful spirit. Second, it determines how powerful a babaylan’s abyan could become; you nourish your abyan by nourishing your dungan. The chant that you are using for your abyan is actually also strengthening your dungan. Third, a babaylan’s dungan also determines the effectiveness of their concocted medicine. Fourth, the dungan also determines their success in fighting against evil spirits. For example, you were frozen on the spot the other day when we fought the Bal-bal because your dungan was overcome by the creature’s killing intent. Hence, you were not able to resist, and you have been influenced by it. Had I not been able to inflict damage that caused it to stumble and fall in the nick of time, things could have gotten ugly.” Speaking up to this part, Lolo Gani sighed in guilt for a moment but then continued to explain.

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“Fifth, the dungan is the same as a babaylan’s vitality. This is the reason why most of us babaylans will take great caution whenever we try to venture into the Spirit world for anything that happens to our dungan also happens to our body. If our dungan dies, this could also mean death to our physical bodies.

Lastly, the dungan is your best weapon against spirits if you are in their territory. You can resist corruption, and their influence over you if you have a stronger dungan, and conversely inflict damage to them if your dungan is considerably stronger against them.” Lolo Gani then ended his explanation of the dungan to Lumawig.

“I understand lolo. Does this mean that your dungan is already very powerful since you have been a babaylan for a long time?” Lumawig asked.

“No.” sighed Lolo Gani. “Although as compared to you, my dungan is quite powerful, but if compared to other babaylans out there, mine is on the weaker side.”

“Why?” wondered Lumawig.

Lolo Gani sighed again after hearing his apò’s inquiry.

“I guess I never mentioned to you that there are various ways to become a babaylan, did I?” Lolo Gani asked his apò.

“No. You only said that I have ‘the gift’ after I told you about my dream four days ago.” Answered Luamwig.

“Well, there is more than one way to become a babaylan. One of them you have already experienced, through a dream. Another way to become a babaylan is when spirits periodically enter a person’s body, and that person becomes ill. The only way to cure that person is to be initiated as a babaylan. Another way is that a person suddenly disappears and then returns after a few days bearing the gift of being a babaylan, and the last method is to be chosen by a senior babaylan or someone who volunteered to become a babaylan.

Aside from the last method, the process of being a babaylan has one common theme, they are chosen by a spirit. People who become a babaylan like this have more potential, as it means that their dungan has a greater potential as compared to someone who was chosen by a senior babaylan or volunteered.

I belong to those who volunteered or were chosen by a senior babaylan. Your Inang Selia was the one who inducted me into a babaylan, however, I did not experience being chosen by a spirit naturally. This is why my dungan, though powerful, is not as powerful as your Inang Selia’s.” Lolo Gani patiently explained to Lumawig. It turned out that Lolo Gani became a babaylan by being chosen by his Inang Selia and not because he was chosen by a spirit.

“What is the difference by being selected naturally and having someone choose you, lolo?” Lumawig was still confused. After all, he thought that his lolo was like him who had strange dreams, but it turned out that his lolo did not have the same experience as him.

The old man did not give his apò an answer immediately. Instead, Lolo Gani turned his back on his apò and started preparing dinner. Lumawig did not mind though and just waited for his lolo to talk. As they were not using LPG, they have to manually start their own fire for cooking, and this is what Lolo Gani is doing at the moment.

The old man is silently stacking some dried nipa leaves and twigs so he can start a fire, after he finished stacking them up, he lit a match. After lighting a fire, the old man started stacking some dried woods to feed the flame. Lolo Gani still remained quiet, and was just looking at the flame grow bigger, Lumawig also inadvertently looked at the flame. It was at this moment when Lumawig looked at the flame that Lolo Gani asked Lumawig a question.