Agnes De Jesus

Backstory

My family's ancestors were one of the first wand crafters in Southeast Asia and, as far as we have uncovered, the only wand crafters in the Philippines. Unfortunately, they may have been shut down or forced into hiding due to the colonization of the Spanish and their enforcement of Christianity. When they arrived, they spread stories about evil creatures and beings that would attack us and our families if we did not worship their god and continued our black magic, or "kulam" as we call it. Being family-centered individuals, we believed and obeyed everything they said to the point where magic had been labeled as "evil" and eradicated completely from everyone's minds, or so we thought.

I had recently found our ancestors' old journal pages and some letters dating back to the 10th century, around the time when Chinese merchants first came to the Philippines to trade their wares. Among the letters I found were records of magical and mystical relics being traded back and forth between the Chinese merchants and my ancestors. The journal pages, crumbling and torn, have drawings or plans of decorative sticks imbued with these relics. It would seem that our ancestors were still trying to figure out this whole "wand crafting" thing at the time these were drawn, and were still not as educated about magic as other parts of the world may have been at the time. This was not a surprise to me as I have always known that Filipinos have been late to everything to be honest.

However, as I rummaged deeper into the depths of our termite-infested cabinets where I found the pages and letters, I found a rectangular cardboard box that, although faded and worn, was surprisingly still intact. The lid has a very faint logo and byline on it. I could only make out the words, "...wands - Estb. 1372". When I opened it, there laid a wooden stick on a red silk cushion, and a folded slip of paper. Handwritten on the slip of paper are the words, "To my dearest cousin, I hope you will one day forgive me. I only did what I had to do to ensure your family's safety. You are all safe for I have burned it all, our life's work...save for this last wand. Keep it with you and keep our story alive. Do not believe in the foreigners' lies. When I return, we will rebuild again what was lost and hopefully, bring the magick back into the hands of the Filipino people."

And so, I have taken it upon myself to "rebuild what was lost" and have begun my own research into the magical and mystical in the Philippines. I have been looking into history books and records, asking around in suspicious looking places. To my ancestors, magic seemed to have died in this country, but I believe that it has always been present. It was just hidden away, waiting for its timely return to the mainstream world. And now that the world has undoubtedly changed its views on everything and people have become more accepting of others, that time may very well be approaching. I now carry around this wand, inspired by the words of our mysterious ancestor, hoping that I can help my fellow Filipinos rediscover what has been hidden (and maybe even feared) in our blood for generations.