The anting-anting has long been part of the Filipino's mythological makeup. Although it has undergone an evolution of context, commerce and use, the anting-anting still figures heavily in the daily lives of rural folk and contributes a fascinating detail to the complex rural psyche.

Its mythological roots precede Spanish colonization and Catholicism. Worship was ancestral: spirits, anitos and gods, with Bathala reigning supreme. This ancestral spirituality laid the rudiments for a body of beliefs for anting-anting and its variety of powers. Centuries of colonial Catholicism further provided many esoteric and pagan elements, incorporating religious icons and concepts — the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, Sagrada Familia, the Eye, and many more —into the credo of anting-anting.

In the Philippines, anting-anting is all-inclusive. Some places refer to it as agimat or galing. Often, it is referred to simply as: "Anting." May anting iyan. . . . Malakas ang anting.

In its most popular and generic form, the anting-anting is an amulet, inscripted or engraved, worn as a neckpiece. But it exists in many other forms. It could be a prayer (orasyon) written in short esoteric combinations of colloquial and Latin mumbo-jumbos, written in a piece of paper, folded and walleted, or sewn in a small cloth pouch, worn pinned, exposed or hidden from view. It could be a small stone, a crocodile tooth or a piece of dried fruit, the latter sewn in a pouch.Then, there is the "soft" anting - "malambot na anting" — to which is attributed the holder's easy ways with women. There are antings for business and good fortune. And there is the macabre and ghoulish anting, the powers obtained and sustained from regular drinking a jigger of lambanog drawn from a large glass container - a bañga - with an alcohol-preserved aborted fetus at the bottom.

Empowerments,Rechargings and Rituals
As with many other facets of the Filipino life, the anting-anting is wrapped in mysticism, and superstition, heavily steeped in religiosity, prayers and faith, all redounding to its cultist appeal.

The ritual of amulet empowerment or renewal of the anting-anting's power is preferably done during Holy Week, especially eight o'clock in a cemetery on Good Friday, the singular time for anting-antings to be granted it special powers or to be renewed.

Its powers are activated by the use of magic incantations and prayers, either whispered (bulong) or written (orasyon).

On Good Fridays, you may find anting-anting holders gathering to test and demonstrate their powers and invincibility, surviving bloodless bolo hacks and guns fired at point blank range. Awed witnesses are never lacking for these demonstrations of anting-power.

As anting-antings are known to diminish in power, through abuse or misuse, or through the immoral and dastardly behavior of the anting holder, Good Friday is also the opportune time for anting-antings to be "recharged" of their powers through recitations of incantations and prayers concocted in the language potpourri of Latin, colloquial and rural patois.

Many healers and albularyos are believed to be in the possession of some form of anting-anting. The possession of such makes it more likely that the healer's use of prayers either as bulongs or orasyons, common in many indigenous healing modalities, will be more effective in helping to bring about a cure.

SUBO
The extreme in anting esoteria is the "subo" — literally, "to take by mouth" and swallow. Some believe this anting-anting to be an empowerment - an essence - that resides within the holder. Although most antings are buried with its owners, the "subo" is transferred from generation-to-generation to blood kin, usually to the eldest of the sons, although it can be passed on to a non-relative "chosen-one." The process of transfer from the holder of the subo occurs close to the moment of death. The chosen heir to the anting, aware of this inheritance, stays close to death's bedside. The subo, commonly materializing as a pellet-like mucoid globule, is coughed up into the receiver's hands or picked up and immediately taken and swallowed. A delay or hesitation in its ingestion would cause this 'globule' to just vanish and forever be lost.

Cultist appeal, rural mainstream, and urban fringe.
The anting is as an essential component of Filipino folklore and superstition. For some, It is a defining influence on the decisions and risks of day-to-day life. The mythology is kept alive and grows with every story that tells of an anting holder escaping from the throes of certain death or surviving a death defying act.

It is a common accessory of the rural folk, a chic accouterment to some of the urban-burgis, hidden or in view, with the hope fervent for its protective powers against illness, physical harm, evil spirits and witchcraft.

A Friday visit to that part of the Quiapo market that collars the church will find a profusion of stalls selling herb and potions, all colors of witchcraft candles, rosaries, statues and icons. And of course, generic and "commercial-grade" anting-antings in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes, cabalistic inscriptions and icon engravings, for whatever protective need you can imagine.

But beware, don't try it with bolo hacks.