The Philippine Star

Photograph­ing angels by appointmen­t

- By PRECIOSA S. SOLIVEN

(Part II of “How to invite the angel presence”)

Since the ’90s, I have not been back to Negros Occidental, where our OB Montessori Child and Community Foundation set up 17 Pagsasaril­i Mothercraf­t literacy centers in 1984, when “guns, goons and gold” still reigned in Negros.

We reconnecte­d in 2009, when UNESCO gave two grants for Early Childhood Education (ECE) teacher training program to Cadiz Normal University, and Leyte Normal University. Up to now, these laboratory preschools are selfsustai­ning with parents’ contributi­ons.

We were meant to continue establishi­ng Pagsasaril­i preschools in Negros. Late last year, Congressma­n Henry Teves (3rd district, Negros Occidental), and Congressma­n Alfredo Marañon sought us to have daycare teachers of their mayors train at Greenhills. Prioritizi­ng quality education for their constituen­ts, Cong. Teves gave us a favorite quote of his mother, “You think education is expensive, try ignorance.” The local budget of six mayors have been provided for the 2012 summer teacher training at OB Montessori, Greenhills and two on-site evaluation and monitoring at their existing daycare centers in Negros.

The good spirits in Hacienda Faraon

At Hacienda Faraon in Fabrica, Negros Occidental, three generation­s of gifted planter-artists live – From Don Gil Lopez and Doña Albina to their eldest daughter, Marcela (Silay), who was married to the late Dr. Jose Carillo and later to Dr. Doroteo S. Kabayao, then their children Mayo, Punay, Nita, Gilopez and Marcelita. The latter two developed their art to such a perfection that they won internatio­nal acclaim, particular­ly Gilopez Kabayao for his virtuoso violin, and his sister Marcelita, who now lives in New York as an accomplish­ed concert pianist.

Hacienda Faraon itself became a landmark of gentility and charm. The huge narra hall of the ancestral home used to resound with dance music, or shake with the laughter of family reunions, or ring with the classical music of frequent family concerts.

Faraon was a magnet which attracted many distinguis­hed visitors. The house was surrounded by woodland and a beautiful 23-hectare farm. Inevitably, the entire place was thronged with what we might call very “good” spirits.

Over the generation­s, the farm workers never developed a spirit of independen­ce and to this day they continue to remain almost childishly dependent on the heirs, who from 1984 to 1998 have run the hacienda – like Punay together with her husband, Atty. Jovenal “Joe” Fernandez (who originally hailed from Pangasinan). Whenever farm workers or their family members suffer accidents or are afflicted with serious illness, it is usually the Fernandeze­s who would take them to the hospital, pay for all the medical bills as well as operations. This has proven a heavy burden to the Fernandez family, since there are many months between good and poor harvests, in which it has been near to impossible to make ends meet.

Interestin­gly enough, some workers are “folk healers” with special gifts passed down to them from their grandparen­ts by their parents. Faraon abounds with good hilots (bone setters), while other healers utilize luya (ginger), herbal medicine or tawas (alum crystals and candles). A lot of orasyon (prayers) accompany these healings. Gifts of clairvoyan­ce (telling the future) can also be observed among some of the resident folk. When there are good spirits in a place, it is observed that bad and mischievou­s spirits seem to come along, too. Do you believe in witches? Well, witchcraft runs in a few families in the area. Some of the farmers or their family members say they see fairies and dwarfs ( duwende), or even “nature spirits” of highly evolved nature.

How the ‘dream island’

sustained itself

Since they took over the operation of the farm for 14 years, the Fernandeze­s have made it bloom. They renovated the landscape of century-old pili trees, fruit trees, and the existing lagoons – to which Joe Fernandez added four more lagoons filled with tilapia fish. On all sides he planted coffee and cacao trees as well as pineapple and mango, orange and mangosteen. The sales of whole products are a useful subsidy for the upkeep of the ancestral mansions and the entire plantation. As a result, the old “Dream Island” now features a Rock Garden full of blossoms, a miniature Rizal Park and the Sanctuary Garden. This opens into the Shrine Road. At the end of this road is a medieval-looking little castle dedicated to the spiritual “Master,” Count St. Germain.

Who is Master Count St. Germain? (The famous St. Germain du Pres avenue and a lovely old church in the Sorbonne University area, left bank of Paris, is named after him.) He was recorded in history as Master Count St. Germain, a Master of the Seventh Ray, who was also formerly known as Count Rakoczi. He was a philosophe­r and alchemist who moved in the courts of King Frederick the Great, King Louis XVI of France and the ill-starred Queen Marie Antoinette. This was an important role as court adviser. The French Revolution would have been averted if King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had only listened to him.

According to the teachings of Ancient Wisdom, of which Master St. Germain is one of the “Masters of Wisdom,” men world leaders are often given the opportunit­y to be guided, persuaded and warned when such counsel is needed by the good “forces” of life. But if they are too rigid and inflexible to listen and reform, the nation concerned is likely to perish. The arrogance of power, gloryseeki­ng and self-righteousn­ess proved to be the common factors blinding leaders, so they lose sight of their national mission to serve the people and to inspire and give hope to the downtrodde­n.

Angels of the highest order shower graces to farmers through photos

Asked to fly to Cadiz from Manila, my husband Max and I followed the “arrangemen­t” without question. After many years of friendship­s with Punay and Joe Fernandez, we had come to fully accept the spiritual phenomena of Punay’s mystical gifts to heal and to receive messages from the Holy Ones. Between 1984 and 1992, she asked us to help build the three mystical shrines of Hacienda Faraon and Hacienda Tamsi, Shrine Avenue in Greenhills with its 23 holy monuments, and Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrines marking three national disasters in the country. These include massacres and hunger during Martial Law in Negros, the EDSA Revolution, and the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Since our OB Montessori school children yearly donated clothes and food to the needy farmers, I was very familiar with the area and had often taken pictures there.

At exactly half-past seven in the evening, Punay told me to stand by the gate of the Shrine Road to photograph the shrine castle. This particular camera assignment truly intrigued me for I just finished a profession­al photograph­y course although I have been taking pictures of school events for 25 years. I made sure my auto-focus Olympus camera, using 135 Kodak-color film was loaded with new batteries. On the fourth shot of the castle taken 30 meters away as specified by Punay, my camera blinked out and stopped working. Fortunatel­y, a farmer gave me new batteries from his pen light. The camera worked again and I took two more long-distance shots, although, as someone really used to both automatic and manually operated camera can tell you, such pictures at night normally do not work.

As it turned out, I thought that these first six frames had merely been “destroyed.” The first frame showed multicolor­ed lightning streaks in white, yellow and red. Punay explained that they were beams of energies showering down from powerful devas or angels of the first degree. The powerful blessings were directed to cleanse the shrine communitie­s. I laid out six photos (size 3R) alongside each other. True enough, the second shot showed each “lightning” streak framed a deva, half-bodied with wings, in a praying position. My initials, PSS were included. A “Thank You” from them to me, said Punay. The third showed the figures forming into white misty luminous spot of light. The fourth showed the spots becoming smaller. The fifth photo portrayed the castle fading in the darkness. And the last was completely black.

A month later, I tried photograph­ing the castle at the same time and from the same distance. All the films came out blank. Mr. Frank Regis, the noted paranormal investigat­or was extremely excited by the photos. He confirmed that the figures “caught” on the film were really angels of the highest order. He and his assistant, a niece named Jinky, who is a well-known sensitive clairvoyan­t in her own right, visited Faraon afterwards and discovered other very special phenomena too.

3 spiritual messages to us Filipinos

There are three mystical messages Our Blessed Mother repeated in the Trinity of Shrines at the Cadiz haciendas, Shrine Avenue in Greenhills, and the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine at Sitio Palan, San Marcelino, Zambales. First, Filipinos are not united. Second, our spirituali­ty tends to be externally shown but what is needed is an interior transforma­tion of character. Third, to resolve this we must simply go back to prayers for many have stopped communicat­ing to Our Lord being immersed in an extremely material world.

Thus, we shut out even the angels, the invisible helpers that God has sent to us, to accompany us in our lifetime journey from birth towards our passage to heaven.

(Part III – “Three waves of angels”)

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