MANILA, Philippines ? At the outset, the long-tailed metal ?Bakunawa? (giant) lizards, among the 40 animal creations by Valeria Cavestany, look playful in their plodding way. They are sheathed in metal, lit from the inside and in the dark has a serene glow to them.

There are faithful dogs, spindly spiders, regal roosters, pensive cats and mice, moths, avuncular turtles, stoic pigs and many others inhabiting Valeria?s artistic menagerie. They seem like random choices but the artist picked these particular animals because of the important roles they play in ancient Philippine cosmology and myths.

The Aetas or Negritos, living only in lean-tos, had the whole night sky to gaze at finding clues to what lay in store the next day. In Zambales, a full moon was a good time to open the rice granary, to celebrate the first rainbow and the first thunder.

A full moon was also the time to see the face of a hunter and his dog, emblematic of their own foraging lives. The Milky Way?s path stretching throughout the sky was for them the silvery tracks of the giant Pawikan or turtle and was an omen for a good harvest.

Many other tribes believed that the earth was held up by several posts with pigs located at the center posts. Visayan tribes say earthquakes happen because the pigs would often scare giant eels lurking in the area and in their fright would shake the earth.

Others thought cats that bathed caused the skies to pour rain. Meanwhile, spiders, if they came down from a ceiling and headed your direction, were pure misfortune, be it in love, harvest or travel.

Valeria?s giant lizards are among the more captivating creatures both for their serpentine form and a folk story cachet still being observed today. An eclipse for the southern tribes is ominous because for them Bakunawa, the giant lizard in the sky, has swallowed it. Old timers though have a remedy passed down from the ancients. When an eclipse occurred in Tawi Tawi two years ago, the whole town was ready. Gunfire erupted, pans were banged and bells rung and all its people looked up to the moonless night shouting ?Spit it out, spit it out.? After a few long minutes, the moon appeared again and the natives exclaimed joyfully that Bakunawa, frightened by the noise, relented, and spat the moon out.

Inner wisdom

The metal density in Valeria?s creatures is thin and malleable giving it a porous feel; one is drawn inside their glowing bodies. Valeria describes this space as ??an inner wisdom, a place of spirituality, the soul.?

The statement is striking for Valeria defers much to science and philosophy and geopolitics as her reading preferences and as topics for salon discussions when she?s not picking up a paintbrush or molding an animal.

She believes that living in a world of information, where matter and energy reign supreme, one might give pause to looking inward, to inside her glowing creatures, where there is the noiseless stillness of ??shadows and darkness ?a place of ?In-lightenment.??

Ironically for Valeria, darkness is where fathoming occurs. Darkness she adds may have the universal dimension of ignorance and its handmaiden, poverty. But it is in the darkness that we try to divine our choices in life, much of which, she adds, comes from folk myths and luck.

Her insight dovetails with yet another dwindling practice up in the highlands where Babaylans (shamans) will open a live chicken to find markings and omens in the liver before a journey begins or a planned celebration goes through. This ritual, like other remaining rituals now catalogued in volumes of folklore, have a patina of authenticity to them. From Pigafetta, who penned the first European impressions of native cosmology to current video recordings of the last tribal elder, native ceremonies and taboos have survived in bibliography but much less in daily practice.

It may come as relief to us that our lives today are not as governed by a lizard?s appetite or a malevolent spider. Take the pensive cat, for example. There are pages of local folklore do?s and don?ts that admonish or allow humans to fish that day, or expect to be hit by lightning, or take that plane, or become invisible or a myriad of outcomes, all based on how you treat a cat, where it walks, what?s its color, or if it?s quarreling with a snake that day.

Valeria though realizes that you can link her glowing creatures and their mythological representations only to a point. For someone who?s panoply of works have consistent levity, color and bias toward humanity, her creatures are reminiscent, too, of Palawan?s Tagbanua tribes and their penchant for carving animals. Turtles, roosters, lizards, wild pigs and other animals adorn heirloom Ming bowls containing either rice, betel nut and a host of other offerings for their Pagdiwata rituals.

A wooden turtle is a favorite as it seemingly wanders on palay grains resembling pebbles on the shore. Pagdiwata are important days of celebration and mirth because the deities and spirit relatives are called to partake and commune with them. They can be lured from the skyworld only by the sight of these endearing creatures. A visit to this new Valeria Cavestany offering may have you bumping into several deities as well.

?In-lightenment,? an exhibition by Valeria Cavestany is running until October 31 at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring St., 1300 Pasay City. Call 632-8319990 or e-mail duemila@mydestiny.net.