Filipino Reception and Appropriation of Modern Astronomical Knowledge 1859 – 1958 by Asst. Prof. Emmanuel Jayson V. Bolata | 4th Loretta Makasiar Sicat Prize for the Social Sciences Award

Opening Remarks:
Good day, everyone! Magandang umaga po sa ating lahat. Before I begin my lecture, I would like to express my gratitude to the people behind the Loretta Makasiar Sicat Prize, the Philippine Social Science Council, the Sicat Family, especially to Dr. Gerardo Sicat, and to our benefactress Ma’am Michelle Sicat Powell, to Executive Director Dr. Lourdes M. Portus, to Dr. Shirley N. Dita, Chairperson, Ma’am Wilhelmina C. Mañalac, Treasurer of Board of Trustees, to Ms. Janelle A. Macuha, Knowledge Management Officer, and to everyone that constituted PSSC, especially to Sir Wilson, thank you po, and also to Gelo and Ania, actually my former students. I am equally thankful to my thesis panel, my advisers, retired Prof. Maria Bernadette Abrera, and Prof. Ross Costello, reader Prof. Percival Almoro of the National Institute of Physics and critic Prof. Jesus Frederico “Tuting” Hernandez of the Department of Linguistics. I’m also grateful to all my colleagues at the Department of History and at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, to our Department Chair Prof. Roel Pagunsan and to our Dean, Prof. Ruth Lusterio Rico. To my friends and family, thank you, also I would like to greet my mama who is celebrating her birthday today. She doesn’t have an Aries personality though, being nonchalant, she is more of a Taurus. 

Lecture Proper:
I would like to begin my presentation with the turning points I chose for my periodization. Not only for its palindromic effect. The end point would be easy to justify, 1958 was the year when President Carlos P. Garcia signed the Science Act, it was also the year when Roman Kintanar, one of the first graduates of B.S. Physics in the University of the Philippines became the director of the Philippine Weather Bureau. 3 years before, an important Tagalog esoteric text “Karunungan ng Diyos” by Melencio Sabino was seen in print in 1955. This text was a compilation of stories and prayers embraced and passed orally by the curanderos or faith healers and alburios or herbalists, and some of the stories include alternative perspectives on how the universe and its beings came to be. But why 1859? The commonplace historical event would be the return of the Jesuits to the Philippines. The Jesuits would be the one responsible for the establishment of the Observatorio Del Ateneo Municipal in 1865, later becoming Observatorio Meteorologico de Manila in 1884, as well as the Christian missions in the Polangi Valley that would later result to the documentation of the Maguindanaon language through wordless appended to books of biblical narratives and Catechism, and later the diccionarios or dictionaries. But going beyond the legacies of the Jesuits, I also have chosen 1859 not because of the occurrence of political events nor the establishments of important institutions. I chose 1859 because of a local event that can be considered as a reflection of ongoing phenomenon in the progress of astronomical knowledge.

On April 5, 1859, 9 days before the Jesuit return, a meteorite sighting occurred in Mexico, Pampanga. A few minutes before 5 in the afternoon, townspeople heard a series of sounds resembling cannon or rifle shots. A strip of smoke cut above the town, and as the townspeople, most of them working as palay threshers, traced the smoke, they found the meteorite or aerolito, a large stone… still smoking and very hot. A report was made by the Gobernadorcillo (municipal mayor) and signed by local witnesses. This curious sighting captured the attention of the Manila-based bimonthly (Ilustracion Filipina) seen in print on June 1, 1859. What’s interesting about the news is the framing of the unnamed newswriter, placed under the scientific part or parte scentifica, the news begins with a scientific explanation of aerolitos or meteorites, aerolitos came from the greek words aēr or air and lithos or stone, sometimes called lightning stones or piedras de rayo; falling stones from sky or the moon or caidas del cielo or de la luna; or meteoric stones, piedras meteóricas, they are “stones or compact masses from the atmosphere that fell into the earth.” Iron, nickel, silica, magnesium, sulfur and other elements generally constitute an aerolito. The reporter also mentioned an English Chemist who wrote a chronological account of meteorites, and the list identified meteorites housed in scientific establishments in Colmar, France, Verona, Italy, Brazil and Bilbourg, with weight ranging from 200 to 14,000 pounds. Before going to the “fact that has place the pen in our hands” or in Spanish, hecho que ha puesto la pluma en nuestras manos, that is the Pampanga sighting, the reporter further discussed the 4 theories that explain the formation of meteorites, one of which was proposed by the French scholar and polymath Pierre Simone Marquis de Laplace or Monsieur Laplace. The report ends by saying that “such a curious object is destined by the superior gobierno to the Museo de Historia de natural de Madrid”.

In recent news, on February 23, 2025, the Pampanga meteorite, dubbed by news writers as the first Philippine meteorite, is currently on display in a mall in Pasig, along with the Paitan meteorite. The return of the meteorite was made possible by the Philippine Meteorite Repatriation Team, here we can see how the sighting accompanied by the explanation was “modernly scientified” aerolitos were defined etymologically and scientifically, (i.e its physical nature and structure) aerolitos were subjected to international measurements (i.e the libras or pounds), and scientists like Laplace and an English chemist (un químico inglés) and scientific establishments were cited. This modernist scientification can be juxtaposed with a pre and proto-modern, meteors were considered spirits if not spirited, and the phenomenon is generally explained through religion cultural means. The reporter nonetheless held in contempt the non-modern mind calling those who possess it “the man estranged from science” or “el hombre estraño a la ciencia”. 

Given the story, we now have an idea of what ‘modern’ is, to further specify modernity occurred in Western astronomy through a so-called ‘paradigm shift’, that is the transition from the Earth-centered or geocentric system of the universe to the sun-center or heliocentric system. The Earth-centered system can be traced back to the ideas of Aristotle, especially in the compilation of his lectures titled “Physics”. Ptolemy, an Alexandrian astronomer and mathematician, provided mathematical proofs that supported the geocentric theory through his work “Mathēmatikḗ Syntaxis” or Mathematical Composition, circa 150 CE. By the 16th and 17th centuries, developments in science paved the way to the replacement of the model. We know the familiar names, Nicolaus Copernicus, who wrote his “On the revolution of celestial spheres” (1543), which was followed by Galileo Galilei and his controversial “Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems” published 1632. In the Philippines we have a different set of paradigms, I label this as: pre-modern, proto-modern and modern. Pre-modern pertains to the indigenous Austronesian astronomy that can be traced as far back as 3,500 BCE. Proto-modern therefore mediates the pre-modern to modern, among the Philippine communities, the existence of proto-modern astronomy implies linguistic contact and sociocultural interaction with Sanskrit, Arabic and Malay speakers. Moreover, it shows the Philippine reception of foreign astronomical knowledge and practices before the advent of Euro-American colonialism. Pre-modern astronomy is already well studied, thanks to the important contributions of the historian, Dante L. Ambrosio, his works were best represented by the book “Balatik: Etnoastronomiya: Kalangitan sa Kabihasnang Pilipino,” which was based on his PhD dissertation in history. To add to Ambrosio, I look into the so-called proto-modern paradigm. Aside from the Sanskrit and Arabic words for heaven, hell, deity, spirit, eclipse, milky way, comet, fixed star, and planets currently used among the Philippine communities, there are also primary sources that attest to the said paradigm. 

One would be the 10th century Laguna Copperplate Inscription which uses the word “Jyotisha” a Sanskrit word meaning astral science or astrologer, the term was used to establish the time of the document which was a receipt of debt acquittal. Another source appeared in the 19th century with the involvement, again, of the Jesuits. In 1888, an unnamed Jesuit missionary or in Spanish, Un padre missionero de la Compañia de Jesus, published the “Compendio de historia universal desde la creacion del mundo hasta la venida de Jesucristo”, it tells the usual biblical story from the creation of the time of Jesus and it was written in 3 forms. In Spanish using the romanized alphabet, in Maguindanaon, using the romanized alphabet, and in Jawi, possibly in Maguindanaon. Important in this text is the appended “breve vocabulario en castellano y en Moro-Maguindanao,” a short word list in Spanish in Maguindanaon. Historian Isagani Medina posits that the “Compendio Y un breve vocabulario” was written by Jacinto Juanmarti despite authorian anonymity. Serving as the local superior from 1874 until his death in 1897, Juanmarti was instrumental for the Rio de Grande mission centered in Tamontaka, Cotabato now in Cotabato City. Here we can see Maguindanaon words that reflect proto-modern or even modern astronomical knowledge, we have words for comets, fixed stars, planets or wandering stars. Moreover, they have Arabic equivalents for the planet names which are entirely absent in the pre-modern Austronesian astrology. So here are the planet names in Maguindanaon and we can see how it is the same with the Arabic except the last one, for Uranus which is Hertsel maybe because of the discoverer of the planet, WIlliam Herschel. 

The century when the Jesuits returned to the Philippines, as well as the rebirth of Christian missions in Mindanao is also a century of many important events. 19th centuries of tendency crime as the long 19th century, in Spain the Napoleonic attacks brought about challenges to the monarchy and conversely encouraged liberalism that culminated in the creation of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812. Meanwhile, the Mexicans were already revolting, until they gained their independence in 1821. The Carlist Wars from 1833 to 1876 further plagued the Spanish leadership. In the Philippines, one of the main sources of revenues of the colonial treasury, the Galleon Trade, was greatly affected by the alternative trading systems established by the Spanish King himself, as well as the long Mexican War of Independence. In 1815, the last Galleon sailed, and by 1834, Manila opened itself to international trade followed by other ports such as Iloilo, Sual, and Zamboanga in 1855, Cebu in 1860, and Legazpi and Tacloban in 1873. By 1863, an important decree was promulgated by Queen Regent Maria, the education decree of 1863, compulsory primary education for boys and girls was mandated. Furthermore in 1869, the Suez Canal was built, which made faster not only the transport of goods and people, but also the transmission of ideas, especially the enlightenment and liberal ideas from Europe.

The political and socio economic events of the 19th century mirrored the specific events in the institutionalization of modern astronomy in the Philippines. After the formation of the Cadiz Constitution, the Spanish Cortes outlined projects to improve the public instruction in the Philippines, such as the creation of “special schools of commerce, astronomy, and navigation.” The downfall of the liberals in 1823 resulted to the abortion of such projects. Nonetheless, the Escuela Nautica de Manila opened on April 5, 1820, being the first and only scientific institution in the colony [at] that time. This school for pilots includes subjects like cosmography, navigation, nautical astronomy, geography, and astronomy. By the time the education decree of 1863 was promulgated, subjects include geography which contains astronomical, physical and political aspects. An 1845 textbook by a Valladolid professor became a favorite import to teach subjects including geography. By the last decade of the 19th century, geography books became more localized, in 1896 Imprenta del Colegio de Santo Tomás in Manila published the book “Lecciones de Geografía Universal y particular de España y Filipinas” by Jose Noval O.P., these books were already teaching the heliocentric system of the universe. So, if you know the P. Noval, that’s Padre Noval, Jose Noval. 

Aside from the educational progress in terms of geography and astronomy, it was also in the 19th century that one would see an institution devoted to meteorology and astronomy. The Manila Observatory, founded within the auspices of the Jesuits, it was told that “the first and primary motive was the desire for the advancement of science in general and the progress of meteorological science in particular,” according to Fr. James Hennessy. It started in 1865 within Ateneo Municipal until it became a state-sponsored institution in 1884. By 1899, it would create its astronomical division, which added up to the already existing branches: meteorological, seismic, and magnetic branches. Although the primary innovator of the institution, Padre Federico Faura breathed his last in 1897, we can still connect the establishment of the astronomical branch to his efforts in astronomy, such as the solar eclipse observation in Celebes in 1868. For the astronomical branch, they procured telescopes, such as the 19-inch telescope ordered in Germany as early as 1890. Former successor José Algué also invented a zenith telescope. The astronomical branch of the Manila Observatory however, was created in a time between the times, from 1896 to 1898, the revolution carried out by the Katipuneros went on, and in 1898 sparked the Spanish-American war. Knowing the importance of scientific studies in relation to policy making, the Americans expressed favor to the institution. In 1899, the same year when the Philippine-American war started, the construction of the astronomical building was finished. In 1901, the Philippine Weather Bureau was established through the Philippine Commission Act No. 121, Manila Observatory became its central office. From 1901 to 1948 its directorship was held by 2 Spanish born Jesuit scientists José Algué (1901-1926) and Miguel Selga (1927-1948). In terms of employment, Filipinos occupied all the post in the bureau except for the executive positions, after the enactment of the Philippine Autonomy Act or the Jones Law in 1916, what can be considered as a way to further equip Filipino bureau employees was to send them to the United States for requisite advanced training. By 1925, due to failing health, Fr. Algué stepped down from his post and was succeeded by Miguel Selga. Just like Fr. Algué, Selga underwent astronomical studies and training, specifically in the western and eastern observatories. He also taught astronomy subjects in the University of the Philippines.

One important engagement of the Manila Observatory scientists and foreign astronomers happened to an astronomical event, the solar eclipse of May 9, 1929. Foreign parties went to the Philippines to observe the eclipse, the U.S Naval Observatory expedition in Lapus-Lapus, Iloilo, the English expedition at La Paz, Iloilo and the Bergedoff expedition of Hamburg Sternvarte in Sogod, Cebu. The Philippine Weather Bureau also sent 2 expeditions, one was headed by Fr. Deppermann joining the Hamburg Party in Sogod, Cebu, while the other was headed by Fr. Selga in the football field of the Colegio De San Agustin in Iloilo. These expeditions also interacted with Prof. Steffson of Harvard and Prof. Johnson of Institute of Technology of Southern California, whose parties stayed briefly in Manila before going to Sumatra. Prof. Edward R. Hyde, Dean of the UP College of Engineering, wrote the impressions of the visiting astronomers in July 1929 issue of the Philippine Magazine. This personal account veered away from the scientific technicalities rather showed the human side of visiting scientists whom Dean Hyde deemed as “intellectual aristocrats”. With Prof. Alejandro Melchor, yung engineering building–now Melchor Hall, Dean Hyde accompanied Dr. Bait and Mr. Schmidt of the Hamburg party. Interestingly, the British astronomer Reginald Lawson Waterfield, saw the event as a way to revisit and test the general theory of relativity by Albert Einstein. The destruction of the Manila Observatory during the liberation of Manila in 1945 in the post-war governmental organization resulted in the observatory’s separation from state service and thus, privatization. The Observatory transferred to Mirador, Baguio in 1951. Meanwhile the Philippine Weather Bureau retained the task that involved meteorological, astronomical, and magnetic research. It was reestablished on July 25, 1945 with Edilberto Parulan as the officer-in-charge, to be replaced in November by Casimiro Del Rosario. Del Rosario, a faculty member of the UP Department of Physics, later became the director. On August 5, 1958, the Garcia administration appointed Roman Kintanar as the bureau director. In 1972, the Philippine Weather Bureau was reorganized into the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Service Administration or PAG-ASA. The late Filipinization of the weather bureau made me think about a statement by Jose Rizal registered through an anonymous narrator in his novel “El FIlibusterismo”. In the chapter ‘A Class in Physics’ he said “some 250 students annually study this course, and whether by apathy, indolence, limited capacity of the indio or some other ethnological or inconceivable reason, up to now there has not flourished a Lavoisier, a Secchi nor a Tyndall, even in miniature, in the Malay-Filipino race!!!”, in the American and post-American period as the list of Filipino physicians, pharmacist, agriculturist, chemist, and engineers got longer, we would see the physics graduate that would hold positions as astronomers and meteorologist only after the war. With Casimiro Del Rosario and Roman Kintanar, the weather bureau directors in 1945 and in 1958 respectively, it was through these 2 Cebuanos during the 3rd republic that we would have at last as we may call as Rizal would say, our own Angelo Secchi and John Tyndall. Does it mean that modern astronomical knowledge had barely touched the surface of Filipino mind? Are the questions on the nature of things, cosmos, and existence questions that astronomy and astrophysics attempt to answer insignificant to Filipinos? To agree is perhaps to bark at the wrong tree, by looking at an alternative set of sources, specifically those that deal with vernacularization and appropriation, we can see that these issues still figure, although in different light.

I define vernacularization as the entry of knowledge, things and practices into a community through vernacular languages. The texts that deeply vernacularize astronomical knowledge are plenty, we can categorize them into 2: (1) those that vernacularize updated knowledge and (2) those that vernacularize outdated knowledge. For the first category, we can cite Sofronio Calderon’s “Pagtuklas sa ating Lupain” (1908) and Mamberto Paglinawan’s “Bulatlupang Tagalog”  (1913), these 2 were active in tagalizing foreign concepts. One of the concepts they vernacularized is geography or heograpiya, to be translated as bulatlupa. Calderon defines bulatlupa as ‘the science that speaks of the foundations in earth’ which is a great guide nowadays for people in their ways of life. Paglinawan, however, did not provide a definition, perhaps assuming that bulatlupa being synonymous to geography or heograpiya is already understandable. Nonetheless, he provided a list of astronomical terms and names in Tagalog although some of them are based in Spanish. So here are some of the examples, so we have tanglaw, pag-ikit and others. In other pages, he would say that the speed of light is “humigit kumulang sa tatlong daang libong kilometro sa isang segundo lamang”, a rotation lasts “dalawamput limang araw at walong oras”, a revolution o paglilipat has the speed of “anim naraang limamput anim na libong kilometro sa isang araw na patungo sa kabituwinan ni Hercules”, and a year takes “tatlong daan animnaput limang araw, limang oras apatnaput walong sandali or minuto, at apatnaput pitong pintik o segundo”. 

Now let us look at the second category, those that vernacularize outdated knowledge. These are composed mainly of astrology books. In Tagalog, we can cite 2 important authors: Rosendo Ignacio and Honorio López. Rosendo Ignacio is a writer, educator, language scholar, and lawyer who published works in Tagalog, Spanish, and English. Ignacio’s “Aklat ng Karunung̃an ó Mga Lihim ng Kalikasan: sinipi sa mga “libro de ciencias” (1921), is covered with illustration of the zodiac man, as shown here, or homo signorum whose body parts have corresponding zodiac signs. So, sometimes this is used for medical astrology. One chapter deals with the interpretation of comets and their effects to the society as seen in these series of tables. So you have the comet’s color and form, then the celestial body and the meaning, so usually the meanings would be negative—death of king, famine, war, etc. So for other bodies or for other color, and form, so that’s the last one. The only positive one would be the one corresponding to the moon, which means prosperity in life. Another chapter leads to the interpretation of the zodiac, in Tagalog, Sodyako, here Ignacio began with an explanation of the zodiac signs followed by a categorization of planets, including the sun and the moon, based on which house or sign they belong. So you have these planets, then you have the house or sign corresponding to the planets. Then it proceeds to define the zodiac signs, their features and nature, and the character and fate of boys and girls born in the period. In another chapter, Ignacio discussed the planets, the form and the state of the planet, the reading of its sign, the influence it gives to those under its domain, the human behavior it induces, and the interests and activities of people associated with the planet. However, in every ending of a planet’s description, there are scientific measurements provided which were sourced from Alfragano or Alfraganus who lived in 800 to 870 CE, a 9th century Arab/Persian astronomer that worked under the patronage of the Abbasids. 

Honorio M. Lopez is a writer, publisher, politician, and occultist. He participated in the 1896 revolution and later served as the councilor of Manila. Together with his wife, Doña Felipa Crisostomo, Lopez created the almanac-calendar Dimasalang Kalendariong Tagalog (since 1898), which continues to be published up to this day. His most popular work “Aklat na Ginto” (1918) collates various knowledge or dunong on self-cure, hunting wild and venomous animals, hypnotism, magnetism, yoga, and psychic magic. “Aklat na Ginto” reached 7 reprints by 1962. However, Lopez did not include in this work the astrological knowledge, because he still needed more books to consult and the knowledge, too, would take years to learn. Lopez’s work on astrology would come later, through the book “Lunario ng kapalaran sa pagaasawa at paghanap ng mapalad na makakasama,” possibly published in 1950 and had its 3rd printing by 1962. Here we can see vernacularized astronomical terms in zodiac categories—so there are some words again that were vernacularized—If we are to compare the zodiac terms in Tagalog, Bisaya, and Ilokano, the Tagalogs would insists that Tagalog equivalents rather than the Spanish ones which are apparent in Ilokano and Bisaya. So as compared here—so, Ignacio and Lopez’s work were Tagalog, the others Porras’ I think Hiligaynon, of course, Cebuano, and Guirnalda is Ilokano, contrary to the other Tagalogs that maintained the Spanish terms. However, from these samples in Tagalog, we can say that Ignacio and Lopez merely transplanted foreign knowledges into the Tagalog vernacular. As I look into Visayan astrological books, some practices were carried out similarly, although local knowledges were also incorporated. See for instance “Signosan: Nativitate Domine Nostri Jesuchristi” (1919) authored by Mansueto Porras, published by La Panayana in Passi, Iloilo. The book contains a mix of chronologies, folklore, and astronomical information. Here we can see local ones which were also mentioned in Miguel de Loarca’s “Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas” in 1582, although Porras’ months were more complete than Loarca’s. These months were to be seen as rough equivalents to Gregorian months, since they should be situated in the agricultural practices of the early Visayans. Moreover, the sense of time is also defined by the movement of the bakunawa. According to the Cebuano historian Resil B. Mojares, the celestial bakunawa, shifts direction every calendar year, counterclockwise, in 4 90 degree movements. There are ritual specialists who can mark as many as 16 directions of fortune and misfortune based on the position of the bakunawa. Since the serpent broadcasts evil and calamity from the mouth, one must avoid the direction of its venomous breath in matters like travel, trade, and marriage. Knowledge of the bakunawa’s position is most commonly applied in house construction, since it guides decisions on when to build, where the first post hole is dug, and where the staircase should face. For house dwellers, such decisions can spell the difference between fortune and misfortune, and death and sickness or joy and honor in the family. 

Aside from the Signosan by Porras, the discussion of the bakunawa was also a regular feature in the “Almanaque Panayanhon” of the La Panayana Publishing House. These deviations from foreign sources and conversely an assertion of the local, were absent in the Tagalog astrology books. In addition, another pamphlet, “Karaang Napta Sumala sa Sugid sa Karaang Mga Tawo” (1950) by the Cebuano writer Brigido Alfar, had a different zodiac system. Instead of season based, Alfar’s zodiac system is date-based, thus, my mother’s zodiac is not Aries because April 11 falls under Leo—and actually I’m a Leo (laughs). Okay. A third way beyond these vernacularizations of updated and outdated knowledges can also be posed. This is the invention of terms and names through the vernacular. This is apparently in the case of Artemio Ricarte, who created his “Lilok or (Mapa) ng Langit” in July 1930. As told by Dante Ambrosio, Ricarte was in Yokohama, Japan when he named the constellations after the Filipinos. Because of his location, he only saw the constellations at the northern part of the sky. GatTamblot or Cassiopeia is named after Tamblot who was one of the babaylan who revolted against the Spaniards in 1600s; GatDandan or Perseus is from Fr. Pedro Dandan, a revolutionary priest in the 1896 Revolution; GatPanyong or Draco is named after Epifanio de los Santos. Poncrizpil or Cygnus combines the names of Mariano Ponce, Jose Rizal, and Marcelo del Pilar. Bondipla or Lira combines the names of the first triangle in Katipunan: Andres Bonifacio, Ladislao Diwa, and Teodoro Plata. Pingkian or Ursa Minor is from Emilio Jacinto’s nom-de-guerre, while GatMaipagasa or Ursa Major is from Andres Bonifacio’s. Above mentioned are constellations. For the bright stars in the northern sky, Ricarte honored Jacinto, Rizal, and del Pilar: UtakHasinto for Polaris, the North Star in the Ursa Minor constellation; GatRizal for Vega in the Lira constellation; and GatPlaridel, from del Pilar’s nom-de-plume, for Deneb in Cygnus constellation.

What Ricarte did could also be considered as appropriation– the renaming of stars to localize to nationalize them. As I look into other sources, what I observe is that the practice of appropriation was largely apparent in religious debates. We may find at the heart of seemingly contradictory domains of science and religion, the problem “of cosmology” as quoted by Karl Popper. Since the ancient times, religious systems have been accommodating the human tendency to know the nature and truth behind the existence of oneself and the world. Corresponding to the need for an understandable and convincing metaphysics, religions long provided the symbol, the myth, and the rite, that express a complex system of coherent affirmations about the ultimate reality of things. Through their modern forms, philosophy and science gradually competed with religious systems and institutions in answering ontological and cosmological questions. From the Copernican Revolution buttressed by the career of Galileo and Newton, important developments in physics and astronomy led to the rethinking of nature, being, and reality. By the 20th century, a revolution in physics led to its transition from being classical to modern. In the grand scale of things, Albert Einstein championed an alternative view over the classical Newtonian mechanics through his special and general theories of relativity. Meanwhile, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg has been wrestling with the god of small things, developing the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics which was initiated by Max Planck at the turn of the century. Perhaps it is in this context of scientific progress and secularization of knowledge that we would recontextualize Nietzsche’s death and murder of God. The approaches and methods of science, rather than theology, became a more favorable way to explain and understand the origin and nature of things, which we deemed real and true through thought, language, and experience. 

In the Philippines, the same struggle despite varying local conditions also occurred. The downfall of the Spaniards in the end of the 19th century also paved the way for perspectives that were alternative to those espoused by the Roman Catholic church, rooting in the martyrdom of the Gomburza in 1872, as well as the other heroes like Rizal and Bonifacio, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente was founded in 1902. Its leaders would be Isabelo de los Reyes, the well known journalist and Folklorist from Ilocos, and Gregorio Aglipay, who would be the first Obispo Maximo. Along the rise of the Philippine Independent Church were the various Protestant churches, needless to say, with the continuous patronage to spiritual leaders and mystics whose followers were long denigrated as cults. For the discourses brought about this such democratization of belief systems since the early 20th century, let me confide my discussion with resources. The first would be “Ang Casaysayan nang Tatlong Personas na Hinango sa Misterio Principal nang isáng matouaing tumula sa uicang Tagalog” (1926) written by an anonymous poet. Part of this long poem describes the layers of heavens, some of which quantified using local units of measurement. The poet managed to insert “scientified” information despite the poetic strictures of an awit. This insertion is perhaps a strategy to recast the religious text with scientific validity to make it truthful. With earth or lupa being the reference point, the text adopted a geocentric perspectives. The units of measurement used are legua, lacsa, yuta, angao angao, and bahala, as we have seen already in Paglinawan’s book. We may presume that the poet was probably a Catholic believer within a text called mysterio principal the unmeasured spaces go beyond the limits of Copernicus’ fixed stars and even the Primer Movil or prime mover, which can be surmised in some of the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas—So this is the one that can be measured and– here are the unmeasurable layers. 

The knowledge used by this poet however is outdated, it subscribe to the Ptolemaic rather than Copernican cosmology. We can compare this to Fr. Aglipay’s statement in the text “Novenary of the Motherland” also in 1926, especially in the creation story. A common convert since the Spanish times would be familiar about how the Christian God created life, time, and the universe, the world and all the beings in the world, in the colonial society exposed to the pasyon text, especially the Pasiong Henesis, one would hear about the creation of sun, moon, and stars on Wednesday as told by the following—no, no following passages I’m sorry. When the bible was translated into Tagalog in 1905, the Tagalogs learned about the full details of these events according to the original scriptures as written in Genesis 1: 13-19. In response to the Genesis story, Fr. Aglipay used modern science to criticize the Genesis story. Fr. Aglipay boldly asserted “The evolutionist theory of learned men, which is based on many details and scientific proofs is more credible than the biblical legend that God formed man from clay and then animated him with his breath, since such things has never been seen, while we see cases of transformation and the rise of new varieties of plants and animals every day simply by cross-breeding by men who understand the matter, or by pure chance.”. To prove his point, Fr. Aglipay also cited scientists like Charles Darwin, Ernst Haeckel, Charles Lyell, Gustav Bischof, James Dwight Dana, Louis Agassiz, and Lord Kelvin. 

Related to this and somehow contrary to, is Melencio T. Sabino’s “Karunungan ng Diyos” (1955), Sabino is known for writings on secret knowledge that perhaps were already in use by spiritualists and healers. Sabino was told to be the founder of the group called Agnus Dei. “Karunungan ng Diyos” is an expanded version of an earlier book, “Secreto: Mga Lihim na Pangalan at Lihim na Karunungan” published 1950. It includes myths before the act of creation and through these pre-genesis stories we would learn how God would think and act. Time is nonlinear, as shown in God’s creation of Hell even before the revolt of Lucifer and the Archangels; the birth of Bulaklak or Flower who would later become Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ; the creation of spirits who held the luminaries at the either edge of the world, who visited the crucified Christ at the cavalry, who would later rebel against God, and who aided God in making the cosmos. Perhaps the interesting figures here are the elderly pair, Uph Madac and Abo Natac, who are tasked to hold the universe together. It is through their roles that we would learn about the ends of the Earth, or its litid or crust and beyond it the sun and moon and their sources of light, something that is left unexplained in the traditional genesis. Through these creation stories, we can think of 2 forms of narratives adopted by religious institutions and individuals: one, showcasing “the best of both, if not all, possible worlds” and the other, the “best of lone possible world”. The Aglipayan cosmogony exhibits the “best of both worlds” type. They tried to combine the Judeo-Christian tradition and the updated view from modern science. In the “Novenary of the Motherland”, Aglipay rejected the Judeo-Christian genesis. This substituted the ‘recent’ discovery in astronomy and astrophysics to explain how God labored in His “laboratory”—that is, this Earth and the heavens. Meanwhile, the esoteric individuals and groups that adhered to the secret knowledge textualized by Sabino in the 1950s, subscribed to the “best of lone possible world” type. Instead of combining different worlds, thus, showing range and difference, they maintained the traditional Judeo-Christian genesis. Showing depth and singularity, the gaps of the creation story were filled with more creation stories that belong to the same realm. 

To conclude, my study is a humble attempt to situate Filipino interest and efforts in astronomy, physics and astrophysics in our own historical timeline. The perceived aspects of such development institutionalization, vernacularization, and appropriation tried to revolve around specific foundational insight or Grundeinsicht—that is, how Filipinos made sense of their world in relation to themselves. These labors on meaning-making are not entirely individualistic, for their tools (i.e., science and technology) appeared along with societal interest and function. Astronomical and astrological knowledge contains layers of development and fields of use—from practical, everyday activities to the general scientific understanding of the cosmos to the quests for the existential meaning of life. This history of Filipino reception and appropriation of modern astronomical knowledge is thus a portrait of Filipinos as “beings-in-the-world.”

Thank you very much. (audience applause)