Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, director of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, says nature spirits and elementals like lamang lupa and engkanto are actually fallen angels or demons.
“Revelation 12:9 clearly said that after their defeat, Satan and the fallen angels were thrown down to earth. They reside in nature itself,” Syquia explains in his book “Exorcism: Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult.”
Syquia also quotes Athanasius, early Church Father of the 4th century, who talked of “demons occupying springs or rivers or trees or stones (and) cheated men by deceptive appearances.”
The priest says well-known deliverance minister Francis MacNutt also warned that “evil spirits roam and influence the five areas of earth, air, fire, water and nature.”
Nature worship is nothing new in the Philippines. Natives were known to worship anitos or the spirits of the dead before the Spaniards arrived.
Spanish friars dismissed anito worship as devil worship and destroyed all objects and literature used for this purpose.
The Catholic Church tells the faithful that when a person dies, his soul can only go to any of the following: heaven (if one was pious), hell (if one continued to be unrepentant at the point of death) or purgatory (if one had not adequately atoned for his sins).
After death, the soul has no business wandering on earth and demanding that it be worshipped by surviving descendants.
The Church discourages the local tradition of sacrificing the blood of chickens at the site of houses or buildings that would be constructed.
This is because God does not demand such sacrifices or senseless favors. He is pleased when a person loves his neighbor.
The Church also disapproves of the recitation of “tabi-tabi po” and similar incantations when one approaches a tree or shrub especially at night.
“The Holy Angels would not feel slighted or become angry when a mortal who cannot see spirits could not acknowledge their presence. It is better if one recites the ‘Hail Mary’ if he feels uncomfortable because evil spirits are afraid of the Queen of Angels,” Syquia told the Inquirer in an interview in 2006.
“Our God is a God of love and mercy and does not seek vengeance for such imagined misdemeanors,” he said.