Licalibutan

LICALIBUTAN

pic of an earth god
from the game: MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero
http://tinyurl.com/c23uuzw

According to the Creation Myths, Licalibutan was the eldest child of Lihangin and Lidagat.  He was described as a god who has a large body made of rock and has a very aggressive attitude. His brothers Liadlaw and Libulan always looked up to him and they were ready to follow his every command. He was also Lihangin’s favorite son and was spoiled very much by him. When Lihangin died, Licalibutan was beside him, and he blessed the rock deity with his powers to control the winds of the earth. Licalibutan practiced daily on how to master his father’s powers and soon enough, he mastered it and he became greedy for more power, and decided to siege the domain of his grandfather, Kaptan, and rule it as the new SKY GOD. He was able to convince his 2 brothers to do so but failed to secure a victory. His rock body exploded and fell to the seas and became the first land, and he was not given a place in the celestial heavens, unlike his brothers and sister because Kaptan knew he was the instigator and the leader of that foolish attempt. His body, however, was used to propagate a new species of life, this species were the plants, animals, and eventually people. It was in Licalibutan’s body that Magwayen planted the divine seed made from Kaptan’s power and a shard of Lisuga’s silver body, which grew into a large bamboo plant and gave birth to Sikalak and Sikabay, the first man and woman on earth.

His name, Licalibutan, means “the world” and therefore he has been viewed as the god of the world by ancient Central Visayans, and although he had no formal worshippers, the ancient Visayans viewed him as the progenitor of life on land, and some even believed that his essence survived the clash between him and Kaptan, and when the world was young, his essence, composed of male and female aspects of nature, gave birth to the next generation of deities on land, deities whose worship and veneration was started by various ethnic groups of the Visayas and has spread throughout the archipelago, until the arrival of the Spaniards and the propagation of Christianity. Licalibutan will forever be known, as the rogue child of Lihangin and Lidagat who tried to defy his grandfather Kaptan in the creation myth, but ancient Visayans believe that if it was not for his rebellion, the human race would have never seen the light of day and the world that we know today, would have not existed at all.