Part 1 – Beware the Dancing Lights: Philippine and Asian Legends of Deceptive Spirits - LilWeird Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Little Weird, the little podcast that peers into
the strange, the curious, and the stories that sleep through
the crux of ordinary life. I'm your house, Jane, your
creator of oddities and keeper of midnight tales. Here we
don't just tell stories. We follow them into the shadows,
trace their echoes through history, and ask what they still

(00:23):
whisper to us today. Imagine walking on a moonless night,
the world around you each dark and silent. In the distance,
a flicker of light appears, bobbing as if carried by
an unseen hand, really flashes over you. Perhaps it's a
lantern guiding you home. You follow heart hopeful, but each

(00:43):
time you think care close, the light drifts further into
the wilderness. Suddenly it vanishes, leaving you alone and diseriented
in an unfamiliar forest. Folklore around the globe is filled
with deceptive spirits that play exactly this streak, luring people
of the safe path and in the danger. From the

(01:04):
ghostly fireballs of the Philippines to the shape shifting tricksters
of North America. These entities spray on our deepest spheres
of getting laws, losing control, and being led astray. In
this podcast episode will journey to different cultures to meet
these beguiling creatures. The wonderings on Delma and Bronze started

(01:25):
Pallam of the Philippines Japans is like Kitsune, China's drifting
ghost lights, Europe's flickering will of the wisps, not In
America's mischievous duende, and the Native American coyote along the way.
Will uncover their traits, the happless victims they target, the
meanings behind their mischief, and the surprising similarities that clink

(01:47):
these legends across continents. Ever, wonder why so many cultures
are against following strange lights or trusting that charming stranger
on Alumni Road stay removed light or shining a light
or perhaps a trickster slantern on the spirits that treat
travelers as straight. In the Philippines, travelers have long feared

(02:10):
some eerie denizens of the night, Santel mog Bala and
even in Cantos sant al Mo from appointees on Elmo
or Saint Elma's fire appears as a glowing bowl of
flame floating through darkness, often seen near marshes rivers or
in a stormy whether this flame is no more natural phenomenon.

(02:31):
It's said to be arrested, so manifesting as fire in
it's tellingly called allowing, meaning persuasion ar trickery reflecting the
biluted Sentelmo lures travelers off their pants Luso straight toward
its dance in light feilt, a strange compulsion, only to
end aplause this oriented or even led to their doom.

(02:54):
Some rural Filipinos insist that if you ever find yourself
chasing an elusive fire ball and suddenly can tell which
rays home, you must remove your shirt and wear it
inside out. A counter magic to breaks and tell us
is spell turning your clothes in birds, the enchantment is
snapping you out of the spirit's illusion. In the mountains

(03:15):
of Ifugau, it was called fun funny lug In the besides,
people like it to accomment and called it bulelaw. According
to some legends, it is the manifestation of restless souls,
the spirits of the ambaptized, or of TOAs who drowned
and could not find peace. Others describe it as a
fire that can shift into the shape of a piast

(03:37):
with glowing just ready to consume the unsuspecting. As I
grew up with my grandfather's stories about the Santelmo. My
grandparents once live in a hostel town where fishing was
the heartbeat of everyday life. I remember my Lord of
sharing his own encounters with this mysterious fireball. He said
that on certain nights, sot of what he's seen, how

(04:00):
near the shore or even dancing above the sea itself.
When I think about it now, that image still amazes me.
A ball of fire that's somehow waterproof. Yeah, that's amazing right.
And yes, as tempting as it was to follow, the
people in their town knew better. Everyone was worn. Chasing
the dancing claim meant losing your way. Because my grandfathered

(04:21):
himself it as it, I believe that santam Al was real.
It was not a type to make up fantasis. He
was practically logical and only trusted what he could see
or experience firsthand. But at the same time he was
a man full of wonder. He always carried stories under
his esteem. If you've listened to my past episodes, you
might remember I want shared about usog but often called

(04:42):
the evil Eye. That was in episode four and bailing
the Dark Side of Filipino folk Magic and again in
episode seven Filipino Health Mysteries Ancient practices in modern world.
My grandfather had that peculiar three too. Our family knows
that he could and the unctionally make someone sick just
by greeting them the wrong way. My grandmother often added

(05:06):
that he was also a folk killer, which only makes
him even more interesting. And what's fun is that if
you ever met my daughter, you probably wouldn't guess that
he had a bit of this gast vibe. Someone who
has a smoke in his hand, and you wouldn't there
to mess up with. And because of that, it didn't
look like someone who believe in this strange But behind

(05:26):
all that was a man attuned to these weird and
wonderful mysteries. While folklore paints and talmo as a restles
spirit are a supernatural fire, science offers a different perspective.
Some researchers suggest that what people saw could have been
natural gases like maintane or phosphine escaping from the kaying

(05:47):
matter in swamps or coastal areas. When these gases ignite,
they create clothing, flames, and flickering lights that seemed to
move with intent. Around the world, similar sightings are explained
this way. Europe they called the will of the wisp,
and in Japan the kids sunab or foxfire, which we
will talk about much later. To un observer. In the dark,

(06:09):
the light looks alive, It drifts, it dances, and it vanishes.
It's easy to see why so many communities imagine these
flames as his spirits that learned living as straight. And
yet when I compare this explanation to my grandfather's stories,
some details don't quite fit. It's also time hoovering on
the sea itself, not in the swamp or marsh, but

(06:31):
over salt water, where gases would not easily gather or
ignite for a fire ball. It seems strangely waterproof. Then
there's no matter of time. If this is purely unnatural phenomenon,
why we're such exciting is common in my lawless youth,
but almost unheard of today. The conditions haven't disappeared. There
are still mangroves, marshes and coastal decay, and yet the

(06:55):
stories have grown silent. Did the phenomenon vanish or did
you simp please up saying it? Or maybe we stop
be living long enough to give it a name. This
is where folklore and science meet in the middle. Science
give us a part of the puzzle, but my grandfather's
eyewitness account hints as something more elusive, something not fully

(07:16):
captured by chemistry alone. And maybe that's the lasting power
of sant Elmo. It burns brightest in the space within.
But we can explain and what we still wonder about then,
somewhere which I don't exact lyrical now, I read that
some storytellers remind us that santel Moo may not have
always been feared. In pre colonial Philippines, lights at sea

(07:41):
and along the coast, we're sometimes seen as omens of guidance,
tied to deities like Amansinaya, the goddess of the ocean,
who was in booth by fishermen for safe passage. So
what if Saint Elmo's flame was once understood not as
a curse but as a beacon, a spirit flame guiding

(08:01):
seafarers through the dangers of night waters. In the Spanish Arb, however,
many native deities and spirits were recast as malevolent inks.
The glowing fire that Unstree assured fishermen may have been
rebranded as a demonic trick. It's a story shape to
warn Christians away from old beliefs. In this light, Gentamo

(08:24):
became a perfect symbol of what colonial rule did to
our meaths, turning guardiens into monsters and sacred omens into
superstitions of fear. So is a wandering soul a spirit
of the sea, or simply swamp gas and stormfire dancing
in the night are Perhaps it's all of this at once,

(08:46):
a flame that embodies both the wonder of nature and
the weight of our history, flickering at the border between science, myath,
and memory. Not all Filipino tricksters are ephemerald as a
flame is talking. The frus is the tick baton, a tall,
bony creature with the head of a horse and the
body of a man. Tick Balons are infamous for waylaying

(09:09):
travelers in the mountains. A tick baton might sign the
mimic of a milliar trail, only to make an enuary
hiker walking endless circles. No matter how far you go,
you always end up back at the same spot, a
muddening loop of confusion. Boktials describe victims becoming utterly lost
if they emerge at all, like grid sent Elmo elders

(09:32):
advise simple remedies as permission allowed before passing through remote
areas to show respect to the tick balance domain, or
wear your shirt inside out if you suspect a tick
balance playing tricks. By the little humility and a fashion reversal,
you might just find the real path again. These beliefs
topple discusionary tales about respecting the wilderness. After all, the

(09:56):
tick ballon is sometimes seen as a guarsion of the forest.
Pan Thoses stray or make so much noise in Philippin lore,
whether it's a flickering sentral maw or lurking takebaam. The
message is clear, travelers, pard the unknown things are not
always what they seem in the dark, but the dangers

(10:16):
don't end with horse headed tricksters. Our folklore tells us
another peril that i cantle spirits whose enchantment runs deeper, darker,
and far more deceptive, and cattles, whose name comes from
the Spanish and cantle meaning enchantment, are said to be
ethereal beings tied to the natural world, often inhabiting, but

(10:39):
that the trees, hidden forests, or even entire cities invisible
to human eyes. They are described as impossibly attractive, with
skins so fair and features so flawless that they don't
quite seem human. Their homes to appear magnificent, lavish palaces
with glittering holes, but this beauty is only a mask.

(11:01):
Folkalore warrants that once their illusions fade, the palaces reveal
themselves as a filthy coverns the region who's as curtesque beings,
and those who have eaten their food trapped forever in
their shadowy world. If this sounds familiar, it's because I
talk about one of the most famous tales of encantleback

(11:22):
in episode three Into the Parallel Realms of the Enchanted
City on Summer Island. That episode explore the legend of
beating on. The mysterious city is said to be inhabited
by Encantos. Travelers stumble upon it describe these music and
will beyond imagining, only to find themselves lost, discriented, or

(11:42):
vanished from the human world altogether. And Canto are neither
cooly friend nor foe. They have the power to bring
fortune or madness. Those day favor might receive blessings, while
those who offend them suffer fevers, depression, or worse, sudden
disappears or soul entrapment. To guard against the rat people

(12:03):
carry antink, a thing or amulets, or offer ritles in
tanks or appeasement. The Philippines is not alone in its
tales of wandering light and trickster guides. Our next stop,
East Asia is home to its own beguiding spirits, from
magical foxes to ghostly flames that flow through the night.
In Japan and China, ancient folklore also speaks of spirits

(12:26):
whose favorite pastime is to lead humans history, sometimes with
literal phantom lights, other times with elaborate illusions. Not all spirits,
misleaders with ghostly lights are playful pranks, some with illusions
so beautiful that you don't even realize if we're already
step into their trap. In Japan, there's the kidsone, the

(12:46):
foxes spirit and its power to shape shift. A kizenakan
appears the most alluring stranger you've ever seen, or even
someone you trust. It can conjure a dream like home,
warm and welcoming, filled with food and laughter, But once
the solution fades, the truth is horrifying. The home is
nothing but wilderness or ruin, and the stranger is revealed

(13:08):
to be a fox with ice filled mischief. This still
resonates so strongly with our own folk here in the Philippines.
Much like the Japanese kitsene, the Enkantas are masters of illusion.
But here's the danger. The moment you eat their food,
you're trapped in their world forever. These stories kitsen in
Japan and kantas in the Philippines. They whisper the same

(13:29):
morning across oceans and centuries. Beware of faces and faces
that seemed too perfect, because not every invitation is meant
to be accepted. An old Japanese sudgent tells of a
man who married a stunning woman who was secretly of
foxing disguise. When their true nature was revealed, the man
snap out of enchantment and found himself alone, fuilty, and disoriented,

(13:52):
far from home, the entire marriage having been a kitsen.
His solution. Kitsen can even possess humans, a condition called
kitsen nets, bending the victims will. For these reasons, people
in all Japan were extremely wary of strange encounters at night.
Travelers would avoid eating food offered by any stranger after dusk,

(14:14):
fearing it might be a fox magic in disguise a
babach meal that could turn out to be used or
dirt once the spell wears off. Accepting a gift from
a kitsen net could place you under its control, bound
by enchantment. Imagine biting into what looks like a real
risable a kindly old woman gave you on the road,
only to awaken from a trance hours later with mouthful

(14:38):
of dead leaves. The fox tricks symbolize the very real
danger of losing one's judgment inseduced by appearances or temptations. Meanwhile,
in Chinese folklore and neighboring Korea, we find ghostly lights
is strikingly similar to santelmo or Kitsunebbi. Chinese villagers spoke
of guiho or ghost fire. It relies to be the

(15:01):
and quiet spirits of the dead. When ancient Chinese text
explains that these wandering flames come from the blood of
humans and animals killed in past battles, igniting after many
years as rowing lights, it was a way to understand
the spooky, voluist like lights seen in marshes or old battlefields,

(15:22):
not near swamp gas, but the souls of toase who
died untimely, such ghost fires, who are treated with caution
and dread over. In Korea, a fok Tales teple is
the doke Bibul or goblin fire. Doctor b or goblins
used these bluish flames to proun travelers at night, confusing them,
luring them into the swampy pits or hazard us terrain,

(15:45):
much like to take balance treaks. In the Philippines, the
Horian goblin's light exploits a traveler's desperation for guidance, only
to lead them into deeper trouble, whether it's a Japanese
fox lantern or the Chinese soul fire. East Asian lore
echoes the refrain just a mysterious light at their own peril,

(16:06):
But the Philippines and Asia are in the only places
where strange lights and trickster spirits play their games. In
the West, stories of glowing flames and mischievous beings are
just a switch, just as cheering next time, but traveled
from the swamps of Europe to the forests of Latin America,
and finally to the open plains of North America, where

(16:28):
one of the world's greatest tricksters is still homes

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Part 1 – Beware the Dancing Lights: Philippine and Asian Legends of Deceptive Spirits

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