Religion

Ciudad Mystica community has their own religion that they believe like other people do. The community’s religion is somewhat different but the concepts are not far enough with the Christian belief. This is because they worship not by the saints from the Catholics or Christian but by the famous Philippine heroes in times of the Spanish colonization. The heroes that the people of Ciudad Mystica worship are the ones who rebelled and secured the freedom of the Filipino people against the violence and slavery of the Spaniards to the Philippines. The people depict the heroes in the concept of the twelve apostles in the bible. These are Andres Bonifacio, Melchora Aquino, Pedro Paterno, Antonio Luna, Juan Luna, Gregorio del Pilar, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Jacinto, Padre Jose Burgos, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Miguel Malvar. For the twelve apostles, there is master and that is our national hero, Jose Rizal. Knowing that he is our national hero, the people of Ciudad Mystica worship him as a prophet. This is why that they were called as Rizalistas.

The Book of Life is concentrated with the two boulders, one at the left and one at the right, as they form an entrance and entry to the Holy Place of Mt. Banahaw right after bathing at the river called Jordan river which depicts as a form as a site for cleansing. The two big rocks represent the significant presentations from the holy bible:  “Jacob’s well” and “ark of Saint Isidro”. They were called that way because the people there believe that this purifies thedevotees upon travelling with the holy place of Mt. Banahaw. Jacob’s well rock signifies the internal cleansing while the ark of Saint Isidro signifies the vessel that carries the problems and difficulties from the devotees before they enter.

Husgado Cave also known as the cave of Judgment depicts the belief of the devotees in their faith of knowing if they are sinful or not. In their belief, if you enter the cave, there would be obstacles of formations of rocks that squeeze the space inside the said cave. Devotees must attain the faith throughout the journey as they carefully pass all the tunnels inside the cave. Once achieved in getting out of the cave with no marks of wounds or bruises, seven of your sins are forgiven. If not, this means that you have greatly noticeable of having sins of seven in your life.

Gate of Heaven depicts how the people of the community in Ciudad Mystica and devotees acknowledge the concept of entrance to the holy place of Mt. Banahaw. Notified by the looks the gate, it symbolizes the essence of their faith of the interrelated religions of old Christianity and animistic faith of our past Philippine faith before the Spaniards arrived.