Sitan is the god of the underworld and the keeper of the souls of the dead in Philippine mythology: the dread Tagalog deity who rules Kasanaan, the realm of the wicked and the place of punishment, and who, with his agents, seeks to lead human souls to ruin. He is the dark counterpart to the celestial paradise of [bathala], the lord of the Filipino hell.
The Lord of Kasanaan
Sitan is the ruler of Kasanaan — the underworld, the “village of grief,” the realm of the dead and the place of punishment in Tagalog belief, the dark domain opposed to Maca (the paradise of the good) and the celestial realm of Bathala. As the keeper of the souls of the dead and the lord of the wicked, Sitan is a being of dread, governing the fate of those souls who fall into his realm. (With the coming of Christianity, his name and role were mapped onto Satan — indeed the name “Sitan” itself shows the influence — making him the Filipino devil-figure.)
The Agents of Ruin
Sitan does not work alone; he commands four lesser agents who go among the living to lead them to evil and ruin, that their souls might fall to Kasanaan. These are: Mangagauay, the cause of disease and the bringer of sickness and death; Manisilat, the destroyer of marriages and homes, who sows discord between husbands and wives; Mankukulam, who brings fire and emits flames to harm (associated with the witch-figure of the same name); and Hukluban, the shapeshifting crone who can change form and kill with a word or a curse. Through these four agents Sitan’s malevolence reaches into the world, spreading disease, discord, fire, and death.
The Dark Realm
Sitan and his realm of Kasanaan represent the dark and punishing side of the Tagalog afterlife — the destination of the wicked and the domain of the lord of the dead, opposed to the bright paradise of the good. As the god of the underworld and the master of the agents of ruin, he embodies the forces of death, disease, and evil that the living feared and sought to ward against. In Sitan, Filipino myth gave form to the underworld and the lord of the dead — the dread ruler of Kasanaan, the keeper of the souls of the wicked, who with his four malevolent agents spreads disease, discord, and death among the living, the dark counterpart to the creator’s heaven.