collector's passion: the fantasized omnipotence

Maybe in my past life I was a frog.  What if I am the Frog Prince? You can smile but perhaps that is the rationale why I had the fixation in collecting frog items: I have currently more than a thousand of them they are scattered all over my house and office , a frog memorabilia museum of sort: toys, toiletries, plates, pillows, vases, incense holders, candles, mugs, keychains, wood crafts, figurines, jars, socks, chimes, and several others made out of varied materials such as terracotas, wood, glass, clay, cement, plastic, ceramics etc.. Let me guide you to my FROGLANDIA.....

I started collecting in December 2001,after i noticed that there are some gifts that were not given to my inaanaks. then when i opened them, they are frog toys that i bought for them. Later on, i seemed to have the urge to scavenge for more frog items anywhere i go, as if i had a third eye or sixth sense where the items are located.

I would wake up every morning and start my day with touching some of  my frog collection . You find your eyes going to a piece. It pleases you and excites you and makes you want more and better.

 In answering the question, "Why do you collect?," many collectors would probably simply say, "Because it's fun." But there's always something behind what we find fun.

Collecting is more than just collecting. Its origins go way back. As a species, we have a deeply ingrained need to hoard to survive the next winter or the next siege, to safeguard the future.Some people collect for investment. Some of us, like Noah for his ark, collect one of each type. Others collect many of a smaller number of types. Still others collect many of many types, amassing them in huge numbers. Some collect to expand their social lives, attending swap meets and exchanging information with like- minded souls.We can be called obsessive compulsive, but  we should not pathologize collecting. Almost everyone is attached to a certain kind of item. 

To others, collecting is a need-driven compensatory behavior where "every new object effectively gives the notion of fantasized omnipotence." Motive may be so fundamental, so intrinsic that it simply doesn't consciously engage a collector's attention. Focusing on objects, after all, their beauty, function and relationship to each other, may be a kind of self-sustaining process of externalized emotion.Collecting is just another way of organizing thought.  

It 's a kind of art. Having something that nobody else owns or that very few people own or that they can't afford to own is very gratifying.  Knowing the sought-after item is no longer available to others provides the collector with pleasure and a sense of well being.

Collecting as a hobby can be a fun, worthwhile and potentially lucrative way to pass time. Amassing collectibles as investments, however, can be a disappointing endeavor yielding nothing but piles of devalued tchotchkes for the next of kin to sort through".collectibles" and the companies that make them are slaves to demand and market forces — and the realization that their mass-produced product is only worth as much as a buyer will pay for it.

For pictures of some of my collection, please view them in my facebook account: 


http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542932735#!/album.php?aid=179981&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542932735#!/album.php?aid=179400&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542932735#!/album.php?aid=178992&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=690407874#!/album.php?aid=44292&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198387&id=542932735

My frog collection was also  featured four times in different tv programs, to wit Mel and Joey and Unang Hirit of GMA7, SaPulso of QTV and Matanglawin of ABS-CBN.
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For many cultures, these amphibians were symbols of and connected to divine powers of fertility, regeneration, and rebirth.

In ancient Egypt, the frog appears as a symbol of fertility, water, and renewal. The water goddess Heket often appeared as a woman with the head of a frog. Frogs were also the symbol of the midwife goddess Heqit, who ruled conception and birth, and Egyptian women often wore metal amulets in the form of frogs to enlist her good favor. Frogs appeared in great numbers each year at the flooding of the Nile , an event which was crucial to agriculture in that it provided water for many distant fields. Frogs thrived in the muddy bogs left by the receding waters, and it is easy to imagine how frogs came to be viewed as favorable symbols of abundance. In fact, the frog became a symbol for the number hefnu, which meant either 100,000 or simply "an immense number." Perhaps it is frogs’ impressive fertility combined with their association with water, so important for human life, that has led humans to see them as such potent and positive symbols.

As a symbol of transformation, the Frog Prince, is a fairy tale, best known through the Brothers Grimm's written version; traditionally it is the first story in their collection. In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog (possibly meeting him after dropping a gold ball into his pond), who magically transforms into a handsome prince. Although in modern versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the princess kissing the frog, in the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw it against a wall in disgust. In other early versions it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess's pillow.

In the Philippiunes, therer is this group called Collectibles Unlimited Association, a non-profit association based in Metro Manila, whose main objectives are to promote interest in the collection and display of all types of comics,toys, movies, animation, games and related childhood memorabilia; and to maintain a network of collectors to help members keep in touch with each other and advance the collecting hobby. they organize Toyfairs that  feature the best selection of kiddie toys, dolls, action figures, die cast cars, licensed merchandising and high end collectibles this side of town.

Frogs, Toads, and the Secret of Transformation

FROG MYTHS

And So I Shed My Skin, and Walked Away New:

Frogs, Toads, and the Secret of Transformation

The life cycle of frogs and toads involves at least one major transformation, from tadpole to adult. Many also shed their skins regularly as they grow, and some species eat the shed skin. These spectacular transformations may explain why many cultures see frogs and toads as symbolic of re-creation, or as keepers of the secrets of transformations.

        The Olmec tribes created images of a toad god of rebirth, eating its own skin. It is reborn by consuming itself, caught in a cycle of death and rebirth, like people, and like the natural world itself. 

        In many ancient Chinese tales and legends, the toad is a trickster and a magician, a master of escapes and spells. But he is also the keeper of the real, powerful secrets of the world, such as the secret of immortality. Many legends involve a wandering wise man called Liu Hai and his three-legged toad companion Ch’an Chu. The toad knows the secret of eternal life, and for his friendship reveals the secret to the wise man. In Japan a similar legend involves the Gama-Sennin, also known as Kosensei, a wise old man with a hunched body and a warty face. Kosensei wanders the land with his toad companion, who teaches him the secret powers of herbs, including the secret of immortality. In

               Interestingly, many of these Asian tales refer to the secret of immortality as a fungus growing from the toad’s forehead. It has been suggested that this may be a link to the many shamanistic traditions of the Americas, where hallucinogenic compounds derived from frogs and toads are used for religious rituals of communion with the spirit world and self-transcendence.

The Frog Prince

The Frog Prince, is a fairy tale, best known through the Brothers Grimm's written version; traditionally it is the first story in their collection. In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog (possibly meeting him after dropping a gold ball into his pond), who magically transforms into a handsome prince. Although in modern versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the princess kissing the frog, in the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw it against a wall in disgust. In other early versions it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess's pillow.
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 A popular phrase related to this story is, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince." It is used to encourage those who still seek true love

Frogs as Fertility Symbols

                    The Rains Came, the Land was Renewed, and Life Returned:

Frogs as Fertility Symbols

 

      But frogs and toads were not always and in all places reviled as evil. For many cultures, these amphibians were symbols of and connected to divine powers of fertility, regeneration, and rebirth. 

 

       In ancient Egypt, the frog appears as a symbol of fertility, water, and renewal. The water goddess Heket often appeared as a woman with the head of a frog. Frogs were also the symbol of the midwife goddess Heqit, who ruled conception and birth, and Egyptian women often wore metal amulets in the form of frogs to enlist her good favor. Frogs appeared in great numbers each year at the flooding of the Nile , an event which was crucial to agriculture in that it provided water for many distant fields. Frogs thrived in the muddy bogs left by the receding waters, and it is easy to imagine how frogs came to be viewed as favorable symbols of abundance. In fact, the frog became a symbol for the number hefnu, which meant either 100,000 or simply "an immense number." Perhaps it is frogs’ impressive fertility combined with their association with water, so important for human life, that has led humans to see them as such potent and positive symbols.

       In ancientMesoamerica, many tribes worshipped a goddess known as Ceneotl, the patron of childbirth and fertility, who took the form of a frog or a toad with many udders. Also, frogs and toads were considered spirits of rain, and were used in many rituals intended to bring the rains. The Aymara tribe of Peru and Bolivia made small frog images, which they placed on hilltops, to call down the rain. Indeed, if the rains failed, some tribes blamed the toads for withholding the rain, and would lash them in punishment.In pre-Colombian

      The early Aztecs saw the toad as Tlaltecuhti, the earth mother goddess, who embodied the endless cycle of death and rebirth. She appears either as a real toad or in quasi-human form, with clawed feet and a gaping fanged mouth, and her joints are adorned with human skulls. She usually appears in a squatting position, giving birth to the new world, while dying souls pass through her fanged mouth to the netherworld. In one legend, she is the source of the entire universe: Quetzalcoatl, the bird-serpent god, and Tezcatlipoca, the magician-jaguar god, find her floating alone on the primordial sea. They tear her body in half, with one half forming heaven, and the other forming the earth. Some common Mesoamerican toads are known to cannibalize their own and other toad species, which may explain the use of the toad as the image of destruction as well as fertility or rebirth.

 

        The ancient Chinese saw the toad as a predominantly female force, a negative "yin" in opposition to the positive male "yang." The moon was the ultimate symbol of yin, and so many Chinese tales refer to the toad whose face is visible at the full moon. Interestingly, this moon-toad was thought to occasionally swallow the moon, causing eclipses 

       Frogs and toads are our companions on earth, as they have been for countless centuries. They live in the stories and myths of almost every human culture, taking on almost every role conceivable, from the trickster, to the devil, to the mother of the universe. The human imagination, with its need for meaning, its hunger for stories, casts and recasts frog and toad as major characters in the unfolding story of the world. But as human population growth destroys more and more of their habitat, as their numbers diminish from causes still mysterious to us, we hear less and less from these companions. What richness will our stories lose when we no longer hear these spirit voices at all, not because we have lost our fascination for them, but because the woods and ponds are literally silent and empty? Who will populate our mythologies when these creatures are gone? Perhaps we will be left with only one story: the story of loss.