In modern Philippine magic, the letters AVM or AUM are mistakenly thought to refer to praise words to the Virgin Mary or the mantra OHM used in meditation.

The fact is, the spearheads of modern Philippine magic were mostly unlearned, which explains their dearth of knowledge in Latin, mythology, theology, philosophy, and theosophy.

In Philippine magic, believe it or not, AUM (literally A-UM) is a truncation of ALPHA-OMEGA (erroneously written down as ALPHA-UMEGA).