Spiritual Healing, Magic, and Cosmology

"The Curing Woman" is about the power of a great traditional healer to cure physical illness by working on the spiritual level. The work of Doña Marcelina rests on a dualistic theory of the universe in which there are good and evil powers. There is also a fluid interchange between spiritual and physical worlds. What this means in practice is that a person's illness may have causes other than merely physical ones. Since natural and supernatural worlds interact, evil spirits can take over a person's body and cause illness. But a skilled healer who understands how the cosmic forces operate can overcome these evil spirits.

The traditional (as opposed to modern medical) knowledge Marcelina learns from her mother in Spain is very eclectic, drawn from Moslem, Jewish, and Christian sources. All these religions have strong roots in Spain. Within the Christian tradition...