Winter Solstice...The Medicine Woman's Call for Transformation!

The medicine women in The Unholy are healers. They are women of earth. They call forth transformation potential in hurting people. They echo Rilke's words, "Earth, isn't this what you want: an invisible arising in us? What is your urgent command, if not transformation."

In the novel the medicine women are described as "...seers and healers...they kept to themselves, meeting only infrequently , even with one another. Their solitude nourished a depth, Francesca said, that could be sustained in no other way." Archetypal energies flow unimpeded in these woman because of unwavering interiority. They value privacy, solitude, the solitary life.

In the following interview with Brent Nichols of Bards and Sages we looked at the medicine woman's nature:  

 Q:  "Your protagonist, Claire Sanchez, is a curandera, a term which roughly translates as "medicine woman." What exactly is a curandera? What led you to choose this occupation for your heroine?"

A: "A curandera is a healer. She spoke to me as the story evolved, told me who she was and her struggle to find herself. The path of a healer is fraught with danger. She dramatizes the life of so many women and men seeking to face their fears, find themselves, and walk the path of healing, natural magic, and life."

Thinking about this interview, I was struck by its simplicity. There is a way of looking at things that gets to the heart of the psychic matter. Healing is psychic. It changes us. Women healers have an instinct for the intuitive. They are able to pierce the soul with understanding. They do this, as the story tells, because of their interiority.

Ultimately, it's what's in the soul that we fear. Transformation, true change, frightens us. We get frantic around the holidays. Winter is really a time to quiet the self, go within, listen. Instead we go without, get caught up in the push and pull, yank and yells of the retail world, family dysfunction, and societal angst. The medicine woman within calls us as the solstice draws nigh to nestle into the hills of Aztlan, go within, listen, transform and end the year without depletion and into transformation!

Medicine Woman Magic through Love!

In The Unholy, the medicine women are specialists in love and magic. Both work together, can't have one without the other. They nourish love. There's magic in it. In contrast, the power-mongering men, especially within the church, are caught up in using people not caring for people. Ultimately, the story shows that the difference between using and caring for people is huge. Things happen, good or bad, troubles and maybe disaster, or creative natural magic based on how we treat self and others.

Natural magic is borne out of feminine energy. The archetype of the medicine woman is replete with magic. Spirit and nature are fused. The heavy-handed masculine patriarchy of organized religion exerts crippling force in the novel. People are brainwashed into serving religious guilt and fear. The medicine women and their natural magic stand in opposition to this. They are examples of love made real in the world, women of determination and authentic caring. From their truth to self and to the caring for one another mysterious things happen.

The creative mystery that is life depends on plugging into the current of natural magic. Love and true to devotion to self and significant others lights this path. To exert masculine force and will onto what should be governed by mystery ends by hurting us. In The Unholy it proves fatal.

Healing divisive ways of looking at life comes only from the magic of true caring. The medicine women exemplify a force that resides in each of us. But, there are challenges aplenty. Dark masculine drives toward having our own way no matter the cost threaten the life of the soul. The medicine women in The Unholy offer a way through this dangerous dilemma!

Virtual Book Tour Cafe!

The Unholy is on tour through the end of January 2013 with the Virtual Book Tour Cafe. It's a way of connecting to grassroots readers. Doing a tour allows me to connect with folks that I otherwise might miss. Online connections are a true way of connecting to others who think, question, read, and want to ponder life's questions.

The Virtual Book Tour Cafe emphasizes secrets, destiny, life and death, good and evil in the The Unholy. In the story, a young woman faces the reality of evil. Evil incarnate in the person of an archbishop is set on her destruction. Childhood ghosts come haunting. Fear runs rampant. Evil stalks. The young woman, a healer, is faced with a life-and-death decision: to face the evil or forever be haunted.

Death looms large. The Virtual Book Tour Cafe's emphasis on the drama of destiny and life and death struck me as vital. They connect me to my readers. We all live out issues connected with what's our destiny, how we want to live our life, and death itself.

Life won't be as it is forever. Death means change. In The Unholy, death lurks around every corner. Maybe it is always lurking in a different way for us, more than we admit or care to admit. Life, death, secrets, and destiny come to bear not only on the dramatic narrative of the story but in terms of what we're facing at this moment in our life. Secrets, things we haven't admitted to ourselves, threaten to hold us back. Face the ghost, the evil, or forever be haunted, risking death itself.

Connecting with readers on this tour helps me to have a sense of being in touch with the real folks wrestling with real issues concerning secrets, destiny, life and death, good and evil. Virtual connections are real in a different way than physical connections. They connect us with each other without physical presence, but with a unique emotional link. The Virtual Book Tour Cafe connects us as author and readers as we take the journey into secrets, destiny, life and death, good and evil---The Unholy!
http://www.vbtcafe.com/2013/12/the-unholy-by-paul-deblassie-iii-tour.html