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Insights:
The movie opens with Maggie,
"The Healer", yelling at her daughter to recite the Twenty
Third Psalm; over a patient.
This is the key to the movie. Maggie and her daughters
will walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death (Psalm
23:4), but they are to fear no evil, for the Lord their
God will be with them and deliver them.
This is not an easy movie to
watch; however, it is a film where great truth is revealed
in the spiritual battle between a Christian woman and a
demonic "Brujo".
Characters:
Maggie - An imperfect
Christian woman with the gift of healing. Her
father calls her by her real name, Magdalena, after the
woman Jesus cast seven demons out of (Luke
8:2).
Lily - The eldest daughter
taken captive. Her name symbolizes purity and
chastity, which is what the spiritual battle is really
about1.
Dot - Short for Dorothy,
which means "gift of God". She will be the one to
rescue her mother in a powerful contest with evil.
Samuel Jones - Maggie's
estranged father. When he left his faith and
family, he traded his name Samuel, "told by God", for
his Indian name *!&* for luck.
Power
Clips
The Curse on Maggie
Using hair found in Maggie's
hairbrush, the Brujo places a curse on Maggie with
deadly effect. This is not just some mystical
shamanistic practice. This is a demonic curse coming
from the pit of Hell. As Maggie lies there
physically dying, her daughter, Dot, begins to read the
Bible over her. The power of the Word of God, the
Sword of the Spirit, (Hebrews
4:12,
Ephesians 6:17) breaks the curse and saves Maggie.
Note: The "prayers" and chanting of her father and the
Indian have no power over the curse or over the Brujo;
they are shown powerless when they enter his camp and
are totally defeated.
The Reconciliation
At the climax of
the film, there is a powerful scene between Maggie and
her estranged father. She tells him that she is
still unable to forgive him for his desertion of her and
her mother; she tosses him the large cross she has worn
throughout the film. (She can't forgive, but
Christ can.) He tells her that her mother gave him
the cross, and that he was always sorry he had left it
behind. In other words, he deserted his God, as well as
his family. His Indian name means *!&* for luck,
and that is just what his life has been since he walked
away from his family and from God.
When Samuel puts
the cross on, he is being reconciled to Maggie and to
God. He demonstrates his love for them by laying
his life down in order to save the women (John
15:13). The power of God working through him
overcomes, and the demonic power in the Brujo is
defeated. With that power broken, the other
Indians depart, leaving the women free to return home.
Footnote:
1.
There is a tremendous spiritual
assault on women and their chastity that goes all the
way back to
Genesis 3:15. In that verse, the promise of enmity
is made between the woman and her seed and the serpent
and his seed. Since her "seed" will ultimately
crush him , Satan always seeks to assault and defile
women. The context of this movie is the Satanic
Brujo capturing young women to sell into sexual slavery
in Mexico.
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