Pennsylvania professor speaks about medicine woman, Native American healer
Marilyn Johnson and Cassandra Latham are two very different women with very similar gifts and career choices.
Theresa Smith from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, spoke Monday about the meetings she set up between these two women, who would have never met otherwise.
“I met Marilyn at York University where she was a graduate student and Cassandra in Cornwall, England at the Museum of Witchcraft,” Smith said. “Their personalities were so different, but the way they did their work was so similar. So I asked them if I could arrange a talk between them.”
Johnson is a Native American healer and ritual leader of the Anishnaabe tribe from Ontario. Latham is a traditional healer and wise woman from St. Buryan Village in Cornwall, England.
Smith is currently in the process of turning the dialogues between these women during the summers of 2001 and 2002 into a book called “Medicine and Magic: Conversations Between an Anishnaabe Medicine Woman and a Cornish Village Witch,” which should be published in a few years.
Latham lives in a cottage called the “doll’s house,” in St. Buryan. She felt that she belonged there when she found out a previous owner had also had the name Cassandra. She performs pagan rituals for her community, including a lot of love and relationship guiding for couples seeking help. Latham demystifies a lot of what she does because she doesn’t view it as sensational as others around her.
Johnson became a healer when she was 4 years old, Smith said. Her great-grandfather was a healer before her, and when he died she inherited the gift, she said. She grew up Catholic so she wasn’t allowed to talk about her gift, because traditional Native American rituals weren’t embraced in the church, Johnson said. When she was 14 years old, her mom told her she didn’t have to go to church anymore since Mass was no longer in Latin. Smith said Johnson began to ask about her old ways, in college she started reading about her culture and ended up studying under John Paul, a healer, who helped her learn to control and use her gift.
Johnson and Latham are also very proud of being women and embrace it in their work. Although they do not believe that it is a necessity for their roles in their communities.
“I found it very interesting how they apply their gender and spirituality in what they do,” said Lansing senior Stephanie Chilcote.
