folk medicine traditions vary from place to place, but they share some commonalities wherever they are found - they are highly attuned to the cycles of the moon, inextricably linked to the spiritual traditions of their particular locale, practiced with clinical precision by lay people, and comprise a mostly oral history of a unique community of people and their geographic location.

nowhere is this more evident than in the city and state of rio de janeiro, where to this day, folk medicine and superstitious cures play a prominent role in the lives of many cariocas. since the days of alchemists and belief in magic, humankind has shared a belief in the power of the heavens over our lives.