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THE TAROT OF THE ORISHAS
The Tarot of the Orishas doesn't belong to any religious tradition. It was created to make the Orishas and their secrets known to the world, providing a symbolic / psychoanalytic interpretative key, the result of a comparative study between the Yoruba tradition and Western psychology.
Those who practice religions of African or African American origin, can use this deck on the bases of their own knowledge.
All the others may find useful to read the online guide.
Just sign up on the site and read it for free.
THE TAROT OF THE ORISHAS
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PHILOSOPHY
THE ORISHAS TAROT IS A 100% ARTISAN PRODUCT
The Tarot is an ancient object whose origin still today has not been fully understood. In respect of this antiquity, the Tarot of the Orishas is made entirely by hand, as was done in the ancient artisan shops and belongs to the rich and varied world of "Indie Decks", decks of cards made by independent artists and craftsmen , who don't count on the industrial production system, but create their works in their own artistic laboratory.
DECK
36 CARDS
The Deck contains 18 white cards describing the bright, useful, positive characteristics of the Orisha and 18 black cards, representing the same character shown in a specular way, like a vision reflected in the mirror and representing the dark, harmful, negative aspects of the Orisha. In addition, the couple Agayú/Naná Burukú. This couple features two different images, one for the light aspect and one for the shadow aspect. It is the only couple in the deck that is an exception because these two characters are themselves the very representation of Light and Shadow.
In every circumstance and in every person there is a dual component that the Orishas Tarot intend to investigate for a better knowledge of ourself and of others.
AN ORISHA TALKS IN YOUR HEAD
ELEMENTARY, ALMOST MECHANICAL PERSONALITY
MORE ORISHAS TALK IN YOUR HEAD
COMPLEX, MORE REFINED PERSONALITY
ALL ORISHAS TALK IN YOUR HEAD
YOU ARE A MASTERMIND
NO ORISHA TALKS IN YOUR HEAD
YOU ARE FREE
This consideration should not be confused with multiple personality disorder or other psychiatric disorders.
"BOOK" BOX SIZE: 13.5CM X 8.5CM
CARDS SIZE: 11CM X 6CM
N. CARDS: 32
TAROT WOODEN BOX
A BIT OF HISTORY
In the 10th century BC, a group of nomadic hunters settled in a land we now call Nigeria, giving rise to a culture that we now consider to be one of the most refined and ancient cultures of "black" or sub-Saharan Africa: the Nok culture (no one really knows what it was called). This culture reaches its expressive peak in the millennium that goes from 500 BC to 500 AD. It is a civilization that is already widely developed, where the art of working metals is already known and used with great skill, as evidenced by the ancient furnaces found in the Niger basin. This culture, which still today remains shrouded in mystery and which speaks to us through terracotta figurines and bronze heads, is actually the cultural woumb from which the most famous African gods are born: the Orishas.
Terracotta figurine from the Nok era 6th century BC
Centuries later, in the same territory, the mythical city of Ilé-Ifé was founded. It is considered by its people (the Yoruba) the center of the world and the home of the Gods. Traditionally it is believed that the mythical founder of the city was Oduduwa, an oriental prince who was expelled from Mecca for having conspired against Islamism in favor of the return of paganism and the ancient Gods that once were worshipped by the ancestors. Therefore it's in this period that the Orishas flourish again. Mosques were demolished and new temples erected, starting a restoring process of the original African tradition. The names of Olokun, Oggun, Oshun, Elegguá and many others (the Orishas are about 400) are invoked again and their statues and places of worship spread throughout the Yoruba empire, also known as the kingdom of Oyó.
Bronze head of Olokun found in the city of Ilé-Ifé XII century AD
Unfortunately, once again, the life of the ancient African spirituality will be put to the test by the arrival of another monotheism, even more aggressive, even more determined to definitively erase the dignity of the ancient sub-Saharan beliefs: Christianity. At the dawn of the fourteenth century, the slave trade would begin, an atrocity that would reach its peak during the seventeenth century. Millions of Africans will be uprooted from their lands, beaten, tortured, killed, enslaved and of course forcibly baptised. There will be an attempt to totally destroy every trace of the culture of these men and women deported to the Americas, also through the use of ruthless corporal punishment, which was employed every time the slaves tried to get together to celebrate their ritual dances or pronounce their prayers to the sound of the drum.
Corporal punishment on an English slave ship
It was in this persecutory environment that the Africans coming from different regions of Africa, each with their own stories and gods, began to constitute groups whose aim was to standardize their beliefs by trying to create a homogeneous and shared cosmovision that could survive and resist Western cultural colonization. Over time a syncretism was created. Initially among the various African gods, and later, associated with Christian saints used as an element of conjunction between a pagan and a monotheistic creed. During this process, a single God was also created, known today as Olodumaré. This god did not exist in the beginning, as true African spirituality does not recognize a single God but rather a single vital energy or creative "power" that animates everything: the Ashé. The Ashé ( in the yoruba language Asé) is God.
SANTERÍA
As Celia Blanco writes in her famous book The Yoruba Santeria: < ...their religion of ancestral origin was forbidden, as it was a "primitive practice of ignorant negroes". In the meantime they were ordered to accept the Catholic religion, being the white "superior" and his religion "the religion"... despite this context, little by little they regrouped and managed to redeem the strength of their spirituality... and in fact they succeeded due to the use of an ingenious and creative mechanism : syncretism.>
The slaves began to call Oggun "St. Peter", Yemayá "the Virgin Mary", Babalú Ayé "St. Lazarus", Shangó "St. Barbara" and so on... taking advantage of some formal similarities such as the fact that both Shangó and St. Barbara they wear a crown and a weapon (hers is a sword and his is a double ax) or the fact that St. Peter is always associated with metal objects, keys or chains and Oggun is a blacksmith. This syncretism was so effective as a camouflage strategy that over the centuries it ended up becoming a real religion that is known today as Santería or Regla de Ocha.
Shangó and Santa Barbara
There's no need to say that these associations between saints and Orishas had no cultural, theological or philosophical foundation. They just were a symbolic code used to avoid arousing suspicion among the "white owners". This is why in the Tarot of the Orishas, there is no trace of Catholic syncretism. Instead, there is the culturally dignified attempt to return to building a bridge between our past and our present through a psychological perspective but possibly also in a psycho-magic way intended in the Jodorowskian sense of the term. In fact, once we have met our single or our many Orishas, we can pay homage to them in the ritual form we consider the most appropriate.
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