Hi, I’m Mariana. I am a Brazilian Tarot reader, astrologer and photographer, currently living in Europe. I used to say that my roots run very, very deep. From my mother’s side alone, I have my great great grandma. She was midwife in sanzales. This is slave quarters, right? And also from my mother’s side, I have my great grandma. She was daughter of native Brazilian Indians, married to a son of enslaved one. Some days I wish I could just sit and listen to their stories, their life stories, their experiences and learn from their wisdom.

I was raised in a very Catholic household. My whole family was always engaged in activities in church. That including being ministers, singing and the chorus playing. I played on Sunday, worships also in youth groups for a while back in 2013. It was the very first time I started tapping to the Afrocentric religions that develops from the diaspora that umbanda, more specifically. And then later on I came to learn about candomble and all the other religious manifestations we have in Brazil. That was definitely a kickstart for me. That’s when I wasn’t still opened up enough for that. But I could take a lot from that experience to use now that I feel and that I am more mature to handle my spirituality in a responsible way.

What do I think about when I hear the word Tarot? Well, I used to think about devil’s craft, right? At least that’s what I always heard from family, from friends. Everything you cannot find being used inside a church, inside the temple. It’s occult. It is a devil’s thing. Yeah, just let it. Tarot is for me now a tool to connect with the wisdom of the universe and the wisdom of my ancestors. This is also the main reason why I choose to work with African related Tarot decks. Because they are not only going to represent me as a black person in their depictions, but they are going to tell the story from the perspective of the black folks. And everything that I could not learn directly from my ancestors. It’s also, for me, a way to rescue my identity and decolonize my mind from misconceived ideas about the history and spirituality of black people. Being in a Catholic household like mine and being a curious soul, it was a recipe for chaos in my family for so many years. Chaos for me and chaos for them because I was not really allowed to ask questions because everything was mysteries from God and God we should not question. Some people would go even beyond and say like the devil seeds are growing inside my heart because I was nurturing this curiosity for the invisible side of life. Right? At the end of the day, I do believe that everything that exists is a creation of God. It was created by him, and because of that it serves a purpose. All the tools, also spiritual tools used for spiritual work that existed was sent by God, sent by this universal intelligence, this mastermind of the universe, to serve their purpose on Earth. And if I’m the one that chose to go, to walk on this path, he knew before he knew me, he knew my heart from the moment he created me. He created me like I am. So if he accepts me the way I am, who am I not to accept myself?

So at some point, I stopped fighting against myself, against my own wishes, my gift, my heart. What I believed it was right for me. Still trying to be respectful towards the beliefs of my family, but still I decided to go my own way, to be my own person, to think with my own mind. Well, and this is what Tarot is for me. Tarot is for me a connection to spirit without intermediates kind of it’s a way to translate messages from spirit directly. And the same way work religions, right, because they reconnect us with the source, with our core, with the purest things that exist inside of us. It’s a way to transform what is not so nice and a way to implement and keep spreading what is nice about us. Because I also believe that Tarot is a universal tool, collects a bunch of everything that exists and existed on this Earth, so it’s not connected and belonging to any specific religious practice.

So the funniest thing happened to me in the summer 2019. That’s when a friend of mine came to Germany to visit me and spent a couple of weeks in my place. And I remember before her arrivals rushing through the house, hiding candles, hiding incenses, any traces of spiritual practices I had at home back in the days, because I was really afraid of her judgment. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. And there was this day, she came to me and she said, like, do give me a moment. I’m going to stay in the room. The door is shut, but it’s just because I need some privacy with my Tarot. And I was like, Wait a second. Inside my mind, outside, I was like, all right, take your time, take your time. And inside I was like, wait, what? Who am I hiding from? Why am I doing this? How silly is that, right? I’m all here hiding any traces of occultism from my home. And then suddenly I see that she was with her Tarot. And from that day on, I started rethinking, where am I hiding from? Does that even make sense? And then I started this very intense, thorough, self knowledge journey. That’s when I started to realize also my gifts and just accept me for who I was, my spiritual gifts. And, well, that’s when I started to accept myself.

So this is my contribution to the community through Tarot. I really mean to rescue one’s identity, to rescue their voice, their self love and acceptance. This practice brings back one’s power and ownership over their own life. I want honestly that every woman, every black person, and especially every black woman like me, to feel embraced, to feel like they belong and all that, by working with this little tool here. I’m a little in size, by big, in meaning and what it can do for a person. I’m really thankful I embraced myself and decided to get the job done that I came here to do.

So before starting any tarot reading, I like to clean my energy and see how I’m feeling that day, so I don’t let my ego and my emotions interfering. Also, I like to light an incense, which scent I believe is going to be the most appropriate for the situation and the type of reading I’m going to do. So this is the space I keep what is most sacred to me. Now. I always keep some tarot cards here. I keep the candle for MRI Garden Angel in order to protect my ODI. Before and after every reading I’m going to do, I pray for my ancestors, my spirits, so that I put in my mouth the words the person needs to hear in order to heal their lives and elevate their energy. So this is basically my sacred space that I like to cultivate at all times, but especially before and after every reading. After the readings, I come here to say thank you for the protection, for the work done, because I believe I don’t work alone. I believe I work with my ancestors and spirit, so we are connected at all times. Don’t always use the same things or everything together, always try to sense what is necessary at the moment, what kind of energy the person is emanating before I start doing a reading, so I know which stones or which accessories I should wear during that reading, for my protection, for whatever reasons. So this is basically how I work.