Our Lady of Holy Death, also known as Nuestra Seora de la Santa Muerte, is a folk-Catholic saint who is largely revered in Mexico and among Mexican-Americans. Despite being rejected by the official Catholic church, her cult is the fastest-growing in the world, with some reports placing the number of followers at over 20 million and growing.
Santa Muerte is a potent deity with special defenses against assault, gunfire, and violent death as well as the ability to affect love, good health, prosperity, safe passage to the afterlife, good fortune, and fate. She also defends social outcasts and people who are marginalized.
Santa Muerte frequently appears in popular culture as a female skeleton dressed in a saint’s garment or nun’s habit, sometimes as a skeletal representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and occasionally as a female grim reaper. She is also shown as an Aztec deity, a sugar skull, and LaCalavera Catrina, the skeletal woman wearing a gorgeous hat, which is a well-known work by Mexican artist Posadas.
The Santa Muerte Tarot (SMT) interprets Santa Muerte as the ultimate equalizer. Not only in the obvious senseeveryone is equal in deathbut also in the sense that it encourages a rebalancing of the balances. Santa Muerte fights for the underprivileged and disadvantaged and opposes the institutions of power and money that want to maintain their dominance via exploitation and tyranny.
Since the SMT is partly based on the Waite-Smith tarot, it should come as no surprise that many common tarot scenes are performed by skeletal entities rather than fleshy humans. But on these cards, there are several skeletons who appear to be having a good time, not just Santa Muerte (!). Bravo to the three skeletons taking a drink and the kind skeleton farmer watering his harvest of skulls for not spending the entire deck just reaping. Santa Muerte and her skeletal companion Yes, many of the illustrations have a subtle humor as well as a happy boldness.
The Santa Muerte Tarot is a conventional 78-card deck with complete illustrations. There are 56 Minor Arcana and 22 Major Arcana in it. Except for card xiii, Death, which has been renamed Santa Muerte, the Major Arcana uses A E Waites titles and arrangement. Each of the four suits in the Minor ArcanaChalices, Pentacles/Money, Swords, and Wandshas ten number cards and four Court cards, which are a Page, Knight, Queen, and King. The elemental color of each suit predominates: Wands by red, Cups by blue, Swords by yellow, and Pentacles by green.
The cards’ dimensions, 70 x 120 mm, are within the range of a typical tarot deck. Take notice that ordinary size cards can feel fairly huge when you first start handling them if you are used to some of the smaller decks that have started surfacing more frequently, such the tarot-in-a-tin decks.
The card stock combines light weight with strength, flexibility with resistance, and an incredibly glossy surface.
They carry a fair amount of weight.
They have rounded corners and smooth edges, which should help them resist chipping and peeling, which can happen when cards are handled roughly or frequently.
The cards’ ultra-smooth mirror polish prevents them from adhering together while making them slick and very easy to shuffle. It enhances the bright colors of the playing cards and presumably lends some clarity to the images’ sharp, distinct details.
The print is sharp, clear, and clean. The firm lines and edges are sharp, and the rich colors are both subtle and spectacular. There are no typographical errors, color bleeding, or fuzzy pictures.
Digital artist and graphic designer Fabiola Listrani previously created the illustrations for the symbol-rich, enigmatic, and potent Night Sun Tarot. The attention to small details, intricate staging, and backgrounding balance off his commercial aesthetic style’s strong graphic component. The intricate features and vibrant colors are a reflection of the culture and environment that gave rise to Santa Muerte worship.
He frequently asks the audience to consider Death as universal, inescapable, both common and exalted, and beautiful.
The colors of Listrani’s palette are vibrant and bold, with dazzling reds, rich greens, and enigmatic blues predominating the deck. They provided a strong contrast to the calaveras and skeletons’ plaster and sepia tones.
A potent tarot deck is produced by combining assured execution, strong and certain images, and brilliant colors.
Each card has a cream-colored flat border attached to the lower half of it, giving the impression that it is being pulled out of an envelope. The Major Arcana cards have their number at the side and their title inscribed at the bottom of the border. The Minor Arcana cards have the number at the side and the suit listed beneath the image. Each title is written in a flat burgundy typeface with a western or circus theme.
The reverse of the cards include a reversible pattern. At the card’s ends are grey Mayan calendars, and the image’s center is surrounded by a circle of sugar skulls and blue and red flowers. Bright blue flowers are placed in the corners, while a cream border frames the image’s ends.
The cards are sent in a small, upright box with a top that fits. The cards and the handbook are both contained in a sturdy cardboard box. It has a glossy, polished appearance and is printed with plenty of roses, images from the Santa Muerte Tarot, and titles and small details in gold foil. It is robust enough to protect the cards and book it holds while still being compact enough to put into a shoulder bag or backpack without adding any bulk or weight.
Instructions are provided in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and (I hope) Chinese on the 128 pages of the manual. The book is a little softcover with glossy paper printing. Full colour pictures illustrating details from the cards separate the chapters.
Fabio Listrani, who is both the guidebook’s author and its artist, is briefly introduced in the opening paragraphs of the booklet.
The thoughts and theories that underpin the Santa Muerte Tarot are described. Each card has its own entry, equal attention, and equal page space; no photos of the cards are included. Some people might find it aggravating that there is no explanation for the illustration’s motion or a description of the image. There is a brief explanation of the cards’ positive and negative connotations, but there are no specific instructions about how to use the upright or reversed positions. Advice of the Dead, which is typically some kind of clear and concise guidance, is included with each entry. The Dead are blunt writers.
The interpretations offered by the divinatory symbols are quite acceptable and, if anything, lean more toward optimism than doom and gloom.
This deck was thoughtfully designed, deftly performed, and well-thought out. The graphics are intricate and lovely. You will probably appreciate using the Santa Muerte Tarot if you already like the Night Sun Tarot. Readers who have some prior experience reading Waite-Smith-based cards can also benefit.
The Santa Muerte Tarot may be of interest to followers of Santa Muerte, as well as people who are interested in folk-catholicism, Mexican and Mexican-American popular and folk culture.
I wouldn’t suggest this deck to complete beginners because there isn’t enough information supplied about the cards to be helpful to a tarot newcomer.
People will purchase this tarot deck only on the basis of how awesome it appears to be, which it actually is. Beyond that, however, this deck is for individuals who have already established a bond with death, metamorphosis, and rebirth as well as for those who, out of fear or curiosity, aspire to do so.
In This Article...
How do you perform a three-card tarot reading?
- Choose a Tarot deck in step one.
- Find a Quiet, Remote Area in Step 2.
- Focus on a Question or Intention in Step 3.
- Step 4: Reshuffle the cards.
- Divide your deck into three equal stacks in step five.
- Step 6: Turn your cards over.
- Examine your cards in Step 7.
- Get a sense of your cards in Step 8.
Why do I keep drawing the card of Death?
Although it may be unsettling to get the Death card from a tarot deck, this card actually offers a wealth of information about the areas of your life that need to change in order to encourage progress. So the next time it shows up in a reading, don’t panic, but be ready for change anyway.
How should a tarot reading begin?
If you find this daunting, Howe advises you to take a deep breath and believe in your own initiative. “In order to see it less as “This holds all of these secret meanings that I have to do all this work to access” and more as “I know all the meanings; it’s just a matter of establishing the connections and being able to articulate them,” use language or knowledge that you already possess. She points out that the four elementsearth, water, fire, and airplay a significant role in the tarot, which is advantageous because the majority of people already have an understanding of the meanings of each element. ” If you do that, your viewpoint will be more personal, and you will be able to express yourself more freely.
Howe suggests the three-card draw and the Celtic Cross as the two fundamental spreads for beginning readers. In the former, three cards are chosen at random from the deck to symbolize the subject’s mind, body, and spirit, or past, present, and future. According to Howe, you could even up the stakes and use a six-card draw, with one card for each location.
After a breakup
Draw one card for each of the following inquiries if you’ve recently broken up with someone and want to know more about the reason or determine whether you’ll get back together:
- How energetic is the partnership right now?
- What caused the divide in the first place?
- What do they really think of me right now?
- What do they intend for me right now?
- What kind of relationship will this be in the future?
- Which action is ideal for me to take right now?
When job searching
You can use this spread to explore what kind of career guidance the tarot can offer if you’re feeling uncertain about your career path or thinking about a new employment. Draw one card once more for each query.
- How active am I in my career right now?
- What challenge must I overcome?
- What is my calling in life?
- How can I follow this calling more closely?
- What should I do to prepare for the upcoming month?
When deciding between two options
This spread can highlight the benefits and drawbacks of each option, guiding you toward the best decision if you’re using tarot to pick between two possibilities (two job offers, two apartments, perhaps a love triangle???). Getting the deal Per card, ask one question.
- What is the fundamental cause of this fork in the road?
- What is the likely result of choosing option A?
- What is the most likely result for option B?
- What more should I take into account that was overlooked?
- What’s the best thing I can do right now?
When something is off with a friend
If you’re concerned about the state of a friendship or feel like something is wrong but are unable to pinpoint the cause, you might be interested in seeing what conclusions and solutions this spread offers. Ask one question per card, once more, I repeat.
- What makes this friendship so crucial?
- What led to this sudden change in tone, and why?
- What has changed, in my friend’s opinion?
- What can I do to make this matter more urgent?
- What is the future of this friendship?
- What should I do at this moment?
How should my tarot deck be cleaned?
While rearranging the cards in the tarot deck is a good approach to purify and clear their energy, there are some circumstances in which you might wish to perform a more specialized ritual. If you’re just getting started with tarot, cleaning your deck can be an excellent place to start.
You might want to clean your tarot deck for a variety of reasons, including:
- beginning with a fresh deck
- readings for other people
- You think you need to recharge.
- Your card readings seem a touch “odd” or “disconnected”
- Your deck hasn’t been used recently.
- Your deck has been handled by others
- You think you’ve been utilizing your deck a lot. A LOT, especially for books with strong emotional content
Why should you cleanse or clear your tarot deck?
Tarot deck cleansing helps keep the energy flowing between you and your deck. Consider it as a little spiritual hygiene to maintain a strong and clear connection. It’s not necessary, but if you have any of the aforementioned symptoms, try a few of the energetic cleansing techniques listed below and note which ones seem to work the best for you.
How often should you cleanse your tarot deck?
This is another way of stating USE YOUR INTUITION: there are no hard and fast laws. Don’t stress if you don’t believe it is necessary for your deck. Alternately, if you like to cleanse them once per week or once per month, that’s great. If it feels appropriate to you, you can even place your favorite crystal on the balcony each night.
If you frequently place crystals on your deck and store it on an altar while not in use, you might not feel the need to cleanse it frequently because this quick ritual will likely be sufficient to keep your deck feeling nice.
There are numerous ways to cleanse your cards, just as there are numerous reasons why you might desire to do so.
Different ways to cleanse your tarot deck
Use holy smoke. Light a dried rosemary, lavender, cedar, sage, or palo santo cleansing wand until it begins to smoke. Hold the smoke a safe distance below the deck while holding the burning herbs in one hand and the deck in the other so that the smoke drifts upward onto the cards. Turn the deck so that the smoke covers it from all angles. Next, safely put your deck to the ground and put out the fire.
On the deck, set a selenite stone (or a black tourmaline or a transparent quartz). It works well to leave it like way for an hour, but I prefer to leave it overnight.
Set them on display during a new moon. The New Moon is energy of a blank slate; you can purify the deck by setting it on a window sill on a new moon night. At this moment, you can also make a brand-new intention for your deck.
Place the cards in a salty dish. A strong and stabilizing cleaner is salt. My preferred choice for a thorough cleansing is this. Allow it to sit anywhere from one to eight hours in a dry area.
Unorderly shuffle. Spread the cards out on the ground, then shuffle them around like a child playing in dirt. This method’s freedom and randomization serve as an excellent reset.
the shuffle and sort. Set up the deck in rows of seven cards across, commencing with the Major Arcana numbers 0 to 22. (see photo above). Next, arrange the cards, Ace through King, one for each suit, as follows: Swords, Pentacles, Cups, and Wands. View the deck in this configuration, then mix everything up (like the chaotic!) and shuffle it thoroughly.
How are tarot cards facing?
There is no “correct” response, as there are numerous things in the Tarot. The best course of action is to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of all your options before choosing the one that feels most natural to you.
You have a choice here between dealing cards with yourself or the client facing you. This is crucial when using reversed Tarot cards since you need to be able to distinguish between the upright and the inverted cards. Therefore, be cautious to choose your strategy before you lay down the cards.
Dealing the Cards to Face You
It is simpler to read the cards if they are dealt face you. It happens frequently that an image will attract your attention and communicate a certain tale, which you can then share with your client. If the card is upright, the image will seem differently and might convey a different message than if it is inverted. Therefore, facing the cards allows you to witness the story as it is being told.
In addition, I think it’s crucial for you, the reader, to see the cards as they are being set out rather than your client because it is you who will be giving the cards their meaning. Similar like trying to read a book upside-down to a young child, it is possible, but it is more challenging!
What do the two diamonds mean?
A contract bridge convention known as “Multi coloured 2 diamonds,” or simply “Multi,” requires that the opening offer of “2” reveal a variety of potential hands. A weak-two bid in a major suit is always included in these, and the additional meaning might be a powerful balanced hand (often 2021 high card points) or a 2022 three suiter.
How are tarot cards shuffled?
This shuffling method, which is frequently used before regular card games, is merely holding the full deck in one hand and releasing a section of cards into the other hand at a time until the entire deck has been spread and mixed.