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Brown, queer, and trans writer, diviner, and educator Christopher Marmolejo frames literacy as key to liberation, exploring tarot as critical literacy. Through their work, Christopher reveals how the cards can be read to subvert the dynamics of white supremacist-capitalist-imperialist-patriarchy, weaving historical context and spiritual practice into a comprehensive overview of the tarot.
Situating tarot imagery within cosmologies outside the Hellenistic frame—Death as interpreted through the lens of Hindu goddess Chhinnamasta, the High Priestess through Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui—Christopher’s work and writing is a profound act of reclamation and liberation.
In their latest book, Red Tarot, each card’s interpretation is further bolstered by the teachings of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Paulo Freire, José Esteban Muñoz, and others in an offering that integrates intersectional wisdom with the author’s divination practice—revealing tarot as an essential language for liberation. Christopher’s work speaks to anyone othered for their identity or ways of being or thinking—LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks in particular—presenting the tarot as a radical epistemology that shifts the authority of knowing into the hands of the people themselves.
Join Christopher and arts-based, psychedelic-assisted ancestral psychotherapist Camara Meri Rajabari for a conversation that moves beyond self-help and the Hellenistic frame of tarot to reclaim it for liberation, self-determination, and collective healing.
Christopher Marmolejo, MA, is a Brown, queer, and trans writer, diviner, and educator. They use divination to promote a literacy of liberation. They were born and raised in San Bernardino, California, among the pines, in community with the Yuhaaviatam clan of the Maara’yam (Serrano).
With nine-plus years of experience as a trained educator focused on cultivating classrooms of emancipatory possibility, they work with students around the world to plant and nurture the seed of a divinatory practice, finely weaving tarot, astrology, and curanderismo with critical, decolonial Black queer feminist epistemology. They are available for readings, and they are enrolling students in ongoing divination classes at www.theredread.com. Follow them on Substack for more writing.
Camara Meri Rajabari (she/her) is an arts-based, psychedelic-assisted ancestral psychotherapist based in Oakland, California, on the unceded lands of the Chochenyo and Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. Specializing in anxiety, depression, and intergenerational trauma among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, Camara's approach is person-centered, imaginal, and inclusive. Her work delves into intergenerational trauma, ancestral healing, and the exploration and liberation of consciousness, weaving together knowledge of non-ordinary states of consciousness with ancestral wisdom, ancient archetypes, dreams, imagination, and self-inquiry.
Camara co-authored the chapter "Invoking the Numinous: Ritual, Medicine, and Magic in Psychedelic Psychotherapy" alongside Shanna Butler in the Integral Psychedelic Therapy: The Non-ordinary Art of Psychospiritual Healing textbook. Her insights have also been featured on NPR's Life Kit in the segment "How to Deepen Your Connection to Your Ancestors."
Beyond her professional endeavors, Camara is a mixed-medium artist, writer, spiritualist, and AfroFuturist. She divides her time between Oakland and New Mexico, where she resides part-time on the unceded lands of the Pueblo and Tiwa people. Learn more about Camara at her website.
We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner
Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. Learn more about Marcus Books.
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Accessibility
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Important Event Information
Access to the livestream event is limited to registered guests. Registered ticket holders will receive the link to watch the livestream, will have access to chat and Q&A, and will have an ad-free watching experience.
Recording Policy
Ticket holders will have access to an ad-free replay of the event for one week after the live event. A replay with ads will be released on our YouTube channel one week after the livestream. Portions of the audio will also be released on our podcast. Only registered ticket holders who choose to watch live can participate in the chat and Q&A.
Refunding Policy
All tickets and donations for this event are nonrefundable.
