Tarot Fellow
Tarot of the Orishas Deck and Guidebook by Zolrak — Afro-Brazilian Tarot
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The Tarot of the Orishas by Zolrak — a 77-card tarot system rooted in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé tradition, where each card is paired with an Orisha deity who governs that archetype’s energy. The vibrant, celebratory illustration style reflects the joy and vibrancy of Candomblé spiritual life. Includes a comprehensive 312-page bilingual (English/Spanish) guidebook. An essential deck for Spiritual Explorers who work with Santería, Candomblé, or Umbanda, and for anyone drawn to the rich visual language of Afro-diasporic tradition.
Description:Quick Specs
- Brand: Llewellyn
- Type: 77-card tarot deck with 312-page guidebook, bilingual English and Spanish
- Size/Quantity: 77 cards plus full guidebook
- Best for: Practitioners of Candomble, Umbanda, Yoruba, and Santeria traditions; readers seeking Afro-Brazilian spiritual symbolism
Rooted in Yoruba Tradition, Born in Brazil
The Tarot of the Orishas by Zolrak and Durkon stands apart from every other deck in my tarot collection because it emerges from a living spiritual tradition rather than adapting one after the fact. Zolrak is a practicing Umbanda and Candomble priest, and that direct lineage shows in every aspect of how this 77-card system is structured. The Orishas, those sacred forces of the Yoruba people that traveled with enslaved Africans to Brazil and became the animating spirits of Candomble and Umbanda, form both the major and organizing principles of the deck rather than being a decorative overlay on top of standard Rider-Waite archetypes.
The 77-card count itself signals the departure. Rather than forcing the Orisha correspondence onto 78 cards, Zolrak built a structure that honors the traditions on their own terms. Twenty-five primary cards approximate what tarot readers would call the Major Arcana, though they are not numbered to avoid any implied hierarchy among the sacred forces they depict. The remaining 52 secondary cards divide across the four classical elements, each suit carrying an Element card, a Message card, and an Elemental card that link personality types and periods of time to the reading. This architecture reflects divination logic drawn from jogo de buzios, the cowrie-shell casting practice central to Candomble, rather than imposing Western cartomantic structure.
Art That Respects Its Source
The visual language is deliberately earthy and symbolic rather than idealized. Human figures appear as practitioners in ritual context, and court-card faces are often obscured in keeping with Yoruba tradition around depicting sacred beings. Orishas appear through their emblems and elements rather than anthropomorphic portraits: Oxum as rivers and fresh water, Yemanja as salt water and ocean abundance, Ogun as the sword of iron and war. The palette leans toward vivid primary colors and natural imagery rooted in Brazilian landscape, with birds, forest, and symbolic offerings woven through backgrounds. Two copies of the instructional book are included, one in English and one in Spanish, a practical acknowledgment that most Candomble and Umbanda practitioners in the diaspora are Spanish or Portuguese speakers. The 312-page guidebook goes well beyond card meanings to include spread designs drawn from cowrie-shell divination, prayers, and ritual guidance that no brief white booklet could contain.
Readers who bring existing tarot fluency to this deck will find a productive friction. The correspondences between Orisha and tarot archetype are sometimes intuitive, Yemanja as the Empress maps cleanly, while others prompt genuine reflection on the limits of any single divinatory map. That friction is the point. Zolrak designed this as a working tool for practitioners seeking to access Orisha wisdom through the familiar grid of a card system, not as a novelty deck that borrows tropical imagery for atmosphere.
How to Use Tarot of the Orishas
Three steps to begin working with the Tarot of the Orishas and its Afro-Brazilian divination system.
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Study the Primary Cards First
Before your first reading, spend time with the 25 primary cards and the guidebook's Orisha profiles. Note which sacred forces resonate and which element each governs, as this foundation shapes how the secondary cards speak in any spread.
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Use the Bilingual Guidebook
The 312-page book explains upright and contextual meanings alongside prayers, rituals, and spread designs adapted from jogo de buzios. Reading short sections before a session deepens the symbolic vocabulary available to you.
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Try the Cowrie-Derived Spread
The guidebook includes spread layouts drawn from Candomble cowrie-shell divination. This two-row, eight-position layout covers past, present, potential future, advice, state of mind, energies, obstacles, and final response.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock the Tarot of the Orishas because there is genuinely no other deck that does what this one does. Every other Afro-diasporic themed deck I've evaluated grafts Orisha names onto a pre-existing card structure without consulting the traditions themselves. Zolrak's authorship as a practicing priest produces something fundamentally different: a divination system that carries real doctrinal weight behind its 77-card structure and bilingual format. For practitioners of Candomble, Umbanda, Santeria, or anyone studying Yoruba-derived traditions, this is the only tarot-adjacent tool built from the inside out. I've placed it alongside my Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Santeria books and resources because that's the company it belongs in: serious materials for serious practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
The deck contains 77 cards, not the standard 78. This reflects the Yoruba and Candomble spiritual structure rather than forcing a Western tarot template onto the Orisha system. A full 312-page guidebook is included.
No prior initiation is required. Readers with no background in Afro-Brazilian traditions can use this deck, though the guidebook's context on each Orisha will significantly enrich readings and is worth reading carefully before beginning.
Yes. Two complete copies of the instructional book are included in the set, one in English and one in Spanish. This reflects the deck's design for practitioners in both English and Spanish-speaking Yoruba diaspora communities.
The Orishas deck by Zolrak was authored by a practicing Umbanda and Candomble priest, producing a 77-card structure built on Orisha logic. The Lo Scarabeo deck maps Orishas to standard 78-card RWS archetypes, a meaningfully different approach.
