Sometimes it seems like this deck is a little-known secret amongst Black witches. Every so often someone pops up with a picture or few and is RAVING over how gorgeous it is, wondering where to find it. And then a small handful of folks go on about how excited they are to own it, while a million others also plead for a purchase link. So here it is, for always!
Created by Casey Rocheteau in 2014, the Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot celebrates Black culture, queer magic and hoodoo divination. It is a tool for the future crafted from images of the past.
It is said that the Greeks believed the gorgons resided on the Cape Verdean islands, making Medusa an African with twisted serpentine locs so beautiful that Mt. Olympus feared them. According to the myth, Athena’s fervor for victim blaming saw her turn the human Medusa and her sisters into gorgons. Medusa’s life was a lonely one, peppered with staring at soldiers turned statues. A god had blamed her for her trauma, made a monster of her and then helped some “hero” murder her in her sleep. The Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot celebrates the pantheon of monsters within each of us, knowing that Medusa was more metaphor than monster, and that Perseus was a buster.
The images in the deck are mixed media collage with images from nature photography, mythological texts, pop culture iconography, Black Americana, and interdimensional conjure. The deck follows the Thoth tradition of card order in the major arcana.
Casey Rocheteau was born on Cape Cod, and raised as a sea witch. They are an author, visual/sound artist and historian living in Detroit, Michigan. Their work explores the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, trauma, body image and mental health. Rocheteau often works with primary documentation and collage in what they call a hauntological practice. This fixation upon specters of the past haunting the present and the living impact upon the future informs their work across genres. Winner of inaugural Write A House permanent residency in 2014, Rocheteau won a house with poems and is committed to a community and teaching based arts practice in Detroit.They are a Callaloo Writer’s Workshop, Cave Canem, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference fellow and, a Writer in Residence at InsideOut Literary Arts in Detroit. With Jonah Mixon-Webster, Rocheteau founded the CTTNN Club collective in 2016. Creating the Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot in 2014, they see magic and the occult as an important part of their artistic practice. They are the managing editor of Heart Online Journal and their second poetry collection, The Dozen, was released on Sibling Rivalry Press in 2016. Their writing has appeared in Apogee, The American Academy of Poets, Day One, The Offing, LitHub, Barnes and Noble Review among others. Their visual art has been displayed at Cranbrook Museum of Art and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on a link and purchase the item, Brown Girl Tarot may receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
Sometimes it seems like this deck is a little-known secret amongst Black witches. Every so often someone pops up with a picture or few and is RAVING over how gorgeous it is, wondering where to find it. And then a small handful of folks go on about how excited they are to own it, while a million others also plead for a purchase link. So here it is, for always!
Created by Casey Rocheteau in 2014, the Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot celebrates Black culture, queer magic and hoodoo divination. It is a tool for the future crafted from images of the past.
It is said that the Greeks believed the gorgons resided on the Cape Verdean islands, making Medusa an African with twisted serpentine locs so beautiful that Mt. Olympus feared them. According to the myth, Athena’s fervor for victim blaming saw her turn the human Medusa and her sisters into gorgons. Medusa’s life was a lonely one, peppered with staring at soldiers turned statues. A god had blamed her for her trauma, made a monster of her and then helped some “hero” murder her in her sleep. The Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot celebrates the pantheon of monsters within each of us, knowing that Medusa was more metaphor than monster, and that Perseus was a buster.
The images in the deck are mixed media collage with images from nature photography, mythological texts, pop culture iconography, Black Americana, and interdimensional conjure. The deck follows the Thoth tradition of card order in the major arcana.
Casey Rocheteau was born on Cape Cod, and raised as a sea witch. They are an author, visual/sound artist and historian living in Detroit, Michigan. Their work explores the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, trauma, body image and mental health. Rocheteau often works with primary documentation and collage in what they call a hauntological practice. This fixation upon specters of the past haunting the present and the living impact upon the future informs their work across genres. Winner of inaugural Write A House permanent residency in 2014, Rocheteau won a house with poems and is committed to a community and teaching based arts practice in Detroit.They are a Callaloo Writer’s Workshop, Cave Canem, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference fellow and, a Writer in Residence at InsideOut Literary Arts in Detroit. With Jonah Mixon-Webster, Rocheteau founded the CTTNN Club collective in 2016. Creating the Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot in 2014, they see magic and the occult as an important part of their artistic practice. They are the managing editor of Heart Online Journal and their second poetry collection, The Dozen, was released on Sibling Rivalry Press in 2016. Their writing has appeared in Apogee, The American Academy of Poets, Day One, The Offing, LitHub, Barnes and Noble Review among others. Their visual art has been displayed at Cranbrook Museum of Art and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on a link and purchase the item, Brown Girl Tarot may receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
