TSITSI CHIYANGWA
Tarot cards’ intricate designs and mystical appeal have captured people’s imaginations for centuries.
From its beginning as a tool for personal growth and divination in medieval Europe to their widespread use today.
The tarot’s history starts in Europe in the mid-15th century. These early tarot decks were hand-painted and commissioned by wealthy families as a symbol of their status.
Simply put, Tarot card reading is a form of fortune telling using a deck of cards whereby practitioners purportedly gain insight into the past, present and future.
They formulate a question, then draw cards to interpret them to this end.
For a predominantly christian nation like Zimbabwe, many are unfamiliar, sceptical and scoff at the practice.
People who read Tarots have two skills they’ve practiced and at least one of two personality traits that they exercise and exhibit. The two skills are memorisation and observation and the two personality traits are intuition and perception.
For local Tarot card reader Nyasha Choga better known as Sunshine, intuition came to her at the tender age of three where she did teacup readings by merely looking at an empty cup of tea after drinking it and seeing visions from looking into it and whatever she would see would happen.
“The visions would be so graphic, almost like a comic book,” she said.
Sunshine added: “I used to have recurring dreams which would also come to pass and by the age of five I knew that there was something special about me.”
About her apprenticeship, Sunshine says she knew from an early age that there was something special about her.
“I was such an avid reader who discovered the dictionary early on and frequented the library. I started looking up what each dream meant. That is when my apprenticeship began. And when I got older I was led to a whole world of different things of Shamans, Egyptians, the Jewish, the Celtic and so forth.
“What I was seeking for was African spirituality and could not find anything on it. I started putting all the truths together and I realised they were global truths I could work with so my apprenticeship was a bit different and lifelong.”
So how does she actually conduct her readings?
“I am intuitive and psychic so I use the cards as tools to get messages across. I am a distance energy right in front of me or from a distance. I am an also what is called a dream walker what it entails is I can make you have dreams to help set out things in the spiritual realm.”
So, who is seeking out this pathway in their lives?
“My clientele is varied from different denominations and very multinational from all walks of life so I try to be neutral when speaking about spirituality. It is important to be truthful and compassionate with people you are doing readings for.
“I am well received here in Zimbabwe as well as Internationally’’
But how would one be able to differentiate between the real deal and fakes. How authentic is her work?
Sunshine says there are bogus people online who steal other people’s messages but those messages do not tie in, there are those that believe they can just buy a deck of cards and open a show.
“I give advice intuitively.
“I call myself a fortune teller for the layman to understand what I do and I like to look for the bright and best in everyone. I am a fully registered practitioner with ZINATHA and having grown up with an Anglican Church background, I do have principles that guide me.’’
For those that are new to Tarot reading, Sunshine says she has some very approachable spiritual guides.
“I always tell people that it is not scary at all, there is a lot of laughing and jokes so as to lighten the delivery of the messages without lessening the importance of the messages.’’
And of myths she might want to bust in so far as tarot card reading is concerned, Sunshine chuckled “there is stuff one can predict like when one is going to die and results of soccer matches but that would be abuse of power”.
For her parting shots, Sunshine says Tarot is very close to tarota and is a form of divination which is similar to our own Hakata.
“I have my traditional robes and bangles and occasionally go to the waterfalls and shrines to appease my ancestors. I am just the pretty receptionist but the owners of the work I do are behind the scenes.”
