Thresholds: The Decolonial Divination Course
Open For Enrollment, beginning Sept 11
Hello sweet reader, I’m writing to tell you that my signature course, Thresholds, is now open for enrollment!
My last run was probably my best yet, (Ok I might say this every time, but seriously I mean it!) because it was my first run having Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy to accompany the course. If you’ve been enjoying my book then this companion course will ensure you are able to apply your readings to a revolutionary praxis.
Thresholds offers a comprehensive tarot education in red reading. This course is aimed towards finding the dignity in divination that is denied in dominator culture. This is not an appropriated, aka white-washed new age spirituality. This is a course that moves toward the invention of the decolonized self, as it seeks to set our imaginations free.
This course will vivify your tarot cards and your divinatory reading so that your experience within the course, and thereafter your cartomancy can heal the psychic wound inflicted by assault from the forces of imperialist, racist, classist, sexist, domination.
The questions we are here concerned with are:
How do you read tarot? How do the cards decolonize the psyche, the self and the querent? How does the tarot as an aesthetic object engage a process of cultural transformation that will ultimately create a revolution in vision? How can tarot take us away from the real only to bring us back with renewed perception?
We will work together to enter the subconscious, the dream space, the heart center, the soul spheres via the portals offered in each card. Thresholds teaches tarot as a literacy of the heart and soul. I am committed to both providing a technical proficiency with the structure, varied meanings and uses of the tarot, in reading for self and others, while also using the cards as a tool for critical self-inquiry as a byproduct of a communal process. I offer this course as a humanizing education, through which you become conscious about your presence in the world, to then transform the world.
In the cards find the lost reflections of your love, your strength and resiliency. In the cards confront your fear, your pain, your potential. Thresholds is a course in threading the disparate cords of consciousness into a rich tapestry of life. This is a course in transformation, magic, manifestation, healing, ritual and decolonization.
But it is so much more than a course.
It is a classroom, it is a conjuring, a vehicle, an incubator, a threshold through tarot towards transformation. It is a space of emancipatory possibility, designed and facilitated by the love and passion I have for my craft and my community. It is a witches garden in the 3 of cups, and a safe haven in the 3 of pentacles. You will learn tarot differently because this classroom will teach you how to think through the tarot, rather than rely on memorized meanings to spout. Thresholds will catalyze your divinatory relationships because it engages the cards as cyphers for decolonizing consciousness. The cards will be made real as we catalogue the wisdom distilled from our experience with them. Thresholds is for you if you want to create an authentic, organic, empowering and revelatory relationship with SPIRIT through tarot. It is for you if you are Black, Red, Brown and or White and want to unlearn anti-blackness and deject the internalized white supremacy. It is for you if you want to use tarot as a prothesis to mend the ruptures of colonialism upon our birthright to richly intuitive, animate, multivalent divinatory psychic faculty.
But don’t just take my word for it…here’s what my most recent students had to say about their experience in Thresholds:
TESTIMONIALS
“I found this course to be life-changing. It is a threshold in recovering lost parts of your soul. It awakens the power of the cards in your hands to do so. I feel like I am emerging out of this course the Fool, fresh with purpose, wonder, and faith. I personally found it to be a journey in healing through learning, exploring, sharing, and listening. The cards emerge as keys for reading and integrating personal and collective wounds, patterns, and shifts. They create a threshold for illuminating invisible structures, imaging new possibilities, and creating a collective truth towards the Wheel’s turning. My tarot wisdom broadened not only in my understanding of the cards, but in my ability to apply them beyond myself, and to understand the two are not separable. Our collective readings created the space for the recovery of parts of myself I was struggling to find on my own. Moreover, finding space in a community was extremely healing for me personally. As someone who struggles with visibility, the decision to undertake this course was a huge challenge, and it taught me to further navigate that struggle, by showing me the gift in choosing to be seen, and choosing to be in community. The course’s content also deepened my understanding of each card and the Tarot’s journey beyond what I could have imagined. Prior to this course, I had been reading Tarot for a few years, but I wasn’t confident in reading for others and my knowledge felt patchy around certain cards. I’m leaving with a solid understanding that allows me to comfortably read for other people, and the cards have come to life in a new way, as mirrors for magic, for Spirits, and for messages. This course really activated my thirst for tarot, for seeking truth, and for embodying my authentic place in the world.”
- Madalena B.
“I have been so impressed by the quality of teaching. The classes far reached my expectations and I am so glad this was the first tarot class space I have been privileged enough to join. I have thoroughly enjoyed Chris’ teaching style. The emphasis on each student to get involved- where every week we contribute and receive immediate feedback from both Chris’ and classmates, was brilliant. Chris gives immaculate feedback and is very encouraging. I also love that the class is organised with separate lectures and the brilliant additional reading, which may not always be directly related to tarot, but incapsulate the theme of the week. Classes have been very well organised, always occurring on time. Moreover, the coherence and great amount of thought put into every aspect of the course is evident. These classes not only taught me how to embrace intersectional approaches to tarot, but also was a great example in how to approach teaching and holding space as an educator.”
-Feven E
“I loved how interactive our class time together was (as opposed to a lecture over Zoom with strangers I never talk to), and the variety of techniques we were asked to try out in describing/reading the cards pulled for us each week. I appreciated that class always opened by dropping in with the white fire. It made the space feel sacred and strong. I found the consistent class structure really helpful as it allowed me to create systems for myself that helped me feel well-prepared for what could come up in class. I like that you deepened our capacities in both reading the cards and structuring a reading (spreads, space, creating questions, etc.) each session. I also think you did a beautiful job of creating a welcoming space and fostering community in our class! It was incredible that many of us felt comfortable being so vulnerable with people we've only met or talked to over screens. It's a true testament to the kind of space you have curated <3”
-Zoey K.
Check out more in-depth student testimonials on the course page and get a sense why I have been so proud to continue offering this course.
When, Where & How
COURSE SCHEDULE
Sept 11 - Nov 20 / Wednesdays, 2pm pst / $450 admission (payment plans are set up with an additional $50)
Week 0 - Wednesday Sept 11, 2pm, Zoom
Introductions, Orientations & Entry points - Ritual Relationships, Interpretation Tools, The Fool, Personal Cards
Reading: Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy Introduction, The Red Read
Week 1 - Wednesday Sept 18, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture:The Magician, The Wheel of Fortune, Pages, Elemental Ace’s
Seminar: Visual readings, Significators, the Question
Reading: Red Tarot ‘One” chapter; Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to 3rd World Women Writers, by Gloria Anzaldúa
Week 2 - Wednesday Sept 25, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture :The High Priestess, Justice, Judgment, the Hanged One, Elemental Two’s
Seminar: Magnifiers, Bottom of the Deck, Reversals, Critical Questioning exercise
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Two” chapter; The Esoteric Meaning of the Twin Pillars Boaz & Joachin / audio of Toni Morrison’s Nobel Lecture in Literature
Week 3 - Wednesday Oct 2, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: The Empress, Death, Queens, Elemental Threes
Seminar: Cards of the Natal Chart/ Decanic organization of the minors.
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Three” chapter; Learning the Grammar of Animacy, Robin Wall Kimmerer/ The Colonization of Women excerpt by Marie Mies and Vandana Shiva
Week 4 - Wednesday Oct 9, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: The Emperor, Temperance, Kings, Elemental Fours
Seminar: The Four Aces Spread
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Four” chapter; “the Closet as Myth” Excerpt from De-colonizing Trans/Gender 101 by B. Binaohan
Week 5 - Wednesday, Oct 16, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: The Hierophant, The Devil, Elemental Fives
Seminar: Timing & Tarot, the Structure of a Safe & Powerful Reading
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Five” chapter; The Wounded Word: The Phenomenology of Prayer by Jean-Louis Chrétien
Week 6 - Wednesday, Oct 23, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: The Lovers, the Tower, Elemental Sixes
Seminar: Lauren’s Love Spread
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Six” chapter; World Traveling and Loving Perception by María Lugones
“Remaking Human Being: Loving Kaleidoscopic Consciousness in Helena Maria Viramontes’ Their Dogs Came with Them” By Paula M.L. Moya
Week 7 - Wednesday, Oct 30, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: The Chariot, The Star, Kings, Elemental Sevens
Seminar: Star Guides Series & Shadow Keys part 1*
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Seven” chapter; Toward a Pedagogy of Acompañamiento: Mexican Migrant Youth Writing from the Underside of Modernity by Enrique Sepulveda III
Week 8 - Wednesday, Nov 6, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: Strength, The Moon, Elemental Eights
Seminar: Star Guides & Shadow keys part 2*
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Eight” chapter; Bi bell: Spirituality and the Sexual Intellectual
Week 9 - Wednesday, Nov 13, 2pm, Zoom
Lecture: The Hermit, The Sun, Elemental Nines
Seminar: Star Guides & Shadow Keys part 3*
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Nine” chapter; Audre Lorde: Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
Week 10 - Wednesday, Nov 20, 3pm, Zoom
Lecture: The World, The Fool review, Elemental Tens
Seminar: Collective Threshold Spread
Reading: Red Tarot ‘Ten” chapter
As my style of teaching is socratic and dialogic, I will be the psychopomp facilitating our soul journey in our time together. Live classes are focused on application and skill development in reading. In the live class we cover special subjects as timing and tarot, the cards of the chart, reversals, shadow work and more! This time is for digging deeper into the week's material, sharing perspectives, conducting group readings and sharing space.
I also highly recommend purchasing Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy to accompany your learning experience. (Students will get a discount code for the book after enrolling). I am so excited to finally have my own tarot text with which to teach and accompany this course. The only other thing needed is your own tarot deck of course! Let me know if you need any recommendations, or have have any questions.
I hope to see you there!
x,
Christopher