Remember.
Reconnect.
Read.
Playing Card Divination: An Ancestral Introduction is a 4-week intensive for Black people who want to deepen their ancestral practices through close study of playing card divination.
Deepen your connection to ancestral ways of knowing through playing card reading. Empower your practice through the creation of rituals designed to support your intuition.
inside the course
Weeks
This year, the course has 4 weeks of class instead of 3 to make space for more connections, cards, and questions.
students served
Once enrolled in one year, are invited to take the course again each year at no additional cost—-so last year’s students may be your classmates (and you may be next year’s students’ classmates, too!)
Access
Class recordings are available after the entire class ends. They’ll be updated each year, as long as the course is taught.
Have you been looking for guidance in your Divination practice?
Move from not knowing where to start with a practice of playing card reading to feeling comfortable, resourced and confident when you come to your cards.
Stop feeling like you're just turning cards to creating beautiful containers to read in that keep you and your community more safe.
Gain opportunities to read for others and receive feedback to grow your practice through offering readings to your peers in a learning space.
$295 for lifetime access
Deepen your connection to ancestral ways of knowing through playing card reading.
Playing Card Divination: An Ancestral Introduction introduces you to a technology that reflects the urgency of this moment
Unlike tarot, playing cards can provide clear yes/no answers. They can alert you of nearby danger. They can provide an ancestral link that wisdom passes through.
Yet most courses and books about playing card divination are written by and for white people. Although historically many Black readers read playing cards, few readers teach it today. It can be difficult to find a way to learn playing card reading in ancestral ways.
Because of this, many Black people don't get the opportunity to read playing cards. That's a shame because as you'll find if you take the class, they have a grandmotherly voice and temperament. They are truly one of the Blackest methods of card divination.
By learning methods of invocation, citation, and gratitude, participants will grow more comfortable in their role as a reader. Class lasts three hours with a 15 minute break in the middle. Every session will offer participants an opportunity to read for someone else.
What Playing Card Divination: An Ancestral Introduction Students say…
L, 2025 Student
“This class was my first point of entry for forming an understanding of just how it is these cards can work, and pulling a 13 Moon spread each week has become an activity that helps me communicate with my ancestors and guides more readily.”
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“I truly appreciated how you structured and taught this introductory course on playing cards, Cyrée, thank you so much! Although I've been divining with tarot and oracle cards for a few years now, I have always felt drawn to and curious about playing cards. While I didn't really use playing cards much when I was growing up, I was always captivated by watching the people in my family get together to do so. This class was my first point of entry for forming an understanding of just how it is these cards can work, and pulling a 13 Moon spread each week has become an activity that helps me communicate with my ancestors and guides more readily. I am becoming more and more appreciative of how this particular divination practice helps me to get out of my own way much quicker than I do at my typical pace; it truly is a tool I'm wielding to liberate myself and I am eager to continue deepening my understanding and interpretive abilities. I am equally grateful to have been granted a scholarship to participate in this learning experience and am so excited for future learning opportunities of yours!”
C, 2025 Student
“This was such a transformative experience! I appreciate the community that was built for those of us physically present AND the ancestors and spirit guides who show up for us.”
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“This was such a transformative experience! I appreciate the community that was built for those of us physically present AND the ancestors and spirit guides who show up for us. I'm coming away with real tools, a deeper connection to spirit and other Black practitioners, a better understanding of myself, and hope for what the future holds now that I can be in conversation with it. Thank you Cyrée! You are a gift!”
A, 2025 Student
Cyrée brings decades of experience as a reader and teacher, sharing invaluable information, working knowledge, and frameworks of the cards from a perspective that has been gained from practice.
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“This course was a beautiful introduction to playing card divination from a Black cultural and historical perspective. Cyrée brings decades of experience as a reader and teacher, sharing invaluable information, working knowledge, and frameworks of the cards from a perspective that has been gained from practice. Cyrée curates a welcome and warm atmosphere for inquiry and study that both new and seasoned readers can benefit from. This course will catalyze your playing card divination journey or help hone your existing skills toward interpreting inevitable futures and seeing reality clearly through the cards, a vital skill during increasing times of precarity. Cyrée challenges students to stretch their intuitive capacities and connect with the unique voice of playing cards while finding their own reading style.”
Who This Class is for
Black people who want to understand the art of playing card divination through a Black feminist lens.
Black people who already have some experience working in, or learning about African Diasporic Traditions, including those who are beginning their journey.
Black people who want to connect with others around card divination and ancestral spiritual traditions.
Black folks who feel like the imagery of tarot is no longer serving their practice, never served their practice, or who would like to deepen their relationship with playing card reading alongside a tarot practice.
It’s not a fit if…
You are are not Black people of the African diaspora, even if you are involved in ADRs and ATR—-this is a Hoodoo-centric course, though it is open to all people of Black or African parentage—-and no one else.
You’re joining to enforce Christian supremacy on others
You’re Black but you’re working exclusively in traditions outside of ADRs and ATRs such as non-Black folk traditions, Wicca, ceremonial magic, etc.
We don't tolerate colorism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc, so don't bring that shit over here.
$295 for lifetime access
Deepen your connection to ancestral ways of knowing through playing card reading.
Here’s what makes playing card divination: An ancestral introduction a great choice…
THE COMMUNITY
You’ll have opportunities to converse, inquire, and of course, read for and get readings from, other students who will become your peers. Last year’s class made a contact sheet so folks could keep in touch!
THE CURRICULUM
I have read for thousands of clients over the last 25 years, and the methods I teach are the ones I use. It’s a practical course that combines information and practice to help you learn tangible divination skills in a short amount of time.
THE PRACTICE
Without taking an intensive course, it can be hard to discern whether or not you are ready to read for others—in this course you will do three weeks of reading for others, interpreting what you see, and getting feedback from me, other students, and yourself!
Every student gets a paperback copy of Playing Card Divination: An Ancestral Introduction
Week by week
Introduction to jokers + Aces
black cards
Red cards
Intensive q+A special workshop
Info from my students
Click play on the video below to hear what my former students have to say
Dionne-Obadiah, Former Queer Tarot Mentee
“Queer Tarot Mentorship is a gift to the gifted who have praying for an opportunity to finely tune their skills. I went in knowing I was called to begin a public tarot/divination service but felt a tinge of self-doubt that could only be quelled with reputable training and deep study. Within this mentorship, I felt as if I was able to learn the skills and gain the confidence to safely read tarot for the public within a container that welcomed my whole self and ever-curious nature. I’m eternally grateful for this mentorship and Cyrée Jarelle for imparting his knowledge and deep care for tarot and our communities.”
Meet Your Instructor, Cyree Jarelle Johnson
I’m a rootworker, diviner, clinical herbalist and poet who has helped queers, leftists, and otherwise marginalized folks connect to the divine for the last 25 years -- and I've been reading playing cards for about a third of that time.
I apply my methods. I don’t just talk about how hoodoo, divination, and rootwork are part of movements — I’ve integrated them into every movement of which I’ve been a part.
Still unsure if Intuitive Strategies Community is a good fit?
I’m happy to answer any relevant questions you may have. You can get in touch with me at the button below!