Maritess Zurbano is a magician in more ways than just occupation. Maritess, author and co-creator of “Decolonized Tarot” is the only Filipina-American professional magician in history (as of 2021) as noted on her website! In continuing her work in the world of magic, the “Decolonized Tarot” deck and guidebook represent how Maritess sees magic in the world around us, recognizing that magic is real, and has created a way for tarot-users to connect with it. The “Decolonized Tarot” deck represents people of different countries, mostly Filipino backgrounds, of different skin tones, ages, genders, abilities, The “Decolonized Tarot” book is meant to be read with any Rider-Waite type deck out there. “Decolonized Tarot” is magic itself and is powerful in its ability to light and visibility to Filipinx people.
I had the privilege to sit down with her over coffee in Wallingford this March, just a few weeks before the official pre-launch of the animated e-book and illustrated guide book. I wanted to learn more about her background and her journey creating “Decolonized Tarot”. I wanted to listen about what dreams she had for this work and what intentions she had set out with the animated and illustrated books becoming available to all May 1st, 2025. The power of conversation and connecting with others was made obvious during our conversation and this makes the opportunity to write about our conversation with her even more of an honor.
Alongside her identity as a professional magician, Maritess is a Filipina-American woman, entrepreneur, author, playwright, performer, single mom, survivor of magic, of the white male dominated world of Las Vegas magic, of stage 3 breast cancer, the Catholic church and of the Illinois suburbs. Experiencing this world in the ways she has, and in the forms it has been, has been a major influence on her decision to initiate and pursue this project to create the “Decolonizing Tarot” book and deck. Maritess is motivated by decolonizing her body, rather her whole being, and helping decolonize the communities she is in. This is how she found Cathleen Abalos, the illustrator, who is also invested in decolonizing work, and Angelique De Castro, the animator, who are both Filipina-American women. Maritess noted how decolonizing oneself is not an easy task, especially among Filipinos. Filipinos have been colonized for generations and the effects are more deeply ingrained in our thoughts, beliefs, and decisions than we can’t often see them.
Maritess, after connecting with Cathleen, in the post-Trump round-one and COVID-19 pandemic world, had felt that fear of what was to come and felt the sense of urgency to do this now. She thought it was very important that she decolonized her magic because as a professional magician “since the 1900s”, it felt like she’d “been operating under the auspices of the white male mediocre occupation”. She asked herself, what have I learned and what can I contribute to it? What she’d learned was that everyone has magic. She said to me “Magic’s not about fooling people.” She brought up how childbirth amazes people, and it isn’t fooling anyone. Mothers can make milk appear out of their bodies, fooling nobody. Maritess said this is all magic and that the idea of ‘fooling’ is another capitalist idea. She said this idea is “like I know something you don’t, like secrets.” She has been getting increasingly frustrated with being told what to do by the white American male, saying that in terms of “my magic, my money, my body, my health” it wasn’t right. Maritess continued to say “I want to reframe the future” and she and her team did so in the ways they innovated the animated and illustrated guidebooks, highlighting different Filipino peoples, skin tones, genders, abilities, and ages. She wanted to create the future not just for who is usually seen and highlighted in art spaces. She wanted to bring us into the future, technologically, with tarot. She noted that the animated version, offered with the physical illustrated book and tarot cards, allows the reader to immerse and engage with these materials in a new and different way. “They’re just really fun. I wanted to make fortune telling move forward” she said.
As she is showing me the physical tarot cards and clicking through the animated guidebook, she called me into this space to see what “decolonizing” looked like in this art given that while tarot has its strong historical roots, many perceptions and assumptions about it today are that it is something other-worldly, not to be messed with, witchy, if you will. She said, “You notice the images are not scary, right? So this is not about threats, which is what patriarchy and capitalism is all about.” Tarot isn’t about “do this, or else”. Maritess wanted her deck and books to be very Filipino, representing our ancestors and our land by the strong presence of air, space, light, plants, and water. When reflecting on the production of the art, Maritess shared, “I asked Cathleen to be a collaborator because she’s a great artist, but also she’s really into atmospheric scenes. I absolutely stressed that everybody had to have… a range (of skintones). I want people to have fun.” She wanted all Filipino people to be seen in this deck. One card that she shared with me was apparently based on her, during chemotherapy. This demonstrates how much this project was founded from a space of curiosity, advocacy, vulnerability, honesty, and honor of ancestral roots.
Being a former Catholic, Maritess honors that many people are led astray or misled in religion and many are searching for other forms of spirituality. This was a driving factor in wanting to create this project as well. Tarot moreso comes from this Western mentality and aesthetic. This is what they were working with, so instead of all white people in the art, it is of people of different ethnicities, but mostly Filipino origins. In the art, the viewer will see people in Filipino costuming, Filipino swords, Filipino tattoos, etc. Maritess stressed that she is “tired of trying to fit into the binary”. She wanted something Filipino that could reach the wide diaspora we are. There were so many important aspects and energies that she wanted to be honored in this art, all that of the pandemic and surviving it, getting and being cured of cancer, motherhood, all the emotions of life, and so much more. Maritess talked about taking any opportunity to destress very seriously and this is what she thinks the role of art is. She said “I think the role of art is to destress you, make you feel good about the future and the present”. I asked Maritess who she would want these materials to reach. She told me, “Everybody. Everybody who is curious, tarot card collectors, people who are curious about tarot cards, people who are curious about their spirituality, about learning, about traditions… super radical people who really do want to see a change in the culture of capitalism, what’s available to us, what’s available to access…”
Reaching so many people and creating community has been one of her biggest wins during the process to production. She shared how she was given a lot of pushback from people. She said “Even the vocabulary, if you go to decolonizedtarot.com, I dare say the word ‘white’, like it’s going against white norms and magic.” With considering who might be put off by this, Maritess asserted that was the point. “There are plenty of people that have to go through all of these hoops as an artist,” she said, and this fuels her drive to be an artist. She is pushing back on these barriers, taking up that space, and is being louder in our presence as Filipino people. People were trying to talk her out of using the word “decolonized” in the title of the project, saying it’s very political, but that is her goal as an artist- to decolonize magic from the white male domain. She continued to say “This is a fine line between art and entertainment. It’s definitely art because I’m making people think about it. But it’s also entertainment because I want it to be accessible to people.” Building community is so important and while it has been a challenge to do so she says, we “just gotta keep the work going. Especially right now, find each other and have that strength in that community.”
I asked Maritess what advice she had for someone curious about, or ready to take action in, decolonizing their mind and body. She reminds creators that things don’t have to be perfect. If you have an idea that would take up more space than usual, do it. For folks curious about tarot, she suggests “start looking at the Decolonized Tarot book and deck, or whatever you have accessible to you. Just start reading it for your friends, just for fun. And get into your spirituality, no matter what it is…” She shared an old saying that “you don’t know who you are unless you know where you’ve been”, emphasizing the importance of speaking the presence of our ancestors and claiming our identities. Believing in something is healthy, she says, whether that’s your religion, your spirituality, your agnosticism, or anything else.
Given the state of our world that is attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion work and black and brown communities, I asked Maritess what she would want to share with our communities. She encourages us to be radical, to feel the sense of urgency that we need, and to speak the presence of our ancestry. She said “I’m not going to sugar coat it, it’s terrifying right now… I want everyone to be radical… It’s really important to resist in little ways.” She pointed out that even wearing a t-shirt, like the Pinay hoody I was wearing during our interview, is even an act of resistance. Maritess encourages us to go out of our way to “stop giving your money to corporate entities. (Do) something where you are taking up some space. Something like you’re supporting your local business, like you are giving money to the community, you are joining community groups…”
Maritess wants everyone to know that magic is real, and everyone has magic. Our emotions are magic – feeling all parts of life from orgasm to death. She said “We know the invisible is real because there is always chemistry between people” or we think of someone and they call, for example. Maritess’ message that I want to share loudly is to look for the magic around you. As a person holding minoritized and oppressed identities and backgrounds, take up your space. Be loud in your pride of your ancestral heritage. Being a fellow Filipina-American woman, believer of magic, tarot reader, and survivor of today’s capitalist, misogynistic, racist, ableist, world, I received her messages to re-center and see magic everywhere with an open heart.
There is power in breaking societal expectations that oppress and shame your ancestral roots and beliefs. She reminds us that by honoring your heritage and ancestry, by reconnecting with yourself and the earth, by reconnecting with your spirituality whatever that may be, that is how we move forward. The future belongs to everyone. As of May 1st, for APIA Heritage month, you can visit decolonizedtarot.com to preorder your guidebook and your deck! Also on her website is information on virtual tarot readings and information on other events she is attending or hosting. There, you can sign up for the mailing list to receive updates. I leave you with her question – Since we know magic, the invisible, the unimaginable, are real, what are we going to do with it?
