New Orleans Voodoo Tarot - Seven of Fire
Artwork by Sallie Ann Glassman, Book by Louis Martinie
Deck/Book set copyright 1992 Destiny Books/Inner Traditions Ltd.

Card: 7 of Fire; Erzulie La Flambeau

Description: A muscular woman in pink with a fierce scowl on her face dances through a swirling haze of green and gold smoke. She holds a dagger in each hand, and golden flames shoot out of her piercing eyes. Under her bare feet she tramples ears of corn, grinding the kernels into flour.

The Lwa (spirits) of the Haitain Voodoo pantheon are classified into "Nations": Rada, Petro, and Congo. The Rada Lwa are considered "cool", bearers of a calm, peaceful, ordered, formal energy. The Petro Lwa are considered "hot", bearers of a chaotic, passionate, disruptive energy. The Congo fall between these two extremes and can "work" in either the hot or the cool realms.

Erzulie La Flambeau is the fiery "hot" Petro manifestation of the spirit of Love, this card is the embodiment of the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Her fire and passion have created an overwhelming rage, her dance is a dance of destruction. She grinds the corn under her feet in anger, but out of this act of violence comes flour, the transformation of raw food into a staple agricultural product. Rage can be all consuming and devour us, or out of disorder and chaos can come the creation of sustenance and the food of life.

From the BWB: "Erzulie La Flambeau burns with the fires of an overwhelming passion. Her rage rips the fabric of existence ... she is the final resting place for all such emotions. In her heart they flower, in her actions they are spent. Destruction must often precede construction."

Meaning: Forceful action rising out of overwhelming rage, passion and fire. The will to transform anger into action, destruction into creation.

My take: With an important presidential election coming up here in the USA, this card reminds me of the bumper sticker "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention". Turn that rage into political action!

ELEMENT: Fire
TREE OF LIFE: Netzach
COLORS: Pink, Red
SACRIFICE: Cornmeal, Jewelry dusted with gunpowder

Axe'
Kathy