Botanical Tarot
Images courtesy of the artist
Botanical Tarot is a series of 60 illustrations inspired by the visual universe of esoteric soaps used in folk medicine to treat physical and spiritual ailments, as well as to invoke protection, love, prosperity, and fortune. The project stems from a deeply personal and transformative experience.
In 2020, after suffering an eye condition, I began visiting various botánicas and healers in New York in search of relief. At Mi Santa, a botánica in Sunset Park, I was diagnosed with “mal de ojo,” or “evil eye”—a condition that, according to traditional belief systems, implies the loss or displacement of the soul. As part of the treatment, I was prescribed ritual baths using specific soaps—such as Arrasa Brujería (“Witchcraft Remover”) or Contra el Espanto (“Against Fright”)—accompanied by prayers printed on their packaging.
This experience sparked a fascination with these everyday yet symbolically rich objects. Drawn to their iconography—vivid colors, miraculous imagery, ornate typography, and promises printed on glossy paper—I began to collect them, eventually acquiring 60. Their wrappers became, for me, a visual and energetic archive: a graphic language that expresses belief systems, desires, and spiritual memory within migrant communities living in urban contexts.
Events
The public event will take place on September 6 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Medicine, Sustainability, and Migration
Organized in collaboration with Herbacura, this gathering will focus on community health, food sovereignty, and healing practices rooted in migrant experiences. During the event, Herbacura will distribute medicinal plants to members of the migrant community who regularly attend the church, as a gesture of care, reciprocity, and symbolic exchange.
Throughout the day, Cinthya Santos Briones will document the event through photography and by collecting stories, memories, and ancestral knowledge about the plants that have accompanied people through migration, grief, and healing.
The event will also feature a collective conversation on health and food sovereignty in migrant contexts, with the participation of:
- Antonia Pérez, herbalist and farmer, founder of Herbacura
- Ana, a migrant woman from Mexico who runs Angels Farm with her family in upstate New York, where they grow medicinal plants and organic vegetables
- [Name TBC], scholar specializing in food sovereignty and health in migrant communities
This event aims to create a space for intergenerational and cross-border exchange, where herbal knowledge, cultivation practices, and migrant memories are honored as forms of resistance, care, and rootedness.
Poster by Abygai Peña
Photo courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of Annabelle Heckler
Image by Daniel OBrien
Cinthya Santos Briones