Who is Djenra?

Djenra Ta-Rotah Ir-n Wa
Observed in the Orb

Djenra was raised by parents who migrated to Mount Vernon, New York from North Carolina. She was born with "gifts" that upset her ability to have a "normal" childhood, but she was fortunate to have people around her who helped her to survive until puberty.

In her early twenties, attended classes held afterhours at the famous Tree of Life on 125^th Street in Harlem, some taught by the late Hoodoo Doctor John Moore.

Education
She graduated from Fordham University at Lincoln Center receiving a B.A. in Black Literature. She took a job with the U.S. Postal Service which she held for 15 years while she raised her daughter as a single mother.

Djenra was blessed to hear the First World lecture series where the Elders of American Africana studies and research such as the late Dr. J.H. Clarke, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, and Los Angeles psychiatrist Dr. Richard King spoke.

Travels
Djenra made her pilgrimage to Egypt in 1988 with the emminent Dr. Ben. A former member of ASCAC, she traveled to Ghana in 1989 with Dr. Leonard Jeffries of City College in New York.

Tarot

In the early 1990's she resumed private Tarot studies with a Master Diviner who also happened to be one of the elder African American priests in the New York City area. It was during this time period that she was introduced to the Afro-Cuban Palo and La Regla Lukumi culture.

When her formal Tarot studies concluded she was certain she had mastered her subject. It had been a long road from the day she cut school at twelve, went down to Greenwich Village on the subway and purchased her first deck of cards.

Initiations

Djenra's first initiation was done in Manhattan circa 1993. She was taken into the Afro-Cuban lineage of Palo Mayombe. She then encountered the teachings of Kongo scholar Dr. Fu -Kiau Bunseki who was lecturing in the U.S. about the African source of the Palo traditions.

Djenra *crossed over* and took her Warriors and Elekes in the new branch of African American Ifa in 1995, but by 1996 had returned to the Afro-Cuban lineages and was initiated into Palo
Kimbisa.

In March of the same year she traveled to Havana, Cuba and received the mysteries of Orisa Oya, hence her on-line alias- Djenra WindWalker. In January of 2002 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Djenra took initiation, her final one for this incarnation at the rank of Mambo.

Art
Djenra has taken courses at the Woodstock School of Art. She does collage, assemblage and multi-media art. She sporadically works to develop some proficiency in Japanese brush work and calligraphy.

Healing Arts
Djenra is a Reiki II practitoner. She has found that Reiki is not only for healing but originated out of the Japanese ancestral practices of it's founder and thus is an aid to "spiritual evolution" a part of it's function not usually dealt with here in America.

Writing
Djenra does poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and fables. She has self-published a book on African Diasporic religions and is currently working to complete another in that area. She is putting together a manual for practitioners of the African based religions who use Tarot to divine.

A major contributer of Tarot deck reviews her last review on the Tarot Lukumi can be found on the Tarot Passages website in the review archives: http://www.tarotpassages.com

Djenra, (pronounced genre) is happily approaching her 40th year of working with Tarot and still loves it! She tunes up with Reiki, real jazz and roots music, sees herself as an Afro-esoteric film/scroll decoder, & loves to watch black and white subliminal free movies . She calls her body of art, poetry, writing and research The Orb of Djenra.

Email her at: djenra@verizon.net

Top card is the Orisa Sango from

The Tarot of the Orishas

Tarot Lukumi is available at:

Please remember that all text is copyrighted and not to be cut and pasted or otherwise lifted from this e-zine. The illustrations on this site are NOT my own. They were collected from various places on the Net.