The 256 ways that the 16 shells can fall, each either open or closed, are read to diagnose and solve any problem
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitask, the throwing of shells. Adverts for shell-based prophecy plaster lampposts; shell-shaking soothsayers set up stalls in malls. Adepts are pressed for predictions ahead of elections or football games—and consulted in private by participants. ., Brazil’s biggest broadcaster, was fined for airing a comedy sketch about “Cãodomblé”, a shell-reading golden retriever.
Brazil’s first shell-throwers arrived among the 5m slaves who survived the horror of being shipped across the Atlantic from west Africa. The practice continued, mixed with Catholicism, among communities of freed Yoruba. Despite centuries of repression, it still dictates the rhythm of life within theBut shell-reading has become “detached from religion”, says Augusto Waga, a divination scholar at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
The pandemic has made shell-reading more secular, and digital. As society shut down, the internet offered virtual divination stalls that could compete with the temple. On one website, a fortune teller who specialises in difficult love affairs offers a pop. For Mãe Carmem, such upstarts insult her training. You can’t train to be a doctor for three days and then dish out advice on the internet, she says.
But that does not mean tradition trumps opportunity. On New Year’s Eve, a busy time for fortune-tellers, videos of Mãe Carmem’s readings appear on YouTube. She takes live radio call-ins. The human connection with theThis article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline"She sells seer shells"