On the sun-baked streets near Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño, 87-year-old Purita Sabornido reads worn Bicycle playing cards by the light of a single candle.
Across the city, at lifestyle markets and pop-up events, Zelina Rae Danao lays out her tarot deck. A former corporate trainer, radio DJ and event host, she brings years of communication experience to sessions under her brand, araediantlight.
The two women are separated by age, background and practice. Yet both meet clients at moments of uncertainty, offering ways to reflect on family, work, faith and the choices ahead.
Their stories do not represent every traditional healer or tarot reader in Cebu. Instead, they offer two personal views of a practice that continues to change — one rooted in inherited faith, the other shaped by study and personal boundaries.
A calling, not a career
For Purita, reading cards (pagbaraha) and traditional healing (panambal) were never career choices. According to her, they were a calling shaped by hardship and inherited spiritual practice.
Widowed at 22 and left without parents or financial support, Purita said her mother passed the calling on to her before she died. Along with a trusted deck of Bicycle cards, her mother left her a strict moral code: healing was a divine gift, not a commercial enterprise.
“I was married at 14 and widowed at 22. I had no parents left. I was all on my own. And I had no one to ask for money from so I could eat.”
Her mother’s teaching remains central to her practice: “If you treat people, never ask for money because God will not allow it.”
Purita charges P100 for a card reading and P50 for a palm reading. According to her, she still accepts less from clients who cannot afford the full amount.
“If they negotiate, saying, ‘I don’t have any other money, this is all I have,’ I say it’s okay.”
Purita describes her cards as part of “subay” (trace), a way of discerning the concerns clients bring to her. These may involve family conflict, spiritual worries or what she understands as negative energy.
Traditional healing practices in Cebu vary among communities and practitioners. Some include prayer, herbal remedies, rituals and other forms of care.
At 87, Purita attributes her continued good health to her faith and her refusal to turn her gift into a means of accumulating wealth. This is her personal belief, not a medical claim.
“My mother really said, ‘Never abandon your work because God will reward you for what you do. Do good.’ Look at me at my age. I don’t feel any sickness. I’m old but I feel fine.”
Purita said criticism does not trouble her.
“As long as for me, what I do is genuine. Whatever they think is up to them.”
A different approach
Purita’s practice begins with inheritance and obligation. Zelina began with curiosity, study and the decision to build a framework of her own.
During the quiet pause of the 2020 pandemic, Zelina began studying oracle and tarot decks. She learned the meanings, reversals and combinations of all 78 cards through sustained practice, deliberately choosing not to rely on artificial intelligence.
Her 11 years in corporate training also shaped her approach. According to Zelina, checking in with trainees taught her to listen closely and respond to people’s concerns.
“As a corporate trainer, part of my job is checking in on my trainees. I’ve learned how to counsel. Over the last 11 years, I’ve learned how to. I’m like a guidance counselor in a way.”
Zelina was describing the listening skills she developed through training, not claiming to be a licensed guidance counselor or mental-health professional.
She said she avoids medical diagnoses and legal advice. She is also cautious about questions involving another person’s private life without that person’s consent.
For Zelina, a reading should not replace a client’s judgment. Instead of presenting the cards as a fixed map of the future, she describes a session as an energy weather forecast — a way to discuss possibilities, patterns and emotional conditions.
A reading may provide a structured space for reflection. It can help a client name a concern, examine a choice or consider a next step. It is not a substitute for medical care, legal advice or professional mental-health support.
One’s experience
The difference between the two approaches becomes clearer from the client’s side. Juju Medina experienced both women’s practices, approaching each reading without fixed expectations.
Her first experience was with Zelina at a Sunday market. When asked to choose an area of her life to explore, she chose her career.
“For the Sunday market, it was actually my first time and I didn’t have any expectations. I just let her decide what she could guess about my life and she just asked me for a theme, like a portion of my life I wanted to know about.”
The reading did not feel like a new prediction to Medina. It felt like an articulation of something she had already been considering.
“So far, hearing her words was really validating on my end. Because it felt like something that had already been in your brain and you were just waiting for someone to tell you, ‘Ah okay, I should do this.’”
Her experience with Purita, whom she called Nanay, came afterward. It was also her first palm reading, a practice she associated with films and old stories.
“With Nanay, same, I really had no expectations. It was also my first time doing palm reading. Because you usually only see that in movies, right? And doing that at the heart of Cebu.”
The setting made the encounter memorable.
“It’s nice knowing that someone is doing that in Cebu and it’s also nice knowing that she has. I took it as elderly guidance. Like, if tarot reading is more like spiritual guidance, Nanay’s words felt more about elderly wisdom. It’s like listening to your grandmother but she’s a stranger.”
Faith and boundaries
Both women encounter criticism in a community where Catholic faith remains an important part of everyday life. Card readers may be misunderstood or accused of engaging in the dark arts.
Zelina recalls a passerby telling her she would burn in hell. She responded with quiet empathy, wondering whether the person might simply have been having a difficult day.
Purita takes a similar position.
“As long as for me, what I do is genuine. Whatever they think is up to them.”
Their practices differ, but their central concerns overlap. Purita uses cards as part of her “subay” practice, which she says helps her understand the spiritual and personal concerns clients bring to her. Zelina uses tarot as a framework for reflection and decision-making.
Purita follows what she understands as a divine mandate to serve, including clients who cannot pay in full, while Zelina emphasizes boundaries and personal responsibility.
Their faith also shapes their work: Purita connects her practice to prayer, candles and her mother’s teachings, while Zelina draws from her Catholic upbringing and remains open to spiritual figures such as Mama Mary, Archangel Michael, Guanyin and more divine figures.
For first-time clients, Zelina recommends asking questions for one’s greater good rather than for ego or simple confirmation.
“When you ask a question, it has to be a question for your greater good and not just your ego. I would recommend getting a tarot reading genuinely because you would like guidance or you would like to know what your next step is.”
The contrast between the two practitioners does not erase what their clients have in common. Whether seated near Sto. Niño with an 87-year-old manambal or across a table at a lifestyle pop-up with a former corporate trainer, clients often arrive with the same need: guidance during uncertainty.