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78 Degrees of Wisdom, authors, books, brainstorming, character development, characters, Christopher Vogler, Corrine Kenner, Jenna Reynolds, Joan Bunning, Joely Sue Burkhart, journal, journaling, Learning the Tarot, Maria Zannini, plotting, Rachel Pollack, Raelyn Barclay, readers, reading, recommended reads, tarot, Tarot for Writers, world building, writers, writing
Welcome to my series of Using Tarot in Writing based on Jenna Reynolds’ Tarot spreads. If you’re just joining the series, you may want to catch up on the earlier installments before continuing with this one.
Part one, Introduction
Part two, Plotting and Brainstorming
Part three, Character Circle
Part four, Character Creation
Part five, The Hero’s Journey
Part six, Creating a World
Part 7, In other words, Tarot for the Layman
Celtic Tarot The Lover Card
I’m going to kick it off with a quote from Christopher Vogler (you can read the rest of his comment on the The Hero’s Journey post):
I saw it as an ancient book, perhaps Egyptian, that had its covers torn off so that its pages could be arranged in any order, sort of like post-modern life and our web-like experience of the Internet.
I LOVE that image. It appeals to me as both an avid reader and an aspiring author.
During the course of this series some questions came up which prompted the addition of this post to the series. I also added a Tarot section to the sidebar to further assist you.
When I do a spread I like to lay it out on a black cloth. Certainly not a must but I find it helps the images to stand out better, clearer. Some people will say you should be grounded before working with the cards, be on the ground floor, in a quiet space, etc. Not going to happen in my house, LOL. The most important thing is to approach Tarot with an open mind and take notes.
My friend Maria Zannini posed these questions:
So how much of Tarot do you have to know ahead of time?
I knew nothing when I started. I’d never held a deck or even had a reading done. (Still haven’t had a reading done for that matter.) All I had was a vague unease about Tarot. (Minister’s daughter, what can I say.)
I’ve been working with the Tarot for a year now, all self taught. So you don’t have to be an expert with Tarot to use it creatively 🙂
Is there a meaning to each card or is it more an intuitive interpretation by the person reading the cards?
I think it’s a little of both. To expand my original answer, Tarot can be used as springboard for your ideas and impressions, allowing your intuition to tell you stories. Much like Mr. Vogler’s comment above. Each deck usually comes with a little booklet which will give the basics, the meanings that deck creator put to the cards. You can also look up meanings on any number of websites and in books. With a little basic study of the symbolism on the cards you can add in your own interpretations. Read the name of the card. Does it spark anything for you? Look at the number, it can tell you if you are at the beginning, middle, or end of a progression of events. Does one symbol stand out to you? And if you have a deck with images you can work with just that, taking your inspiration from what you see in the images. Describe or free write what you see in the image. If you were inside the picture, what would you hear or smell, feel or taste? When you look at the color scheme does a certain mood come to mind?
I have found a combination of noting meanings and my visual impressions works best for most spreads. One tool I like to use with Tarot is mind-mapping which I talked about in the Character Circle post.
I found this Tarot Card Worksheet from Tarot Studies really helpful when I first started working with the cards.
And as I’ve mentioned throughout this series you really should invest in Tarot for Writers
My first reader, and best friend, asked these questions:
RWS High Priestess Card
What is the best deck for writing related stuff?
The principles of Tarot work pretty much the same no matter what deck you use (I recommend using a deck with images on all the cards) but you’ll find that most books talk about the Rider-Waite deck or one of its clones. I don’t own it myself though I suspect I will at some point. I’ve included links to three of the versions:
The Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack
Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
Do you have a question in your mind ahead of time or do the cards lead you?
Well, both.
As my friend Joely Sue Burkhart talked about in her post, Writing with Tarot, Jenna Reynolds has taught her several tricks to use Tarot for inspiration. Recently, Joely was struggling with the theme of a piece. She started out by writing down her concerns then pulling a card at random and thought about what it could mean.
Most of the spreads I did within this series fall under the second part of this question, letting the cards direct me.
How do you know how many cards to lay down and/or turn over for a complete answer?
The simplified answer is you lay out however many cards you need for the designated spread.
The beauty of Tarot is that you can lay out as many or few cards as you need. You can do a simple Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How reading of a single card. (Example: 5 W’s & an H Card Exercise) Lay out three cards for a simple Goal, Motivation, and Conflict reading for your character and/or story. (First card=Goal, Second card=Motivation, and Third card=Conflict) Or lay out (ten) eleven cards for a classic Celtic Cross spread whether you’re outlining a story or creating a character. (Basic spread: The Celtic Cross — I refer you back to Tarot for Writers for the writing version.)
And you can always add a qualifying card to clarify any card you already laid down.
Now, if you’re interested in learning Tarot in more detail and/or to do readings to apply to life you may want to check out the Learn Tarot website or buy the book Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners
Additionally, I’ve seen this book Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot
- Do you have additional questions?
- Do you have Tarot tips?
- What has been your experience with Tarot?
You may also enjoy:
Tarot Journal for getting to know the cards.
Raelyn Barclay 
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What a great post! So far, I haven’t had much luck with “spreads” exactly. I usually either a). pull a card at random and think about it. Jot whatever springs to mind. Draw another. Repeat until inspiration strikes. (Usually it’s a common element or theme that keeps reappearing — like a circle) or b). do the 3 card “past, present, future” for a specific character. That can really help me get into past motivations and possible conflicts to explore.
Hi Joely,
Love the three card spreads — goal, motivation, conflict; past, present,future; reaction, dilemma, choice; beginning, middle, end — there is strength in 3’s. Something clicked with me when I read your post and I’ll definitely be giving your technique a try.
Thanks for stopping by Joely! 🙂
I have tons of questions–but most of them probably require a demonstration. 🙂 Are some tarot readers more accurate than others? In other words, do you need some level of clairvoyance to get the best reading?
And for using them to build stories, is it better to be very specific in your question, or will the spread offer you more options if the question is more general?
PS I owe you an email. I’ve been walking around like a zombie all day. I’ll write you soon.
Hi Maria,
Not ever having had a reading done, I can’t really answer the clairvoyance question 🙂 I would assume readers who have practiced their craft longer would be more accurate but whether they also have some level of clairvoyance… I just don’t know.
For writing, I think it depends on what you’re searching for.
Say you already have your character mostly developed but something’s missing, they aren’t leaping off the page, then having a specific question in mind will more likely net you better results. Like what Joely was saying about drawing a card and thinking on it, repeating until inspiration strikes.
If you’re in the brainstorming stages, I think being open with a spread is more likely to help. Like I mentioned, I like thinking of the spreads in terms of a mind-map. Each card is at the center of its own bubble, cloud, or whatever you use in your mind-mapping process and your impressions, the card meanings, etc. around the main bubble. After exhausting that stage, I’ll take different colored pens and connect the bubbles which often reveals an interesting yin and yang to the spread.
For example the mind-map/spread I did for the characters of the fantasy piece I talked about in the Character Circle post — is on a 16×20 sheet of paper otherwise I’d scan it and post it — has Gaea’s character circle in the center, in each corner is the character circle for one of her three heroes and the antagonist. I used a different color for each person and connected the bubbles. It was so full of ahh-ha moments it still haunts me and I haven’t really worked on that piece since March.
Hope that helps Maria. Thanks for stopping by 🙂 and no worries on the email, plenty of time.
Yay! This is the post I was waiting for to see how it would all begin/work together. Now to buy a tarot deck! I was also glad to see you didn’t have any experience with it when you first started, not even a reading, because I don’t either.
Look for a deck with images on all the cards — one of the downsides to my Angel deck is that lack of images on all the cards but that deck has a history that makes it special in other ways 🙂 — and images that speak to you. Try to handle the cards before buying them if you can Erin. I ordered my first deck from Amazon and, despite having seen all the images online, it took some time to be inspired by them.
Of course that could have just been my inexperience. The cards are larger than a standard deck and with 78 cards a Tarot deck is also bigger, it well take some getting use to.
You may find a deck with images counter to your genre inspire you more, or maybe it’s the mythos on the cards (my Celtic deck for me), or perhaps it’s the artwork. I can see collecting Tarot decks becoming an obsession for me, LOL
I hope you have fun. Thanks for stopping by Erin 🙂
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