Let’s say you’ve been dabbling with using Tarot cards for your writing and you’ve been pulling one card at a time – great!! Looking at one card can help you gain insight, get you out of your own head, and spark ideas but by adding a second (or even third) card, you can take your writing from pretty awesome to freaking amazing!
Look at each card individually first
Grab your favorite Tarot deck, shuffle and pull one card at random. Spend some time looking at that card and see what comes up for you. Look at the background, foreground, what the “character” of the card is doing, colors, animals, etc. Note or write down everything you can think of.
Now, pull the next card and do the same thing. Spend some time and note all the things about this card as it stands without thinking about the first card. Again, look at the background, the foreground, and the character. Write it all down.
Watch the video below to see real world examples using one of my favorite Tarot decks for creative writing.
Look at the cards together
Here’s where the magic comes in. Put the two cards together and start looking at what’s the same about each card. Do they both have water elements? Are there similar colors? Does each card have animals? Are they both in the same suit? Is the character facing the same direction? Anything and everything that’s the same gets noticed first.
Then take note of what’s different. Is one card more warm tones while the 2nd card is more cool tones? Does one have lots of animals while the other is pretty barren? You can notice anything that catches your eye that’s different about the cards.
You can then assign meaning to those things based on your writing style or genre or just what strikes your fancy. If you’re trying to get help writing a scene, let that guide you to what’s more important. Like I tell people, there is no wrong answer – there is just YOUR answer. So write everything down and start connecting the dots.
Have fun
Here’s where the fun comes in – start writing by putting them into a scene together. They can be attending the same party, waiting for the bus, be co-workers, sitting at a bar – seriously the sky’s the limit here. Pick something that works for your genre or a setting you like and start from there. You can type all of this, handwrite, or turn on your phone and record yourself and then get it transcribed or type it up later.
OR another fun writing activity is to start the action on one card and finish it on the other. For example, let’s say you pulled a Queen and a King card. You could start with whatever’s happening
Try adding more cards
This is something you can do with multiple cards as well. Just follow the same steps – look at each card individually, then look at them together – what’s the same, what’s different, and then group them together and start writing!
Things to think about
If you pull a card that doesn’t have a person or character on it, can you still use the card? Sure, just use elements from the card to either create a character or add to the scene – you can combine the elements of both cards to create one perfect setting, one weird character, or one conflict that you can then use.
It’s usually helpful, before you start, to decide if you want to write a scene, create a character, or if you just need some inspiration to get around writer’s block. It’s helpful, but not needed if you just want to have some fun and see what comes up for you – again, there is no wrong answer, there is only YOUR answer and your answer is beautiful – and so are you!
Did you find this helpful? You might enjoy my signature course, Turn on the Tap, happening this June – so join the waitlist by clicking here to find out more ways to use Tarot with your writing, especially for ways to deal with and get unstuck if you are dealing with writer’s block.
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