Give Me 15 Minutes: Part Two*
Unlocking Creativity with Tarot & Oracle Cards: A Non-'Woo-Woo' Guide
If you’re new to The Rebel MFA Way, welcome! This is a bit of a cross-genre essay around writing.
[NOTE: Your email provider may truncate this essay, be sure to click on “keep reading” to read the entire piece.]
If you missed Part One:
*GOOD NEWS! This one is actually under fifteen minutes!
We’ve arrived at Part Two of this series all about practical ways to use Tarot and Oracle cards for Creativity (without the “woo”).
As I mentioned in Part One, there were just too many great examples to share for a single post so here we are with another bunch of case studies. I hope you’ve enjoyed these roundup posts as much as I’ve enjoyed digging them out of the cobwebby corners of my hard drive and card reading journals.
Let’s get on with it, shall we?
Practical ways to use Tarot and Oracle cards for Creativity (without the “woo”)
Cards for Every Season
My favorite way to use seasonal decks like The Ostara Tarot and the hugely popular Season of the Witch deck series is to use them according to my inner seasons. However, I will often use the “big” seasonal decks during the actual season (Samhain and Yule, mostly) to add some witchy decor to my desk. The truth is — you can use decks specifically for the artwork and/or vibe it gives you! That’s reason enough, in my opinion. But here are some examples of seasonal decks:
Spooky Season Decks
You can also use the cards to make very serious and practical decisions — like which scary movie you should watch. ;) One of my favorite decks for this is the Classic Horror Oracle deck by Ricardo Diseño. Pull a card, watch the movie — easy peasy!
[Note: In my last essay, I gave examples of a few pop culture decks like The Movie Tarot — same concept applies to decks like that too. Use the cards to guide your entertainment for the evening!]
Campfire Stories
One of my favorite “spooky” decks is Todd Alcott’s Horror Tarot because it’s so unique! Made to look like vintage posters (some recognizable, most not), the entire deck is based on a fictional world that Alcott developed. There are fictional horror movie studios and films, horror book publishing and novels, horror artists and their paintings, horror comic book creators and graphic novels.
It’s so fun to make a “spooky campfire” story by combining the cards and their plots.
Good Ole Fashioned Inspiration
As a writer who usually writes in the horror, mystery and thriller genres — these decks are fantastic for storyboarding, character inspo, mashup possibilities, scene enhancers, etc. I have far too many horror, spooky, macabre decks to show off here, but if you’re interested in seeing more — check out my public deck database. Built over many years, it’s ever evolving and growing, but there are plenty of decks to check out! Here are a few more fun examples of spooky decks:
Business Related
I am obsessed with integrating card decks into my business in all ways. I’ve used them for reviewing my year, planning for the next year, product creation, product post-mortems, one-off business decisions, advice, etc. And there are a lot of spreads dedicated to business that you can find on Pinterest or Google. There are also decks on the market that are specifically made for business but I don’t own very many of those, I find them a bit stifling.
Mind Mapping
I’m a huge fan of mind-mapping in general, but I’ve found that mind-mapping with the cards can be such a creative and fun way to brainstorm anything! In fact, this practice is so potent that I’m working on a entire piece that is dedicated to mind mapping and storytelling because I’ve found that it can be an insanely powerful way to brainstorm, but also to add layers upon layers to your story.
Here is an example from a mind-mapping session I did around what I wanted to know about this season of my life:
Self-Growth
To me, this is the most practical of ALL of the suggestions I’ve listed in Part One and here in Part Two. Why? Because every single person could stand to look inward a bit more and question what is mirrored back. You don’t have to believe in anything mystical, woo or magical to look at an image or word and be curious about it. Ultimately, that is always what the cards are doing for us — reflecting back our perceptions and beliefs and asking us to get curious about it.
Below are some examples of decks and spreads I’ve used in the past to work with my trauma, shadows and growth-opportunities.
Creating a story based on cards in the deck
I saved this one for last because, it’s not actually all that practical but it is INSANELY fun. And there are two distinct ways I love to approach creating stories from decks.
APPROACH ONE:
The first approach is to use the cards as characters, setting, theme and create a story of the deck.
The minute the Magick and Mediums oracle deck landed in my hands, I was hooked. There is something about the artwork in this particular deck that made me see very specific visions of the characters and some of the settings. When I looked at the cards all physically laid out, it was as if I saw multiple potential storylines that run through the imagery. I created a “world” of the Magick and Mediums imagery and naturally, that evolved into creating sketches of the characters and their stories.
Below is a short sketch I did with this spread. And honestly? I kind of love it so much I want to expand on it.
Once in a time that was and was not, there was a young girl who dreamed of reading flakes at the bottom of coffee mugs, the smell of lavender and rosemary and eucalyptus hanging in the kitchen, and cards with strange images. She loved those dreams. But then, she also had nightmares. Of a red, black-eyed monster who was equally parts repelling and magnetic. Of a tower crashing down while she is inside of it — forever falling. The young girl did not know why she dreamt of such things, but she always awoke in the morning with an acute, vivid ache in her gut and the memory of her dream on her tongue. Eventually, the little girl grew up and the dreams faded, replaced by mundane, real-world problems and concerns that kept her up at night. One day though, the grown up girl found an old sketchbook of hers. Inside were sketches of things she hadn’t thought about in years. As she flipped through the book, her heart began to soften to the images and the old familiar ache in her gut flared up. When she flipped to the last page that she filled out, the grown up girl gasped. There, in pencil scratching and ink, was a map of her life. She traced each word of the map, activation, sacrifice, learn… her memories filling in each stop along the way. The grown-up girl spent a lot of time with her sketchbook after that. Reading and re-reading and falling back in love with the young girl she was. And only after she felt herself cross the threshold of forgiveness on her life map, did she start a new sketchbook. A new portal into who she was meant to be.
APPROACH TWO:
Approach two is probably very similar to something you might have done in school… a kind of “round-robin” style of storytelling. Usually, that involves another person (which is ALSO a very fun experiment — my husband and I love to do this with some of the more humorous decks) who is supplying the next part of the story, but with this approach, you use the cards instead. It could look something like:
Once in a time that was and was not, there was an old Hag who lived in the North Mountain. She was sought after by many maidens who sought answers to their deepest questions and desires. One day, a girl named Clara decided to visit the Hag and {something more happens}.
AND THEN…
It was in the Season of Tender Roots that {something happens with Clara}.
AND THEN…
It was finally the night of The Wild Hunt and {something happens with Clara}.
AND THEN…
Clara learns the Secrets of the Sea.
AND THEN…
She faces The Witch’s Initiation as all her journey had led to this.
AND THEN…
She entered the Dance of the Rebel Heathens finally feeling as if she belonged.
Join Write by the Cards: A Free 30 Day Challenge
Want to put these theories into practice? Come join my FREE Write by the Cards: 30 Day Challenge in my community. We’re going to have a ton of fun and there will be a lot of goodies included.
Jade, I absolutely love this. (And somehow I missed Part One, so thanks for linking that up top). I've long been curious from an art/creative perspective about card decks but have not quite had a clear entry point. This is it! Excited to join your 30 day group.