Tarot cards are not just for psychics and witches, they can be used for many purposes.
Tarot cards are essentially a system of pictures with symbols and meanings. They represent events in our lives and people in the world. And, they are full of symbols and meanings.
You don’t have to know how to read Tarot cards to be able to use them in your writing. So, here are some ways to do it.
Characters
If you know how how to read Tarot cards already, you know what to do! Pull a card and use the card to help you develop your character.
If you’re new to the cards or purely looking for inspiration, you can either simply pull a card and see how the character on the card strikes you, or you can look up the meaning of the card to get more information about the person on the card.
If you’re like me, you love complex and messy characters. Here’s where the cards get fun. After you’ve pulled your primary character card, pull another one… and maybe another one. Use these as traits of your character. Give them some depth and then go back in and write their backstory about how/why they have these traits.
For example, let’s say I pull The Magician.
- He is talented, smart and capable. He can achieve whatever he sets his mind to. Then, I pull three more cards to give the character more depth.
- With the Five of Pentacles, he’s afraid of not earning enough money and becoming homeless.
- Wheel of Fortune – He’s very lucky (or unlucky) in his life and things usually work in his favor.
- Nine of Swords – He is extremely anxious and his worries keep him up at night and cause him a lot of trouble.
Now, I can go write his story.
Plot
After you have your characters, you can pull cards for what will happen to them in the story. The cards are so visual that you can do this intuitively, even if you don’t know the meanings of the cards.
I pulled three cards for my Magician. Things go well for him… until they don’t.
What story would you write with these three cards? I hope his new bride wasn’t in that house!
Writer’s Block
Finally, if you feel that writers block creeping in… sometimes all you need is a little inspiration. You can use Tarot cards to just get you to start writing when you’re stuck. So, pick a card and write anything you want about it. Maybe write about the character, their future or backstory, their hopes or fears, maybe how they’ll die. Maybe the picture on the card will inspire you for a setting or a theme. Tarot cards are full of themes as well.
You could even pull two cards and write about the relationship between the two characters.
It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you get your pen moving again!
