Tarot as a Writing Tool

Whether or not you believe in divination, a tarot deck can be really helpful with writer's block. Pick a card for protagonist, antagonist, their link, various plot points, etc, and then string them together.

I have several decks, but the one I find most inspiring is the Deviant Moon Tarot. It's dark and pretty weird; it reminds me of something Tim Burton would do. It's based off the Rider-Waite symbolism, so each picture has a lot of motion and subtle detail in it that is easy to elaborate on.

Does anyone else do this? What are your thoughts?

*waves hand* Me! Tarot are incredibly useful as a story telling tool. I use the traditional Rider-Waite, but I've considered buying the Radiant Ryder-Waite. It's Rider-Waite but way more beautiful. The Deviant Moon is definitely an intriguing looking deck. I also use a Gypsy Witch Oracle card deck, it has neat symbols, and descriptions on the card, so it's easy to read off of, and you can get some cool stories from it.

How do you use them? I mean do you start a completely new story based on a card reading or do you typically already have one started? Also, do you only do readings for your protagonist or do you look at minor characters?

Shino: I hate the look of the Rider-Waite tarot, the colors are so garish and I'm not typically interested in the medieval look of the characters. BUT, as far as I've seen, it's got the best scenery. Foreground, background, shared symbolic associations with other cards, etc. I've never seen the Radiant Rider-Waite in person, and from what I've glimpsed online it looks like colored pencil -.- Granted, I wasn't thrilled with the digital artwork of the Deviant Moon tarot deck, but it just seems to work for me. It took me a really long time to break down and buy a Rider-Waite deck, and I did this purely for story writing inspiration. The Deviant Moon tarot is lacking a bit of the finer details, but I find the spooky ambiance overall more appealing and evocative. What I meant to say is that I'm very picky, and it's hard for me to see the forest for the trees sometimes

BadNarrator: What I do is write down what pieces of the story I need, such as Protagonist, His Challenge/Enemy, His Allies, His Background, Plot Points, etc. Then I just shuffle the deck and lay out however many cards I need to fill all the slots. It's basically like creating your own random writing prompt. But I have used tarot for when I'm stuck in a story, not as a way to "divine" the best outcome, but to just give me another stone to step to, to further the story and possibly throw a twist in. I don't do readings for my characters the way you would a real person, if that's what you're asking? Basically I just use the imagery and associated readings of the cards as plot points.

I swap between the Deviant Moon tarot and the Shadowscapes tarot. The Shadowscapes tarot has very dreamy, gorgeous fairytale imagery, but the readings are a little flat and too optimistic. There are no very dark or negative cards in that deck, whereas with the Deviant Moon tarot, even the cards with very positive associations look foreboding because of the artist's style. A smiling ghoul is still a ghoul lol XD I've yet to find a deck that I am in love with, but I'm not creative enough to make my own >.>

Edit: I should mention that I don't use reversed readings, which may be why I have a hard time loving any one deck. To me, turning a card upside down makes it hard to work with the imagery because, well, it's upside down! The meaning is reversed or "blocked," but the picture is still the same and my brain just doesn't like that. I'd like to see a deck built like an optical illusion, where the picture changes depending on the orientation of the card.

Now that would be cool! I like reading with reversals because I feel like it adds more direction to the story. Have you ever looked at the Steam Punk Tarot? It's pretty nifty!

[url=http://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5539673/il_fullxfull.168351340.jpg]Here![/img]

I would totally buy it, but I'm saving it as a reward for when I finish my first draft.

I sort of find the colored pencil look to the Radiant Waite appealing, a tad bit rustic. But that's just me.

I like to do a Celtic Cross if I'm having trouble coming up with a character. A simple three card spread can also be good if I'm having trouble deciding how a story should begin, or what should happen in the middle, or where it should end.

What's great about the tarot, is every card represents a bit of the human experience. The Empress represents mothers and motherhood, so when it shows up in a reading, it begs you to ask, "What's this character's relationship with his mother like? Does it play a role in the story?" Or if I get The Tower, "Time for a crisis!"

That one looks really neat! I've seen it in a bookstore, I might have to go get it. My dream tarot is the the H.P. Lovecraft deck... but it's out of print and there is no way I will pay $750 dollars for a deck of cards ever >.> Ever. I'd love a really accurate Japanese style deck. I have the Ukiyoe deck, and it's beautiful but there is like 0 imagery to work with. No depth. This is where I'm sorely tempted to make my own...

I've never actually thought of doing a celtic cross type of spread for a character, I think I'll try some Tarot-inspired fiction tonight when I get home.

Have you read 78 Degrees of Wisdom, by Rachel Pollack?

AmourDevorant wrote:BadNarrator: What I do is write down what pieces of the story I need, such as Protagonist, His Challenge/Enemy, His Allies, His Background, Plot Points, etc. Then I just shuffle the deck and lay out however many cards I need to fill all the slots. It's basically like creating your own random writing prompt. But I have used tarot for when I'm stuck in a story, not as a way to "divine" the best outcome, but to just give me another stone to step to, to further the story and possibly throw a twist in. I don't do readings for my characters the way you would a real person, if that's what you're asking? Basically I just use the imagery and associated readings of the cards as plot points.

I swap between the Deviant Moon tarot and the Shadowscapes tarot. The Shadowscapes tarot has very dreamy, gorgeous fairytale imagery, but the readings are a little flat and too optimistic. There are no very dark or negative cards in that deck, whereas with the Deviant Moon tarot, even the cards with very positive associations look foreboding because of the artist's style. A smiling ghoul is still a ghoul lol XD I've yet to find a deck that I am in love with, but I'm not creative enough to make my own >.>

Edit: I should mention that I don't use reversed readings, which may be why I have a hard time loving any one deck. To me, turning a card upside down makes it hard to work with the imagery because, well, it's upside down! The meaning is reversed or "blocked," but the picture is still the same and my brain just doesn't like that. I'd like to see a deck built like an optical illusion, where the picture changes depending on the orientation of the card.

I guess I could see the value of using tarot as a writing prompt, but I never could wrap my head around the idea of using them to get out of writers block. Whenever I hit a dead end in a story I usually just call it quits and toss it in the scrap pile.

I have not, but I heard it's really good. I read the For Dummies book that came with my deck.

I've had interest in buying a deck of tarot cards, just because old religious symbols and such interest me a lot and, as a writer, I do so ever love symbolism, but I never thought I could use it to help me write. O.O You have literally blown my mind.

What cards do you suggest to get if you don't want to spend much money, but have a high need for aesthetic enjoyment? Also, any sites on how to read tarot cards would be lovely. Your preferred sites, I mean.

Cspr wrote:I've had interest in buying a deck of tarot cards, just because old religious symbols and such interest me a lot and, as a writer, I do so ever love symbolism, but I never thought I could use it to help me write. O.O You have literally blown my mind.

What cards do you suggest to get if you don't want to spend much money, but have a high need for aesthetic enjoyment? Also, any sites on how to read tarot cards would be lovely. Your preferred sites, I mean.

I'm so glad! XD

The Rider-Waite deck is the stereotypical tarot deck. Every tarot book I've ever seen, literally, centers around the symbolism in this deck. (This excludes, however, books written for specific decks by their creators -- which are still usually based on the Rider-Waite deck anyway -- and the Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley because he... did his own thang.)

This deck is wicked cheap and widely available, but not the prettiest in my opinion. Shino mentioned the Radiant Rider-Waite (a recolored version of the original), which you might find suits your purposes. Check out that site in the link, actually. It has probably every deck out there listed, and you can find cheap versions on Amazon.com or even in bookstores like Barnes and Noble. What is great about this deck, and those based off it, is that all 78 cards feature scenes. Decks following the older style feature pictures only for the 22 Major Arcana, and the rest all resemble playing cards -- meaning you have to rely on memorized correspondences rather than actually having something to look at.

As for reading the cards, decks always come with a tiny little booklet for basic divination, but if you're looking for deeper significance in the pictures, the imagery is actually heavily rooted in Christian and Jewish mysticism. The RW deck was designed by Arthur Waite, who was a member of the Golden Dawn, so the imagery in the cards is written like a secret code best understood by those who were initiated and "in the know." BUT a lot of layman's books have been written. My favorite is 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack. And the Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley, but that one gives me a FOR SERIOUS headache If you can find Manly P. Hall's book The Secret Teachings of all Ages, it's like the Mecca of esoteric symbolism. Every single page turned on a light in my brain! But it's huge, and the best information is actually not in the Tarot section T^T.
As for websites... I've never actually used those >.> I was lucky to grown up in a household completely indifferent to my interest in the Occult XD so I bought and read books freely.

*crazed googling session*

This website identifies the symbolism used in cards outside of context. There isn't much explanation of the "mystical" or esoteric symbolism, but it still should suit storytelling purposes. The links to the left of the page (Tarot Introductions and below) are probably what you're looking for?

Thanks for all the information. I like the Radiant deck. I might have to look into getting it. Could be interesting. But, yeah, it's a bad idea for me to keep "pagan" books lying around a house wherein there lives a Baptist. This at one point has involved Harry Potter, hilariously.

Maybe it'll be an "out on my own" purchase. -shrugs- But thanks for the resources and suggestions and all that.