Tarot, anyone?

The new creative deck is made of cards.

I love unconventional ways of approaching creative problems. Sitting in a conference room staring at a creative brief feels like a proctored exam, not a fun field trip.

My newest fascination is using tarot cards for igniting my creative practice. To be clear, I’m not a trained tarot card reader, but I’ve long appreciated the open-endedness of watching others interpret a spread of cards.

There are thousands of tarot decks — all works of art and creative in their interpretations.

The symbolic meaning behind each card remains largely the same over centuries, yet the visual interpretations modernize and dimensionalize.

Two books to consider adding to your creative library:

Tarot: a comprehensive look at over 500 cards and works of original art, dating back to medieval times and tracing them to modern times.

Tarot for Creativity: by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi

This second book, by an author from Provence, shares some prompts on her Instagram:

🔮I summon creative energy from random card pulls: if I get the Death card, you best believe I’m opening up my latest manuscript and killing some darlings!

💭 I ask my creativity direct questions like: “why aren’t I feeling in flow right now?” and then pull cards to help me explore possible answers.

🎨 I choose cards to inspire aesthetics and themes for collages

📖 I draw a series of cards in a “spread” to help me explore characters and plots for fiction projects

👯I use the cards to facilitate collaboration and community with other creatives through workshops, mentorship, and juicy chats with artist friends

I took up her challenge of a tarot card a day. You draw one card each morning and ask yourself:

What does this card remind me of in my life right now?

What action does this card inspire me to take?

What does this card inspire me to let go of?

What’s the biggest lesson I can learn from this card?

Today, for instance, I drew the Seven of Swords. A warning card about who to trust. Very timely given a personal situation that unfurled this week. So I use it to journal about the emotional takeaway of this experience and how I want to proceed.

Yesterday I got the Empress card, a message of matriarchal authority. That inspired some work on an outline that’s been in my brain about motherhood.

I stack this tarot practice on my Morning Pages, a meditative chaser after exfoliating my own thoughts.

Sometimes if my creative muse seems to have her Out-of-Office message on auto reply, I’ll take matters into my own hands. Prop the Empress card on my desk — symbolizing fertile creation, magnetic manifestation, and limitless abundance.

Have you ever used tarot as a creative tool? 🌙 What’s stopping you? Feel free to leave a comment asking me to pull a card for you. Happy to oblige.

Until next time, remember that creativity knows no bounds.