Creative Writing Activity: Embracing Fate with Tarot Cards

Most likely, the word “Tarot” drew you here to this creative writing activity. This is the first of a new series of posts on my website that focuses on education in various ways. I work as a composition instructor at a Southern California Community College with about 7 years of classroom experience. Every year presents new challenges and learning opportunities.

For example, in the coming Spring semester I will be by teaching an Introduction to Creative Writing course. Right now, I am a faculty advisor for an on-campus creative writing club. There has been a learning curve to deal with. The club is making transitions into more long-term planning, now, thankfully. So as a result, I had the opportunity to step in and create a workshop and activity to lighten the load for the students.

This Tarot-based activity is what I am going to write about today.

If you want to skip to the actual steps of the activity, click here.

Creative Writing Activity: Embracing Fate with Tarot Cards

If you are here for a guide to Tarot and how it works, the complexities of divination, and interpretation, I am afraid there isn’t much here for you. But, if you want to use fundamental elements of Tarot pulls to shake up your writing and develop challenging story hooks, this is a great tool.

While I will cover elements of what Tarot is, has been, and how the Arcana are generally interpreted, this isn’t an actual guide to Tarot reading or pulls. Further, much of this activity is more about the writer interpreting Arcana, as they see it, and writing around these reveals. While I’ll sharet some context, this activity is more about writing than anything.

Any instance of Tarot being used in this activity the analysis of archetypes and not considered an actual Tarot pull. So please don’t be nervous about engaging. This activity is not considered a legitimate Tarot reading.

Tarot, Arcana, and Interpretation

From at least the 15th century, Tarot has been used in games and divination and fortune telling practices. Tarot cards are typically divided into Major and Minor Arcana. As you draw cards, these Arcana are interpreted. Additionally, when you draw the card, the meaning can shift based on the position when you draw it (upright vs. reverse).

Tarot is still a widely practiced art today. There is still a tremendous amount of discourse about it’s legitimacy. We’ll be borrowing from for our creative activity. In broads strokes, The art of Tarot is based on interpretation of archetypes, and archetypes can carry many meanings. By ascribing meaning to these cards in our creative writing process we can find interesting new angles by which to approach our stories.

Archetypes and Traditions

Part of the effectiveness of Tarot is it draws from deep narrative traditions and collective culture where the cards are based on archetypal elements of myth, legend, and lore.

We grow up absorbing these general ideas through culture and as Tarot cards are drawn and read, interpretations of archetypes connect to our personal narratives or broader views of how the world works. Self-pull Tarot is often used as a way to process things in our personal lives because it can channel what we’re already thinking. After all, you know your own story, do you not?

Arcana Examples

In this activity, it is good to have a quick reference to the Arcana and common interpretations. But note that you can broadly ascribe meaning of your own as these are archetypes that exists in multiple forms throughout human culture.

In any case, The Tarot Guide¹ has presentations for both Major Arcana and Minor Arcana that you can turn to.

Anyway, here is the Wheel, or Wheel of Fortune.

And who doesn’t love a death card?

As you can see, these cards carry many meanings. Even orientation can introduce complexity in how these cards as understood.

Embracing Fate – Tarot-Based Creative Writing Activity

As for the actual activity, it is very simple despite the prior set-up. It is just a timed writing task where Tarot cards are drawn and interpreted. Then the writer adjusts their story based on what emerges. There are only four steps:

1. Start writing a three-act story, spend 10 minutes writing the first act.
2. Draw a card, use the card to change the direction your story heads; write the second act for 20 minutes.
3. Draw a card, use the card to conclude your story; write the third act for 10 minutes.
4. Edit, find the connective tissue that carries the story across all three acts.

The challenge of this activity comes in the edit. Once you’ve written three acts you may end up with something disjointed. Going back, reading the work, and figuring out how each act connects. Figure out where ideas need to be introduced to make the third act work.

Results

Using this activity with creative writing students proved very enlightening. It ended up being very enjoyable for them, even if they were broadly unfamiliar with what Tarot is. Some students managed pulls that roughly kept the story in-line with their plans; while others had draws that radically altered their narratives.

Part of my reason for developing this creative writing activity was to introduce the editing process more broadly to the student-run club. From my observations, the club meetings focus on immediate sharing after writing. This isn’t inherently bad. But writing emerges significantly from the edit. As I see it, the editing process needs emphasis.

So, the activity was designed to not give them time to share. It occupied the whole meeting time and forced them to sit on what they wrote, hopefully, for the better.

Or at least to shake things up.

In any case, please share your thoughts or variation on this activity you want try. I am dying to know.

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1. I know very little about the website beyond the generally useful information about the presented Arcana; your mileage may vary.