The Creative Ritual of Tarot
Hello magic makers!
I’ve written about burnout recovery and the use of ritual & mindful practices before here. Tarot has been especially useful for me as a tool that helps me find stillness and focus for meditation practices. It’s actually such a significant part of my journey that I’m now writing a book on Tarot, as well as a series of guided journals for Tarot study, which will hopefully be out next year. The book, which I’m tentatively calling Tarot for the Creative Empath, will focus on Tarot for creative spirits like myself—artists, poets, and other creators who are highly empathic and sensitive—and will show how we can use Tarot to help connect with our creative intuition.
Tarot & the Sensitive Artist
Artists are highly sensitive and receptive people. We have an extraordinary ability to observe the world around us and pick up on things that others don't. Being an artist means being sensitive to the details of the way things feel, look, sound, and taste. We see slight differences in shades of color and hear small variations in tone and frequency. We might pick up on vibes that others don’t experience. We are aesthetically attuned and this is a wonderful thing! It allows for creativity, for excitement about new ideas, for curiosity about the world, and for deep connections with other people through artistic expression.
But this sensitivity comes with a downside. Extremely sensitive people can be overwhelmed by the world around them. Big emotions can feel scary or exhausting because they are so intense. And that can lead to burnout. As I have curated and designed my own cure for burnout over the last couple years and come out the other side, Tarot offered a way to understand feelings in a safe space, without judgement or shame. Tarot is not about fortunes or forecasting the future, it's all about asking questions of yourself and finding answers within.
Using the cards in a daily practice helps to outline a way to balance the vulnerability of being in touch with your intuition—of leaving that channel open—with the balance and emotional stability that allows for a daily artistic or creative process. As familiar as we are with the stereotype of the tortured artist, we don’t need the stew of powerful emotions when we are processing, channeling and transmuting through art.
TArot RiTualS
Try this easy 3-Card Spread…
Here’s an easy 3-card spread for artists and creatives to channel inspiration and focus studio time: (1) What creative impulse or project is coming to a close? (2) What ideas or practices should I continue to be mindful of? (3) What new influences are bringing creative momentum?
A 3-card spread I pulled this morning using the Artist’s Inner Vision Tarot deck.
How to use Tarot in the Art Studio:
1. Do a daily reading
Every day I try to at least do one 3-card reading, though some days I’ll do much more (and of course there are days where I can’t or don’t find the time/energy). But in general, a morning check-in with the cards has been a transformative practice for me in terms of checking in with my intuition and distilling my focus for the day.
Journaling my morning ritual using the Writual planner and stickers.
2. Journal your thoughts in response to the cards
I love Writual’s Tarot planner/journal* for this purpose because it has the space laid out for a three card reading each day, and this layout has helped me to keep up with my daily practice (I hate seeing the missed days!).
Things you might write about in your journal to develop a practice of using Tarot in the art studio:
how the cards might relate to creativity, making, the artistic process, the flow (or block) of inspiration, collaboration with others, or the business of being an artist
what you see when you look closely at a card’s imagery, or other art/images that the cards’ imagery evokes for you
how you would draw/paint the feeling of this card in terms of style and mediums and/or in terms of symbols and icons you would incorporate
*commissions earned
Tools for Tarot
I am a huge fan of the Writual Planner, which has space for my daily readings and also lots of other useful info, as well as spreads for the new moon and full moon, and monthly and weekly draws.
Another of my absolute favorite Tarot tools is also by Writual: their set of tiny stickers depicting Pamela Coleman Smith’s famous illustrations.
3. Use Multiple Visuals
Pamela Coleman Smith stickers from Writual.
So I believe that the artist’s particular sensitivity to detail extends to the creative ability to read the symbology and iconography of Tarot. One of the things that has been most helpful to me is to work with multiple, different decks. So I might do my reading using the round cards of the feminist Motherpeace deck or the deck of collaged illustrations from the group of artists who contributed to the Artist’s Inner Vision Tarot. However, when I journal about that reading, I will also use Writual’s Tarot stickers (above) that depict the Smith Rider Waite deck, the imagery of which has been widely influential in our contemporary understanding of the Tarot. So with every reading, I see each card depicted at least two ways, and this simple hack has given me a more nuanced understanding of the imagery and interpretation.
