That tarot deck you have in the back of a drawer may be the key to unlock your creative potential.
If you are a creative at heart, probably one of the most persistent thoughts at the back of your mind is how you can feel more inspired, more productive, and more in flow with your creativity. For so many of us trapped in the doldrums of our careers or quietly mourning our abandoned dreams, this is a longing that always tugs at us. We want to live a truly creative life—a life of freedom and wonder, passion and meaning.
And because our world is so preoccupied with focus and output, we are blind the real key to unlocking our creativity—imagination.
But before you click away, hear me out. As someone with a Capricorn-heavy chart, I, too, want strategies not daydreamy platitudes. However, imagination is a word with many meanings. To Plato, imagination was the universal forms called up from the soul, the perfected shape of all things. To the Enlightenment philosophers, it was the intellectual faculty that united thought with potentiality, spurring the revolution of progress. And to the depth psychologist, imagination is the mediator between consciousness and unconsciousness, as Jungian Robert Johnson writes: “Imagination is a transformer that converts the invisible [unconscious] material into images that the conscious mind can perceive…. The imagination generates the symbols the unconscious uses to express itself.”
Imagination is entrenched in the mythic, the archetypal. It is the portal between our unconscious mythology and our conscious artistry. It is the sacred landscape of the creative act. And the tarot is one of the most potent tools for this work of imaginative exchange. Each of the seventy-eight cards presents images drawn from the imagination to express our archetypal nature. As Mary K. Greer writes in 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card, it is by imagination that “the soul intuits the inner powers and virtues” of things, which the cards help us explore. Through its rich tapestry of symbols, the tarot draws our conscious minds into the space of our depth, illuminating the unconscious material that motivates us invisibly.
And it is from this material that our creative vision draws.
There is so much more to say about how the tarot can support and guide our creativity, and if you’re a creative I highly recommend you check out the Tarot for Creatives seminar. But I want to offer just one of the spreads we explore in the seminar.
The Creator’s Spread helps you discover a deeper understanding of your creative project, its role in your life, your role in its, and what tools you can use to support it. Try it out and let me know how it inspired, motivated, or encouraged you!
The Creator’s Spread
For this spread, divide your deck into five sections: each of the four suits (Ace – 10), the court cards, and the major arcana. Then draw from the section listed with each card.
1. The Creator (court card) – You as maker, the part of you engaged as the creator of this project or pursuit
2. The Creation (major arcana) – The archetype inspiring this project/pursuit, or the deeper meaning it has for you and the world
3. Energy (wands) – Understanding the impulse, the fire, the passion in this creation. Where the purest motivation lies. The greater vision it holds.
4. Feeling (cups) – The deeper heart of this creation. The emotional need its fulfilling or wound its healing. The spring of soul from which it draws.
5. Intellect (swords) – The sharp air of curiosity this creation is following. The genius and philosophical insight within it. The clarity of its truer message.
6. Effort (pentacles) – Understanding the process, the labor. Touching in with the senses it stimulates, its resonance in the body. What is takes to physically bear it.