Using the Tarot and Fellowship of Fools for Writing

November is officially NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and since some of the ways to play the game I co-developed Fellowship of Fools include writing prompt generators and story development modes, I wanted to see if there was more out there on using the Tarot for writing. No surprise, there’s lots!

For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is a month long challenge for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel to write 50,000 words in the month of November. That’s about 1,667 words per day, every day, for a month.

Both creators of FoF have tried (but not succeeded) at NaNoWriMo in the past, and are participating in it again this year. Having learned from our experiences in the past, we wanted to use the game and the Tarot to help with pre-writing and mid-writing challenges such as plot construction, character development, problem solving, and writer’s block.

The Tarot as “Machine for Creating Stories”

Though many people associate the Tarot with European culture, it originated from the original playing cards brought to Europe by Islamic soldiers invading northern Italy and Spain in the 1300s. The playing cards were called Mamluk, the game played na’ib, the “game of lieutenants.” These are the origin of all Western card games, from bridge to poker to the tarot.

The calligraphic texts along the top and bottom of the Mamluk cards consist of rhyming aphorisms which are often very enchanting, sometimes strange, but always interesting:

“Oh thou who hast possessions, remain happy and though shalt have a pleasant life” and “Rejoice in the happiness that returns, as a bird that sings its joy.”

Once introduced into Italy, Italian noble families co-opted the cards and added the “trump” cards known today as the Major Arcana, for a game called “carte de trionfi” or cards of triumph, an early form of the card game bridge.

The cards were also used for a game called “tarocchi appropriati” or appropriated Tarot, where cards from the Major Arcana were dealt randomly or intentionally by another player and the game consisted of writing poems from the cards dealt to make inside jokes, flattery, or associate themes with someone. It was a game of creativity, verse, wit and flattery.

In parallel to this people began to consult the cards for divination, which was then more systematized and professionalized in the 17th century in France by occultists. This is what the Tarot is most known for today in English speaking countries, but the Tarot deck is still widely used to play games across Europe today.

The Tarot has a history of being used for creativity, from W.B. Yeats, William Blake, and Piers Anthony to the great Stephen King. Italian author Italo Calvino described the Tarot as “a machine for constructing stories.” Books and short stories have been written using the Tarot, and there are a plethora of books available to help writers and artists use the Tarot for writing and creativity.

Now, you can use these spreads and our two story game modes with any Tarot deck, our game just gives you Topic Prompts and Situation Prompts to more directly guide you story and writing. You may find that the Prompt doesn’t fit the question, in which case we recommend you consult your preferred tarot guides (we recommend Biddy Tarot) for a more full description to guide your reading.

The Muse Spread:

This spread is great for prewriting and working through writer’s block, whether that comes in the beginning, middle or end of your project. Find your source of inspiration, creative blocks, suggestions on how to channel your inspiration and the potential outcomes of your creative project.

Writer’s Block Spread:

Over at our favorite Tarot site, they have a great article on using the Tarot for dealing with writer’s block and using the cards for writing prompts.

Overcoming Writer’s Block with the Tarot by Liz Worth:

Their writer’s block spread is as follows:

What do I need to remember right now about my path as a writer?
What does my creative self need most right now?
What is a step I can take to overcome my writer’s block?
What is a step I can take to reconnect to my writing?

Plot Spread:

This spread is geared toward both writer’s block and plot generation, for those struggling with the larger outline of their stories plot and wanting a wider view. After doing this spread you can get a closer view with the Character Development spread and the Narrative Spread.

Story Prompt Generator Mode using Fellowship of Fools:

Use the Fellowship of Fools deck as a writing tool to generate story prompts.

Choose if you are playing in Magick Mod or Intentional Mod (see below)
Shuffle the Situation Cards and the Topic Cards separately.
Draw 1-2 Situation Cards, two for a more complex situation.
Draw Topic Cards according to the number(s) indicated next to the Situation Prompt(s) you chose. This gives you a Situation for you characters and personal issues they are dealing with for story prompt.
Write about these prompts for 15-30 minutes.

Magick Mod: In the Magick Mod, we let the cards decide what the prompt will be. When drawing a card, flip it over from left to right so as not to change which prompt would appear upright. Only play the Prompt that is upright and up top of the image on the card when it is drawn, do not pick between the Prompts.

Intentional Mod: Pick between the Prompts on the card for which one you will direct at another player or answer yourself.

Balancing Plot and Character Spread:

One important aspect of writing novels is the delicate art of balancing plot and character development. We’ve come up with a spread to help writers with this dilemma!

Character’s external goal
Character’s internal goal
External conflict
Internal conflict
Plot evolution
Character evolution

This can be done with major characters, antagonists, and minor characters. You could even turn this spread back on yourself and ask it about you! What are your goals, conflicts and path of evolution as an author?

This spread is also helpful for identifying your character’s signifer (see Character Signifiers below). Look out for any Major Arcana or court cards that show up, look up their meanings and see if it would make a good signifer for this character. If a court card that comes up fits well, match it to their Myers Briggs personality type to learn more about your character’s personality.

Narrative Spread:

With this spread in particular, as you shuffle keep a specific narrative question in mind that you are struggling with that you need help solving. This spread is particularly suited for issues in the beginning of the novel, especially if you are following the Hero’s Journey format, to find your character’s motivation and reason to leave home during the “Departure Act” and crossing the first threshold.

Outer conflict
Ordinary world
Inner Motive
Mentor
The Gate Keeper
Pull of home
The Key
(optional) Decision
(optional) First step
External outcome
Internal outcome

Character Development Spread:

Story Development Spread:

Leading Tarot authority and novelist Rachel Pollack published an anthology of Tarot Tales (co-edited with Caitlin Mathews) and more recently produced a collection of Tarot storied, The Tarot of Perfection. In her Introduction, she explains an exercise in “Tarot for Writers” that she developed for her students in a college course at Goddard College in Vermont. We use this spread as a single player mode for Fellowship of Fools.

Shuffle and then draw seven cards in sequence with the idea that they will answer the following questions about the characters, themes, and plot development of the story:

Who is my character?
What situation does he/she/they face?
What is the outer motivation?
What is hidden?
What opposes him/her/them?
What helps?
What is at risk?

Write down the card sequence prompts above and the cards dealt with the accompanying upright Topic or Situation Prompts if using Fellowship of Fools. Write for 10 minutes on each card, the prompt given, and more in depth card interpretations from Biddy Tarot, and how they relate to the story prompt it was supposed to help develop.

Character Signifiers:

To help further develop your understanding of your character’s personalities, you can find a card that is their signifier.

Now, it is a bit of a tangent, but this all relates to semiotics. The term “semiotics” comes from the Greek root, seme, as in semeiotikos, an interpreter of signs. The Tarot cards are chock full of signs and Tarot readers are interpreters of these signs, they are, semioticians. Tarot readers use the term Signifer to serve multiple functions—as a image that represents themselves/another person/a character in a reading, to symbolize an object, a dilemma, or decision with which you/they are dealing, and from which you/they seek a resolution. Some spreads call for a signifier, some don’t, in many they are optional. Using a signifier in a reading personalizes the reading, and helps put an image to the concept in your head of this character or dilemma that only you know, as well as direct your query and reading more pointedly about a particular character/object/dilemma/decision etc.

In the field of Semiotics, the linguist and semotician Ferdinand de Saussure explained that a sign (sound-image or word) was not only a sound-image but also a concept. A word is not just a word, it also the concept it stands in for. Thus he divided the sign into two components: the signifier (or “sound-image”) and the signified (or “concept”).

“The Treachery of Images” by Rene Magritte

Signifiers in the Tarot are cards (images) that stand in for the signified (concept or person) the reading is about. There are many ways to choose a signifier.

You can simply look through the court cards and find one that matches your character based on age, gender and physical characteristics, or you can go by the character’s personality and corresponding occidental zodiac sign to find their elements and therefore suit that fits them. Or you could base it off their Myers Briggs personality type (see below image).

You can also choose a Major Arcana card as a signifier, based off the archetype this person/character represents. Maybe they are a father figure, the Emperor would be a good choice for that character. Or you can choose a Major Arcana signifier based on the stage of life they’re in or the life experiences they are going through. Maybe they are going through a streak of bad luck? The Wheel of Fortune reversed would be a good signifier.

Or you can always go for randomness! Shuffle the cards, pick out one card, asking the cards for the signifier. A more developed version with this we have been playing with is doing the Character Development Spread above and looking closely at the Major Arcana and court cards that appear in that reading, and choosing the best fit among them for your character’s signifier.

Some people will put the signifier to the side, some will put it in the middle of the reading and draw cards around it, it’s up to you. Where you place the card can have interesting interactions with the other cards in a reading. Maybe the figure in the card is facing towards one card, and away from another? Maybe the card it’s facing, the figure in that is facing away from the signifier card. This could point to a challenging relationship or interaction. When not using the signifier in a spread but you see it come up in other spreads, either about the plot, another character, or this character, you know the cards then are talking about that particular character.

Hidden Expectations Spread:

This spread comes from the book Creating a Life Together and is derived from art therapy. Originally it was meant to be a series of writing prompts intended to access your unconscious mind by answering the questions as fast as you can, writing with your non-dominant hand. Instead, we’ve repurposed it to access your unconscious mind with the Tarot. This spread is meant to reveal expectations a character/person has that they may not be aware of. Line the cards up in 4 rows of 4 cards.

What do you want more than anything for yourself?
What do you want more than anything for the world?
What do you want more than anything for your children/the future?
What do other people do that hurts you?
What do you fear?
What makes you mad?
What makes you cry?
If you could go back in your childhood and change your mother (or primary female caretaker), what would you change?
If you could go back in your childhood and change your father (or primary male caretaker), what would you change?
What didn’t you get as a child?
If you could make something in your childhood better, what would it be?
If you could make something in your childhood go away, what would it be?
What do you need to feel safe?
What do you need to feel loved?
What do you need to feel happy?
What kind of community do you want?

Book Outline Generator:

Using a Tarot deck or Fellowship of Fools, shuffle the cards while thinking about your book, the plot, its characters and the narrative blocks you find are holding up your writing or aren’t quite working. Cut the deck with your left hand. Put this pile on top of the remaining cards in your hand. Now read EVERY CARD IN THE DECK. Do not mix the cards back up. As you go through them put them aside in a pile in the same order.

Note: If you have two or more story lines in the book, complete this process for each one.

For the read through, do a oral read of the cards. This should be conversational and light, taking one idea from each card and incorporating it into your story as you already conceive of it. Consider the cards that come before and after each one. Think of it as the cards and you are working together to collaboratively tell this story. You have your ideas, but the cards have ideas of their own as well. Tell the story as you go through the cards, talk back to the cards and respond to the ideas they present to you. (If using Fellowship of Fools, use primarily the Prompts, unless you feel that a Prompt that comes up really not fit your plot, then look up a more detailed reading of the cards meaning and fill in what you think fits best for the cards meaning and that part of the plot you are in.) Go through every card and tell the story of your book, taking feedback as well as ideas from the deck as you go.

The second time you read through the cards, write or type each card as it appears, in order, including the orientation. If you are using Fellowship of Fools, write the Prompt as well. For each card also note 3-4 words that to you associate with that card’s meaning. Under these, write how this could relate to your plot.

For example:

Card: The Sun, upright-positivity, fun, warmth, success, vitality.
FoF: You are suddenly famous.
Plot: It’s Bilbo’s birthday and he’s having a party, and now everyone wants to be his buddy to get invited.

Do this for all of the cards. ALL OF THEM. This is your basic plot reading.

Now, going through your basic plot reading, find the major trials that your characters will face, find cards that point to your characters that you’ve been thinking of and any new ones the cards may be suggesting. Record these in another file/paper. Try to find ~15 trials that your character will face. Identify those trials that your main character/s will fail, win, or it will be a draw. Most novels have about 8 wins, 2 fails, and 5 draws. Then look at the remaining cards and combine them for scenes for minor conflicts and character growth. This is your deeper plot outline.

Congratulations, you have a in-depth plot and character outline for your book!

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Using the Tarot and Fellowship of Fools for Writing

Using the Tarot and Fellowship of Fools for Writing