Not only can the tarot be used for divination purposes, but it can be used for writing. With the large array of decks that exist, and the increasing number of new and unique decks that hit the market every day, there is literally a deck out there for everyone, no matter what your tastes are. If you’re a writer looking for new and interesting ideas for your stories, characters, plots, and settings, the tarot can be an invaluable go-to tool. I’ve taken the Celtic Cross Spread and modified it to use for outlining a novel. It doesn’t take a lot of tarot knowledge. In fact, if you read my last blog post (imbed link here and link it to red text), you don’t have to know anything about the tarot to use it (though a little knowledge is always encouraged). Using the cards within the structures of a spread will make reading that much easier. So here is the Celtic Cross Spread for Novels. ****The Significator Card. This card isn’t shown on the graph, but it is generally beneath Card 1. Some versions of the Celtic Cross Spread don’t use this card. For the purpose of my spread I will because the significator will be the essence of who your main character is. You could pick from the deck or let the deck choose for you. If you have a strong idea of your character is and just need her story, you can skip this card.
So what if you don’t need all of these points, or you need more? You can disregard anything that doesn’t serve your purpose, or you can add additional cards to any place in the spread to help you flesh out your character better. This is your story, and it should be written the way you view it. This is just a fun exercise that can be a jumping off point to get you started with a basic plot outline. Enjoy and explore however you see fit, and feel free to come back and add a comment or ask a question based on your experience with the spread.
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Not only am I a writer, but I am a tarot reader as well. I’ve been using the tarot for twelve years now. I did online readings in forums for years as a pastime. Now, I read for myself and family when I’m asked because writing has taken the forefront.
The reason I fell in love with the tarot was because of a book I read called A Magical Course in Tarot by Michelle Morgan. The book taught me that the tarot isn’t hard at all, and that even though there are rules, you don’t always have to follow them to be able to read the tarot efficiently. Instead, it’s a spiritual journey of finding the path that works best for you and how best you connect with the Divine through the deck. While a basic knowledge of the cards is important and will help you in your readings, you can actually do a reading with the tarot without any basic knowledge at all. You can read the pictures intuitively. Here are some pointers for doing so.
That’s the bare basics of reading intuitively. A little insight and thought can go a long way! The most important thing to do when reading with the tarot is to trust your gut. If you think a card means something, but the book definition says something different, trust your intuition. You may be pleasantly surprised by how spot-on you are. The backbone of any good story is obviously a well-driven plot with many twists and turns and an interesting and surprising climactic ending. However, without great characters to drive the plot along, the story will mean very little. It’s simple and easy to create memorable, three-dimensional characters that any reader would love. All you have to do is follow some basic guidelines and perhaps try a few tricks that I employ when creating my characters.
These are some of the things I’ve learned along my writing journey. I’m sure other writers can add to the list, so read far and wide and really immerse yourself in learning about the craft of writing while you’re following your own journey. It’s the best way to find what works for you and make your process your very own. There has been a lot of controversy as of late surrounding Fifty Shades of Grey, and its success as a series and in the box office. People have buzzed about the credibility of the writing, the implications of the relationship, and most people either loved or hated the movie.
I want to talk about the responsibility of the writer in today’s society. Most people wouldn’t see how that could tie to this book phenomenon, but it does. A lot of people would say, “Well, it’s just a book. It’s fiction…” But is a book ever just a book? If books were just books, would there have ever been book burnings? Let’s take a look at the story for what it is, as opposed to what it’s supposed to be. We have a young, innocent virgin girl with no prior relationship experience who gets drawn into this whirlwind “romance” with this rich, brooding, private, handsome, and frightening man. He becomes obsessed with her, shows up at her job, at her home, is possessive of her around her male friends, cuts her off from her family, manipulates and bribes her, assaults her after she has told him no repeatedly, beats her without her consent (before she ever signs the contract that would allow him to do such things in a controlled environment, stalks her, and coerces her into a lifestyle she isn’t sure she wants. He convinces her that the only way they can be together is if he has full control over the relationship. If anyone does research on BDSM, that is not how the lifestyle works. In general, the sub-dom relationship is kept to the bedroom, and everything else is a normal relationship. Women in these types of relationships aren’t told what to eat, what to wear, how many times a week they’re going to work out. They aren’t taken physically without consent or abused without clear boundaries of how far they are willing to allow the “abuse” to go. My problem with the whole story is that people have romanticized this trilogy as something that is desirable. How is having every aspect of your life controlled a desirable situation? How is being cut off from family and friends so that your life revolves around one person and you have no lifelines a desirable situation? If you were to slap a psychological thriller brand on this story, you would have a whole new ballgame, and one that may be more suitable, but because this is branded as romance, society has accepted this as a desirable relationship. Not only did they accept it, but they poured money into it and made it such a phenomenon that it’s talked about all over the place and has lined lots of pockets with cash. The danger in that is a lot of people who may not have picked the book up are now reaching for it. Some are young women, much like Anastasia, who are innocent and not experienced in relationships, who may not even know what a healthy relationship is like. Perhaps they are a little more impressionable than others. Maybe they come from a home where this type of behavior is acceptable and don’t understand anything else. Maybe they don’t recognize the gray area where truth and mental abuse and manipulation cross lines. To read this book, hear the hype, and think this is okay, could actually be setting these young women up for a lot of heartbreak and a dangerous situation that could be hard to get out of. So, what is the writer’s responsibility? The writer’s responsibility isn’t to censor their creativity or to not tell a story because it could impact lives. If we did this, we wouldn’t be writing at all. In fact, sometimes we set out to impact people and make them think by pushing boundaries and talking about things that others don’t or won’t. The writer’s responsibility is to be honest and portray their worlds as true to reality as possible. The book brings up a lot of questions… why weren’t her friends and family concerned? Why didn’t she try to get away? How did the author come to a “happy ending” in a ridiculously dysfunctional and abusive relationship? In being honest, you could show me the relationship, the abuse, how Anastasia was leery about Christian, how she took off to have time to think. But the author should have also showed how she wanted to escape, and if she didn’t want to escape, she should have showed the reality of what a situation like this would do to Anastasia. Maybe she develops a drinking problem because she becomes depressed. Maybe she commits suicide, or attempts it and is put in a psych ward. Maybe she even kills Christian in a rage because he just won’t leave her alone or let her go. I know those outcomes sound harsh, but wouldn’t that be more realistic than living happily ever after with a controlling abuser that you love with all your heart and soul because he’s sick and twisted and apparently can’t help himself? I think it would, and the message it tells readers is a whole lot more sensible as well. I’m currently working on the beginning ideas for a book I hope to have written by the end of the year. The story is about a woman who finds out that she’s dying and decides to go on one last adventure instead of taking the treatments they want her to have. The prognosis isn’t good, and even with treatment, it’s highly unlikely that she will survive, so she bravely decides to embrace her fate and live the last of her life to the fullest.
Part of my book is a candid journal she keeps during her last months of life. The details are intimate and heartbreaking, even for me as the writer who knows the outcome and fate that lies ahead. I put a little bit of myself in each character that I write, and so far, this character is the most like me that any of my characters have been. My character has to come up with a list of things that she wants to do before she dies. While she is actually doing most of these things on a whim, I am trying to add a bit of my own bucket list items to the list. For me, this story is as difficult as it gets as a writer. Technically, it’s pretty simple. I can do the technical. Emotionally and content-wise, there is a bit of discomfort in putting this intimate look into her life (my life essentially) out into the world. Sometimes, I think that as a writer, we can be too close to what we do. Perhaps that makes it a good thing in connecting with the audience who we hope will eventually read our words and take something away, but there is a bit of vulnerability in writing in such a way that we reveal our own fears, secrets, weaknesses, and truths through the lives our characters lead. I hope that when this novel does reach publication that people embrace it and keep and carry the fact that there is a bit of me poured into every word. Know that if you laughed, so did I. If you were scared, excited, saddened, so was I. If you cried and were left with just a bit of an emptiness inside, I did as well, and there is still a bit of emptiness inside. That’s what writing is. It’s bleeding ourselves onto the page for others to take little pieces wherever they go. It’s a labor of love and a sacrifice. It’s a baring of our souls. I recently watched the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I know it was based on a book, but since I have yet to read the book, I can't say much about how the film compared. The thing that made me really think long and hard about this story was how much I identified with Charlie.
For those who aren't familiar with the movie, Charlie had a rough time in middle school. At first, it isn't exactly clear why, Though as the story moves along, he confides that his best friend, Michael, killed himself, and we continually see flashbacks of Charlie's favorite aunt who passed away after a car accident. Charlie went through a bout of depression, was likely suicidal, and now that he was entering high school, he was having much difficulty in adjusting. He never said much to anyone, was bullied by the older kids, and ate lunch alone. It was looking like his year was going to be another tough one until he met Patrick and Sam. Patrick and Sam are step-siblings and a part of the outcast group that call themselves the Wallflowers, They are the kids who don't fit in anywhere else, experiment with drugs, steal jeans at the mall even though their family is rich, and ultimately celebrate that they don't fall into the category of the norm. As the movie progresses we find out more about the private and heart-wrenching lives of these three main characters and how they really aren't as different as they seem to be. For me, Charlie the quiet, serious writer who keeps to himself was me at that age. I had friends, but most of my time I was delving into my own private, quiet world. I didn't interact the way a most teens did. I wanted nothing more than to stay in the place that made sense to me, my world that I created and controlled. That was the perfect place to be. Socially, I was awkward and never put myself out there to be seen or judged, much like Charlie. However, I believe I blossomed as the years went by, just as he blossomed as the movie moved on. In a nutshell, the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the perfect example of a teenager trying to find his place among the others while harboring a lot of difficult things that make it that much harder for him. The triumph comes in his success. |
Samantha Buttrick
Author of "The Beast of Yorkshire Place" and "The Wasteland" Archives
October 2015
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