Why use Tarot cards for creative thinking?

One of the missions of this blog is to show how Tarot cards can be used for various applications, including creative thinking (idea generation and problem solving). But why Tarot cards? For the simple reason that if you have been reading Tarot cards--for whichever purpose--you are already engaged in a creative exercise. When you look at the cards in the context of a spread, and in the context of a specific question, problem or situation, you are relying on those cards to inspire you in some way with a message (or messages) that you can use.

Tarot cards are ideally suited for creative thinking, as not only do they usually portray evocative scenes, but mostly also contain several symbols--including that of colour and number--which can serve as "triggers" to thoughts and ideas. Pictures and symbols, which evoke feelings, are the food of "right-brain" thinking.

In addition, most decks come with either a little booklet (the LWB or "little white book"), or a book, which provide descriptions, phrases and keywords for each card. These can also serve is "triggers", and as you may know, language is mainly a left-brain function.

In this way, the cards help you to bring both halves of the brain to bear on the problem. Tarot cards also force you to use all your creative and imaginative skills, as well as your analytical skills, to make associations between the cards, the layout (spread), and the question at hand.

To get back to creative thinking: the point of creative thinking is to come up with ideas--even, or maybe especially, ideas that you would not normally have thought of in relation to the problem. When you are studying a spread for divinatory purposes, is this not exactly what you are doing? Are you not taking everything you know about a certain card, and trying to apply this to its position in a spread? And then looking at the spread as a whole--at the "story" it is telling--to help stimulate your or the querent's thoughts towards possible solutions to a problem?

Whether you are a Tarot reader or a brainstormer, approaching Tarot cards from a creative-thinking perspective will add another tool to your kit. And that can only be a good thing!