Creativity techniques in Tarot reading

Some might say that divination is an exercise in creative thinking, needing ingenuity to find connections between card, spread position, and circumstances. Although I use the cards for creative thinking, not divination, the two have much in common.

 Traditional Tarot reading incorporates some creative-thinking techniques, while reading the cards in the traditional way is one (and only one) of the techniques using Tarot cards for creative thinking. The difference between reading the cards for divination and using them for creative thinking is that in creative thinking, these techniques are used consciously and deliberately to evoke ideas.

A second difference is that, in divination, the cards are assumed to contain a message for you to interpret; in reading for creative thinking, you are tapping your own mind for associations. You are accessing your own ingenuity and inner wisdom. You are also stimulating your own mind to come up with ideas.

If you are an experienced Tarot reader, you will recognize the following creative-thinking principles and techniques:

Random input

In creative thinking, random words, objects or images are often used as the creative fuel. Creativity experts have devised ways to come up with random items, from opening a book and picking a random word, to ingenious devices and computer programs that randomize words and images.

Tarot has an inbuilt random-input system: it is as easy as shuffling and cutting the cards.

You are also guaranteed endless combinations of cards. You can choose from thousands of spreads, with varying numbers of cards, or you can create your own. Each card position in a spread has its own specific meaning. You can imagine how unlikely it is that you will come across the same combination of cards in the same spread positions. Even if you did, you are unlikely to interpret the cards in the same way.

Free association

Free association, or association of ideas, happens when one thing makes you think of another. Something triggers a thought—an object, an image, a sound, a word, a conversation, a physical sensation. This thought leads to another, and so on in a chain of associations.

Free association is used in psychoanalysis as one of the techniques to uncover material in the unconscious. The patient is encouraged to talk about anything that comes to mind, and to keep following the chain of associations to wherever it may lead. Free association happens almost without conscious input and with no goal to elicit specific information.

Free association can let you make intuitive leaps that do not occur when you are reasoning logically. There is no sequential progression of ideas, and the associations can be surprising. A coffee mug might remind you of something you once heard. A photograph might evoke a chain of associations, including memories, reminders of birthday presents to buy, and thoughts of what you are going to wear to the office party. A conversation you overhear might remind you of something you forgot to tell your partner.

Any of these may lead to an idea or inspiration, and it is this aspect of free association that makes it such a wonderful technique for creative thinking.

Free association often happens spontaneously when you encounter a stimulus, but in creative thinking, input can be used to deliberately encourage associations. Any evocative object, image, word, or phrase can be used to evoke an association of ideas. In brainstorming, many of the ideas created by the group are the result of association, where one idea sparks another.

Tarot cards are excellent stimuli for free association, with their images, symbols, colours, numbers, and keywords. Each card in a well-designed deck is evocative enough to encourage numerous associations, which could be memories or reminders, the keywords and phrases associated with the card, metaphors, clichés and phrases, jokes, word puns, idioms, connections with other ideas and thoughts, and inspirations. Any of these can in turn be used to evoke ideas.

When you first look at a card in a spread, a thought might pop into your head, which you may experience as a sudden insight or flash of intuition. Some of these thoughts might seem irrelevant to your situation or to the card itself. These spontaneous thoughts can be valuable, giving you a glimpse into thoughts, memories, motivations, or emotions that you have not been aware of consciously. The cards can also evoke emotions and thoughts that have been bubbling just beneath the surface of your consciousness, and reveal motivations, beliefs, attitudes, inner conflicts, or desires that lurk in your “unaware.”

In a Tarot reading I once did, the Six of Swords (left) in the “Near Future” position triggered the thought “I will have to do some travelling in the near future.” I was hoping to avoid thinking about taking my mother for regular shopping trips, but the thought popped up anyway!

Instead of the card image as stimulus for free association, you could pick a symbol or object from the image, or you could use one or more of the keywords associated with the card as stimulus. You could also read the full description of a card and its associated meanings for inspiration, or use a metaphor, phrase, or story that the card suggests. In addition, the “story” that the spread tells can act as stimulant, or the pattern that you find in the cards—repeated symbols, numbers, suits, reversed cards, or number sequences.

Forced connections

Free association is a freewheeling technique that is difficult to control. A more deliberate technique to elicit inspiration is “forced connections” or “forced relationships.” With this technique, you deliberately “force” a connection between any two objects, ideas, concepts, or pieces of information to create something new. A variation is to look for a way to combine the two objects, ideas or concepts.

In contrast to free association with a Tarot card, in forced connections you deliberately make or force a relationship between the card and the card position, in the context of the question or situation. When you force a connection, you allow yourself to see both objects, ideas or concepts from a new perspective. In Tarot reading, this works both ways: the card position modifies the interpretation of the card, while the card’s image, symbols, or keywords make you see that aspect of the situation from a new perspective.

You could also force a connection between the problem and an object, symbol, keyword, or phrase connected with the card.

Analogy

Analogy is finding similarities between things. Analogies can help you see an object or a problem in a different light, which might elicit ideas. If you compare the heart to a pump, you are drawing an analogy between the way a pump works, and how the heart functions.

When you are reading a Tarot spread, you create analogies between the card and its position in the spread. For example, if you draw the Three of Swords (left) in the “Situation” position, you can ask yourself, “How is this situation like the Three of Swords?” Depending on the nature of the situation, you might come up with phrases such as “prickly,” “painful,” “a conflict between head and heart,” “a need to eliminate distracting emotions,” and so on.

If you drew the Chariot (right) in the “You” position, the question is, “In this situation, how am I like the Chariot?” Like the charioteer, you might be struggling with conflicting demands. Like the two sphinxes, you might feel “reined in.” Like the chariot, you might be “driven.”

You could also draw analogies from an object, symbol, keyword, phrase, or metaphor associated with the card.

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The first Tarot card image is from the 18^th century “Tier-Tarock” (Animal Tarot). The second card is the Fool from the Piedmont Tarot. The third is the Four of Vessels (Cups) from Robert Place’s Alchemical Tarot. The last three images are from the Universal Rider-Waite deck, published by US Games.