Susan Wands lives in New York City, the perfect place to fuel all her creative passions as a writer, actor, and tarot reader. She has appeared in several on-screen and Broadway performances, as well as written and produced original screenplays and films. Her work has been featured in Art in Fiction, Kindred Spirits magazine, and The Irving Society Journal First Knight, and her third novel is coming out this May. Outside of her own writing, she is a co-chair of the NYC Chapter of the Historical Novel Society, where she helps produce monthly online book launches and author panels.

When do I use tarot card when I’m writing? I use tarot cards when I’m hit head-on with a hard case of Writers’ Block.

Writers’ Block was first clinically described in 1947 by Austrian psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler, who identified it as being caused by oral masochism, mothers that bottle-fed, and an unstable private love life.

Since none of those causes apply to me when Writers’ Block comes to visit, I sometimes resort to tarot cards as a writing prompt. I have a lot of experience with tarot decks having studied, collected and “played around” with them for around three decades. Tarot is a very accessible conduit for inspiration. It’s an art museum, a philosophical tract, a spiritual journey, or a magical progression. Or a tarot deck can be just 78 cards divided into five suites that have similar images.

But here’s the great thing about using tarot as a prompt when your creativity has run dry: they suggest interior thoughts that are unique to you. They help you identify your own definitions of archetypes. Say that you’re writing a novel in the historical fiction genre, and you’ve hit a bump in the road how your protagonist would behave.

If you are new to the world of tarot, I suggest using the Waite Smith tarot deck. Or if more modern images and cultures appeal to you there is the Crow Tarot, Dark Wood Tarot or Hoodoo Tarot. If you are familiar and feel at ease with more archaic archetypes, Or you can use the Visconti Sforza or the Marseille tarot decks. These older decks that are more primitive in their wood block artwork, but they are just as suggestive and effective in providing writing prompts.

Here is a good start to begin a tarot reading for yourself.

Be sure you have a notebook nearby to take notes.

Start with a good five minutes you’ve set aside to go through and turn over and look at every card in the deck. Take notes when a card jumps out at you, or when a card causes a physical reaction, whether it’s a twitch, a heartbeat that gets faster, or a shaking of the head. All these reactions in the body are important to note, as sometimes our bodies are smarter than our heads or our hearts. So, go through the entire deck and see if any of the cards stand out to you.

This next step is one of the most important steps of a tarot reading: shuffle the deck.

Shuffling can be hard, and it takes time to get a flow going with the cards. It needs to be a natural and fluid movement. A lot of tarot decks have card stock that is too stiff, too laminated, or the card stock too whimpy and hard to shuffle because it is so limp. Whatever the property of your tarot deck, take time to breathe and relax as you shuffle the cards. As you shuffle the cards, remove the temptation to ask for a definite answer. Remember, you are using the tarot cards to seek guidance, not necessarily to demand definite answers.

In tarot there are three essences: there is the querent (you) asking the questions, looking for guidance and direction.

There are the cards themselves that have intention drawn into their definite space. And then there is the alchemy that happens when your energy meets the call of the energy of the cards. Your intention, your objective calls in the energy that is created with each card in the manifestation of the space that you create.

So, you’ve gone through the deck, looked at each card, noted when a card or cards creates a reaction from you when you see it. You’ve shuffled the deck thoroughly (at least three times.) The deck is stacked before you.

Take your time to form the question or situation you would like the cards to address. OR, you can be at a complete loss as to how to proceed and you can ask the cards to present a situation to be addressed for you. Either way, take the hand that is your less dominant hand, (if you are right-handed use your left hand, if you left-handed, use your right hand,) and cut the deck. Take your time to cut the deck, split it where it feels natural. If the cards fall apart, take your time to reshuffle and try again.

Lift the cards that you have selected, lift them off the deck and set them aside. You will start your reading with the top card of the cards that are sitting in front of you.

Now the reading begins.

Peel off three cards from the top and set them in front of you. I prefer to set them face down so that when you turn them over the impact of the image is direct. These three cards indicate the Past, Present, Future. These cards can indicate what your writing has been, where your writing is presently, and where to take your writing next. In your notebook, write down your initial responses to each card. What does it the first look convey? What does it bring up as possible signals to you? What does the card remind you of? Write the responses to all three cards. You can also take the next card as a Signifactor Card: this card is a prompt to inspire your next beats of writing.

Another tarot spread to consider is based on Julia Cameron’s Book, The Artist’s Way.

This tarot spread asks the querent to draw four cards. Once you have split the deck, take the time to ask each of these questions before you turn the cards over.

Here are the questions to ask:

1) How can I unblock my creativity?

2) What prompts will keep my flow of writing?

3) What can I channel to take my writing to the next level to be more creative?

4) What is the overall inspiration I need to tap into during this writing project?

Another spread to consider is just drawing one card. This card would symbolize “what should be my next course of action?”

In almost every tarot deck, there is a booklet that describes the creator’s intention of each card. You can use that booklet to help you interpret the cards or you use your gut and intuition to suss out what the cards are suggest to you. Remember, the cards are not there to answer specific questions, necessarily, but to guide you to what will be in tune with what you are looking for in your writing.

The great thing about tarot is that it is a personalized Rorschach Test with prompts and answers that you uniquely respond to. I encourage you to test drive a couple of tarot decks to find the one that speaks to you. And set limits on how many times you use a spread in one setting. I suggest no more than three spreads in a row. The cards can be overwhelming if you set out one spread after another.

Let go of preconceptions and have a great time with your tarot deck!

Emperor and Hierophant by Susan Wands

While touring with the Lyceum Theatre, Pamela is kidnapped by sinister forces looking to bring an end to her magic and tarot abilities. While imprisoned, she receives visions of her muses that help her plot her escape. All the while, Bram Stoker, her mentor, and Ahmed Kamal, an Egyptologist friend of Pamela’s, join the Lyceum Theatre and work together to save their friend. But Pamela will have to outwit the dangerous and magical Aleister, who is set on taking down her muses and claiming her tarot deck for himself, if she is to protect her powerful tarot deck.

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