And I got to talk to her on my podcast, Living Open, last month (as well as get a reading from her where we dove into the characters in my novel - very rad).
You can listen to the full episode over here - or keep scrolling for a brief edited and condensed written version with insights into how to use your tarot deck to have conversations with your creativity and write better stories and better-developed characters.
Having Conversations with Your Creativity through Tarot
Eryn: How can people connect with their creativity through tarot?
Chelsey: Traditionally, we look at a tarot deck as a thing that's going to connect us to spirit, the unknown, the future, angels, etc.
To me, the only thing I personally am interested in having a conduit to is my own creativity.
We don't always have access to everything that's going on inside of us, as I'm sure you know along with anyone listening who has ever tried to put pen to paper or paint to canvas.
Sometimes, there’s something in the way between what you want to express and how you get it out there - that chasm you have to jump. When we’re kids and we’re creating freely, there’s usually bridges everywhere. The older we get the more rickety the bridges are, the more holes they get. We may need a little help restructuring that bridge. I like to think of tarot as that support.
When I encounter an issue, block, or insecurity when it comes to my writing, the first thing I do is go to the tarot. I look at the cards as if it's standing in for what's going on with me creatively. I don’t have all the answers, but if I can reflect on them and find a way in, then I will.
I really personify the deck as my creativity. I lead a workshop sometimes where tell people: your creativity is sitting on the other side of the table from you. We're going to pull the cards out and allow them to create that conversation between us. When we do that, we automatically generate ideas, and we can relieve a lot of the guilt and shame of being blocked. The 78 cards are the bridge.
And tarot itself is a really creative act! We co-create with whatever we believe in - creativity, spirit, etc - through tarot and I think that conversation with it as a creative tool. It really does serve everyone in their own way.
We need a keyboard or a pen to write, and tarot feels like a tool in the same way.
Eryn: Yeah, I think that's one of the lovely things about tarot is how it can help us facilitate deeper access to ourselves to understand our desires, our ideas, all of those kinds of things.
Using Tarot to Tell Better Stories and Create More Well-Developed Characters
Eryn: When I was scrolling through your Instagram to prepare for this interview, I found this spread that you shared for fiction writing and character development. I’m writing a novel so I tried it out, and it was very cool and fun. I'm wondering if you can talk about that, and any other thoughts you have about using tarot to write better stories.
Chelsey: I think the spread that you're talking about speaking of published novelist was inspired by a tweet from VE Schwab, who is a brilliant sci fi and fantasy writer. And I was really struck because what she said in her tweet was that it was this really simple three step process she goes through to create a character. She figures out what they want in the world, she figures out how far they'd be willing to go to get it, she figures out a mantra that they have, and over the course of the story, she she forces the character to break the mantra.
I realized I didn’t know the answers to these things for a character I’m working on right now, so I pulled some tarot cards to help me generate some ideas. I ended up designing the spread from there. I didn’t have a very developed character before and I got a lot more clarity.
Even if a card doesn’t vibe, it gets you closer to what you know you don’t want from the piece. I think the power of rejection in tarot, especially when it comes to writing, is really important. A reading that doesn’t resonate is going to tell you as much as a reading that does, because it’s helping you eliminate paths.
We can pull cards for all of those questions that we ask ourselves when we’re writing. And I do think for character development in particular, tarot can be a powerful storytelling tool. You can read for your characters the same way you’d read for yourself or a person. One of my favorite things to do when writers come see me is draw a Celtic Cross for their main character as if I'm drawing it for a person who's across the table for me.
What I want for people I read for is for that real richness of ‘ideas are growing on trees’ to be available to them. You have 78 leaves that could grow off the trees at anytime with a tarot deck.
Feel free to tune into the full conversation over here or wherever you listen to podcasts. I’d love to hear in the comments how tarot supports your creativity, whether it’s writing specifically or anything else!
With care,
Eryn
love this so much!