December 2022: Tarot Cards for Creative Inspiration

Can you believe that it’s been almost two years since I started doing these tarot card readings for you all at Horror Tree?

Cheers! *clink*

In celebration, I’ve done a special six-point “lucky star” tarot spread to close out the year!

(I used the Unicorn Tarot by Suzanne Star and Liz Hilton for this reading.)

I would also like to give a big thank you to Stuart Conover and the rest of the Horror Tree team for supporting all of us writers/creatives! Give it up for the totally tubular HT!

 

The Crowning Point: The Magician. How amazing was it that I pulled a card full of positive portent and magic? This card is unequivocally representative of the force that will guide your creative path over the next year. Even with all this mystical creative energy flowing through you, however, magic is still a skill that needs both nurturing and training to fully receive its benefits. This card is here to remind you that the first step—the crowning point of the star—means opening yourself to any and all possibilities. It’s probably the most difficult part of the process for many of us, especially as we move through a world that demands to see concrete manifestations of the work that we’ve done.  But much of the creative process doesn’t exist in a tangible form, even when we spill it all out onto paper; instead, it exists in the ether, and we creatives have to unlearn many of the traditional methods that classify work as something that produces quantifiable results. In order to produce a creative work, it requires a whole different set of intuition-based tools. Magic, indeed!

 

The “Second Star [Point] to the Right”: Page of Rods. This card is granting you permission to tap into that childlike energy that’s often a key source of creativity and inspiration. The Page of Rods moves through a world of unlimited possibilities, and smashes through any creative-block barriers with the sheer force of their passion and excitement. We shouldn’t forget that creating a creative work is as much about play and having fun as it is hard work. If we don’t nurture that elemental energy that allows us to dream and explore a myriad of alternate worlds, then our souls get drained and we end up with creative burnout. So, don’t forget to cater to your inner child, even if it takes you down some strange and spooky pathways! Allow yourself the space to have some untrammeled adventures—whether through online courses in something you’ve always wanted to take, or wandering the trails of a national park, or heading off to a new exhibit at a local museum you’ve never been to before.

 

The Second Star [Point] to the Left: The Moon. Speaking of strange and unusual pathways our creative minds can take us down, the Moon card has drifted into this reading as the embodiment of those unseen and mysterious forces at work behind the scenes. It’s all too easy to read the finished work of successful authors, and for us to allow self-doubt to creep in as a result of that comparison. What’s that term I’m always seeing bandied about these days—oh, yeah, “imposter syndrome”. It’s even easy for me to blithely type that you just gotta turn all of that clamoring noise off—all those strident voices that tell us we’re not good enough. So, to give you a real-life example, I taught art long-term for elementary school kids, and one of the best things about that job was that I got to dedicate time to “un-teaching”—helping kids see that the stuff they created didn’t have to be perfect. That the most important thing was just making something creative and turning off those harsh critics that sit on their shoulder telling them that they “messed up”. That art was a place where they could make all kinds of mistakes and color outside the lines and have a heck of a lot of fun while they did so! I mean, for us writers, that’s why we have those wonderful angels called editors. Am I right or am I right? So, when you write/create, allow yourself to drift along with the moon as it makes its dreamy voyage through the sky above us, and try to turn off those self-critical filters.

 

The Right Pillar Point: Ten of Cups. I’ve defined the two bottom points of the star as “pillars” that provide support and strength to the creative individual. Believe me, as an introvert, I’m the first person to retreat into my shell and say I don’t need anyone. And that’s mostly true. But the simple truth is that even the most isolated introvert needs someone, or something, to act as a touchstone as they move through the fictional worlds they create. Otherwise they risk being lost. The Ten of Cups is here to remind you that it’s just as important to build a community for yourself as it is to take care of your creative inner child. We should take the time to get out of our heads and put down roots in the “real” world that exists around us. Even if your community only has a membership of one, that’s perfectly fine. And, yes, even horror writers need love, too. This phrase has been way overused, I know, but think outside the box! Love doesn’t have to be love in the romantic sense. It can be found in through the support of friends, a book club, an online writing community, or even that person you’ve become friends with via exchanged emails or in comment threads.

 

The Left Pillar Point: King of Pentacles. Speaking of overused clichés, we often imagine that any sort of creative craft requires the sacrifice of our financial stability—and, perhaps, even our mental or physical health. But it’s also perfectly acceptable to be mercenary and practical about our writing. That’s not to say that you should give up on your creative undertakings just because they don’t earn you a lot of money—yet! But it will definitely help ground you if you are strategic about your craft. In addition to establishing yourself as a trusted professional in your creative genre, adopting a planned approach also builds your status as an influencer in the writing community. And, by influencer, I don’t mean solely by racking up a ton of follows/likes on social media, I mean that in the sense of establishing yourself as a trusted and recognizable presence within your requisite literary circles. And having the right sort of day job certainly doesn’t hurt, either. Your day job can also be a good space for you to achieve the sort of social support I covered in the Ten of Cups interpretation, above.

See you in January! Happy Holidays!

(If you’re interested in a personal reading, please email me at croftwillow [at] yahoo [dot] com, or contact me via my website at https://willowcroft.blog/tarot-cards-for-creative-inspiration/ or check out the other services I offer at https://kirsten-lee-barger.mailchimpsites.com/. Just mention you saw this on Horror Tree and I’ll give you a full-spread tarot reading for the price of a three-card spread or 10% off my editing/coaching services.)