October 2024: Tarot Cards for Author Inspiration

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Deck: The New Orleans Voodoo Tarot by Louis Martinié and Sallie Ann Glassman

I don’t ever use this powerful deck lightly and/or for these creative inspiration readings, but New Orleans has been coming up lately in various ways. Part of me would love to live in New Orleans—it’s a fascinating city that combines the natural magic of the swampy South with the haunting allure of history. Since we are entering into October, a similarly atmospheric month, I felt compelled to draw upon this deck’s wisdom for this month’s reading.

(I had a feeling that the reading would contain a strong fire element before I pulled the cards, and it seems my intuition was correct.)

First Card: Rada 5 Ogoun Ferraille. Although it’s classified as an air card (the wind of the bellows), it’s also the card of a blacksmith that uses fire to transform metal into new forms. How can you use fire to reshape anything that needs to undergo a similar transformation—whether it’s your words on a page, your current set of circumstances, or anything else that could benefit from a powerful blast of scorching-hot air?

Second Card: Petro 4 Agwé La Flambeau. This card, again, is a bit of a paradox. It’s representative of the fire of heat that flows as smoothly as water. In many places in the Northern Hemisphere, the heat of summer is persisting into autumn due to climate change. We may be seeking refuge from the heat, or we can use it to create more substantial and effective change in both our personal lives and on a global level. Symbolically, as hot as it is, we may be seeking even more heat to burn away our past and start anew. Think of it as an opportunity to imagine a new way of thinking, of being, of living, and of (re) connecting with our community both locally and globally. How could your writing, or a new writing project, reflect this energy shift?

Third Card: Petro 9 Masa La Flambeau. This card could be fire made solid. As I understand the symbolism attributed to this card in the accompanying book, it is not just fire channeled into a corporeal object, it is a solid that has been transmuted into a more purified form. One that contains a great deal of powerful magic. Can we bring ourselves back into balance with both the natural world and with the mystical one? What role would creativity play in this transformation?

Fourth Card: Santería 4 Obatalá. This card is no less bright, but it is of a different quality and form than the blaze of a fire. The book attaches it to the color white; a white that is soft and yet one that is more stable than that of the fire element. How could we stabilize ourselves after a period of intense “scorched earth” transition—literally and figuratively? By what means can we open ourselves to a greater sensitivity and care for both ourselves and for the world around us?

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