Crispin - The creative tarot : a modern guide to an inspired life

Thank you for downloading this Touchstone eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Touchstone and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

We hope you enjoyed reading this Touchstone eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Touchstone and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

Touchstone

An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2016 by Jessica Crispin

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Touchstone trade paperback edition February 2016

TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Interior design by Jill Putorti

Spolia artwork by Jen May

Cover Art by Jen May

Illustrations from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT, 06902 USA. Copyright 1971 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck is a registered trademark of U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Crispin, Jessa.

Title: The creative tarot : a modern guide to an inspired life / Jessa Crispin.

Description: First Touchstone trade paperback edition. | New York : Touchstone, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015038927

Subjects: LCSH: Tarot. | Creative abilityMiscellanea.

Classification: LCC BF1879.T2 C695 2016 | DDC 133.3/2424dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038927

ISBN 978-1-5011-2023-7

ISBN 978-1-5011-2024-4 (ebook)

For Llorraine, Wendy, Jen, and all of the other witchy women in my life

L ike a lot of teenagers who wore too much black and had an extensive incense collection, I used to fool around with a tarot deck. I cant remember where I picked it upsome bookstore somewhere. It was exciting to look at all of the images, all of the mysterious men and women fighting with swords or juggling coins or drinking from cups.

But after a few aborted attempts to teach myself to read the cards, I gave up. The manual that came with the cards gave inadequate and confusing definitionsthe Empress: wife, mother, companionthat detracted from what I was seeing. Unsure of what to do with the cards, I put them away, and they were lost in one move or another.

Ten years later, I came back to the tarot during a particularly difficult time in my life. With the help of a skilled reader, I was able to see my circumstances differently. She helped me find the narrative inside all the muddle. In short, she told me a new story about my life and what I was experiencing. A story I could move through; a story in which I could see how all of the other characters and situations were operating.

After that, I was hooked. I began the slow process of studying the meaning of the tarot and understanding its uses. At the time I worked mostly as a book critic, and I was intrigued by the way the cards could be used as a tool for storytelling. Each reading is, essentially, a story. It begins here, at the center. One card represents you and tells you who you are as the protagonist; others say whats happening to you, what did happen to you, what will happen. Other cards show up as people wandering into your story; others create plot and action.

You lay out the cards, and there on the table you have the outline. You have the who, what, where, and when. You then flesh out that skeleton with your own circumstances, you populate it with the people in your life, and, using the intuitive cues provided by the cards images, you fit your story onto the story in the cards.

It is not necessarily about telling the future. It is about retelling the present.

After noticing the way the cards hook into your intuition and imagination, I realized that they could easily be used to assist in the creative process. When stuck on a piece, Id pull some cards to find clarity, or Id use them to figure out how to structure it. When friends struggled with their book or visual art projects, Id pull out my deck, and wed take a look. Soon most of my tarot clients were artists, looking for a little guidance on what to work on next or how to overcome a block.

The tarot is a deck of cards designed during the Renaissance. There is debate about whether the cards origins stretch back further, but for our purposes, well stick with what we know for sure.

The deck consists of two parts: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana is made up of what you can consider archetypes: the Hermit, Death, the High Priestess, and so on. The Minor Arcana cards illustrate circumstances and conflictsthe kinds of things that add action to a story. The Minor Arcana comes in four suits that correspond with the four elements: Cups (water), Wands (fire), Swords (air), and Coins or Pentacles (earth). Each suit has cards numbering one through ten, and then four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King.

The cards depict the whole realm of human experience, from love to death, from joy to sorrow, from loneliness to friendship. Some cards are particularly nasty; others easily cheer a reader up. But either way, you have to take the dark with the light, just like in life.

The interpretations of the cards change as society changes. The Lovers card, of course, does not require a man and a woman to fulfill its meaning. And at one point, I read in an old tarot book that the Three of Wands indicated that a family member was going to die and leave me a chateau in his or her will. But the Three of Wands no longer means free chateau; now it means exploration and adventure. You will experience the cards differently than I will, because they are based on your own experiences and your own philosophy and values. Just because we may have different takes on a card doesnt mean that I cant learn from your interpretations, and I hope you can learn something from mine.

As a starting point. Each card has its own thorough interpretation and guidance on how it relates specifically to creativity. Ive designed a few new ways to organize the cards for reading what are called spreads for different creative problems:

wanting to start writing or painting or working on your medium of choice, but unsure how to begin;

restarting a project that has become blocked or lost its way;

figuring how best to present a project to the world; and

getting out of a rut to try something new and daring.

The book is also meant to be a source of inspiration. Because I believe firmly in looking to our betters to teach us and guide us, I have included anecdotes of creators throughout time to show how others have overcome obstacles, as well as recommendations of paintings to study, books to read, music to listen to, films to watch, etc.