TarotTools.com

Character Cards

Smash writer's block with my Character Creation Template! With this simple template and a pack of Tarot cards, you can create complex, compelling characters in ten minutes or less. With the free template and the following instructions, you'll be creating characters (and more engaging stories) in record time.

The Character Creation Template compresses a sophisticated random character generation system into a single piece of paper! The technology that makes this possible? Tarot cards -- the most powerful "creative fuel" on the planet. Pair this template with Tarot-based visual brainstorming techniques, and watch your fiction come to life with the sort of characters readers love!

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Download the template. (Right-click it, and choose Save As...)

2) Get out your trusty deck of Tarot cards.

3) Draw eight cards at random -- one for each blank on the template.

4) Card One - Appearance. Using elements you can see on the first card, brainstorm your new character's physical attributes. Borrow skin tones, hair and eye color, and other features from characters on the card ... or allow the card's setting or theme to prompt ideas about how your character looks. (Note to sci-fi writers: the World Spirit Tarot and Navigator's Tarot of the Mystic SEA are both particularly good decks for generating random aliens!)

5) Card Two - Age. Allow numbers or people on the card to suggest your character's apparent age. The Emperor, with his severe features and clipped beard, might prompt you to make your character an older man. On the other hand, the World card, Trump XXI, might prompt you to create a character who is barely able to buy a legal drink.

6) Card Three - Visual Signature. Have fun with this card, which should suggest a single, visual "trademark" for your character. The banner on Trump XIX, the Sun, might prompt you to put a jaunty red feather in your character's hat. The Chariot might make you give your hard-edged teen Wiccan a taste for NASCAR racing ... and a racing jacket to match.

7) Card Four - Backstory. Tarot readers often integrate a "Past" or "History" card into their readings for clients ... this card is the rough equivalent. Allow the images on this card to suggest ideas about your character's former traumas, occupations, approach to spirituality, pet peeves, etc. Go where the card takes you! You might, for example, see the Page of Pentacles' coin, mistake it for a cookie, and spontaneously generate a disastrous story concerning your character's ill-advised childhood efforts to sell boxes of Girl Scout confections for twice the going rate.

8) Card Five - Primary Strength. This card is the first of three designed to boost your sense of character ... and your sense of story.

By equating your character's primary strength with whatever is required to to solve the story's problem, you automatically equip your character to be the hero of the tale. For example: a character whose primary strength is a love of travel (suggested, perhaps, by the Three of Wands) could easily become the hero of a detective story featuring clues only a savvy traveler would notice and appreciate.

9) Card Six - Critical Flaw. This card represents whatever force you'll use to impede your character's progress toward resolution (and slow the pace of the story as needed).

The Four of Cups might suggest that your character is easily bored, and therefore has trouble sticking with an important job or relationship. The Seven of Swords might hint that your character struggles with kleptomania (a very interesting problem, say, for a hard-edged detective to have).

Oooh! What if the detective, like some serial killers, has a secret penchant for taking a single trophy from each crime scene? And this time, thinking he's stealing an incidental personal item, he steals the critical clue ... prompting the murderer to come after him? (Do you see now how a single card can suggest an entire storyline?)

10) Card Seven - Motivator. What does the character lack, but long for? What does he or she crave, on a psychological or emotional level? A mother's approval (suggested, perhaps, by the Empress)? Salvation (as illustrated by the Judgment card)? Fame (as evidence by the Seven of Wands)?

11) Card Eight - Problem Solving. How does your character respond when thrown into conflict? Does she retreat into a fantasy world (Seven of Cups)? Does he rush forward, fists flying (Five of Wands)? Is she aroused (Lovers)? Is he only really happy when everything's falling apart (Nine of Cups)?

Few tools offer writers the instant, intuitive creative boost that Tarot-based brainstorming delivers. Let this powerful technique prompt you to write about places and people you'd never explore on your own ... and, as always, let me hear about your questions and experiences!

If you enjoyed this article, you'll love the other visual brainstorming techniques covererd in Putting the Tarot to Work. While the techniques covered in the book focus on business and career issues, you can easily use them to solve all kinds of creative challenges!

Answer Mining (TM)

Calling all brainstormers, writers, artists, and other creative types! Even if you know nothing at all about Tarot, drawing a single card can generate dozens of options, insights, and answers. All you need is my patented (ha!) Answer Mining Template.

You can read on for instructions, or download the Answer Mining Template (in Microsoft Word format) for free.

WHY SHOULD YOU BE ANSWER MINING?

Answer Mining is a fast, easy process that makes it possible to dig dozens of options, insights, and answers out of every single Tarot card. And don't worry -- even though the process uses Tarot cards, it's got nothing to do with the Tarot practices going on down at Sister Doololly's Single-Wide Miracle Revival House of Palmistry and Voodoo.

That said ... who is Answer Mining for ... and what will it do for you?

- Brainstormers. If you need the maximum number of ideas in the minimum amount of time, Answer Mining is the visual brainstorming technique you're looking for. With it, you can generate ten to twenty new perspectives on your problem ... in ten minutes or less!

- Writers and Artists. Looking for a way to break that creative block? Want to explore your feelings about a theme before committing pen or paint to paper? Need a unique way to alter your perspective and see old material in a new light? Answer Mining can do this ... and more ... in minutes.

- Tarot readers. Yep, that's right. Tarot readers. You don't have to deal out a ten-card spread to glean dozens of insights for yourself and your clients -- a single card draw can yield more associations than fifty Celtic Cross spreads.

Reading the following instructions takes longer than the process itself!

WHAT TO DO

1) Download the Answer Mining template.

2) Define the question you want to answer or the situation you want to explore. As an example, I'll use the question, "What's stopping me from completing my first mystery novel?"

3) Get out any deck of Tarot cards (preferably one with illustrated pips -- an evocative picture on every card). By the way ... if Tarot cards turn you off -- or if you'll be Answer Mining with folks who spook easily -- you can always use a single image torn from a magazine, a photo from your high school reunion, or any of dozens of random images stolen from the web.

Be aware, though, that brainstorming with Tarot cards offers many, many benefits over brainstorming with everyday photos ... so dismiss Tarot cards at your own creative risk!

4) Shuffle the cards ... and draw just one.

5) With your question in mind, take a few seconds to look the card over. Perhaps you'll draw, as I did, the Five of Wands: Strife.

Five of Wands Andreas Wollender's Aquatic Tarot Used by permission.

6) Giving yourself no more than a minute per question, fill out the ANSWERS column for questions 1 - 6.

- What elements do you notice in the illustration? In plain English: when you look at the card, what do you notice? List anything and everything: colors, expressions, numbers, keywords, titles, objects, characters, tools, implements, anything! For the Five of Wands, your list might include: five men, odd clothes, dancing (?), fighting (?), wands, a little brown hat. Write your answer in the Answer column.

- Which element stands out to you the most? Pick one item from the list you just made. Tonight, I chose the word dancing.

- What numbers are associated with your card? In my case, five.

- What text, titles, or keywords appear on the card? You can't see the titles in the little picture I posted here, but the title of the card is Five of Wands, and the keyword is Strife.

- What emotions do postures and expressions suggest? The postures suggest anger, but the faces lead me to believe these guys are playing a sport or executing some kind of dance.

- What meanings have others assigned to this card? This question refers to meanings assigned in Tarot books ... like those you can see listed at Joan Bunning's excellent Tarot-related website, Learn Tarot. People associate tonight's card with disagreement, fussing, heated debate, and confrontation.

7) With answers in place for Questions 1 - 6, it's time to list the associations I can make with each answer -- thoughts, feelings, ideas, memories, and moments from my own experience that relate to these answers in some way. As I come up with them, I write them in the association column. For example:

- I associated the odd clothes and dances with those interminable folklore shows featured on bad European day tours. You know the ones: a bus company drags you to a bad restaurant, and, while you gnaw on an overdone chicken leg, men in hats and white stockings prance around to recorded "cultural music."

- I associate dancing with freedom. I grew up, you see, in a church that forbade dancing. The result? As an adult, I can't dance a single step. Seriously -- the one time I ever took to the dance floor, people were wounded. For me, then, dancing represents an amazing degree of personal and physical freedom.

- My associations for the number five include: the "Five Golden Rings!" from that holiday carol, the phrase "take five" (meaning "take a break"), and the total number of Rocky movies. (Thank goodness they stopped with Rocky V. You don't want to take a franchise like that and, like, run it into the ground.)

- I associate the word Strife with with a memory of a fight I witnessed back in my high school days: the sudden escalation to violence, the sound of fists smacking faces, the urge to help, and the helplessness. (And no, neither guy in the fight was me, thanks!)

- I associate anger with procrastination. I get really angry with myself when I don't produce as much writing as I expect to produce each day. I associate sport and dance with practice ... two acts that must be practiced each day in order to be done with finesse. (PS: I play football about as well as I can dance, but on a racquetball court, I can soar like an eagle. Well, maybe not an eagle. Actually, I'm built more like a pelican.)

- I associate disagreement and debate with my recent indecision about which fiction project to complete first. The mystery novel? The science fiction novel? The final draft of Family Thais, the first novel I ever drafted?

8) Now I fill in the applications column. To create applications, I link my associations back to my original question: "What's stopping me from completing my first mystery novel?" In this case, I'll make each association into a hurdle that stands between me and a finished mystery tale:

- Those folklore shows. Instead of the elegant and gripping story I imagine it could be, I'm afraid the actual novel will be as painful to read as folklore shows are to watch.

- Freedom. I keep taking on other projects instead of extended myself the freedom to focus on fiction.

- Take five. When I start working on novel-length fiction, something always comes up to "break" my flow. I end up "taking five" -- and then ten, and then thirty ... and, before I know it, a month has gone by, and the novel's muse has grown silent.

- Helplessness. I'm allowing myself to be a helpless victim, beaten up by my schedule, instead of accepting responsibility to control my own schedule and take actions accordingly.

- Procrastination. I keep putting the mystery novel off to finish other worthy projects ... so it never gets done.

- Disagreement. I'm still not totally dedicated to completing ONE of my fiction projects and sending it out into to Big World. It's odd -- I easily choose and complete non-fiction work ... it's only fiction that I dither on about so!

9) At this point, you can answer the rest of the questions on the template. They're pretty straightforward, so I won't cover my answers here.

My favorite remaining question, though, is the one that asks you to imagine what text would appear on the inside of a greeting card illustrated with your chosen picture.

When I opened my imaginary Five of Wands card, I saw the greeting: "Pick a novel. Any novel. Beat it into submission ... and then you can write the next one."

10) When you've filled out the form, you'll have generated dozens of possible answers, options, and insights. All that remains? Scan the answers for common themes or options that catch your attention ... and give the winning strategy a try.

In my case: working through this process has called my attention to the fact that I'm using endless deliberations about "Which novel?" to keep myself from finishing any novel. If I can infinitely extend the delibaration over which novel is most commercial, or most nearly complete, or most likely to sell quickly, I can avoid actually finishing the mystery novel ... or any novel ... for ever!

What's stopping me from finishing my mystery novel? Just my good old friend, Resistance, dressed up in fresh new clothes.

Knowing that, I'm just going to pull one fiction project out of the hat, finish it, and move on to the next one.

What insights, answers, and realizations will Answer Mining lead you to today?

Three Quick Brainstorming Tips

Whether you prefer to brainstorm with sticky notes or Tarot cards, you can improve your brainstorming process with a little E.S.P. (And no, despite my penchant for Tarot cards, I'm not talking about Extra-Sensory Perceptions!)

In a brainstorming context, when I talk about ESP, I'm making reference to three powerful brainstorming basics:

1. E is for Execute the Editor. What do creation and evaluation have in common with sex and cooking? To do either one well, you generally have to stop doing the other.

To maximize the creative payoff of your brainstorming session, you gotta put the lid on evaluation ... and that means executing your internal editor. Nothing staunches the flow of ideas like someone saying, "No, that's not quite what we're looking for..."

Execute the editor. Create now ... and evaluate later.

2. S is for Seek Scads of Solutions. Too many people focus on finding the solution! But brainstorming is about quantity, not quality. (You'll handle the quality business when to stop to evaluate ideas later on.)

Rather than seek one solution, seek a dozen. Or four dozen. Or a hundred. Pretend you get paid ten bucks per idea, regardless of the quality or practicality of the suggestion ... and that the size of the final paycheck is entirely up to you.

Seek scads of solutions. Promote free-wheeling creativity by offering rewards for the most solutions -- not just be best one. Remember: that terrible, impractical, preposterous idea may well inspire a more sober member of the team to come up with the best idea ever.

3. P is for Produce a Plan. During brainstorming and even during the evaluation phase, remember to steer yourself toward actionable ideas.

Understanding why something is happening is probably not as important as understanding how to move forward effectively. Great brainstorming questions avoid "Why" and "When" and focus more on "What" and "How."

Produce a plan. Emphasize action and personal responsibility ... and never end a brainstorming session without organizing and categorizing your ideas into an actionable format.

Tarot, Religion, & the Workplace

Mention brainstorming with Tarot in a corporate setting, and sooner or later, someone will ask, "What if my co-workers object to Tarot on religious grounds?"

It's a good question -- especially if you don't want your next brainstorming session to be "What am I going to do about this 'Religion in the Workplace' lawsuit?

Fortunately, there are good answers:

1) Use the cards yourself. First and foremost: you can use Tarot personally to generate options for your own work and career challenges. In fact, before you ever whip out Tarot decks at the office, I strongly recommend you become used to brainstorming with them yourself.

The portability of a Tarot deck makes this easy. You can brainstorm in your home. You can brainstorm in the car or on the subway. You can brainstorm with Tarot cards in the privacy of your own office. None of these uses need ever conflict with the religious views held by your co-workers or employers.

With time, people are going to become curious about the inexhaustible source of ideas you've discovered ... and that might be the very best time to introduce them to brainstorming-related applications of Tarot, none of which involve (or require) religious or metaphysical beliefs.

2) Focus on the method, not the means. As I note in Putting the Tarot to Work, every single exercise in the book will work with any source of random visual "creative fuel."

If Tarot cards would be a problem in your workplace, substitue any library of random images: magazine ads, for example, or even photos pulled from the Internet and popped onto PowerPoint slides.

When it comes to visual brainstorming, Tarot cards have features -- an underlying structure, a wealth of symbolic visual content -- that make a Tarot deck an excellent creative tool. In places where Tarot cards might prove problematic, however, the techniques in Putting the Tarot to Work will work just fine with any random image bank.

3) Always be respectful of the beliefs of others. In my experience, people who object to Tarot on religious or superstitious grounds are not likely to be open to new information about the cards.

If you have a co-worker who is afraid of Tarot cards or who clings to old-fashioned ideas about the spookiness of Tarot, then you must must respect those feelings and refrain from requiring the use of Tarot cards as brainstorming tools in the workplace.

In these cases, you can still use the cards to boost your personal creativity ... or, as mentioned above, simply employ the techniques using other images.

4) Look for opportunities to educate your co-workers. Most of my own friends and colleagues were skeptical about Tarot's value as a brainstorming tool ... until they experienced its power for themselves.

At book fairs and other personal appearances, I've seen people who were initially very nervous or skeptical say again and again, "That wasn't spooky at all! I could do that, myself!"

By focusing on practical applications and avoiding hocus-pocus, you can help people get past their initial hesitancy and start enjoying the benefits of brainstorming with Tarot.

Of Brainstorms and Inkblots

A reader writes and asks: "How is your method of brainstorming with Tarot cards any different than, say, brainstorming with inkblots?"

It's true: there are parallels between my methods and those employed by the inblot-based Rorschach test (pronounced raw-shock). In particular, both systems encourage people to examine images and, for reasons that make sense to them, define what they see and why they see it.

Here, though, all similarity ends. The Rorschach test is a diagnostic tool, not a creative strategy. Therapists and psychiatrists interpret a subject's responses in hopes of gaining insight into mental or emotional states. Tarot-based brainstorming positions responses as "creative fuel" -- spontaneous perceptions which, by the process of association, give rise to unexpected insight.

It's also important to note that, with the Rorschach test, there are "right and wrong" answers -- proponents of the Rorschach system believe the inblots elicit specific responses from specific subjects. Your response to one inkblot in the series, for example, is supposed to indicate whether you are straight or gay; your responses to others supposedly reveal your feelings about your mother and father.

In Tarot-based brainstorming, there are no right or wrong answers. Instead, the process is strictly a creative one: associating random Tarot card images with the situation forces you to see your issue from an entirely different perspective.

But what if we divorce the Rorschach inkblots from their clinical setting? For visual brainstorming purposes, would inkblots be just as good as Tarot cards?

As I mention in Putting the Tarot to Work, visual brainstorming works with any set of random images: magazine ads, family photos, etc. As with clouds (remember, as a kid, seeing animals and people in the clouds?), the bizarre geometry of inkblots lends itself to visual projection. For this reason alone, inkblots could easily be used as visual brainstorming tools.

Tarot cards are still a superior grade of creative fuel, though ... and here's why:

1) Tarot possesses an underlying structure that inkblots lack. The Tarot's trump cards and numbering system make it possible to assign certain Tarot cards "weight," making some cards more important than others when they appear in a brainstorming layout. By contrast, all inkblots are created equal.

2) Tarot cards have keywords and titles. While I often advise clients to ignore text on their cards, the fact that a certain card is called "Justice" or "Strength" is often a springboard for some great ideas ... ideas you'd miss if you were brainstorming with inkblots.

3) Tarot cards have traditional and intended meanings. Removed from their clinical application, inkblot images are strictly random -- they have no deliberate symbolic or thematic content. Each Tarot card, however, possesses a broad range of assigned meanings -- a rich vein of information accessible to anyone with the slightest degree of formal education, religious affiliation, or cultural awareness. This information represents yet another resource brainstormers can call on while "making meaning" -- and it's a resource random inkblots lack.

4) Tarot cards are easier to find and easier work with. If you lose your inkblots, you'll invest a lot of time (and ink) recreating them. Me? I'll run to the store next door and grab a pack of Tarot cards. Plus, Tarot cards are designed for shuffling; inkblots aren't.

When successful visual brainstorming is your goal, it's pretty easy to establish why Tarot cards are superior to inkblots. That said ... is it proper, as more than one reviewer has done, to call the methods in Putting the Tarot to Work "Rorschachian"?

I'd say no. Tarot-based visual brainstormers do indeed project personal meaning onto the random images found on Tarot cards, just as Rorschach subjects project meaning onto inkblots. The best Tarot-based brainstormers, however, also take conscious advantage of the structure, symbolism, and traditional meanings associated with the Tarot.

The result? Brainstorming with Tarot has the potential to generate far more ideas than brainstorming with inkblots ... or any other random visual resource.

What the Cards Mean

Am I Right ... or Am I Right?

When people first start brainstorming with Tarot cards, many of them obsess on knowing the meaning of the cards.

"How can I know," they ask me, "if the meaning I come up with is the right meaning? What if there�s an important meaning that I miss?"

I usually respond by urging people -- especially beginners -- to go with the flow, to use the meanings that they generate on the fly during the brainstorming process.

For a few, this advice is extremely difficult to follow. Something in their personal history gives them a strong motivation to be assured of the correctness of their answers. They want their conclusions to be right -- and they want independent, external confirmation of the precision and validity of their answers.

All about Authority

It's not hard for such people to find self-appointed authorities who are more than willing to step in and provide a meaning for each card. In fact, almost every Tarot book ever written (including two or three of mine!) bulge with card meanings.

In my own work, I'm careful to call these "suggested meanings," and I urge readers to "take 'em or leave 'em." Other books, though, present a list of card meanings with a great deal of certainty. People in need of support from authority respond very, very strongly to that approach, taking great comfort in memorizing and using the author's hard and fast definitions.

Where Meaning Comes From

My approach is a little different. I like to say that every Tarot card possesses at least three layers of meaning:

1) Intentional meanings. Having just designed the world's first Tarot deck specifically designed as a brainstorming tool, I can now speak with a little authority about what each of the cards in that deck mean. I decided which principles or concepts each card should represent, sometimes going with tradition, and sometimes going my own way for my own reasons. I call these meanings intentional meanings.

In the case of the Idea Deck, there's another source of intentional meaning: the artwork. Artist Eric Hotz illustrated the Idea Deck, creating designs based on card descriptions I wrote. Quite often, his artistic talents led Eric to suggest a composition or use of color far different from what I had originally conceived -- and he would shape my own perception of the card's meaning in the process.

The result? New potential associations -- and new layers of intentional meaning.

2) Traditional meanings. While the Idea Deck doesn't use traditional suits, it's easy for the Tarot-savvy to figure out that the suit of Yellow corresponds to the suits of Swords, the suit of Blue corresponds to the suit of Water, and so on. As a result, it's easy for users who are familiar with Tarot to map traditional meanings onto the cards.

People already familiar with Tarot cling to traditional meanings during brainstorming sessions, even when the deck's they're using are anything but traditional. Why?

Some people are comfortable with traditional meanings, and don't see value in exploring other possibilities. There's a sense of achievement, too, in having memorized traditional meanings, that can make people extremely reluctant to part with them. And, without a doubt, some folks are just lazy: having mastered one set of meanings, they aren�t interested in learning anything else, ever!

To be clear: I'm not knocking the use of traditional or divinatory meanings. When your brainstorming process needs a kickstart, traditional meanings frequently provide the perfect "jumping off point." My take on the matter? If traditional meanings enhance your brainstorming process, use 'em, but if they limit your creativity, chuck 'em.

3) Personal meanings. I put a man holding a compass on my Yellow 1 (Ace of Swords) to suggest an informed pursuit of an appropriate direction. You, however, may see that compass and think immediately of that time you went backpacking, used a compass, and found yourself more lost and frustrated than before.

Recalling that experience -- of being lost -- may prompt you to make important associations during your current brainstorming session: how you got lost in the first place, how it felt to be lost, how you got yourself out of that fix, and what you learned in the process.

In my experience, those personal associations very likely hold better "answers" to the question under consideration than any intentional or traditional meanings.

How Does This Change the Way I Work with the Cards?

Intentional and traditional meanings give you additional "hooks" on which you can hang all kinds of valuable insights. The more you know, the more you grow, so I recommend learning all you can about intentional and traditional meanings.

That said: never, ever adopt or adhere to these meanings at the expense of the associations that occur to you during the brainstorming process. When using Tarot for brainstorming purposes, I can't stress this enough: a Tarot card means whatever you need it to mean at the time. In the end, the most important meaning ... is the one you make.

Best Tarot Resources on the Web

As you start brainstorming with Tarot, you'll very naturally become more curious about the cards: their history, the differences among decks, software options, and other Tarot resources.

To save you time and energy, I've assembled this list -- the very best Tarot resources on the web.

By the way: the software makers, web sites, and communities listed below don't pay me a penny to be listed here ... they're simply the best in their respective categories.

Want to know more about Tarot? Want to discover more about its benefits and background? Curious about finding that perfect deck for you? Visit the sites below, and you can't go wrong.

Best Tarot Software

Orphalese Tarot. Hands down, this is the best Tarot software available today. There are no canned meanings -- instead, creator Richard Jeffries concentrated on creating the most powerful and flexible deck of cards available.

In addition to allowing you to gather & organize the cards, shuffle, and deal with one click, the program can randomize and "deal" any collection of images you specify. Perfect for visual brainstorming! Highly recommended.

PS: Don't miss my detailed review of the Orphalese software!

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Best Reviews of Tarot Decks and Books

Tarot Passages. Though not as frequently updated as it has been, this site remains one of the best collection of Tarot articles, images, and book & deck reviews on the web. Before buying any deck, I stop in Diane Wilkes' excellent site, look over the sample cards, and read the opinions of her many well-informed reviewers. Highly recommended.

Aeclectic Tarot. Reviews here include at least six card images from each deck. There's also a lively community of Tarot enthusiasts who meet to discuss Tarot books and decks in the site's great online forum. Read a few posts and join the fun! Highly Recommended.

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Best Tarot History Resource

The Tarot-L History Information Sheet. No aliens or faux Egyptian origin stories here! The Tarot-L History Information Sheet presents level-headed conclusions about Tarot's origins based on documentation and research, not flights of fancy. Don't let the scholarly tone put you off! Highly recommended.

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Best Tarot Communities Online

Comparative Tarot. The friendly disposition of this group makes it a welcome haven for those with a budding interest in Tarot. Members often own dozens (sometimes hundreds!) of decks ... and are eager to share their passion and information with others. Highly Recommended.

Tarot-L. More scholarly in tone than Comparative Tarot, Tarot-L tends toward lively discussions, debates, and speculation about all things related to the cards. Read posts a while before jumping in -- this is not the place to walk in and ask, "Can I get a free reading?" Recommended.

American Tarot Association. This educational and social organization offers courses, free bi-monthly newsletters, and the opportunity to link up with others who share an interest in all aspects of Tarot. (Full disclosure: I used to serve on their Advisory Board, and served as a VP-level board member for a year.) Recommended.

Best Tarot Decks for Brainstorming

Small bookstores stock may stock four or five different Tarot decks. A large chain store may stock several dozen. A metaphysical shop may have more than a hundred different decks on their shelves!

When buying your first Tarot deck, you may feel a little overwhelmed by all the variety. No worries! With your visual brainstorming needs in mind, I've prepared this list of recommended decks to make your shopping easier.

(Full disclosure: since the good folks at Llewellyn Worldwide were kind enough to publish my brainstorming books, I recommend their decks first in the lists below.)

Suggested "First Decks"

The following decks are bright and colorful, with detailed illustrations on each card. They're great "first decks" for beginning brainstormers ... and perfect decks for personal use, too.

Universal Tarot (Lo Scarabeo/Llewellyn). Based on the most popular Tarot images of all time, the Universal Tarot features evocative art on every single card. Become familiar with this deck, and you'll be able to use dozens of others based on the Rider-Waite imagery. Highly recommended.

Nigel Jackson Tarot (Llewellyn). Whimsical art incorporating bright colors make this unconventional deck especially appealing when brainstorming in public. Larger-than-usual cards make the illustrations especially engaging. Recommended.

Robin Wood Tarot (Llewellyn). While some consider the art a bit dated, this deck is by far Llewellyn's best-seller.

Connolly Tarot (U.S. Games). Simplified images, bright colors, and zero spookiness are the hallmarks of this deck, whose creator sought to produce cards free of "negative energy." If you find the darker images of other decks distracting, this may be the perfect deck for you.

Universal Waite (U.S. Games). A gently re-colored version of the popular Rider-Waite cards. This was my own first Tarot deck, and remains a sentimental favorite. Highly recommended.

Illuminated Tarot (Carol Herzer). The quality, craftsmanship, and artistry of this handmade deck make using these cards a rare treat for the senses. Hand-painted iridescent colors make each deck unique. Indulge yourself! Order the large deck, revel in the swirling colors and hypnotic patterns, and watch the ideas flow! Warning: if you make this your first deck, most others will pale by comparison. Highly Recommended. (Available only from www.soul-guidance.com.)

Suggested Decks for Corporate Use

In addition to the "first decks" mentioned above -- most of which would work fine in a corporate setting -- the following decks all have special features that make them especially well-suited for use in business settings.

Please note: Those of us brainstorming in the corporate world must take its sensibilities and sensitivities into account when selecting a deck.

If artistic nudity could cause an issue in your workplace, some cards may need to be removed from some of these decks. While removing these cards may keep you from making certain associations or achieving certain insights, your HR department's lawyers will thank you for erring on the side of caution.

International Icon Tarot. Artist Robin Ator's cards present vivid images rendered in the style of international signage. Since we're already conditioned to "read" such signs, each card very naturally invites participants to ask, "What is this card trying to tell me?" Better yet, due to the nature of the artwork, this deck poses no issues related to artistic nudity or ethnic bias. Very highly recommended. (Available exclusively from the artist.)

World Spirit Tarot (Llewellyn). Vibrant colors and engaging art make this deck an attractive first choice. Because the illustrations feature people of virtually every imaginable ethnicity, this deck has a special multicultural flair that can be especially appealing to inclusive corporations.

Robert Place's Alchemical Tarot (Thorsons). Iconic and intriguing artwork makes this deck a work of haunting beauty ... and a powerful set of cards for producing ideas and associations. It's out of print, now, and hard to find, so if you spot one, snap it up. Highly recommended.

Osho Zen Tarot (St. Martin's Press). Though definitely influenced by a 1980's point of view (one card features the spitting image of Ronald Reagan), this deck is one of my personal favorites. The approachable art works sparks strong emotional responses, and the keywords at the bottom of every card are appreciated by beginners. Highly recommended.

Navigator's Tarot of the Mystic SEA (U.S. Games). This under-appreciated deck is sometimes called "The Cirque du Soliel" deck by those who love its costumed figures and surreal landscapes. This is a Tarot unlike any other, featuring innovative artwork and evocative keywords on every card. Highly recommended.

Jane Lyle's The Secret Tarot (Fireside). Originally released as The Renaissance Tarot, this is a great deck for use in a corporate setting. No worries about nudity here: the figures in this deck appear to be sculpted from gold, silver, and brass. Excellent use of color and clever symbolism make the deck a remarkable creative tool, despite (or perhaps because of) the minimalism art.

Giant Rider-Waite (U.S. Games). You can't beat this super-size deck when brainstorming with a group. Large cards are hard to shuffle, but the abundance of detail is worth the effort.

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Copyright notice: All sample images used on this page remain copyrighted by their respective publishers. These images are used strictly for illustrative and promotional purposes.

Orphalese Tarot 5.0

The Ultimate Tarot Deck

Here at last is a virtual deck that behaves exactly like a physical deck of cards. Run the Orphalese Tarot, and a deck of cards appears on your computer screen, superimposed on the desktop or against a colored background of your choosing.

What can you do with it? Here's the scoop.

Shuffle the deck with a click of the mouse. You may also perform a "seeded shuffle," which bases the shuffle on a number, word, or phrase you supply. Behind the scenes, the computer converts the word or phrase into a number, then uses this number as the starting point (or seed) for randomizing the order of the deck. Using the same word twice won't give you the same card order, because the seed contributes to, but doesn't completely control, the randomization of the cards.

Put the cards in sequential order (Warning: this feature will make you lazy -- you'll never want to put a real deck in order again once you become accustomed to performing the task with two clicks of your mouse!)

Deal cards face-up or face down. Cards dealt face down may be turned over with a single click of the mouse.

Deal the cards into any spread you like, or use any one of several canned spreads, including the Celtic Cross, the simple three-card spread, and a complex Yin-Yang spread. If you use your own spreads, saving them for future use (or to share with others) is quick and easy. Soon, the program will also feature the ability to share spreads with users of other Tarot programs.

Fan the deck to search quickly and easily for exactly the card you want ... or to choose an unseen card at random.

Return all cards to the deck with a single click.

Resize or magnify cards. You can enlarge the cards for better viewing or reduce their size as a way of getting more cards on screen at once. Better yet, you can zoom in on any card to explore the tiniest artistic details. (The clarity of the zoom varies, depending on the quality of the images you use as cards.)

Switch to any deck in your collection with just two mouse clicks. This makes the Orphalese Tarot especially valuable for those of us doing comparative readings. I now regularly deal the cards from the Universal Waite, then quickly and easily review how the same spread will look in the Thoth deck or the Navigator�s Tarot.

Set options controlling the behavior of the program ... or a specific deck. Want to specify a card back, a default font for the program's note-taking features, or even a default deck to be called up whenever you start the program? No problem ... any of these tasks can be done with two or three clicks of the mouse.

Launch an on-line reading session. The program offers a portal to an Internet-based chat room, where users can type messages to each other, offer interactive readings, or -- as of Oct 2003 -- share guided tours to any number of Internet sites of interest.

Don't Try This with a Printed Deck!

Unlike a printed deck, the Orphalese Tarot can be quickly and easily customized to suit your preferences. You can:

Change card backs. The program comes with a selection of 32 x 32 pixel tiles to choose from, but you can easily add (or, if you have a photo-editing program) design your own. Hundreds of web sites offer free "background tiles" for web sites; all of these can be selected as card backs. Just copy them to the "Backs" subdirectory of the Orphalese Tarot program and click to select it. Alternatively, you can associate a scan of an actual card back with any virtual deck.

Change card sizes quickly and easily by pressing the plus or minus keys on your keyboard.

Change card edges from square to rounded.

Change the percentage of reversals to a value that suits you (I use five percent).

Alter any of the above settings, and the entire deck (including cards dealt and those still in the pack) changes to reflect your choices. In addition, the Orphalese Tarot is smart enough to associate certain changes with individual decks. For example: once you associate a specific back or corner style with a particular deck, the program will always use the settings you selected when you call for that that deck.

A Truly Universal Tarot

In an effort to avoid any copyright infringement entanglements, the program's creator offers a library of free decks, all of which may be downloaded and used freely from the Tarot Zone -- a special, users-only Internet site accessible through the Orphalese Tarot software. I'm particularly fond of Andreas Schr�ter's elegant and pleasing Aquatic Tarot (one of the most beautiful renderings of the familiar RWS images available anywhere).

Want more decks? Perhaps the most fascinating feature of the program is its ability to use any set images you specify as a Tarot deck! As a result, creating a virtual version of any deck you own is as simple as scanning in each card and saving the images as .gifs, .jpgs, or .bmp files.

The only constraints are:

- the files must be named as numbers. For a 78-card Tarot deck, the program creator suggests associating 00 with the Fool, 01-21 with the Major Arcana, 22-35 with the Ace through King of Wands, 36-49 with the Ace through King of Cups, 50-63 with the Ace through King of Swords, and 64-77 with the Ace through King of Coins. Adopting this numbering scheme as a standard isn't necessary (you can associate any card with any number you like), but aids in consistency when trading decks with others.

- the files must be loaded into a subdirectory within the program's "Packs" directory. Placing all your scans of the McElroy Tarot into a subdirectory named "McElroy Tarot" results in the McElroy Tarot becoming available from the program's main menu. Switching to the McElroy deck, then, becomes as simple as pointing and clicking. Once the numbered files are saved and in their directory, you can use the images exactly as you would a deck of cards. Tell the program how many cards are in the deck, and from then on, you're good to go.

Update: the program now includes a deck management utility which facilitates the business of importing and using new decks.

The importance of this feature -- using any collection as a virtual deck -- cannot be overemphasized, as it makes the Orphalese Tarot into a powerful tool for:

Collectors. Scan your collection into the computer, and you'll be able to use any of your decks with point-and-click ease.* (No more rummaging through the Tarot cupboard to find the deck you want � and you can use even your most fragile decks on a regular basis without fear of damaging them!) You could also create your own "Personal Patchwork" tarot, including in your seventy-eight card deck the images you love best from several different decks.

* Please note: sharing scans of copyrighted decks with others may be a violation of copyright law; scans should be for your own personal use only.

Deck Designers. Artists having difficulty finding a publisher for their decks could circulate virtual copies to build buzz. Designers of out-of-print decks (Arnell Ando, for example) could circulate virtual copies of their decks for use with this program. Designers of any deck could release virtual copies of their decks to help generate buzz and increase sales of decks now on the market. Richard Jeffries, the programmer of the Orphalese Tarot, welcomes the submission of decks designed to be used with the program, and makes download space available on his website.

Publishers. US Games and Llewellyn, take note: making virtual versions of your deck images available for use with this program would be an excellent way of promoting them. Once attached to a virtual version of a deck (which could be downloaded for free or at a reduced price), collectors and readers would be very likely to purchase the cards themselves. This might also be an excellent venue for a "sampler deck"-- seventy eight cards from seventy-eight different decks.

Hobbyists. Want to create your own deck? Do so ... and using it with or distributing it for the Orphalese Tarot engine becomes a quick and easy process. Remember: the program doesn't care what images you use. As a result, a user could choose *any* images (personal photos, copyright-free web images, even scans of soup labels, for that matter) and use these as an electronic oracle! (It does help if the images are roughly the same size and shape; the program will make the deck be the size of the first image "drawn," then force other images to conform to those dimensions.)

Removing borders and keywords from cards. Hate those borders on the Sacred Circle? Scan in the cards, use photo-editing software to remove the borders, and enjoy the electronic version of your customized deck in minutes. Love the Lo Scarabeo Tarot of the Master, but find the multi-lingual keywords on the left border distracting? Scan the cards in and crop out the offensive material.

Fresh -- not Canned -- Readings

Programs like Visionary Networks' Tarot Magic CD-ROM, the automated Tarot readings at Tarot.com, and other Tarot-reading software also randomize card decks. Unfortunately, even when these packages go so far as to reflect slightly edited meanings based on card position, the readings are still "canned." The text provided never varies, and the prescribed meanings may or may not correspond to your needs.

The Orphalese Tarot does not serve up canned meanings. The program makes it easy to work with a virtual deck, period ... an approach I find refreshing. Beginners may be frustrated by the lack of an integrated dictionary of card meanings, but intuitive readers, those who prefer to refer to a specific book of meanings, or those who prefer to work out their own meanings for each card will feel right at home.

Other Features

Print and save detailed information. Spreads and work sessions can be printed. Notes, insights, and interpretations can be entered into the program's basic word processor, then saved or exported to the word processor of your choice. You�ll want to save your notes, though, in the Orphalese Tarot�s own format � because, when you call up past readings, the program automatically pulls the cards for you and arranges them into the spread that inspired the saved reading.

Yikes! The Boss! An especially thoughtful feature: if your boss walks up while you're doing Tarot readings instead of working on the spreadsheet he assigned you, one click will collapse the entire program, cards and all, into a tiny icon in your Windows computer's system tray. Another click restores your layout, notes and all. Try doing that with a physical deck!

Online Interaction. As mentioned earlier, the program offers users the ability to log onto an interactive chat system. In this online chat room, users may exchange text messages, share readings, and even send PayPal payments -- which sounds good, in theory.

In reality, however, the online features of the program may offer more "Wow Factor" than practical value. The interactive chat room is almost always empty. (The programmer now offers an online appointment book to facilitate meet-ups between users. On my last several visits, though, there were no pending appointments on the book.)

As of October 2003, the program allows users to share an integrated web browser, making it possible for people in the chat room to share web pages and participate in group tours to any site on the Internet. With the program's existing online features clearly under-utilized, one wonders about the value of adding yet another layer of Internet functionality to the Orphalese Tarot.

Of course, users who lack interest in these features may simply overlook them. That said, the overwhelming appeal of this program is its remarkable ability to emulate a Tarot deck while eliminating any of the constraints of working with printed cards. The Orphalese Tarot does this better than any other program on the market ... so why bloat the program by adding complicated online features that few, if any, of the users will enjoy?

Nice Price, Nicer Programmer

The Orphalese Tarot is Shareware -- the author has agreed to distribute it free of charge, and allows you to use the software for an unlimited free trial period. (During the trial, some features -- but very, very few of them -- will be "locked out" until you register.) If you don't like the Orphalese Tarot, you should erase it ... but if you do find the program useful, you should thank the author by registering the program (it's just $9.95, after all).

Richard Jefferies, the creator of the program, says, �I really want the development of this program to be driven by people in the Tarot community who will use it as a tool on a day to day basis.� After downloading and registering version 1.0 of the program, several of us took Mr. Jefferies at his word, sending him a list of changes we felt would dramatically improve the value and usability of the Orphalese Tarot. Three days later, I received via email version 2.0 of the program � implementing almost every suggestion I�d made. Try getting that kind of response from Microsoft!

Since that time, Mr. Jefferies has continued to improve and refine the program, which, as of this writing, had gone beyond version 5.0. As a responsive programmer who genuinely cares about his customers� opinions, he very much deserves the optional $9.95 registration fee suggested for this software.

About .Net

Great news: the biggest obstacle to your enjoyment of the Orphalese Tarot has very likely been removed.

When the Orphalese Tarot was first released, it required users to install a new Microsoft technology called "Dot Net" (written as ".NET"). Without going into technical details, .NET is part of Microsoft's effort to promote the use of its own proprietary programming technology. Before users could work with the Orphalese Tarot, they had to download all 32 megabytes of the .NET software and install it. This was not a huge hurdle for those of us with fast DSL or cable-modem connections, but it proved to be a real pain for folks with a dial-up connection. Once downloaded, the installation seemed to challenge all but the most tech-savvy of users.

Thankfully, newer Windows-based machines and upgraded versions of Windows 2000, NT, and XP now incorporate the .NET software. On my three newest computers, the Orphalese program installed without a hitch, with no download of the .NET software required.

If you have an older computer, you may still have to download and install .NET on your computer. (If you use a Mac or a Windows 95-based machine, you're just slap out of luck.)

Conclusion

You can't beat the price of this amazing little program ... and no other Tarot software I've seen matches its flexibility, power, and ease of use. If you work with Tarot ... get this program now.