TarotTools.com

Shuffle the Cards, Shuffle Yourself

How often do you find yourself doing the same thing in the same way?

- Day after day, you drive the same route to work.

- Time and again, you order the same dish at your favorite restaurant.

- Over and over, you fall into your daily routine: driving the commute, arriving at the office, checking in at the water cooler, answering those emails ...

A Tarot deck consists of seventy-eight cards that, like the events of your day, have a very specific assigned order. The trumps go from zero to twenty-one. The suit cards are numbered from one to ten. The people cards are ranked from Page to King.

Tarot's magic, though, takes place when you shuffle. Randomizing the cards produces unexpected combinations that help us see our situation from surprising new angles.

So what might magic happen if you shuffled yourself?

- Drive a different route to work.

- Eat a meal consisting of only appetizers.

- Vary your work day, trying different approaches to the goals you hope to achieve.

Need more suggestions for shaking things up? Great ideas are just a Tarot deck away:

- Draw The Empress, and you might be prompted to explore new ways of nurturing and rewarding yourself for jobs well-done.

- Draw the Six of Cups, and you might be inspired to devote an hour to expanding your personal network of professional contacts.

- Draw the King of Wands, and you might take a frank look at your readiness to step out from under the strict rules of the corporate environment and give being on your own a try.

Magic happens when we shuffle the cards.

What might happen if you shuffled yourself?

Infinite Plot Generator

A small town girl ... becomes a pimp ... to save the local synagogue.

A flamboyantly gay hairdresser ... coaches a little league team ... with a chunky but spirited cheerleader.

The authors of The Official Movie Plot Generator -- a spiral bound book, with pages divided into thirds, allowing the reader to mix and match segments like those found above -- claim their book can be used to generate 27,000 unique and hilarious movie plots.

But with your trusty Tarot deck in hand, you can generate an infinite number of plots ... without flipping all those pages! And better yet, the plots you generate with your Tarot deck will be superior to any found in Movie Plot Generator, because:

- your plots, based on your own unique perceptions instead of a bank of supplied phrases, will be more original and engaging!

- your plot generation system (a Tarot deck) fits easily in a pocket or purse ... so you're not required to carry around a bulky, spiral-bound book everywhere you go!

- unlike the Movie Plot Generator (which gets a little stale and repititious after the first use), your plot generation system can be refreshed and expanded simply by switching to a different Tarot deck!

- because your own perceptions generate the options, you have access to an infinite number of plot ideas ... so you aren't limited to the Movie Plot Generator's 2700 plot combinations!

STEP ONE: Instant Protagonists!

The formula: A/An/The [Card One: Adjective] [Card Two: Person] ...

What to do: Draw two cards and steal ideas from the illustrations to fill in the blanks above.

Example: To help him break through writer's block, Stephano sits down with his Tarot deck and draws two cards from the Aquatic Tarot:

 

Based on the pictures, he brainstorms a series of options. Each one is a combination of an adjective (inspired by Card One) and a type of person (inspired by Card Two):

Card One	Card Two
A chubby	boat captain
A smug	villain in exile
A cross-dressing	cruise ship employee
A hard-drinking	mother and child team
A guarded	riverboat gambler

Then, for extra ideas, he swaps cards one and two and generates even more protagonists:

- A depressed merchant
- A sopping-wet bartender
- A defeated Hobbit
- A sword-making alcoholic
- A traveling thief

STEP TWO: Hilarious Hijinks!

The formula: ... [Card Three: Action/Situation]

What to do: Draw another card, and fill in the blank.

Example: Let's say you draw the following card from The Bright Idea Deck (due out in March 2005 from Llewellyn):

 

That done, you brainstorm the following hijinks, based on the picture and keyword:

- quits his job
- steals office supplies
- dresses as a woman
- buys a cursed object at a yard sale
- throws out an old boyfriend's things
- feels compelled to give everything to charity
- takes a job as a relief worker
- goes in search of a more satisfying career

STEP THREE: The Finishing Touch!

The formula: With / To / Because + [Card Four]

What to do: Draw one last card, and use it to generate ideas for your final blank.

Example: Let's say you draw this card from the Bright Idea Deck:

 

Inspired by the illustration and the keyword, you brainstorm these finishing touches:

- to invent a miniaturization machine
- with a mad sculptor
- because he dreams of being a famous artist
- to explore having more by having less
- with a friend who prefers "old fashioned ways"
- because she wants to get things done faster
- to make a point about the evils of mass production
- with a visionary inventor
- because she's involved in a secret art project

STEP FOUR: Piece it together.

From your fragments, you can then produce an amazing array of instant, no-brainer plots:

- A cross-dressing cruise ship employee takes a job as a relief worker because she's involved in a secret art project.

- A chubby boat captain throws out an old boyfriend's things because he dreams of being a famous artist.

- A traveling thief steals office supplies to make a point about the evils of mass production.

- A hard-drinking mother and child team buy a cursed object at a yard sale: a miniaturization machine.

You can build your own plots in seconds with this amazing, flexible system! And now, you'll have to pardon me ... I'm got some writing to do.

Easy Daily Readings

Most of us fish out a Tarot deck when we need an insight, idea, or solution. What's blocking me from finishing this short story? How can I get over my fear of relationships? Should I turn in my winning lottery ticket now, or wait until the media frenzy has died down a bit?

It's good to know you can turn to the cards in a crisis. It's also good to know the cards are there, every day, waiting to help you focus your thoughts and enhance your perspective. Daily readings -- short, quick, three-card readings that answer questions like "What's up?" or "What do I need to know today?" -- offer benefits many people overlook:

- The discipline of a daily routine -- doing the same thing at the same time each day -- provides you with a satisfying continuity and surprising sense of peace.

- Deciding to spend five minutes with the cards each day is one way of saying, "I want more time for creative reflection in my life, and committing to a daily reading is one way to make their desire a reality."

- A daily reading is a good enhancement to that stuffy, fifteen-minute daily review of goals they teach to Franklin-Covey graduates. It provides perspective and context for your plans, and may remind you of tasks you've overlooked.

Ready to start your day? Grab your handy Tarot deck and give this simple exercise a try.

1) Shuffle the deck and draw three cards.

- The first card you draw is your Topic Card: "Here's something you need to know or be aware of."

- The second card is your Reason Card: "This is why this topic is important today."

- The third card is your Action Card: "Here's a suggestion for what you can do."

2) Read the cards, embracing the first ideas that occur to you. (Need help reading the cards? Read the chapter on Making Meaning in Putting the Tarot to Work.)

Again and again, you'll find this exercise helps you identify unexpected or overlooked items that deserve special attention. Want to see the real power of this application? Try it once a day, every day, for a week ... and you'll be hooked!

Traveling with the Trumps

Got a camera you love ... but that you've been negelecting? Want to fill an afternoon with an intriguing visual exercises that will help you see your familiar world in a whole new way? Want to take vacation photos people will actually clamor to see?

This simple photographic application, inspired by the twenty-two trumps of the Tarot, will have you thinking of picture-taking and picture-making in a whole new way!

Once you become familiar with the twenty-two trumps of the Tarot, you'll discover these cards are the key to virtually unlimited creativity. (Need a primer on the trumps and their meaning? Click here.)

Some time ago, I hit on the idea of Traveling with the Trumps: when on vacation, I try to snap twenty-two images I could use to illustrate a "Tarot deck" of my trip:

- A snapshot of a young child leaping from a trampoline becomes my Fool.

- A gold-clad Buddha image in Thailand becomes my Heirophant.

- A sinsiter hallway leading downward into darkness becomes my Devil.

And so on -- you get the idea. If the local environment and artwork don't inspire you, you can always ask friends and family to assume archetypal poses and purposefully infuse your images with the energy of the trumps!

When you start trying to capture the Trumps of your Trip, you'll see your picture-taking exercise in a whole new light! Arranging these photos in trump sequence gives otherwise random images the feeling of a coherent story ... and you may also notice, as I have, that this photographic record of your "archetypal journey" is the perfect length to share with others. (Share twenty-two pictures, and friends want more; share two hundred photos, though ... and you may have to find new friends!)

But you don't have wait for an exotic trip to exercise your trump-finding skills! How about a Tarot of Your Neighborhood? Or a Tarot of Your House? Even a Tarot of The Mall can make for a fascinating exercise in people watching ... and a remarkably pleasant afternoon.

So ... snatch up your digital camera or camera-phone and start snapping! Once you start Traveling with the Trumps, there's no telling where the road of discovery will take you.