The Tarot For Writing Project

What is The Tarot for Writing Project?

• The Tarot for Writing Project is a free online tool that uses the Tarot’s symbols and archetypes to inspire better storytelling and writing.

How it works:

• Each card from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is paired with characters, plots, and themes from fairy tales, myths, literature, and film.

Why Tarot?

• Tarot cards are packed with universal symbols and archetypes.
• They reflect timeless themes about human nature and storytelling.
• Used creatively, they can unlock new ideas and deeper meaning in your writing.

Why fairy tales and myths?

• Simple yet rich with symbolism.
• Passed down through generations.
• They’re often already known.
• Meant to be retold and reinterpreted—just like Tarot.

What you’ll get:

• A full symbolic analysis for each card.
• Several examples for each card from familiar, easy to digest narratives.
• Photos, quotes, and clips for each card, as well as a bibliography for everything referenced.
• Writing prompts for each card.
• A new method of understanding the archetypes and symbols.
• Guidance on using symbols in plot, character, and theme.
• A fun, creative way to explore your story and yourself.

Important notes:

• Focuses only on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
• Doesn’t use reversed cards as each symbol, for me, already includes light and shadow.
• The is not about divination—this is a storytelling tool.

*An analogy is a literary device that draws a comparison between two things to highlight a point or deepen understanding.

So if you learn through analogy—specifically comparing something new with something you already know—you will learn to read cards faster. 

You’ll have a more intimate understanding of the symbols and themes because you’ve already digested them. 

And it will get you thinking about character developlment in a new light.

Symbolism adds depth to whatever it touches.

By symbol I mean: an object, animal, or archetype that is used to represent something else. 

In literature, symbols combine with content to produce emotional effects in the reader that words alone could not convey.

Learning the world of symbolism can be daunting, but inside the world of Tarot, it can become much easier.

Every Tarot card is riddled with symbols.

A collection of symbols is a story.

To study the Tarot is to study the relationships between symbols.

This is how you read the cards, you interpret the symbols before you as a story. 

Each card has on it one of the Tarot’s four elements, an archetype, or a plot line. 

Each card in the Tarot relies on its brothers and sisters for a sense of wholeness. 

This is why every living person is the whole deck, not just one of the archetypes.

But characters in stories aren’t always so dynamic. Often, they exist merely as an archetype.

This is why The Tarot for Writing Project prefers the two-dimensional children’s characters: they’re less real and more archetypal. 

Psssst:

For all you writer moms, every card includes kid-friendly reference points. So you can pull cards for your project, then watch the suggested cartoons (and think about your writing) with your babes!

I conceived of The Tarot for Writing Project during Covid. My daughter was seven at the time, and really into creating and devouring stories. So as we watched movie after movie, as I gave myself card reading after card reading, I began doing so for my book characters as well. Soon enough, she became curious about the cards and I found it really easy to relate their meaning to whatever we were watching. Thus, The Tarot for Writing Project was born.

So this book is dedicated to her, my Aria. 

At the moment, The Tarot for Writing Project is a free online interlacing system, but soon, my lovelies, she will also be a beautiful bound book.