Get to know the tarot cards.

It's generally believed that early tarot decks evolved from standard playing cards over 500 years ago.

​

These days a standard tarot deck has 78 cards. There are 22 Major Arcana cards that comprise a journey starting with The Fool and progressing to completion with The World. There are also 56 Minor Arcana cards that include four suits (wands, swords, cups, pentacles) comprised of 10 Pip cards and 4 Court cards each. Your tarot deck doesn't have to be fancy or expensive. When you don't have a tarot deck, get started with a deck of playing cards.

 

No Tarot Deck? No Problem.

Writers who want to try tarot as an ideation tool can start with a deck of playing cards and read the Minor Arcana energies. When you're using playing cards, read the Clubs as Wands, Spades as Swords, Hearts as Cups, and Diamonds as Pentacles. Read the Kings, Queens, and Jacks (Knights) as tarot court cards. If you include the two Jokers, read them as The Fool (0) and The Magician (1) in the Major Arcana.

​

Learn the meanings associated with each tarot card to use the tarot deck as a writing tool. I have separated the deck into four topics: (1) the major vs minor arcana, (2) the four suits (wands, cups, swords, and pentacles), (3) the court card archetypes, and (4) the visual imagery, symbolism and numbers on the cards.