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Tarot for Writers

by Corrine Kenner (Goodreads Author)

3.97 · rating details · 33 ratings · 9 reviews

Once reserved for mystics and seers, the tarot is one of the best tools for boosting your creativity and shifting your imagination into high gear. Famous authors such as John Steinbeck and Stephen King have used the tarot deck to tap into deep wells of inspiration, and you can enliven your own writing the same way--whether you craft short stories, novels, poetry, nonfictio...more

Paperback, 358 pages

Published February 1st 2009 by Llewellyn Publications

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Feb 06, 2009

Michelle rated it

Recommends it for: aspiring writers and taroists

Recommended to Michelle by: Corrine Kenner

Corrine's online Tarot for Writers meetup has helped me in my writing, and I'm so glad her book is finally in my hands. I joined her group in November 2008 and the exercises helped me with the novel I was working on for NaNoWriMo. Her book is full of wonderful ideas and exercises to help writers delve deeper into the worlds and characters they are creating.

Learn to take one card and turn it into a character, a sentence, a scene. Then take another and continue the story. There are lo...more

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Jul 28, 2011

Steve Cran added it

An excellent book has been written for writers who want to use Tarot cards to spur on their creativity. Several authors like Stephen a King and Italo Calvino have used a deck of Tarot cards to inspire them in their writing. The most common Tarot deck is the Rider Waite deck developed back in the earlier part of this century. Use of other Tarot cards goes back to the Early 14oo’s

There are several spreads that one can use to help their writing. The first one is a two card reading . This is used to...moreAn excellent book has been written for writers who want to use Tarot cards to spur on their creativity. Several authors like Stephen a King and Italo Calvino have used a deck of Tarot cards to inspire them in their writing. The most common Tarot deck is the Rider Waite deck developed back in the earlier part of this century. Use of other Tarot cards goes back to the Early 14oo’s

There are several spreads that one can use to help their writing. The first one is a two card reading . This is used to determine the good parts and the bad parts of a characters. The three card spread can be used to determine the past present and future of your story. You can also use the Celtic cross spread or a more elaborate spread that involves ten cards or more. One of the more extensive ones involves using he paradigm of the heroes journey. The Horse shoe spread is shaped like an upright horse shoe. Card number one begins on your left side and goes up. This is helpful for the plots 1) Past, 2)present 3) Future, 4) Self which pertains to the subjects attitudes thought and feelings about the situation, 5) Friens and family which tells how others see and affect the situation, 6) tells the obstacles that must be over come and 7) is the likely out come of the situation. Last is the Celtic spread which is rather complicated. 1) The person 2) The situation 3) current influences 4)) Foundation of situation 5) Recent past 6) Highest ideal of current situation 7) Near future or what happens in the next six months 8) Self image how the situation looks from the main characters point of view 9) Public image or how others see it 10) Hopes and fears related to the situation and 11) is the most likely outcome,

The above paragraph just covered some of the spread available. Included in the book or also numerous writing exercises on how to promote the writing of ideas. What are even more useful are the descriptions of each of the Tarot Cards. The Tarot Cards are divided into two major categories. The Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana which means major secrets and minor secrets. The minor Arcana is divided into swords, clubs, cups and pentacles. Swords indicate and air sign which pertains to the realm of wit and intelligence, next is the cup which pertains to the element of water which deals with emotions. Next is the clubs which are ignitable this deals with spirituality and pentacle which pertain to the Earth deal with wealth and materiality.

The last part of the book has a glossary and tells what each of the cards symbolize with in depth explanation. I may find a used copy of this book and buy it despite the fact that I loaned it from the library.(less)

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May 26, 2011

Dis rated it

Have to agree with a previous review of this book; it was helpful, it was definitely the best thing I've read on how to interpret the cards as a whole, and I now understand the differences between the Major and the Minor arcana, but in using the rest of the book, save for the first two sections that teach how to interpret the cards, I was wholly unimpressed with how the author tried to tell writers how to use the cards to spit out whole stories. I guess that, to me, the way of using the cards t...moreHave to agree with a previous review of this book; it was helpful, it was definitely the best thing I've read on how to interpret the cards as a whole, and I now understand the differences between the Major and the Minor arcana, but in using the rest of the book, save for the first two sections that teach how to interpret the cards, I was wholly unimpressed with how the author tried to tell writers how to use the cards to spit out whole stories. I guess that, to me, the way of using the cards to help with writing seems really obvious after having only read the first two sections. At least it was to me; and it was not a help to manually list a lot of ways to use the cards. The fact is that there are probably an endless slew of ways to use tarot cards as generators, and it's a nice idea to want to list these off, but these days, with the internet, it's a waste of shelf space, and money, to have a book that is 2/3 a listing of ways to use tarot cards that you can probably find on forums - either writing forums or tarot forums. I would understand, maybe better, a long list of different spreads, but I found that most of it was actually an annoying list of ways to, still yet, interpret the cards in differing ways. Again, this is of no use or worth to me; I would much rather find my own way of interpreting the cards. Or, at least, find a way of interpreting the cards that won't cost me money.

In short, I would check this out of the library, read the first section if you need a nice introduction to tarot, and the second section if you need an idea of how to use tarot cards in writing, and if you want, skim the rest of the book sparingly. It could've been a much thinner book, but my guess is that the author wouldn't have gotten as much money if the fat had been trimmed from the book.

Also, if you want a free way to look at spreads, or if you want a nice introduction to tarot, and you don't want to read this, I would recommend this website, where I once came across a topic of spreads for writers. These people are really nice, and they won't charge you to see different spreads: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/(less)

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Feb 09, 2009

Nytetyger rated it

Shelves: 2009-challenge

The first half of the book is your standard "how to read tarot cards" that you can honestly find even free on the internet. The second half, however, is fascinating-- how to, when you are stuck and cannot figure what to write, pull a few cards and get ideas for a character or a plot idea. I really liked this section and intend to refer to it often in the future.

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Jan 16, 2011

Lynn rated it

This book was fascinating. The only think I think might be a problem is I think you would need a deck that had art work that was kinda themed to go with your story... or maybe I need to think more outside the box. I loved the concept and think it would be fun to write a whole story based on it. I think if you got several people together and asked they to write a story using the techniques in this book and the exact same deck you would end up with several very different stories. Might be a fun ex...more

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Jan 22, 2011

Richard Szponder rated it

When I first saw that someone had written a book about Tarot specifically for writers, I was so excited. What an amazing concept! Of course Tarot cards would be an excellent way to help generate exciting plotlines, interesting characters, and fascinating life situations! After all, the Tarot is the story of the Fool’s journey to spiritual enlightenment and the interesting “characters” he encounters along the way. Although Tarot For Writers does contain good information and some interesting i...moreWhen I first saw that someone had written a book about Tarot specifically for writers, I was so excited. What an amazing concept! Of course Tarot cards would be an excellent way to help generate exciting plotlines, interesting characters, and fascinating life situations! After all, the Tarot is the story of the Fool’s journey to spiritual enlightenment and the interesting “characters” he encounters along the way. Although Tarot For Writers does contain good information and some interesting interpretations of the cards, it does not live up to its promises to “kick-start your creativity.”

Tarot For Writers opens with a very generic history of the Tarot, a few pages on the basics of reading Tarot cards, and some simple spreads to lay out and interpret the cards. For those new to Tarot, this is hardly comprehensive, as the entire section covers only about 30 pages of the book. However, for those looking to use the cards for nothing more than a bit of writing inspiration, this may be sufficient.

My biggest complaint overall is that although this book is titled Tarot For Writers, the actual section devoted to using cards in writing practice (what the author refers to as “the real heart of the book”) covers less than 100 pages of this 350 page book. Corrine Kenner does go into basic use of Tarot cards to help create characters and storylines along with setting and description, but these chapters run about 10 pages each and barely skim the surface of all the possible methods through which the cards could be used to help writers. In the early chapters, the author makes some bold promises that are not kept. Directly, she states, “You’ll even explore ways to boost your success at editing, revising, and promoting your work.” This reader did not find any relevant advice as it relates to editing and revising, and I found absolutely nothing related to promoting your work.

The bulk of this book is its individual description of each of the Major and Minor Arcana cards in the Tarot. This section makes up more than half of the book. Although I did find some interesting interpretations of the cards, Kenner’s thoughts on the cards are nothing new, and much better interpretations can be found in more comprehensive books. Particularly disturbing, though, is Kenner’s ability to interpret much of the imagery in the cards as phallic symbols. I am not sure that every long, thin image in the cards is intended to subconsciously represent the male genitalia. Also, this book promises “over 500 enjoyable writing prompts.” Here are examples of writing prompts from Ms. Kenner’s description of the Four of Wands: “Write about: a wedding, a celebration, a marriage, your first home, your parents.” These are hardly writing prompts alone, let alone “enjoyable” or original ones.

Tarot For Writers, although conceptually a great idea, is a huge missed opportunity to explain the many possibilities when using Tarot cards as a tool for writers.
(less)

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Oct 25, 2011

J.a. rated it

This isn't so much a Tarot book as it is a guide to using the Tarot to jump start a writer's creativity. It features different spreads and ways to use (or misuse, depending upon your point of view) a Tarot deck to help determine plots and characterizations. It's intriguing, but I'm not certain my decks would be happy to be put to such use.

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Jan 07, 2012

Michele Cacano rated it

An interesting arrangement of Tarot meanings, layouts, readings and writing exercises. Includes history and basics of Tarot, which I didn't need, but enjoyed her take on it, anyway.

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Jun 17, 2009

Leamarie rated it

Great for brainstorming!

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About Corrine Kenner

Corrine Kenner is a certified tarot master and the author of several books, including Simple Fortunetelling with Tarot Cards, Tarot Journaling, Tall Dark Stranger: Tarot for Love and Romance, The Epicurean Tarot, and the forthcoming Wizards Tarot and Tarot for Writers. \r
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Corrine has lived in Brazil and Los Angeles, where she earned a bachelors degree in philosophy from California State...more

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