Tarot Cards for Writing Inspo: Character Development

Another tarot for writing post! I've really been enjoying these creative exercises; while I haven't actually begun writing anything with the spreads I've done, I'm enjoying the exercise in creativity anyway!

This spread is a three card, three deck spread designed to help build to basis for a character development.

Using three different decks, we are going to pull one card from each for all three positions in the spread.

The first position represents who he or she APPEARS to be - to the reader, to their peers, perhaps even to the voice telling the story.

The second position represents who he or she REALLY is on the inside. Their core characteristics on a personal level, not necessarily what the characters peers or even the reader can see initially.

The third position represents the character's inner drive and personal deep seated motives for doing what they do. Again this is a part of a characters development that isn't necessarily apparent to the reader initially; as a writer, you need a deeper understanding of your characters when you first put pen to paper than your readers do when they open your book.

I chose to share with you a draw I did for an antagonist - specifically, the initial antagonist in the first Tarot for Writing Inspo post I wrote on a basic story Arc and the " Two of swords conflict " that featured at the beginning of the spread (check that post out for more info over in my Tarot posts!) Because of this for the purposes of the spread I labelled this antagonist "2 of swords antagonist" to help me keep track of what I was doing - just an advance explanation to avoid confusion! 😂

I used my Nicoletta Ceccoli, Wildwood Tarot (Ryan and Matthews) and my Beginners Guide to Tarot (Julia Sharman-Burke) for this spread; reason being:

1) the Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot has the sort of fantasy based ethereal imagery that appeals greatly to my creativity and intuition. Her characters and archetypes are strong mystical beings and her artwork gives her deck an intuitive depth perfect for channelling and accessing creative energy.

2) the Wildwood Tarot takes a very nature based, pagan look at the tarot and again has archetypes that speak deeply to me as human and non-human characters with incredible depth of personality and structure. The nature based take draws you deep into the human collective conscious and psyche and allows a personal understanding of the core characteristics the shape collective archetypes.

3) the Beginners Guide has artwork structure and interpretation very close to the classic RWS method of tarot which helps me create clear concise framework amongst the more intiutive characteristic based approach of the other two decks.

SPREAD : (remember to jot it all down - I use an app but old fashioned pen and paper is just as effective )

1) Who he/she appears to be

- 4 of pentacles (ceccoli)

- 9 of cups (sharman)

- 3 of bows: fulfilment (Wildwood)

2) who he/she really is

- Knight of cups (ceccoli)

- the hermit (sharman)

- the seer (Wildwood)

3) ulterior motives/inner driving forces

- strength (ceccoli)

- Ace of cups (sharman)

- six of vessels: reunion (Wildwood)

💭 If you recall, I decided to pull these cards for the initial antagonist in the two of swords conflict from a precious precious post. This is NOT what I was expecting! 😂 Luckily the crazier it is, the more creative we get ;)

SPREAD INTERPRETATION

1) Who he/she APPEARS to be:

💿 4 Pentacles (ceccoli): someone who is financially well-off and seems very successful; they are still frugal with their money and may even seem cheap of selfish, or ungrateful for what they do have.

🍷 9 Cups (Sharman): almost seems to have a fairytale life, everything is available to them at ease and life seems fruitful for them.

🏹 3 Bows - Fulfilment (Wildwood): living a fulfilled life, seem confident secure and content with material wealth and comfort and stability.

💭 Who they seem: financially and emotionally comfortable and stable, perhaps seemingly unaware of their own comfort and fortune.

2) Who they REALLY are:

🍷 Knight Cups (Ceccoli): a dreamer pursuing love, artistic, romantic, deep strongly felt emotion.

🃏 The Hermit (Sharman): patience, maturity, inner understanding, seeker of wisdom and knowledge through introspection and observation

🔮 The Seer (Wildwood): intuitive, dreamer, creative, artistic, love of knowledge and craft, inner vision and personal understanding.

💭 Who they are: an artistic and creative dreamer and lover at heart, searching the deeper more emotional facets of life. Patient and mature, seeker and holder of wisdom and experience in the darker and intuitive sides of existence.

3) inner driving forces and motives:

💪 Strength (Ceccoli): the desire to end conflict through understanding, diplomacy; shows strength of character and mind and connection to the collective conscious.

🍷 Ace Cups (Sharman): passion, commitment, emotional rebirth; a new emotional outlook or undertaking

🍷 6 Vessels - Reunion (Wildwood): emotional reunion, a soul reunion between twin flames, ancestral clans, birth rights, home land etc. A spiritual reamalgamation of personal connection within oneself.

💭 Inner forces: diplomatic and ultimately peace-driven, string wilful character, has experienced an emotional and spiritual rebirth which drives him/her to seek understanding and ultimately a reunion of some sort (himself and family? Himself and lover? Other protagonist and their specific goal?)

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I found this spread particularly fun! For an antagonist it certainly threw me a curve ball, however how creative and interesting is it to have an antagonist at the center of a conflict who deep down is actually a really good, well rounder, mature person seeking nothing but the greater good and love?? 😍🔮💭 Gorgeous!

I truly hope you enjoy reading and using this as much as I did!

Blessed be 💚