Two-deck storytelling machine!

Masa

Okay, guys! This is a bit of a doozy. I tried to be thorough, but don't worry--it's easier than the length of this post implies. Also, it's a lot of fun. :)

Ever since I started learning the tarot meanings, I've wanted to use them as building blocks for fictional stories. I've played with a lot of other people's spreads, and I've gone through a few of my own; this is my favorite so far. It produces diverse and exciting stories, and it helps you practice your reading in a huge variety of ways. The key is: it requires two decks!

FIRST DECK: Big and evocative
SECOND DECK: Small, if possible

If you have plenty of floor space and would prefer more direct inspiration, you could toss out the recommendation for smallness and use something exciting and action-packed for the second. I like using busy, meditative decks for the first one, but using theme decks could help situate the story in a specific genre--or even a fandom, if you want to do some randomized fanfic. :)



PART ONE -- SETTING THE SCENE

The first spread tells you where the story is beginning, who your main character is, what they care about, and who the other players in their life are. Using the first deck, lay out a Celtic Cross spread. I use reversals here to make it nice and complicated. When you get to the tenth (outcome) card, keep drawing until you get a Major. (Ignore the others.)

Look at the spread. Give your character a name. This will probably work with whatever version of the Celtic Cross you use--or with another medium-sized "situational snapshot" spread, if you want to try it that way--but the version of the CC presented at this website is extremely good for it. I'll give my breakdown of how to apply it here in the first comment.

Like all readings, this is all going to be highly contextual. Any card might mean something wildly different depending on the others around it. This is an awesome way for us novices to practice our pattern-finding skills (looking at suits, numbers, position-pairs, etc.), since there is literally no wrong answer.

If a court appears as card 1 (center of cross) or 7 (bottom of staff), that represents an aspect of the protagonist's identity; otherwise, treat it as another character. Follow your instincts about their relationship to the protagonist. (Is she his nemesis? Mother? Lover? Sister? Coworker? Rival? Female doppelganger?)

Since this whole spread is all about the ongoing development of the situation, the "outcome" card is replaced by a single trump that represents the overall theme. Pick one of the keywords associated with this card, and that can be your working title. If it's reversed, problematize it by adding "coping with" or "reaching for" or "fighting" or "...is for suckers" or something similar. For example, if the trump is the Magician, you could call the story "Willpower," or "Getting Started," or "The Man With the Tools, Baby," or what have you. If you got the Sun reversed, you could go with "Forcing a Smile," or "Losing Enthusing," or "I Am So Bored." This will help give you some direction with crafting your story later.

Stare at the CC for a while until you feel comfortable with it. Take notes if you need to. Then bust out your second deck!



PART TWO -- TELLING THE STORY

Now the fun starts. I like to use my Tiny Tarot for this, so that I don't end up scootching backwards over and over as the spread unfurls across my living room, but use whatever looks like the most fun to you.

Remove the major card that matches the theme from the previous deck, and set it aside. Leave everything else in and shuffle it all up. I advise against using reversals here, because while they make sense for expressing the tension within a single moment, they're all about /not/ evolving, and blockage, so they're not very useful for describing the way one moment changes to the next.

Here's how it works: the story is organized by Key Events, each of which is made up of three cards. The three cards are not read in sequence, but rather combined in whatever way makes them make the most sense. If you know ahead of time what kind of story you want to tell, you can customize the Key Events to your heart's content, including as many or as few as you wish. The name of the Key Event is basically like the position in a normal reading; it gives you a possible range of meanings, and perhaps a positive/negative flavor, but after laying out the cards, you do the rest!

Here is a possible series of key events:

01. The Adventure Begins!
02. The First Obstacle
03. Overcoming the First Obstacle
04. The Second Obstacle
05. Overcoming the Second Obstacle
06. The Third Obstacle
07. The Hero's Darkest Hour
08. The Hero's Rebirth
09. The Final Battle
10. Resolution
11. Conclusion

I change it up pretty much every time I do it, so feel free! Sometimes I don't even use pre-planned Key Events, but generally the guidance is nice. If you want to bust out the Monomyth, go for it! If you want to retell the Fool's Journey, do that! Do a travelogue, do a murder mystery, make a musical set to your favorite CD, help Aang master the four elements. You can separate out the court cards and designate certain slots to indicate new characters, or pre-establish cue cards ("when I get an ace, that's a chapter break"), or preeeeeetty much do whatever you want.

After you're all done, place the Theme card you set aside at the bottom of the spread and say "The End." Then give yourself a round of applause!

So, how to read the events? Here we come to the reason this spread uses two decks: Some of the cards you get in Part Two are likely to be the same as the ones you got in Part One. These are the elements that were established (even foreshadowed) at the beginning, so pay more attention to them! Be more extravagant in your interpretation of those events, and use them to pull in other stuff from the opening situation.

I can't really give specific advice about how to do this well--everything you've ever heard about tarot before applies, and everything you learn by practicing here will apply elsewhere. :) Use the numbers. Use the pictures. Use the esoterica. Be mysterious. Be extremely literal. Most of all, follow your storytelling instincts!

Write it down, record yourself telling the story, use it for your next NaNoWriMo plot, or just scramble everything up and do it again.

And let me know how it went. :D
 

Masa

Celtic Cross

Because I know people use wildly different versions, this is how I personally use the CC for the first, scene-setting spread:

THE CENTER:
The protagonist's immediate actions or aspect as the story begins, crossed by a strong current influence on them. The crossing card could be the source of conflict as the story begins, or it could be the awesome thing destined to get screwed up. :p

VERTICAL AXIS:
Layers of the current reality.
* At the bottom, the base foundation of the situation, or the unconscious truth (or an unconscious falsehood that influences beliefs and behavior), or the person responsible.
* At the top, conscious thought--desires, anxieties, beliefs, the stories we tell ourselves, loved ones, enemies.

HORIZONTAL AXIS:
Forms a timeline with the current influence card.
* At left, things that happened or people who were known in the past.
* At right, things that seem to be coming in the future. (You might decide--is this future a fear of theirs? A hope? An anticipated natural consequence? A prophecy? A recurring dream? A person who shows up at the house as the story begins?

THE STAFF:
* The protagonist's general identity (problematize this as much or as little as you like).
* Above that, their environment: the forces around them, or people around them, or how they feel about their culture, or how they're seen by others.
* Next, a wild card--something that will be very important in the coming story. Maybe it's a long-lost character. Maybe it's a motto their grandpa used to pound into their head. Maybe it's another prophecy. Maybe it's their greatest desire. Maybe it's an event you're going to save up to blindside them with. Whatever sounds fun!
* The last card is the theme, as explained above.
 

Masa

Example

AN EXAMPLE!

Are you totally burned out on reading this yet? :p I want to demonstrate how this goes when I do it, in case anything is unclear. Hopefully, this also shows why it's worth it (for me) to go to all this trouble. The best part is the incredible depth you get in the premise when you start with a CC.

This time, I'm naming my character before pulling any cards. This...is the story of Bob.



DECK ONE: Shadowscapes

CENTER: 6 of Cups crossed by Knight of Pentacles
Bob is having a hard time growing up. People are pressuring him to start a real career and a family, but at the moment he spends all his time, money, and affection on gaming. (Note for observers: In this deck, 6/cups is a little girl holding a tea party for her stuffed animals. I had an adult male in my head, so...gaming. :) )

VERTICAL: 4 of Swords at bottom, 3 of Wands at top
Bob is fundamentally an easy-going (read: lazy) guy, lacking in motivation. In his mind, he justifies this as taking the long view--he's got plans, he'll tell you. He's got projects. They're just all in the early stages.

HORIZONTAL: 5 of swords at left, Wheel of Fortune at right
Bob hasn't experienced much of anything but pettiness in his life... But everything is about to change, and drastically!

STAFF: The Star at bottom, Ace of Cups above that, Hanged Man reversed above that.
Deep down, under all that's happened (and not happened) to him, Bob is actually extremely bright, and has a lot of truly excellent ideas. I'm going to take the ace as a tantalizing hint of more to come--someone has taken an interest in him, maybe, or perhaps he's taken an interest in someone else, or maybe he's simply starting to actually feel lonely and bored. Card 9 tells me he's going to be strongly resistant to the sacrifices he needs to make in order to progress; the world wants to flip him over on its Wheel, but he wants to remain in the orientation he's used to.

THEME: The Empress
The keyword I'm going to focus on for this story is Creativity.

(Clearly, Bob is a man after my own heart. XD)



DECK TWO: Tiny Tarot

This time I'll use the eight-step Hero's Quest version of the Monomyth. And, just as a reminder: you don't have to take the cards in order, even though that's what I'm doing here.

1. The Call to Adventure: Page of Pentacles, 5 of Wands, 8 of Swords
Bob is (a) offered a job by his friend Megan, an artist who wants to publish but is facing (b) squabbling and (c) censorship.

2. The Road of Trials: 10 of Cups, Queen of Swords, 7 of Swords
Bob (a) absolutely loves the work. Megan is (b) smart and no-nonsense, but (c) somewhat unscrupulous.

--And a second row for this, because that was too positive to be the Road of Trials. XD
2 of Swords, High Priestess, 8 of Wands
Bob (a) can't decide whether he should do anything about Megan's tendancy toward dishonesty. He ends up (b) keeping his knowledge to himself, but then (c) they get caught plagiarizing!

3. The Vision Quest: 6 of swords, Justice, 1 of wands
Everything is (a) different now, with Megan's project shut down. She is facing (b) legal repurcussions for her copyright infringement. Time passes, but Bob cannot seem to relax. A (c) fire has been lit under him.

--Expanding on that: Strength, 4 of Swords, 2 of Cups
Bob decides to (a) resist the instincts that drag him back down into (b) passive complacency. He sets out to (c) seek out new connections.

4. The Meeting with the "Goddess": Lovers, King of Swords, 6 of Pentacles
Through (a) various sorts of networking, Bob is eventually introduced to (b) George, a powerful voice in the community, who is known for (c) funding small projects.

5. The Boon: 3 of Swords, 4 of Wands, Queen of Pentacles
George looks at Bob's own creations and (a) criticizes them, but also says that (b) they are a good start, and (c) agrees to back further work.

6. The Magic Flight: Ace of Swords, Knight of Cups, 5 of Swords
Bob has (a) lots of ideas, but is even more interested in (b) his increasing popularity with women. He starts to (c) gain back the confidence he lost in his youth.

7. The Return Threshold: Death, Seven of Wands, Four of Pentacles
Bob (a) moves out of his parents' house, (b) starts to put together his own domicile, and c) starts saving up some money.

8. The Master of Two Worlds: Knight of Swords, 10 of Wands, Emperor
Bob is (a) unfailingly honest and clever, and as his business grows, he (b) takes on all its responsibilities. He is (c) very successful!

Theme: The Empress
...Because these last two cards are the Emperor and the Empress, I'm gonna go ahead and say the story closes on a wedding. Hooray!

The End!


So, there you go. I suppose any other examples should be posted in the Your Readings section, but if you do one, please come back here and let us know!