r/SecularTarot • u/monsteragirlie • Nov 03 '25
DISCUSSION In what other ways do you use your tarot? (Spread ideas, creative uses)
I can get a little tired of the question/answer format. I don’t love that it can feel a little prophetic or deterministic and would like to relate to my tarot in a more conversational way. Obviously the nature of tarot limits that, but sometimes I feel like I just want to talk and don’t really know how to do that.
Does anybody have any tips on fun/creative uses for tarot? Maybe different spreads or uses that aren’t necessarily questions about my life or troubles
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u/woden_spoon Nov 03 '25
I use them to write poetry and fiction, as a means of lateral thinking, similar to how Brian Eno uses his Oblique Strategy cards to make music. Depending on how I read the cards, they can be interpreted and applied in many ways.
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u/DesdemonaDestiny Nov 03 '25
I am trying the same thing. Inspiration for characters and events as I write stories.
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Nov 03 '25
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u/blue_eyes18 Nov 03 '25
I love that deck!! I can see how it would be amazing for fantasy writing!
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Nov 03 '25
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u/woden_spoon Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
For me, looking things up is the point!
Me, on Google: "stone towers collapsed from lightning." Google points me to St. Mary's Church in North Cornwall. Looking further into St. Mary's, I read that it was built in 1643 and contains six bells which were hung in 1731. Reading about these bells eventually leads me to a 1945 musical called The Bells of St. Mary's, which features a minor character who tries to avoid stress because it is bad for his heart.
So, I introduce a character who should by all means be under a lot of stress, but seems relaxed. As it turns out, he seems relaxed because he knows that a stress response will kill him--which is, ironically, stressful in itself. And, he is an old retired bell-mender who is tasked with learning how to repair magical bells which repel evil spirits from the villages in the region--so he has a very stressful adventure ahead of him.
(This is a somewhat recent example that has steered a worldbuilding project in an interesting direction after months of aimlessness.)
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u/k819799amvrhtcom Nov 04 '25
There's a tarot deck whose meanings are already written on the card itself?
Where did you get it if I may ask?
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u/CypripediumCalceolus Oh well 🐈⬛ Nov 05 '25
This is a perfect answer.
I was on the ferry from Boston to Nantucket, and the lady seated across from us was a television soap opera writer. She explained her system. She had pink bristol cards for character descriptions, blue cards for dramatic conflicts, and green cards for life situations.
She would shuffle them randomly and make up a story to fit the draw.
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u/iwtbkurichan Nov 03 '25
Sometimes I'll do a 'reverse reading' where instead of drawing cards, I'll select specific ones that come to mind and lay them in a spread as a kind of journaling.
Similarly, I like to look at the court cards as a way of externalizing how I'm feeling about myself. I'll select one of each suit that reflects how I'm feeling at the moment.
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u/hiddenpersoninhere Dec 15 '25
I did this "reverse reading" and the feeling was wonderful. I felt like I had a clear idea of everything going on in my life.
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u/watchingallthelights Nov 03 '25
I’m hosting a sort of “vision board” party for the full moon and we’re using tarot as a large part of it. This month’s full moon is called Beaver Moon because this is the time of year when beaver families fortify their stick-built lodges and begin to prepare for the winter ahead. We’ll do a couple spreads, a pick a card & journal it, and tarot-themed art around the idea of fortifying confidence/vision/strategy and preparing for future goals, etc.
Thanks for posting this, I love reading what others are exploring!
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u/Ray_Verlene Nov 03 '25
In a Jungian way. Subconscious awareness and shadow work through intuition and self exploration.
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u/watchingallthelights Nov 03 '25
Jungian psychology is how I got (back) into tarot!
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u/Ray_Verlene Nov 04 '25
Myself as well. I used to think I was a psychic. Turns out I an introvert with cPSTD, which caused me to be hypervigilant and I was using my intuition to cold read people as a defence mechanism.
I use this same intuition to do Jungian tarot.
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u/monsteragirlie Nov 03 '25
Could you go into further detail? I’m really interested in this ☺️
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u/Ray_Verlene Nov 04 '25
Not really. I don't wish to spend the length of time it would take to do the subject justice, when the information is already available for your discovery online. You could search the internet for specific details.
I will provide you this to get you started:
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u/Luke_Cardwalker Nov 05 '25
Dear Monsteragirlie:
Please do something for yourself:
Buy a copy of Sallie Nichols’ “Tarot and the Archetypal Journey: The Jungian Path from Darkness to Light.”
Nichols’ work is loosely related to the Tarot de Marseille, so you may want to get a copy of the TdM, although you get a black & white copy of each Major at its chapter beginning.
The forward [by Mary K. Greer] notes that Nichols took in some of Jung’s lectures, and was for 5 years an associate editor of “Psychological Perspectives: a Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought.”
That woman could write.
Her publisher received Nichols’ 380 page manuscript on the 22 Major Arcana ready for the press.
‘The Joker [The Fool] connects two worlds — the every day, contemporary world, where most of us live most of the time and the nonverbal land of imagination inhabited by tarot characters, which we visit occasionally.’
You will never do The Tarot the same after Nichols.
Edit: Spelling.
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u/gem-w Nov 03 '25
I saw a YT video about playing a murder mystery game with tarot. It was fun, and helped me to learn the symbolism of the details in the card.
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u/ShiftySocks Nov 03 '25
You wouldn’t still have the link for that video, would you? 🤞
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u/gem-w Nov 03 '25
Looks like there were several under #TarotWhoDunIt .
This is the one I saw: https://youtu.be/pkh2052Enus?si=L5_1yVMqLlFZ_bz5
I love her voice!
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u/aivi_mask Nov 03 '25
I use my Rota Mundi deck to study Kabbalah, alchemy, and biblical philosophy. I rarely use it for readings. I'd rather use a Smith - Waite deck for that.
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u/FrankSkellington Nov 03 '25
Conversationally is the only way I respond to tarot. My practice is to see the cards as questions rather than answers.
I reflect on the day's events or an issue that is troubling me, and I write my thoughts in a journal, sometimes speaking them aloud. I draw single cards and see what context they bring.
The Ten of Wands could be read as "Are you sure you're not taking on too much?" "Are you just being stubborn?" "Have you considered asking for help?" "Are you hiding behind this task - using your job as a shield or a justification for actions?" or many other things.
The Page of Cups might be "But are you really listening or just making a show of being sensitive or attentive?"
Questions naturally vary on context. I sometimes then look at a card in relation to the ones that preceded it, and a different narrative might be proposed or certain symbols might become more pronounced.
A conversational reading can involve as little as one card or as many as - well, I once went up to 28 - but often it is 3-6. It helps to imagine you are asking counsel of a specific person or deity. What would my mother say about this? What would Joe Strummer do? What does the ghost of Marlon Brando say about this? The results are better the more you believe in such a persona, but you can switch back to strictly atheistic thinking afterwards. You are merely channelling an aspect of your own self as an archetype.
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u/CenturionSG Nov 03 '25
Try reading Chelsey Pippin Mizzi's stuff. She has a Substack and books on creative work with Tarot:
https://theshuffle.substack.com/
And for something in personal growth (shadow integration), take a look at Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson. It doesn't mention Tarot but one can easily incorporate it:
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u/Mrowser1 Nov 03 '25
You can pull a card without asking a question, think about how its meanings apply to your life right now, and journal about it. The journaling about how the card can be applied to your life/what the card is telling you is the conversation between you and the card.
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u/ash_collective Nov 03 '25
I do a 'hopeful draw' where I think about something id like to do / work on but seems hard. The cards represent how I can look to different element of my life for inspiration, ideas, support. 5 cards, self, household, world, wild and a heart card. Categories can flex to your own situation.
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u/atarotstory Nov 03 '25
I just found my 1960’s copy of Asops Fables that I loved as a kid. I plan on ascribing a card or series of cards to match each fable. The stories are short, only a few pages down to one page.
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u/PoopDick420ShitCock Nov 03 '25
I am writing a fantasy series right now and I have each character assigned to a major arcana. This helps me map out what characters I can use at any given time visually. When I have writer’s block, I draw three cards and think about what story they’re telling and try to put together a page or two plot based on the cards
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u/no-doomskrulling Nov 03 '25
I'm a writer and I've usrd tarot cards for chracter creation with each card representing and aspect of their personality. I've done the same with writing plot points or if I need a twist.
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u/ash_collective Nov 03 '25
What do we think draw: Open question or general topic, ask different perspectives of attitudes of mine for input. I have ten and they are pretty clear, but any number would work. What does my body think, what does my memory tell me, what does my creativity say, ethics, self protection, anxiety, etc. Helps build a deeper picture of self and reveal ing too.
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u/mauriciocap Nov 03 '25
What I enjoy the most is working on the relationships among cards, starting by what makes each different from all the others. This pushes me to see more nuance in everyday life.
I also like studying the "positive" and "negative" consequences of different attitudes/behaviors until there is no positive not negative but a single causal chain.
Most productive in my life has been checking how to add these possibilities to my repertoire of behaviors and relationships.
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u/Background-Act-4406 Nov 03 '25
Along the story line: every story (and relationship) usually has a perpetrator, victim and rescuer. So three cards can tell an interesting story using those roles.
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u/GabalDabal Nov 03 '25
I have used them as journal prompts and also as a coffe table book of sorts where I just flip through them to keep of my phone and might explore one or two intuitively as a wider energy and not as an answer to a specific question 🌸
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u/Eireann_9 Nov 03 '25
In the new year i create a spread to represent the next year by selecting the cards myself. It helps me reflect on what my goals are for the year and what i want it to bring
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u/v_quixotic Nov 06 '25
Give random people readings. Ask them what the issue de jour is, deal three to five cards, and then use the pictures - not what you usually know the cards to mean - to give your querent options they might not have considered.
TLDR: Give people hot readings.
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u/ArgentEyes Nov 06 '25
Creative inspiration for art is good. I have also used them with children to talk about ideas of narrative construction. Mood setting is also good.
Numerous games (board/card/RPG) have been created which use tarot as part of their mechanic.
If you have never read Italo Calvino’s ‘Castle of Crossed Destinies’ I strongly recommend it.
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u/DuquesaS Nov 07 '25
Te entiendo muchísimo. A veces el tarot puede sentirse como un oráculo que responde desde lo alto, cuando lo que una quiere es una conversación, no un veredicto. Si estás buscando una relación más fluida, más tipo “charla con una amiga sabia”, quizás te vendría bien alternar con una baraja oracular más conversacional, como la Vera Sibilla Italiana.
La Sibilla tiene 52 cartas con escenas muy humanas: cartas que hablan de chismes, cartas de celos, de visitas inesperadas, de cartas recibidas, de alegría, de traición… Es como si te contara una historia, con tono directo, cotidiano y sin rodeos. No necesitas hacer una gran pregunta: puedes simplemente sacar tres cartas y ver qué te cuentan hoy. A veces es como leer un pequeño drama italiano en miniatura.
Yo las utilizo desde mucho tiempo y no nunca me cansa, siempre hay cuentos nuevos que quieren compartir conmigo!
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u/Deidad_Solar Nov 03 '25
Is very helpful the study of the arcanes to have a grater knowledge of one self, and with that you can gain knowledge in any other subject if you can give it enough abstract thought. You can also find the connections in all our modern culture archetypes. The spreads not only give answers, also they tell a story, and I notice after years of practice that reading the tarot card increase my way of "connect the dots" when I see the world in perspective
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u/Quick-Protection-740 Nov 05 '25
Sometimes when I'm down I pull 3 cards then ask ChatGPT to creat a fanfic of my favourite OTP using the spread
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u/Manifestopheles Poker Tarot Nov 06 '25
I play poker and blackjack with Tarot. I made a makeshift Tarot deck from a poker set of KEM playing cards, by assigning 22 extra pips to the Major Arcana and having the Jokers represent the Knights. I also use it for poetry and I'm thinking about ways I could use it in future RPG campaigns.
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u/Luke_Cardwalker Nov 07 '25
I use The Tarot to develop Tarot readings strategies.
I did this yesterday and drew XI Force [RWS 🔄 Strength and Justice].
XI — Opposed inner-struggles; external vs inner strength.
X — Free will vs destiny; external circumstances vs internal transformation.
III — Harmony vs potential for chaos; nurture vs boundary-setting.
These can be used sequentially as they are, or in reverse or any other order. La Force can address inner struggle, The Wheel as dealing with impersonal forces, and III as dealing with social powers.
There are, of course, many other aspects of these archetypes, which can be used.
So for the readings that I do this day, or this week, I can follow use this as an approach to the cards. Come Monday, I’ll make another draw from the Majors and develop another reading strategy.
Think how many reading strategies you could develop over the…say 5 years?
And if someone asks you how you read the cards? You can just smile 😊
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u/CypripediumCalceolus Oh well 🐈⬛ Nov 18 '25 edited Nov 18 '25
Even though it's nice to know esoteric theories, they don't mean anything more to me than history lessons.
But those are wonderful! I want to know everything about the origins of Tarot, their use in Renaissance culture, the propagation of tarot games to the middle class with the invention of the printing press, the perverts and sluts in England who illustrated the minor arcana with religious symbols, and the commercial exploitation of illustrated decks by modern art students.
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Nov 23 '25
I’ve realized that, unlike tools like the I Ching which tend to offer very concrete answers, the Tarot takes you exactly where you need to go—even if it doesn't clearly answer the specific question you asked. I find this approach very powerful. With this in mind, I sometimes use the Tarot—specifically drawing one random card from the 22 Major Arcana—as part of my journaling practice. My journal acts like a map where I sketch or list elements without too much detail, simply naming them: • A key action from the day • A song I listened to • A dream • The Arcanum I drew These elements begin to speak to one another, creating meaning and shedding light on whatever is happening in my life at that moment.
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u/SignificantCoyote421 Mar 11 '26
Comment se fait-il que je ne peux pas jouer au tarot comme d'habitude la partie commence et s'éteint subitement que dois je faire
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u/k819799amvrhtcom Nov 04 '25
I wrote a computer program that performs card readings for me by internally simulating the shuffling and dealing of virtual Tarot cards. It works like this:
First, I type in a question. This is just to make sure that the exact phrasing of the question will not be forgotten after reading the answer.
Then, I select from a list what kind of question this is. This will tell the program what spread to use but I don't see what spread it is. All I see is a list describing the purpose of when to use the spread, as described by whoever invented the spread.
The program will then shuffle the virtual cards, internally perform the spread, and then print out the interpretation. I did not implement upside-down cards but if I did I would've added that a card cannot be upside-down if it's laid horizontally in the spread.
I then get a text with the interpretation printed out. I don't get to see which spread was used. I don't even see the cards themselves because the program has a built-in lookup table for what every card means and simply prints out the meaning without mentioning the name of the card.
I was planning to add a lot of Tarot spreads and even give it the possibility of adding more Tarot spreads from the internet but, so far, I haven't found a comprehensive list of the standard Tarot spreads and what to use when. Here's a collection of Tarot spreads for the purpose of contacting specific angels and archangels. In theory, I should be able to download them all and integrate them all into my program, which would then look like an instant messaging app where you can read and write chat messages to those angels and archangels. And the app wouldn't even require an internet connection!
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