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The Creative Tarot

The Creative Tarot takes a new approach to reading tarot cards that I just loved. This book focuses on using the tarot to spark creativity. There’s very little about spreads, but a lot about how each card connects to the creative process.

My personal sense of tarot cards (and I realize that mileage varies here) is that their power is more psychological than supernatural. Author Jessa Crispin takes a similar attitude towards the cards – it’s loose enough so that I doubt you’ll be offended if you ascribe a more empirical and mystical meaning to them, but it’s also accessible to more skeptical souls like myself. She sums up the history of the cards by showing how the cards’ development and art mirrored artistic movements of different times, and she uses examples (including literature, music, performing arts, and visual arts) to help explain the meaning of the cards.

Each card gets a short chapter with a black and white illustration from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. At the end of every chapter Crispin lists “Recommended Materials” that are selected to give the reader a different way to think about the card. For instance, for The Hermit, she suggests Walden, by Henry David Thoreau; Gravity and Grace, by Simone Weil; and “the photography of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.” Other cards may involve films or plays or paintings or music. She does this because “I believe strongly in cross-pollination. I think writers should be inspired by visual art, filmmakers by music, sculptors by poetry, and so on.”

I thought this book was accessible, fresh, fun, and helpful. I particularly enjoyed her advice regarding The Fool. She says that The Fool is a great card to follow at the beginning of a project, or when you are stuck in the middle and you need to let go and trust your intuition. However, she adds, “Don’t let your optimism shade into naïveté. The Fool is not a great person to be when you are signing contracts, right?” Noted! This book is a great resource whether you like elaborate spreads or just like to pick random cards and admire the art.

– Carrie S

A hip, accessible, and practical guide for artists and creative people looking to tarot for guidance and inspiration in the tradition of The Secret Language of Birthdays and Steal Like an Artist.

What if the path to creativity was not as challenging as everyone thinks? What if you could find that spark, plot twist, or next project by simply looking at your life and your art through a different lens?

Written for novices and seasoned readers alike, The Creative Tarotis a unique guidebook that reimagines tarot cards and the ways they can boost the creative process. Jessa Crispin guides you through the intuitive world of the tarot to get those creative juices flowing again. Thought to be esoteric and mystical, tarot cards are approachable and endlessly helpful to overcoming creative blocks. Crispin offers spiritual readings of the cards, practical information for the uninspired artist, and a wealth of fascinating anecdotes about famous artists including Virginia Woolf, Rembrandt, and David Bowie, and how they found inspiration.

With five original tarot spreads and beautiful illustrations throughout, The Creative Tarot is an accessible, colorful guide that demystifies both the tarot and the creative process.