Teneice Durrant, creator of Tarot with Ten, will use various tarot and oracle decks to provide monthly readings for writers, with exercises on using imagery and intuition as prompts. October’s prompt guides you to create a story to explain or invent a Halloween tradition.
Surely there’s no better time to use tarot cards for a writing prompt than when the veil between worlds is the thinnest!
There are so many traditions from around the world that help people celebrate Halloween. In Wales, children would have a bonfire and before the fire burnt out, they would throw sticks with their names on them and then try to run home before their name was consumed by the fire. The origin of trick-or-treating might have been the practice of offering soul cakes (sweet biscuits) to poor children who would go door to door offering to pray for departed souls. And the Day of the Dead might have originated from the Western European tradition of the Danse Macabre, a type of pageant where villagers dressed up as corpses from different walks of life to symbolize the truth that death comes for everyone.
This month we are going to use tarot cards to create our own tradition for Halloween, and then have a prompt that incorporates that tradition.
Tarot reading for writers
As always, these images are from the Rider Waite tarot deck, via Pixabay (Creative Commons license), and you can flip through all cards from this reading here:
What aspect of life is venerated in this new tradition?
Ace of Pentacles
The ace of pentacles is a gift from the universe, something material and tangible. The gift has a market value. The Ace of Pentacles could represent The God of the Market who pays handsomely for the crops that have been harvested. It is a blessing for a safe and secure winter. The yearly tradition celebrated after the last crop is harvested is a celebration of gratitude for an abundant harvest or prayers and offerings for a better harvest next year.
Who or what is the enemy of this aspect of life?
The Strength Card
The Strength card depicts a woman petting a lion in her lap. Generally, it indicates taming one's inner beast, but for this story, we can use our imaginations. The lion is an old king who was tricked by a harvest spirit. Since lions don’t hunt, his wife, the queen, had to get the food for them. She started stealing stored food and harvesting profits from other kingdoms to keep the king happy.
How does the community celebrate the triumph of the venerated over the enemy?
Six of Swords
The Six of Swords depicts a small family taking a boat to calmer shores. They are using logic and knowledge (swords) to leave behind dangerous and uncertain times. In the tradition, several small kingdoms band together and trick the queen into believing there is a rich kingdom on a small Island. They promise to help her steal the stored food, if she will leave them alone. She agrees and they row her over to the Island and trick her into going deep into a forest. They leave her stranded on the island and she never returns. Every year, the villagers fill small paper boats with spoiled or damaged food and seeds to send to the queen as a mock offering.
What character qualities does the protagonist in our short story have?
Judgement
The Judgement Card symbolizes second chances or rebirth. Perhaps our main character missed last year’s celebration and had a very bad harvest. They have a second chance this year, but it involves traveling to the queen’s Island to find a specific seed to plant. And the Ghost of the Dead Queen is protecting it.
A writing prompt
Write the story plotted above, or use the imagery and symbolism of the cards to write your own origin story for a new or existing Halloween tradition.
Will you try this exercise? Share with us in the comments.
Until next month, here’s how to find me outside of the Center:
Podcast anchor.fm/tarotwithten
YouTube Tarot with Ten
What did you think of this tarot reading and the cards as visual prompts for story development? Share with us in the comments, and contact us if you’re interested in working one-on-one with Teneice in part 3 of Writing Toward Balance and Wholeness: Tarot and the Narrative Arc (taking parts 1 and 2 first is not required).
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