On Deck: Tarot readings for writers May '25

Hi everybody, welcome to On Deck. This is our May edition of our monthly move through the tarot using the Major Arcana cards to help us develop our story arc, give us some ideas for our stories that we're writing. So we're talking about the tarot, the Major Arcana, and our narrative arc.

This month, we're talking about the Emperor, which is the number four card. This is a strong leader, right? Somebody who is like, the boss of bosses, okay? And in this context of our narrative arc, this is going to be a character who, good or bad, represents an authority figure in our main character's life. So this could be a good boss, this could be a bad boss, this could be a parent, this could be a teacher, this could be, you know, just anybody who has authority over our main character. And this could be, you know, an authority position that our character wants to have one day. This is maybe somebody they look up to. Or this could be somebody who is oppressive and takes advantage and exploits. It just all depends on what you need that character to do in your story. 

But the Emperor here is going to represent somebody who has fought a lot of battles, has a lot of knowledge and wisdom that has been field tested. He is at a point now where he is protected and he can sit down for a minute, but you can see that he still has his armor on underneath his cloak. He still has his sword ready. So at a moment's notice, he can still spring into action and be a fighter. He's like the warrior king. He's not like a king who just inherits, you know, the crown and sits on the throne. And you can see he's not even wearing a crown. He's, you know, got this eagle head on his hat, but he's not wearing a crown. He doesn't need to wear a crown, right? He's fought so many battles. He has so much experience that his authority is just recognized. 

So let's see kind of how this character develops. What are they there to help the main character with? What do they have to teach them? Or what does the main character learn by confronting them or having to deal with them? So let's take a couple cards and see what we've got going on  for this character, this authority figure in our story. 

Nine of Cups

Okay, so this is, like I said, a boss, a parent, a bully, just somebody who is in a higher position of authority. And it could be a good boss. It could be a benevolent leader. It could be somebody that mentors our main character. Or it could be kind of one of the obstacles on our main character's way to character development. Okay, so we have the Nine of Cups so far. And the Nine of Cups is a card of wishes coming true. But I noticed that it kind of came out this way. And normally, I don't read the cards like that. But the feeling that I got when this card came out is like, be careful what you wish for. You might not actually want what you get. So this could be a situation where, you know, our main character wants their job or wants a position of authority, and they get it, and they weren't really ready for it. Okay, so that's up to you how you want to work that. But the Nine of Cups generally means a wish come true. And along with that wish that is, you know, that has been blessed is additional responsibility. So if you think of it in terms of when you get a promotion, right, at work, you really want that promotion, you want to do that work. But you know, when you do get the promotion, then you have additional responsibilities. Okay, so it's good. It's fulfilling. It's, you know, your goal, you made a goal, but you're still going to have to get up tomorrow and learn some more responsibilities. Okay, so that could be a challenge for our main character here. 

Ace of Cups

The next card we have is the Ace of Cups. So the Ace of Cups is a divine gift of joy, happiness, peace. This is the, you know, the dove, the bird of peace. There's lotus flowers growing. We've got calm water and green mountains. And this is a gift of emotional fulfillment. So maybe this is a good thing, right? This opportunity, finally, our main character gets this opportunity to prove himself. And they are, you know, kind of filled with joy and responsibility at this new position. The Ace of Cups, any aces really, are indicators of, I would say, divine intervention, okay? They're gifts from the universe, from God, from spirit. There's nothing that a person can do to get one of these gifts. It's not like you do so many good things and this gift shows up for you, okay? This is, it's just, it's not, you know, from any action. It's just a gift that arrives. And if you see it and take advantage of it and know what to do with it, then it's something that can benefit you. But like any gift, you don't have to take it. So it seems like there is a kind of idea about what a life could be like or what, you know, our main character wants to do. And this section maybe of your book is this opportunity for the main character to prove himself.So, you know, if we have Nine of Cups here and then we have this last cup, so we have Ten cups altogether. And Ten of Cups is a healing of generational trauma around emotions and the way you express your emotions or deal with your emotions. It could be the end of limiting beliefs about what kind of emotional relationship or life one deserves, right? So if your main character thinks they don't deserve love, they don't deserve happiness, they don't deserve fulfillment, the Ten of Cups would say that the main character is overcoming their limiting beliefs about that, okay? And then just on the surface, the Ten of Cups is, you know, a joyful life. It is happiness and joy after a difficult situation.

Ten of Swords

And then our last card here is the Ten of Swords. So there's your difficult situation right there. So it's possible that this character, this authority figure, maybe gives our main character a chance, an offer, and there's something that goes wrong with it. It's actually a sabotage. Remember when I said  this card this way is like, be careful what you wish for, right? This is the ultimate, like, dead, done, over with, right? You can't get up from this. This means the end, and we have to kind of start anew, from scratch. So if the Ten of Cups is about limiting beliefs about your emotions and what you deserve, the Ten of Swords is about your thoughts, okay? It's about anxiety, rumination, just the hundreds of thoughts that one has every day that undermine themselves, that sabotage themselves, okay? So this is going to mean the end of the limiting beliefs about how smart you are or how smart the character is, how strategic they are, how thoughtful. So this is all, like, in the brain, right? Swords are about your thoughts, your intellect, your... I just got, like, spying capacity, your ability to gather information. So if we have this, if we've made it to the Ten of Swords, then we have healed or we are about to heal any limiting beliefs we have about our intellect, about our capacity to do hard things, mentally, right? It's a healing of generational trauma about being smart. So if you were always told, you know, that you weren't smart or you always, you know, for some reason thought you weren't smart, this would be the end of the generational trauma, the limiting beliefs about your intellect, okay? And your...I don't want to say creativity, but it's, like, just your capacity for problem-solving, okay? 

So it looks like our Emperor here is going to be somebody who is in a position of authority that helps our main character, either because of the goodness of their heart, or, they're a terrible person and the main character has to learn this lesson the hard way, that we learn this lesson about our feelings, about the expectations we put on ourselves, about how we feel and how we think, okay? 

All right, thank you guys so much for joining me this week, and I'll see you again next month.

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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