The Sceptic's Tarot

One reason for this blog is to show how Tarot cards can be used for various applications, including brainstorming. But why Tarot cards?

Because if you have been reading Tarot cards—for whatever purpose—you are already engaged in brainstorming.

[This post first appeared on SynTAROTis.]

When you look at the cards in a spread, and in a specific question, problem or situation, you are relying on those cards to inspire you with a message (or messages) that you can use.

Tarot cards are ideal for brainstorming, as not only do they usually portray evocative story scenes, but mostly also contain several symbols—including that of colour and number—which can serve as "triggers" to thoughts and ideas. Pictures and symbols, which evoke feelings, are the food of "right-brain" thinking.

In addition, most decks come with either a little booklet (the LWB or "little white book") or a book that gives descriptions, phrases and keywords for each card. These can also serve as "triggers", and language is mainly a left-brain function. In this way, the cards help you bring both 'halves' of the brain to bear on the problem.

Tarot cards also force you to use all your creative and imaginative skills, and your analytical skills, to make associations between the cards, the layout (spread), and the question at hand.

The point of brainstorming is to come up with ideas—even, or maybe especially, ideas that you would not normally have thought of in relation to the problem. When you are studying a spread for divinatory purposes, is this not exactly what you are doing? Are you not taking everything you know about a certain card and trying to apply this to its position in a spread? And then looking at the spread, at the "story" it is telling, to help stimulate your or the querent's thoughts towards solutions to a problem?

Whether you are a Tarot reader or a brainstormer, approaching Tarot cards from a brainstorming perspective will add another tool to your kit. And that can only be a good thing!