The Sceptic's Tarot

In brainstorming, people are often cautioned not to grab the first solution and run with it. But why?

Brainstorming is a group technique created by Alex Osborn in the 1950s. His theory was that the more ideas, even crazy and improbable ideas, the better your chances of coming up with a really useful and creative solution.

The thinking behind Osborn's the-more-the-merrier theory is that as we stretch ourselves, we may come up with really exciting ideas. Even irrational or impossible ideas can spark fruitful thoughts.

We need imagination and open-minded thinking. The time to evaluate the ideas for usefulness is after the brainstorming session, not during.

But how does this dictum apply to tarot cards? In two ways:

1. You can use tarot cards as stimuli for brainstorming, where a random word or image is used to spark ideas, or
2. (and how we will do it in this article), you can ask in your tarot spread: “How else can I solve this problem?”

As you go through this spread, the “Solution” card is there to… well… find a solution. The “How else can I solve this problem” is meant to help you reach with your imagination to go beyond the first idea. Either or both cards may solve your problem. In the first six cards, you explore the problem thoroughly.

Shuffle your deck and draw seven cards at random. Lay them out in this pattern:

1. Problem
2. How else can I look at the problem?
3. Why is this a problem?
4. What is causing the problem?
5. What am I assuming?
6. Solution
7. How else can I solve this problem?

Let me know how it works for you!

For those who are interested: I wrote an article on SynTAROTis, “The more, the merrier: Does quantity breed quality?”

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