Evelyn Pine and I had a wonderful time presenting a Creative Writing with the Tarot sesssion at the 2007 Bay Area Tarot Symposium (BATS).
Everyone put pen to paper as they studied the Eight of Cups card from the Rider-Waite deck. Here are the questions Evelyn and I threw out for consideration:
Story
- Describe what is happening in the card.
- Where is the figure in the card going and why? Where has he or she been?
- Why are the chalices stacked in the foreground? Who arranged them?
- What was happening an hour ago?
- What will happen in the next ten minutes?
Character
- What is the figure in the card thinking and feeling?
- Who is standing outside the card looking at this scene?
- What is their relationship to the setting?
- What is their relationship to the figure in the card?
Setting
- What time of day is it?
- Describe the light.
- Describe the weather. What is the temperature? What does the air feel like? What does it smell like?
- Describe the landscape.
- What sounds do you hear? Are they nearby or in the distance?
- Describe what might be just outside the frame of the card?
We then had everyone look at the Eight of Cups from The Golden Tarot to see what other ideas would emerge.
The participants shared their writing, and it was, of course, amazing to see the range of voices and responses. We sent everyone home with a card from The Victorian Romantic Tarot to inspire them to keep adding to their stories.
We also encouraged everyone to share their writing experiences here. (Excerpts are welcome, too!) Even if you didn’t attend BATS, we invite you to do the exercise and join in the discussion!
October 9, 2007 at 8:38 am |
What blew my mind was the great amount of writing participants did in such a short time. I only heard the writing from one group, but the variety of stories and styles was quite compelling. One wrote of a person overcoming a dark night of the soul, another of a man leaving a drinking party, and another about girl escaping her cruel family. All wonderful.
October 10, 2007 at 12:42 am |
I enjoyed this workshop very much. I would not have found this insight into the card and also into myself without the encouraging space Susan and Evelyn provided. This is what I wrote:
The Moon gazes down on the land. How she loves the water, what she
lacks in her heavenly home. How it draws her eyes.
In the landscape of her gaze a human walks alone. She does not see
herself reflected in his eyes. She can feel the water in him and she
pulls, but still he does not look up. Something else is drawing him.
The Moon drinks in the river through her eyes. The river knows her.
The river reflects her in shards of glittering, dancing light.
But the human does not look. The mountain guides him. The stones
measure his steps. The body of Earth, the Moon’s big sister, the
beautiful one – this is all he sees.
Not that the Moon is jealous. Of course he would love her best. She
is his mother, and he is so very small.
The Moon would be the Earth’s lover if she could. She pulls on
Earth’s oceans, crashing water against hard stone, wanting to change
her, wanting to touch her, to hold her as she herself is held. Rapt.
Gazing endlessly into her beautiful beautiful blue.
But the Earth does love her, much more than the Moon knows. The
movement, the power, the desire… this created the life that rose
from the shallows. And all these little ones, all her children, are
proof of that love. Offerings to her cool and brilliant sister.
The two great ones dance and strive and desire. And the little one
walking feels something, but does not know how to give it a name. He
believes something must be missing inside of him, to feel so great
and terrible a longing. So he seeks, and the Earth gives, and the
Moon gazes down.
October 10, 2007 at 10:48 pm |
Wow, Ellen! This is breathtaking! I love the way the landscape is at the center of the story, the human figure “so very small.” This piece gets richer each time I read it.
Thank you for sharing. I think this is ready for a larger audience than this blog! Will you send it out?!
You know, at my first BATS in 2003, I attended your workshop—The Hermit’s Quest. The spread you gave us is one of my favorites, and I still have, in my mind’s eye, the images from the visualization you did. Every year since then I’ve had a vendor’s booth, and I’ve regretted that I have had to miss your other workshops.
I didn’t realize who you were when we spoke after BATS—silly me!—it’s all coming together now!
Anyway, thanks for posting. I’d love to see more of your tarot-inspired writing.
October 11, 2007 at 1:32 pm |
Very cool, Ellen. The way the moon became central to this view of the card really made me stop and look at it again.
It was a pleasure to participate in your workshop about the Wands Cards at BATS, btw.
October 12, 2007 at 11:18 am |
Thank you, Susan and Evelyn., and good idea. I’ll post this on Comparative Tarot with reference to this site. I’d like to see more tarot-related writing too, now that you’ve gotten me so inspired!
October 12, 2007 at 1:34 pm |
Comparative Tarot is a great place to post your work! (And thank you for offering to reference this site!) You might also consider sending it out to a literary journal. I think the literary community would appreciate this piece as much as the tarot community.
October 22, 2007 at 8:59 pm |
[...] James Wanless, Ginny Hunt, James Ricklef, and Ellen Lorenzi-Prince. (By the way, Ellen attended our Writing with the Tarot workshop at the Bay Area Tarot Symposium. At the beginning of the episode that includes our interview, you [...]
January 2, 2008 at 7:41 pm |
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