Tarot Character-Building
The tarot also adds this risk—that it will introduce complexities you had not planned for.
By fall of 2020, I had started my Metal Dog Tarot YouTube channel. I had also studied enough astrology to have given each of my sci fi characters a basic chart, with Sun, Rising, and Moon signs. Most of the characters would be Metal Dogs, born in 1970 to early 1971 in Chinese Astrology.
As we went into shelter in place in March of 2020, I was applying for promotion to full professor of history at my little public university, confident that my book and several articles met and exceeded the minimum qualifications for promotion. I would be wrong.
I had also begun research on a new academic project in my field of sixteenth-century Atlantic science, colonialism, and spirituality. It was very early days, but I was spurred on by a rejection from a creative nonfiction journal to study the history of weather magic.
Thirdly, I was heartbroken by the end of a significant friendship.
I navigated through this adversity in part by watching tarot readers on YouTube. Soon, I bought my first deck, The Tarot of the Wild Unknown and had begun to read and memorize the cards as I walked the ponderosa pine forest where I live here in Flagstaff, Arizona. This deck uses imagery from nature, and I began to see certain of the cards, particularly the 10 of Wands, the “quit your job card,” reflected in the landscape I hiked through.
In June, I began blogging on my website Dido Lives: A Worldbuilding Project as a means of world building for the science fiction I was writing. By fall of 2020, I had started my Metal Dog Tarot YouTube channel. I had also studied enough astrology to have given each of my sci fi characters a basic chart, with Sun, Rising, and Moon signs. Most of the characters would be Metal Dogs, born in 1970 to early 1971 in Chinese Astrology.
By December, I had decided it might be interesting to do tarot readings for each of the characters.
If you watch the video, you will see how I am still a newish reader. It was truly amazing how both Zoom and YouTube eventually smoothed my performances—fewer ums and awkward angles would happen. It amazes me with how my mind disciplines me even when I am not conscious of this. It is also really cool to have these films of myself. I notice how much more silver has come into my hair since—also, I was cutting my own hair at the time and doing a fairly snappy job! Ha.
The next installment of my sci fi prologue, Metal Dogs, was born of this reading for Leos and the character Manel. (Until I post that chapter, this link goes to the preceding one.) In the tarot reading, I both recognized Manel as I had planned them out and discovered new things about them. Around 15 minutes in, I realized that Manel is nonbinary! I also discovered they have a love interest. I get into the story I am building and how it connects to the tarot reading for 11 or so minutes. But if you have the attention span for the whole reading, you will see the great tool the tarot can be for character and story building.
I am reminded by this reading of an invaluable exercise on character building from Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Oullette. (If you are a paid subscriber the link will work. If you are interested, I do have three free 1-month subscriptions to her substack to give away, Direct Message or email me and I will hook you up.)
The tarot also adds this risk—that it will introduce complexities you had not planned for.
More experienced writers than I am describe how their characters became agents in the writing of their own stories. I learned this from Isabel Allende, who spoke at my university long ago—when I was 18! She described her characters as like ghosts, spirits directing her over her shoulder. At some point, Allende said, she simply surrendered to being a channel for these characters and their story.
Tarot is also a form of channeling.
As a tarot reader, I have learned to relax and trust what the cards want to tell me. Each deck becomes a friend. The cards give hard truths, but always with love, respect, and the advice you are asking for on how to navigate that difficulty. It has seemed as if the cards and I have agreed upon a language to communicate, combining the traditional meanings of the cards as I have internalized them and the associations and stories that come to me through the images and the little guidebooks tarot deck artists usually provide.
I will be posting the chapter of Metal Dogs that I wrote from this tarot reading in the next couple of days. I would love to hear your thoughts on tarot and/or methods and experiences with character building.
Here are the entries that make up Metal Dogs, which is a worldbuilding project through blog posts I wrote in 2020. I am revising and reposting them here on Mavis Strife while I write a series of novels set in this world. (I do not yet plan to share these on substack.)
How fascinating! I love the idea of working with tarot to develop characters!