Using Oracle Cards to Generate Story Ideas

My unusual journey to discover how this actually works

Apr 18, 2021

While I would call myself spiritual, I’ve never been into Tarot or Oracle cards. I’ve actually been pretty leery of them, considering them to be “out there.” Imagine my discomfort, then, when a few years ago I walked into my life coaching class to see a table covered in boxes of both. In a class that was heavily weighted toward experiential learning, I wondered just what I was in for that day.

This was a course that was touted as based in both neurology and Mindfulness. Up until now, it had proven to be both. I took my seat and waited to see just how and why my instructor, who held a PhD in both neurology and psychology, had lost her mind.

Mandy looked quite sane when she entered the room

She stood at the front of the class and explained how presenting these cards to clients could help them make mental connections and bring out answers to questions that were stumping them. Coaching relies heavily on the assumption that a client’s answers are already there inside them. It’s not our job to answer clients’ questions, but to help them find their own answers.

It sounded like a load of mumbo jumbo to me. Not the coaching theory. Using oracle cards. However, this was the morning’s lesson. We were to pair up, pick a deck, and coach one another. My partner and I, both being skeptical, picked a deck that seemed the least odd to us. It was titled Bird Cards.

We opened the deck and, as instructed, each chose three cards at random. Mine were the swallow, the owl, and the eagle. Okay, at least they were all birds I knew and liked.

That’s when things got weird

Not in a crazy way, but in a good way. I looked at the swallow card first, then read the blurb in the book. It talked about bitter blows in life, but that I would find my joy.

The Owl card was next. The book referred to my life changing and that this would unfold in its own time.

Finally, the Eagle. This told me it was time to take back control of my life. To take my power back.

Each of these cards spoke to me. I had just been through the long illness and death of my brother and the sudden death of my mother. Joy was pretty scarce at that time.

I was also making big changes, transitioning from a career as a physician to working as a life coach, writer, and editor, and thinking of moving from Ontario to British Columbia.

My life hadn’t been my own in a very long time. I was just now taking baby steps to take it back.

It sounds a little eerie, right? How were these cards, drawn at random, so able to pinpoint these big things going on in my life?

Oracle cards speak to universal truths

Realistically, the people who make these card sets work much the same way as those who write horoscopes. They speak to common experience and universal truths. Virtually anyone could have chosen those cards and found something in their lives to which to relate them.

And that’s the beauty of Oracle cards. Once I had read those cards and my coaching partner and I started to talk about them, my mind started to free associate. Blocks I hadn’t known were there dissolved and I began to see answers to problems I had previously thought insurmountable.

The cards bypassed my logical brain via both imagery and words, loosing my creative brain to find solutions I might not have otherwise thought of. My partner and I both actually went out and bought the bird deck. Every now and again I take it out and draw three cards at random. It never fails to set my imagination loose.

Oracle cards wake up the creative brain

Even if the cards don’t have anything to do with my current work in progress, they wake up the creative side of my brain. I’ve discovered that, although I have absolutely no talent for visual art, I’m very visually motivated as a writer. The cards alone are enough to start the process, but the short passages in the accompanying book accelerate it.

Try this exercise

If you have access to an Oracle deck pick three cards at random. Look at each and then read whatever writing accompanies them. Then start to write. Don’t think about what you’ll write, just start and let whatever comes to mind dictate the flow.

Sometimes when doing this exercise, nothing overly interesting will come of it. But other times you may find your ideas begin to flow. Really, the cards can act as a story prompt if you let them.

Think of the three cards I drew. They spoke of bitter life blows, change, and power. Those sound like pretty strong story elements to me. I didn’t write a story based on them, as we were in a coaching session, but I could have.

If you don’t have access to a deck, pick a search word and go to Pixabay or Unsplash, or another stock picture website. Browse the photos and choose a few at random and ask yourself what each may be saying.

This works just as well for me. When I’m looking for ideas for short fiction, I meander through photographs and when one catches my attention, I take my logical brain offline and wait to see what the picture tells me. Sometimes the process is quick. Occasionally I keep coming back to a picture and weeks later a story idea presents itself.

You don’t really need Oracle cards

You just need a way to access your creative mind. Images can be a great way to do that. Me, I’m fond of the cards. Maybe it’s the coach in me. Maybe it’s the therapist. I love anything that unlocks the mind’s potential, especially its potential for creativity.

I don’t use Oracle cards as they’re meant to be used. I’m still leery of them when they’re presented as a mystical means of finding your way in life. But when seen from a therapeutic and coaching perspective, there’s a logic to them. I can see how they can be a tool to unlock a person’s own creative processes.

I definitely see how they can help writers. Consider cards or pictures to open up your creativity and help generate story ideas. Oh, and they’re great for breaking writer’s block as well.