The Tarot Story Game

07 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment

I thought I’d share this Tarot game with you, since it’s been a staple of my Tarot workshops, classes, and the Cardiff Tarot Coffee Club that ran for a few years back in 2004-6 (I think!) It’s a fun group activity, and it gets people really looking at the card images. It also teaches you one of the most essential skills of Tarot reading: being able to weave a story between the cards. It’s one thing to know what each card means, but it’s an entirely different thing to be able to link them all together and make it applicable to the querent’s “story”.

To begin, each person can either have their own deck in hand, or they can all use the same deck. Everybody draws a single card. Now, the object of the game is to tell a whole story between you, with the cards in your hand inspiring another feature or event in that story. As such, somebody begins and introduces the story with the words, “Once upon a time…” (as all the best stories begin.) Each person that follows builds upon the story told so far, until the final person must conclude the story with “and he/she/they lived happily/unhappily/not at all (!) ever after” (the conclusion is, of course, greatly dependent upon preceding events!

Every story is different, but some good rules to follow are:

Try to see beyond the first glance. It maybe tempting, if your card is the Queen of Cups, to simply say, “…and then, this queen holding a giant cup showed up”. Deus ex machina is the lowest and most vulgur feature of storytelling, and should be kept to a minimum! Instead, look at the symbolism of the card, the environment, and ask what it actually means. Then, weave that into the story. So, instead of a queen holding a massive cup, we may instead find that a seductive mermaid starts to tempt the protagonist, or a fortune teller comes on the scene, or the protagonist finds themselves in a position of being confided in my an emotionally distraught friend…
Don’t be afraid to spend some time on your card. Yould could add a mere sentence to the story, but these cards are in-depth and full of meaning, so try to give at least a minute or two to the story yourself.
Don’t be afraid to draw in multiple aspects of the card. Perhaps the card is suggesting to you a few different, yet related facets? Well, you could explore all those facets through the protagonist. Physically speaking, the mermaid in the Queen of Cups part of the story could pose a risk of drowing to the protagonist, but inside he’s deeply attracted, mesmerised, and at the same time confused because his mind feels fuzzy and surrounded by only thoughts of her…
Allow yourself to refer back to previous cards. If you feel that a card somebody else drew previously has a link to your chapter of the story, don’t be afraid to link back to it. After all, in a Tarot reading you’d naturally refer back to other cards and how they affect the current one.
If the first card of the story doesn’t suggest a character, just create one randomly. The first card might, after all, introduce an event or a place, or even a group of people, so it’s up to the first player to arbitrarily create a protagonist that they think will best fit the scene or genre.
Any genre of story can be told, though in truth players tend towards a fantasy setting, since most Tarot decks feature medieaval artwork or titles. But don’t feel penned in by that genre – if you want to set your story in Ancient Mesopotamia, in the temple of the Goddess Inanna, during a Spring festival (Four of Wands…) or in modern America, in an apartment block in the poor side of town (Five of Coins) that’s fine too.

This game can be played as many times as you like, with as many people as you like. What’s really beautiful about it is the fact that you are learning to not only link the cards together in a coherent story, but also see how one card directly affects the energies of another. So, the Tower appearing before the Ten of Swords will be different to the Tower appearing before the Six of Swords, or the Two of Cups preceded by the Two of Coins would be different to being preceded by The Lovers.

No matter what your experience with the cards, this is a great game to play. I’ve often listened to players highlight a feature of a card that I had not seen before, yet seemed so obvious once they’d mentioned it!

Enjoy