Character Creation
7/2/2025
Going to build on the tarot concept that I started in my 40 mins exercise a few days ago. I had the idea that I could use tarot cards to help write the story - maybe I pull cards at the start of each writing session and build the story around what I pull. And then I could use tarot cards as the chapter titles or images or something lol. Bangin’ idea.
SO. I asked the tarot 5 questions for character creation for this main character.
What is her trauma? Something really bad must have happened for the old woman to agree to read for her.
What is her biggest flaw?
What is her greatest strength?
What is she hoping to find in the tarot?
Will it work?
And this is what I got:
The Page of Wands in Reverse- Youthful energy. Aimless / indecisive / overeager / easily distracted / needing to commit to a solution.
Maybe something that happened in her childhood is resurfacing now? Something she has suppressed but can’t anymore. And she never addressed this trauma so she doesn’t know how to handle it now as an adult / she’s reverting back to old patterns.
Does that work with the “happy people don’t need tarot, and that’s why she’s never needed it” line? Maybe she built a new life for herself after this trauma and has been living as a totally different person, playacting at being happy. And now it’s falling apart.
It would have to be something REAL bad and also something that is somehow impacting her in her adulthood all of a sudden.
What if she was part of a cult. And she got out and built a new life for herself but there are things that they believed in the cult that seem to be coming true and she doesn’t know how to make sense of that with her new life. Like her cult mindset has been reawakened and she wants to push it down but she can’t. And maybe parts of it ARE true, which would conflict with the abuse / trauma / violence she suffered at the hands of the cult leader(s).
Could she maybe be turning to tarot as a different form of spiritualism to try to reject her cult beliefs but the tarot ends up leading her back? The concept that all spiritualism comes from the same source, just with different interpretations and terms.
The 2 of Cups Upright - Needing to be in a relationship / dependency on others / too comfortable forgiving people.
Maybe these are traits that she had when she was in the cult and she’s so afraid of losing herself again that she doesn’t let anyone in. She has no healthy middle ground, she’s afraid if she lets anyone in she’ll be completely enveloped in an enmeshed dynamic again and it almost killed her before. She got out and won’t make the same mistake again. But this isn’t technically what the flaw is according to the tarot.
SO. Maybe she truly is too dependent on people. Since getting out of the cult and rebuilding a new life for herself she’s connected with people who aren’t good for her. She had no reference for what a good relationship was so she accepts shit that she shouldn’t accept, and she’s stuck in a bad situation now.
But then why does she turn to the tarot and not to whoever she’s enmeshed with? Maybe she hasn’t told her partner that she was in a cult? Maybe the stuff she’s seeing now that aligns with the cult’s prediction sounds crazy even to her so she wouldn’t want to admit it to anyone else? Maybe part of their dynamic is that they fiercely reject spiritualism, and that was fine until the pieces seemed to be coming together according to the cult’s beliefs.
The 7 of Swords in Reverse - “The Thief.” Desire to face old habits and take a stand. Wanting to reinvent oneself.
Hell yeah.
Alright so she’s not afraid to reinvent herself, she did it before when she left the cult. The task now is reinventing herself in a way that incorporates all the past versions of herself, so she is a composite picture of every self she’s been in the past.
The Wheel of Fortune in Reverse - Things feelings chaotic. Needing a break. Out of control.
She’s afraid of what she’s seeing in the news, and she doesn’t want to believe that the cult was right because they were abusive and violent. So the world feels out of control, the rules she’s lived by in her happy adulthood don’t make sense anymore, and she can’t face the idea that she has to go back to the old rules she used to live by when she was in the cult.
She wants the tarot to reassure her that everything is working the way it’s supposed to, that someone or something else is in charge, life isn’t out of control.
The Knight of Cups in Reverse - Disappointment. Unfulfilled dreams. Dashed hopes. Manipulation, jealousy, drama.
This says no, she won’t get what she’s hoping for in the tarot. And she’ll face manipulation from someone she trusts. Maybe her journey is finding the middle ground between who she used to be and who she became, and also finding a middle ground between her cult beliefs and her total rejection of spirituality altogether. So maybe tarot doesn’t help her feel like someone has the reins, and maybe someone manipulates her because they see her wanting to follow someone else’s lead.
Happy ending - she figures out how to have faith in a higher power without ascribing to rules set forth by society or religious groups. She tells the person who was using her to fuck off. She learns how to hear her own intuition and trust herself while feeling connected to something greater.
Unhappy ending - She doesn’t realize the manipulation until the very end and she is somehow involved in the cult’s prophecy coming true. End of the world type shit and she brought it about by not trusting herself / seeking reassurance and validation from other people.
