A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO TAROT: DIY TAROT

Design Your Own Cards, Spreads, Journal, and More

Kathleen Olmstead

CONTENTS

Design Your Own Spreads

Design Your Own Cards

Design a Home for Your Cards

Design Your Own Journal

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

DESIGN YOUR OWN SPREADS

As time goes on you’ll probably have one or two subjects that you focus on more than others. Whether it’s work, school, friends, or trying to decide on a career, you will more than likely have a layout or two that is most effective. It’s likely that this system is working out just fine for you. However, it’s also possible that you have a nagging question that keeps popping up, and no matter how efficient your favorite spread is, it seems to be missing something. Maybe it’s time for you to design your own spread.

Ask yourself a few questions:

• Are you looking for something that is generic or centered on a specific topic?

• Are the opinions of others important to the question?

• Do you need to examine the past?

• Are you concerned with the immediate past/future as well as the long term?

• Is an outcome card needed?

• What should Position 1 represent?

• Should your layout have a specific shape?

• Do you have to read the past before you can know the present—or even the future?

Design some prototypes and try them out a few times. If they don’t provide a sufficient response, modify them until they do. You might find that your readings will have an extra bit of insight. But don’t get into a rut and rely solely on spreads of your own making. Spice things up every once in a while and try different layouts—new ones, old favorites, a layout that someone else has created. Take as many different paths as you need.

DESIGN YOUR OWN CARDS

By now you’ve had a lot of experience and practice with the tarot. It’s not old hat but it feels comfortable. You can look at a spread and see where the story is going. When you examine each individual card, you know how to tie it in to its position (even without knowing the question). A dozen times a day you see something that relates to the tarot. A friend tells you about a trip she is taking and the Eight of Wands comes to mind. Someone offers advice for a problem and you’re “this close” to calling him a Hierophant. It’s at this point that you may decide to take your experience one step further.

More than creating your own spreads or opening statement, when you design your own cards you’re changing your entire experience. It becomes intensely personalized, as the cards are your own view into the insight of the tarot. This is not an exercise for a new Reader. As you can imagine, you’ll need to know a great deal about the tarot. And please remember that there are 78 cards in the deck, so this isn’t an overnight project!

One of the reasons tarot cards work for a wide variety of people is that their symbols are universal. They are designed to reach beyond age, gender, culture, class, and religion. Most likely, the cards you create won’t serve this function, which is all right. The idea is to personalize the experience, not broaden it.

The cards contain prompts—signals that will help you make that leap to the next level. When you learned the art of tarot, you followed someone else’s (however well-planned) prompts. It’s your turn now. Remember the ars memorativa and develop your own system of clues and symbols. You will find this project to be (much like life and tarot itself) made up of opposing forces. On the one hand, it requires a great deal of work and patience to finish the task. But there will also come a time when you have the deck in hand and it will feel as natural as breathing.

You don’t have to work exclusively with pictures. Include words or phrases if they help. The problem with words is that they are often too limiting. If you write the word “dog,” the image it brings to mind is a dog—pure and simple. If you draw a picture of a dog riding a unicycle and juggling bones, we see playfulness, boundless energy, freedom, silliness, and responding to the animal side of nature, which lets us be more instinctual and not so concerned about what others think.

That’s the picture as a whole. Now break it up into pieces and respond to each bit. The dog, the unicycle, and the juggling all carry their own significance. This is another of the reasons that pictures are used rather than words—it is much easier to convey meaning within meaning. One picture can say something that would take paragraphs to explain.

If there is a word or phrase that suits you and is just the prompt you’ll need, then by all means use it. These cards are for you. Perhaps “dog” says it all and sends you to the appropriate place. You could step it up a notch, though, by using “Ginger” instead. (Let’s say you had a dog named Ginger.) Writing “dog” is general, while “Ginger” is specific. It says loyalty, love, and a creature that stuck by you through thick and thin. “Ginger” will remind you of all that, plus warm feelings and memories. You will now be able to put so much more into the reading.

Colors

Devise a plan for colors. This will signal the significance of the card to you in a more subtle way. You won’t need a special color to represent every emotion or intention (nor does a color have to represent something every time it appears on a card). You will find it useful, however, to know that red is a sign of action, or passion, or whatever you think is best. Keep the list short, though. If you assign meanings to 20 or 30 colors (everything from chartreuse to sea foam), you’ll only make things more complicated. Trust yourself. You don’t need all the answers in front of you. All you need is the tip of the iceberg and you’ll know everything that’s hiding underneath.

Reverse Readings

Does all of this seem confusing yet? Sorry, I’m about to add one more element. Don’t worry, though, it’s more of a consideration than an actual task.

Remember that everything you’ve designed to be read in the upright position also has a reverse meaning. You don’t have to draw or include anything that is relevant only to the reverse (though you can, by all means), but keep this in mind as you make up your design.

Ginger in reverse may remind you of the time she ate your shoes or ripped apart your favorite stuffed animal. Or when she ran away and was gone for two days—that didn’t feel like loyalty. It just made you sad.

The point is that any picture, work, or phrase you include needs to have a possible opposite meaning. This is something that will translate well for you with either reading.

Card Deck—Step-by-Step

If you decide that you’re ready to make your own deck, don’t wake up the next day and start cutting, pasting, and coloring. It’s something that you need to keep in mind for a while.

1. Start a dedicated journal to collect your thoughts and observations, clippings, and sketches. Include not just descriptions of what has happened during readings but also of things you’ve seen and experienced in your daily life.

2. Go through your old tarot journal. Look for moments or comments that stand out. Copy these into your new design journal.

3. Start with the Major Arcana. Assign at least one page to each card. What characteristics do you think represent the Fool? After all the time that you’ve spent with the Fool, encountering him in surprising places and listening to his advice, you must have a few thoughts of your own about what part he plays in your life. Work your way from the Fool to the World.

4. Now, it’s time for the Minor Arcana. Once again, move from beginning to end so you can work with the flow and cycle of each suit. One page—or half a page—will probably be enough. Decide for yourself. Follow the same procedure you did for the Major Arcana.

5. You might want to make a practice deck first. The cards don’t have to be full color or have complete designs. Just make sure that they contain the components you’ve planned. Try a few spreads. Does it feel like anything is missing? Do your cards require any adjustments?

6. Finding the right materials to use is the next important step. You will need something that will last, is comfortable in your hands, and shuffles well. You could buy blank tarot cards, but you may want to consider other options.

7. Cut out your 78 cards and set to work. As always, start with the Fool. By this time, you’ll know what you want on each one. Don’t feel rushed.

8. What would you like on the back of the cards? You can leave them blank if you’d like or use a single color to cover them. If you decide to use a design or picture, keep in mind that you don’t want to give away the direction of the card itself—whether it will appear in the upright or reverse position in the spread. Use something that keeps the position of the card a mystery.

9. Now enjoy. Your own, personalized tarot cards are ready for you.

DOUBLE TEAM

If you have a friend who is also involved in tarot, you might want to design a deck together. You could consult on each card or each produce 39 cards. You will need to spend some time planning the images and colors for your cards.

1. Plan out the symbols for each card. Make a list of everything each card should contain.

2. Go off on your own and produce some sketches. Show them to each other to make sure you agree—this isn’t the kind of project that you want to second-guess afterward.

3. Gather all your materials and start working on your final draft.

The keep you both involved with each card, have one of you draw the sketches and the other color them in. Take your assigned 39 cards and sketch the images and prompts that you have agreed upon. Your partner will do the same. Now trade cards.

One of the most important aspects—if you want the experience to turn out well—is trust. You will need faith that your friend will produce cards and colors that you will appreciate and enjoy.

You might decide to reveal your tarot journal to your partner, and this may not be an easy thing to do. It takes a great deal of trust to let someone in on your private thoughts. Or you could both sit and brainstorm ideas—each of you using your own journals as inspiration—until you’ve covered all the bases.

DESIGN A HOME FOR YOUR CARDS

More than likely you will now want to keep your new deck someplace special. This could be something you find or that you design yourself. Personal expression is what matters here.

We’ve already discussed ways to design your own spreads as well as the cards themselves. By this point, you probably understand how to gather your thoughts and decorate things with images you create or ones you’ve collected. When it comes time to decorate your own bag or box for storing your cards, keep these ideas in mind and work your usual magic.

If you decide that you’d rather keep your cards in a box—something other than the one they came in—it’s up to you to seek out one more suitable or build one yourself. In either case, one of the first things you need to consider is size. How well will your cards fit? They need to remain steady—or at least not falling loose in the box. If you open the box and your cards are scattered and out of place, you’ll have to rethink the space issue. You could create a cushion or extra lining if you want to keep the container you have. Having a special bed to lay your cards in might be a nice idea. The deck itself, as said before, should ideally be wrapped in natural fiber—like cotton or silk—but you can modify this if you find something else that you like.

Card Box

When it comes to designing or decorating your storage box, you’ll have more room to go a little wild—if only because you’re probably using a stronger material. Try papier-mâché with newspaper, or decoupage with colored paper (maybe paper that you’ve made). Paint it. Use crayons or magic markers—anything that’s available—to cover the box, or leave it blank. Whatever works for you.

Card Bag

When it comes to a bag, you might find something ready-made that works for you. Or you could make the bag yourself. If you know how to sew, this should be easy enough for you. Everyone else can keep it pretty simple and still have a very fine bag to house the deck.

Find a piece of cloth that appeals to you. Consider color, texture, and design—it’s something you’ll be looking at and touching a lot.

There are several ways you can decorate the fabric itself. You could find patches, decals, or buttons to sew onto it. Can you do needlepoint? Maybe you can use that skill here. Or you might stitch your initials into the side of the bag or embroider your favorite flower. Create a design with different colors of thread. You can do any of these before you sew your bag together or after it is finished. It can be always a work in progress.

Making Your Own Tarot Card Bag

Now, here are a few easy steps for making your own tarot card bag.

You’ll need to have a rectangle of cloth at least two and a half times wider and a few inches taller than the cards. It doesn’t have to be too big. Remember that you can scale down if need be, but it’s difficult to add more. Decide which side of the cloth you want as the outside of the bag. Place the cloth down on a flat surface with the outside facing up.

Lay your cards on the cloth, left of center, near the bottom edge, to see how much space you’ll need. You’ll want enough room to keep the deck snug without making it too difficult to get it in and out.

Fold the cloth over the cards so the two short edges line up. Now the inside of the cloth is facing you on the folded-over portion. Mark the cloth (make sure you write on the inside) where you want to cut it. You can use light pencil marks or maybe there is some sewing chalk available that you can use.

Leave enough space along the bottom and left (the right side is the fold of the cloth) to stitch the cloth together. Leave extra room at the top. Now cut along the marked cut line. Unfold the cloth.

Decide if you want to close the bag with a drawstring or a flap. If you want the flap closure, follow Steps a, b, c, and d below. If you want a drawstring closure, skip to Step e.

Flap-Style Bag

a. If you would like the top to fold over and clasp shut, leave extra room at the top. With chalk, mark the line that will indicate the top of the bag and the beginning of the flap. Mark the middle fold line of the cloth rectangle. Cut along the middle fold line until you reach the flap fold line.

Mark a horizontal line on the right side of the rectangle. This line should be about half an inch above the flap fold line, because you will need to sew a hem. This will be the front of the bag. Then cut along the horizontal line across the front.

b. You will need to hem the top on the front side so the fabric doesn’t fray. If you want to sew the hem together (which means you will see the seam), fold the hem toward the inside front of the bag so the insides touch each other—the outside of the cloth will be exposed to you. Stitch along the hemline to the edge.

Note: You can use fabric glue rather than needle and thread or sewing machine, which eliminates any problem with seeing the thread line. If you do this, fold the hem in so the insides are touching and the outside is exposed to you. Then glue the two insides together. Make sure you read the instructions on the glue bottle carefully before you start working.

c. Decide how tall the top flap needs to be. Cut it to the desired size, keeping in mind that you want to leave enough cloth to make another small hem on the top edge. Glue or stitch the hem on the inside of the bag.

d. What will you use to fasten the bag shut? You can buy Velcro, or snap-on buttons that can be glued or sewn onto the cloth. (If you choose to use real buttons, you will have to contend with making buttonholes, which is considerably harder.) Measure the distance needed from the edge of the top flap and attach the top part of the fastener inside the flap.

Carefully measure where the bottom half of the fastener should be positioned on the front of the bag, and attach it.

Drawstring-Style Bag

e. If you would rather use a drawstring to close the bag instead of a flap and Velcro or a button, you will, of course, need to find a cord. Decide how tall you would like the bag to be and draw a line across the rectangle to mark off the excess fabric, but be sure to leave enough for a hem. The hem should be wide enough for a cord to fit through it easily, but not so wide that it sags. Cut along the marked line.

Note: If you are gluing, you’ll need a little extra fabric to fold over in order to glue it securely and have enough room for a tunnel for the cord.

f. Now sew or glue the hem edge down—inside to inside. Make sure that both ends of the hem are still open. Don’t sew them shut.

g. Wait until you’ve finished assembling the bag before inserting the cord. Then attach a safety pin to one end of the cord. Insert the pin with the cord attached into one end of the tunnel. You’ll be able to slide the pin through the fabric tunnel of the hem and exit on the other side. The cord will follow (since it is attached to the pin). Tie the two ends of the drawstring together, or tie large knots in the ends so they can’t slip into the tunnel when you open the bag, and your drawstring is ready to go.

For Either Style of Bag

Fold the back of the bag behind the front, with the inside of the fabric facing out. Line up the edges at the bottom and sides, and pin in place. When stitching or gluing together the sides and bottom of the bag, keep the bag turned inside out. This will make the seams less visible. It’s probably a good idea to pin the sides together first so they don’t pucker or gather. This will also keep the edges straight.

Note: If your bag has a flap at the top, stop sewing/gluing when you reach the flap part!

If you are using a drawstring, make sure that you don’t stitch up the ends that are meant to hold the cord—that would defeat the purpose.

Turn the bag so the inside is right where it should be—inside. Pull the cord through or close the flap and you’re ready to go. All you need now is your deck of tarot cards.

If you have any other arts and crafts skills, you could put them to use. A knitted bag would work well; so would one that you crochet. A couple of granny squares stitched together would also do the job. And you can still choose between a drawstring or clasp top. One consideration: If you will be carrying your cards a fair bit, be aware that the yarn of a knitted bag may stretch out of shape over time. You could solve this by sewing a lining into the bag so the cards won’t weigh down the bag and it will last longer.

DESIGN YOUR OWN JOURNAL

You could start from the ground up by making the journal itself. Or you could use one that you’ve bought and decorate it. Find ways to make your journal uniquely yours—inside and out.

Outside

• Collect pictures and clippings that inspire you. Use these to decorate the outside of the journal. You can use one picture or many. You can create a collage or doodle on the pictures. Put your personal touch on them. You can add to your cover over time as you use the journal.

• Draw or paint something. There’s nothing like personal artwork to adorn a private journal. You can plan a single picture to adorn the cover or fill the space with sketches and doodles. Copy your favorite images from the cards.

• Write poetry or words of inspiration.

• Inscribe a favorite reading on the cover to remind you what the tarot can reveal.

• Leave the outside cover blank—add a bit of mystery.

Inside

This was covered, in part, in the previous section, “Keeping a Journal.” By this time, you are probably familiar and comfortable with the process and know what works for you. Now that you’ve had experience with the cards, you’ll know what is important to include in your journal. Should you divide the pages into columns? During your readings, are you inspired to write a lot of notes? Do you need to provide yourself extra space to record your thoughts? Do you need to include a section or space for later thoughts? There are numerous possibilities to consider, but only you will know what will work best or is necessary. Once you have set up your journal the way you want, you might consider ways to enliven the entries. A few ideas:

• Develop icons and short forms. Rather than use the words Upright, Reverse, Celebrate, Relationship, Love, Loss, etc., over and over, you can assign symbols to represent them.

• Use colors to distinguish categories. For instance, red for cards read in reverse, blue for the upright position, and green for the outcome cards.

• Use your imagination and creativity to have fun with this project. Remember that your journal will one day be finished and you’ll be starting a fresh one. You’ll have plenty of time to revise old ideas and try out new ones.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen Olmstead has written more than a dozen books—fiction and non-fiction—for the young adult market. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Fireweed and Taddle Creek, among other journals, and she is a part of the ARP Books editorial collective. Kathleen lives and works in Toronto.

COPYRIGHT

A Beginner’s Guide to Tarot: DIY Tarot © 2014 Kathleen Olmstead

All rights reserved under all applicable International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

First published in 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd in its EPub edition of A Beginner’s Guide to Tarot.

This EPub Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 9781443447003

HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use through our Special Markets Department.

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

2 Bloor Street East, 20th Floor

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M4W 1A8

www.harpercollins.ca

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au

HarperCollins Publishers (Canada) Ltd.

2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada

http://www.harpercollins.ca

HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022

http://www.harpercollins.com