How I Use Tarot to Navigate a Creative Crossroads
A practice to find clarity through archetypal imagery and inner reflection
Behind the scenes here at The Artemisian, I’ve been mulling over some creative changes. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve felt drawn towards evolution, an intuitive sense that has led me to experiment with more cohesive membership offerings in the Dreamwork Foundations program and the launch of the All-Access tier.
One thing I’ve come to learn is that an intuitive image or vision is just the beginning of a long arc of creative unfolding. Our ability to participate in this act requires resilience, tenacity, flexibility and courage. In this layer of the psyche, informed by the unconscious and its mysterious wisdom, we are at the edge of comfort and safety. The unconscious sees beyond the known world, into a realm of potentials infused with archetypal depth and meaning. To accept the offering is to move into a liminal sphere, between what is and what will be. It is both exhilarating and disorienting, inspiring and terrifying.
Hanging at the threshold of another shift, I have been contemplating when to make changes, how to weigh the differences, what dynamics surround one option vs the other. I have felt unsure and confused, torn at a crossroads of choice. I could viscerally feel my blindspots and the looming shadows of uncertainty that clouded my field of vision. This is the perfect time to turn to archetypal and divinatory tools for support.
When you’re unsure which direction to take, tarot offers a way to reflect on your choices.
Personally, I don’t read with fixed spreads. I always begin with an inquiry, a question, a theme or area of life, and begin to draw cards (usually 1-3). From there, more questions or thoughts arise, and I’ll continue to pull cards, building the reading till it feels complete. This might be a style more suited to intuitive types who yearn to follow the unconscious’ movements, like an active imagination in real time with the tarot. This exercise adheres to these principles but is paired down for simplicity.
A last note: this exercise is meant to help illuminate the inner workings of your psyche, to uncover the influences, emotions, thought patterns, and dynamics that underlie the situation. The goal is not prediction but self-understanding, allowing you to actively participate in the creative flow of life. The cards do not choose for you, their images merely activate the unconscious knowledge that was hidden beneath the surface.
Let’s begin!
A Tarot Practice for Exploring Multiple Options
Identify the Options — Begin by identifying the options before you. Write each one down in simple, clear language. As an added layer, consider journaling on what each choice represents or entails, the emotions or thoughts that come up, any impressions in the body or accompanying images.
Draw Cards — Shuffle and draw 1–3 cards for each option. Keep the groupings of cards separate to get a sense of each option’s distinct qualities.
Interpretation & Reflection — Begin by exploring each grouping on its own. Start with the cards individually: notice the imagery, symbols, emotional tone, and any spontaneous insights that arise. Consider traditional meanings alongside your intuitive impressions.
Then look at the grouping as a whole. What patterns do you notice? Are there repeated suits or numbers? How many Majors versus Minors? Upright versus reversed cards? Do the cards feel aligned, fragmented, or in tension with one another? What tone or quality does the grouping carry?
Once you’ve spent time with each option separately, bring them into dialogue.
How do the options compare in tone or emotional resonance? Does one feel clearer or more challenging? What does each option draw out of you? How are those dynamics reflected inwardly or outwardly?
Now, what conclusions might you draw? What insights or clarity does it bring? What do you feel called to do now? What further questions or tasks might the cards be pointing towards?
Here’s how the exercise went for me…
I am considering two options in the changes and timeline for my creative work. In the first step, I named each and wrote some thoughts:
Option I: Give myself more time
I feel resistance to this option, a kind of heaviness in my chest that feels like it’s holding me back. For some months now, I have felt stuck, striving to capture inspiration and re-orient. Recently, I’ve gotten clarity, and I sense the urgency to get going. Yet, something else pushes back, perhaps telling me to spend more time in the creative crucible.
Option II: Make changes sooner
I feel excited about this option, a kind of intensity that has an almost tangible sense to it, like I can reach out and grab the energy that surrounds me. If I let it, I can fall easily into the current, let it sweep me away as I move with a focused purpose.
From the reflections alone, you’d think Option II is a no brainer. But I always try to pay attention to the subtle tensions, the quiet whispers that challenge my conscious orientation.
The pull for Option I was challenging at first. I was thinking I’d see a more direct reflection of my resistance and the sense of slow down (perhaps a reversed VIII of Wands?). Instead, The Lovers paired with the Page of Cups, a combination that drew me to consider how slowing down could lead to deeper alignment and transformative growth informed by true relating, thoughtful choices and imaginative curiosity. The tarot is often surprising. Drawing cards at random, evoking synchronicity, has the effect of breaking even the most rigid, conscious beliefs and perspectives.
The sweet, imaginative Page of Cups feels like the tender wellspring of emotional renewal I’ve been seeking. The charged energies of The Lovers is the great archetypal force at the center, tasking me to find inner coherence with parts of self that, when merged, give rise to a center of the personality that feels integrated and whole. Important questions arose: “What kind of relationship do I want to have with my work? What is the emotional resonance? What am I cultivating through this choice?” Timing suddenly seemed to be a reflection of trust in the great energies that have been moving me all along, alignment as the true measure of readiness.
The pull for Option II felt affirming. Here was the fiery energy I felt growing inside of me! The Knight of Wands represents the courageous pursuit of one’s passions. Daring in his actions, bold in his visions, he offers us the ability to harness creative drive and get things going. Further, the Page of Swords reflected the budding capacity to test my boundaries and sharpen my skills of discernment. I was feeling clearer, less clouded, ready to harness my decisive capacities and explore the new ideas I had.
Yet, there was something that gave me pause. Both the Page and the Knight radiated with a youthful excitement, it felt clumsy, impatient, incomplete. “Where do I notice these qualities in myself?”, I wondered. And there was the shadow I had struggled to see. So entranced by the Knight of Wands’ eagerness, the Page of Swords’ curiosity, I was rushing into change without a second thought. Would that end poorly? To be honest, I don’t think so.
The early figures of the Court Cards show what it means to engage in the act of becoming, whether inwardly in the form of personality development or outwardly in the birth of new goals, work, etc. Their mistakes, hopes and struggles are the very prima materia that transforms into the mature, realized Queen and King. If chosen, this path might see me stumble headlong into change, but with the promise of evolution and refinement that one only learns through embodiment, action, and lessons learned.
When comparing the two options and all the inward reflection it brought, I felt much clearer on which to choose: Option I. Each reading had a Page, and so no matter which way I went, there was a nascent aspect of self rising, new developments to tend, each holding promise for growth and realization.
In conjunction with The Lovers (the only powerful major present), I sensed that I could touch into a more concentrated force of archetypal depth. In this space, the urgency seemed to slip away, the egoic grasping loosened, and I felt steady in knowing that what I longed for wasn’t immediacy but true union — a harmonious relationship with my work built on the kind of resonance and understanding that emerges with a bit of distance, when you can see things clearly and consciously weave how the parts come together.
Keep an eye out for exciting new developments here at The Artemisian. In due time, as I consult further with The Lovers & Page of Cups.
Thanks for reading! If this kind of reflective, archetypal exploration resonates with you, I’d love to welcome you into the membership. Inside, we explore the deeper patterns shaping your inner and outer life, study the symbolic language of the psyche, and support personal transformation through workshops, curated resources, and a thoughtful community devoted to inner work.
Join the conversation
Which archetypal or divinatory techniques do you utilize when at a crossroads of choice? Any thoughts or interpretations on the cards I drew? If you try out the exercise, comment and let me know how it goes :)
In pure synchronicity, I've just this minute read another tarot themed post and then I land here. I do love it when these things happen! Alyssa, your tarot reflections are a masterclass in soulful discernment, honouring the tension between urgency and alignment with such grace. The way you listen to the archetypal undercurrents and let them shape your creative unfolding is deeply inspiring.
In my own practice, I've found that everyone reads differently. Sometimes I feel called to turn a card for someone whose words have moved me. Other times, I'll sit with a fixed spread, or make one up entirely. A few years ago, I followed The Fool's Journey Major Arcana), drawing one card a week for six months and shared the process in my second book. I can't think of a more powerful way to explore the inner and outer landscapes of our lives.
Beautiful. My practice is the same style. While have a few tried and true spreads (mostly my own) and use the Celtic cross, I throw cards out in groups and they tell their own story as I go. I use my intuition to guide me. I hate journaling so tarot is the way to extract all the things out of my head.