Welcome to PART II of my Divination and Writing Series. One of the most frustrating parts of writing fiction is realizing that your characters look complete on paper but still do not feel alive on the page. Let’s divine a solution, shall we?

You have been visualizing these characters for ages. You know their age, their backstory, their job, their habits, even their favorite coffee order, but none of that automatically creates depth. A compelling character needs tension, contradiction, desire, and fear to name a few. Their inner patterns guide the decisions they cannot seem to escape. A truth they are resisting. A transformation they are being pushed toward, whether they are ready or not.

This is where tarot can be surprisingly useful.

For writers, tarot can help reveal the emotional architecture of a character. It can show you what drives them, and what kind of change (or growth) their story may be asking of them.

Why tarot works for creating characters

Strong characters are not simple, even if them might seem so on the surface. There is always something more subtlety complex.

A “simple” character who comes to mind is Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. On the surface he’s a loyal friend who enjoys life’s comforts. He’s a perfect example of a hobbit. When confronted with conflict, he is brave, perceptive, emotional, resilient, and morally central to the story. This depth makes him feel real.

A protagonist may crave love but fear intimacy. A villain may seek control because they cannot tolerate vulnerability. A side character may appear loyal while quietly carrying resentment and jealously. Real characters are rarely defined by one trait. They are defined by opposing forces working beneath the surface.

Tarot naturally speaks this language. The cards hold tension, shadows, archetypes, emotional movement, and contradiction. That makes them especially helpful when a character feels flat, overly familiar, or difficult to understand.

A tarot spread can help you uncover:

• what your character consciously wants
• what they unconsciously fear
• what wound shapes their choices
• what false belief they are living inside
• what strength or gift they already carry
• what transformation may define their arc

That is far more useful than a list of surface traits alone.

When to use a tarot spread for creating characters

You can use a spread like this at several different stages of the writing process.

It works well when:

• you are building a new protagonist or antagonist
• a character feels thin or too predictable
• you know the plot but not the person moving through it
• a side character needs more dimension
• you are revising and want to deepen emotional consistency
• character relationship dynamics need strengthened

A 7-card tarot spread for creating memorable characters

This spread will help you move beneath simple character traits and into the emotional truth of the character. Feel free to switch up anything as needed.

1. The mask

What the character shows the world

This card reflects how the character presents themselves. It may point to their social role, the image they try to maintain, or the identity they perform in order to feel safe.

2. The wound

What pain or past experience still shapes them

This card reveals the unresolved hurt, grief, rejection, fear, or conditioning that influences the character’s choices. It often explains why they behave the way they do.

3. The desire

What they consciously want

This card shows the goal, longing, or external aim the character believes will change everything. It is often what they would say they are pursuing.

4. The fear

What they are trying to avoid

This card reveals the emotional reality beneath the desire. It may show vulnerability, shame, loss, exposure, failure, abandonment, powerlessness, or some other internal threat.

5. The shadow

What they do not want to admit about themselves

This is often one of the most revealing cards in the spread. It points to the trait, impulse, pattern, belief, or contradiction the character resists seeing.

6. The gift

What strength, wisdom, or capacity they already carry

This card shows what can help the character grow. It may be resilience, intuition, intelligence, courage, tenderness, discipline, or some other inner resource.

7. The transformation

What change the character is being called toward

This card points toward the deeper arc. It does not tell you exactly what will happen in the plot. It shows the kind of inner movement the character may need to make.

How to interpret the spread

The most important thing is not to read each card in isolation. Read the spread as a whole. You don’t have to be a seasoned tarot reader to get valuable information.

For the most information, look for patterns:

• Are several cards emphasizing control, grief, illusion, conflict, or surrender?
• Is the desire card clearly at odds with the fear card?
• Does the mask contradict the wound?
• Does the shadow explain why the character cannot yet access their gift?
• Does the transformation feel like a direct answer to the wound?

For example, if the mask is the Queen of Swords, the wound is the Five of Pentacles, the desire is the Ten of Cups, and the fear is the Moon, you may be looking at a character who appears composed and independent but is deeply shaped by exclusion, longs for belonging, and fears emotional uncertainty. That already creates a much more dimensional person than “smart but guarded.”

A quick example

If you are open to using the tarot but don’t have much or any experience, this process can be intimidating. Here is an example that might help break down the process and help shine some light on the tarot.

Imagine you are building a protagonist who comes across as competent, charming, and impossible to pin down.

You pull:

• Mask: Magician
• Wound: Three of Swords
• Desire: Six of Wands
• Fear: Eight of Swords
• Shadow: Seven of Swords
• Gift: Strength
• Transformation: Judgment

This spread might suggest a character who knows how to shape perception and stay in control, but who is partly built on old heartbreak. Your protagonist wants recognition and victory, but fear being trapped, exposed, or truly seen. Their shadow may involve manipulation, avoidance, or self-protective dishonesty. Yet they also carry real courage and inner steadiness. Their arc may require reckoning, confession, or awakening to a more honest life. Can you envision how this might fit into your narrative?

Now you do not just have traits. You have tension and tension is what makes characters feel alive.

Tarot does not replace craft

As I mentioned in the last post in my Divination and Writing Series, tarot can reveal a great deal, but it is still a tool. You will still need to make choices about voice, action, pacing, dialogue, and structure. A character becomes real not only through who they are, but through what they do under pressure.

Think of tarot as a way to sharpen emotional insight. It helps you see the deeper currents. Then it is your job to translate the cards into scenes.

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