So what if you are drawing for a setting or plot idea and you draw the Joker?

Oh my—what fun!!

Let me list a few characteristics of the Joker again:

Ah, the Joker-that  silly, wild card that can take the game in a new direction….

The Joker has no suit, no color and no number. It is seen as the wild card in many card games and can be likened to the Tarot’s “Fool” card.

A bit of trivia to start:  The modern [...]]]>

Ah, the Joker-that  silly, wild card that can take the game in a new direction….

The Joker has no suit, no color and no number. It is seen as the wild card in many card games and can be likened to the Tarot’s “Fool” card.

A bit of trivia to start:  The modern Joker is an American invention, originating around 1870 for the game of Euchre. German or Dutch settlers brought the game here and the word “Euchre” is the English spelling of an old German term, “Juker” meaning “jack knave.”

In the game, the most valuable cards are two Jacks, known in play as Right Bower and Left Bower, a corruption of the German Bauer. Some versions of Euchre use a third Bower, called the Best Bower. The Joker was actually born to represent the Best Bower.

The Joker is usually depicted as a jester or harlequin and was probably based on the tarot’s Fool.

The original Italian name of the Fool card is il Matto and a closer translation of it is “Lunatic”, or “the madman”.

Back when freedom of speech was unheard of, lunatics were the only ones to express themselves freely, blurting out what they thought. No one paid any mind to them—yet, their words could sometimes be truth. But because they weren’t given any credence, their insanity acted as a shield.

Mental insanity could grant you freedom of speech and could also act as a bridge between mortals and heaven. During the Renaissance, the jester, although the lowest member of the court, was entitled to tease, to advise, to jest with no negative consequences.

So, both the Joker card and The Fool card share the dichotomy between their mortal and intellectual condition-imperfect humans-raised to a level of “spiritual” authority and given winning power when used in the card games.

Many cartomancers do not use it to read a spread, but for the sake of what I discuss the cards use for, I like to include them.

The joker has many faces, the main ones being: The Lunatic (or Fool) and The Trickster.

In some card games, the Joker might be seen as lucky and can be used as any card you want to use, or as a replacement.

So, when you draw a Joker, think in these terms. If drawing for a character, the joker represents an individual who is  unique with special talents. They’re an enigma with natural charisma and not easy to label or define.

They might even be “mad” but as Shakespeare said, “Though this be madness, yet there be method in it.”

That might seem to make drawing the Joker a confusing thing—it’s not. See that character as someone who can get away with anything, gets out of any mess, charms their way into or out of things and is just plain lucky.

They’re great entertainers and very adaptable, putting on a show, out-witting, masquerading, fooling, and charming their way through life. But they also have a serious side, are hard-working, forceful, opinionated and practical.

I call the Joker the soul card. To me, this is where we begin—with our soul/divine-connected self that decides what we want in this lifetime and what we’re going to experience, learn and achieve before we come into a physical body.  At this point, we don’t consider a life of challenges an unpleasant way to learn new things—our Soul-Self sees the importance of the lesson. We know that the challenges are not permanent and that we can handle it. This is the attitude of the soul—which is still connected to ALL and knows it is always LOVE and LOVED.

When this is a card for a character, that attitude is at their core. Give them hell, take them on a crazy journey because they are equipped to handle it and pull it off with bling and pizazz!

The Joker is also a great chameleon and magnifies the cards around it. If you draw a Joker and another card as the other character (hero/heroine, protag/antag, parent/child, friend/foe, hero/side-kick, seeker/mentor, etc.) the Joker character can take on the nature of the other card. This can create interesting drama as the Joker character will mirror and reflect back the other character’s issues/needs.

A good example of the Joker in a story is the character of Forrest Gump, a seemingly nit wit, yet he is master of all he chooses to do, oblivious to the logical consequences or hardships of his tasks, spouting truths in his childish talk.

next post: Joker as a setting and plot idea.

The Path of Suits

I’ll begin with a disclaimer: I’m not writing about cartomancy as if I were doing a personal “card spread reading”.

That said, the intent of this blog and upcoming ebook is to be a reference for those wishing to utilize playing cards to aid with [...]]]>

The Path of Suits

I’ll begin with a disclaimer: I’m not writing about cartomancy as if I were doing a personal “card spread reading”.

That said, the intent of this blog and upcoming ebook is to be a reference for those wishing to utilize playing cards to aid with creativity-because they really do rock as a brainstorming tool! 

This post is about the suits and how I view them as the path we all take in life, which is great to remember when you draw a card to help with characterization or conflict/goal ideas.

For me, the “soul” card is the Joker (more on that in a different post) then we are born, which is the Ace of Hearts.

So the first suit on our path is the suit of  Hearts.

Home is where the Heart is—the Hearts are our first connection to life with our family, our home and the innocent, youthful view of life. It’s about first love, first connections with family, romance and relationships and of course emotions–how we feel about everything– because as children, we feel our world. We’ve yet to analyze it, or put it in categories or decide what we don’t want or do want, because at this point we want it all.

It is about celebrations (because we are here!) and about happiness—we’ve yet to face the cruel cold world.

The next step on the path is the suit of Clubs– and is about action and  learning about our world. We go and we do and we experience, we learn, we teach, we gather information, we analyze and we process. This is an energy/action suit. It can be about psychology,  learning to trust, to judge and to utilize what we have learned. This suit strives for harmony within the world.

Then we enter the stage in life where we are building–we are taking the knowledge we gathered and we are creating our stability. This is the suit of Diamonds. We are ensconced in the material world; the world of things, of values, of recognition, rewards and compensation. We come to know and be influenced by the stabilizing (or sometimes not so stabilizing!) world of financial institutions and the government.

This suit encompasses our vitality, our nerves, electricity and working to “improve” our circumstances.

We can see a pretty typical view of one’s path in life to this point. The last suit is the suit of Spades.

They are sometimes seen as the negative suit because they are about all the problems and challenges that we face in life.

If you see the suits as stepping stones and the Joker as the soul, the Spades are the farthest away—which is because life so easily disconnects us from our truest self and as we deal with work, and money and the daily grind, we can feel alone, angry and over-burdened.

BUT-and a big but it is—the spades are about taking the stuff of life and creating wisdom. Allowing negative experiences and emotions to polish us, to help us move beyond the material plane and back toward our higher self, our soul, our connection with the One.

So, while the spades can be about karma, struggles, rationalizing and demanding things to be a certain way, if one is highly developed, they can be a wise guide and a sacrifice for the greater good.

When we use the cards to help us dig deep into a character, using the suits and the path in life can be a great guide for seeing where they are and where they need to go.

It can also tell us a lot about ourselves and our work if we are drawing a card because we are feeling off and need to check in and center ourselves.

The suits are what make each card (number) different from each other, and if you are drawing several cards to represent several characters, you can see how the relationship might be according to what stage each is in.

The next post will be about the Joker.

If you have any questions or you have a project block and would like to draw a card and talk about it with me–please feel free to do so!

I’m going to pretend that I’m a 5 of clubs today–I’m going to change things in here!

In previous posts, I was drawing a random card and breaking the meaning down into sections. From this point on, I’m going to start at the beginning and explain a bit about each card.

The card I’ll focus on this week is the 6 of spades.

Creative tip from the 6 of Spades:

Here is a thought for you to chew on: You can tap into the unconscious desires of your generation and through your creativity, manifest those desires, so that others can clearly see, [...]]]>

Greetings!

The card I’ll focus on this week is the 6 of spades.

Creative tip from the 6 of Spades:

Here is a thought for you to chew on: You can tap into the unconscious desires of your generation and through your creativity, manifest those desires, so that others can clearly see, embrace, feel and react to those desires, which is what brings about change.

To me, this is what “Art” is all about and this is why we, as creatives, have a mission to fulfill.

What is your mission in your creativity?

Question/Concept: What  defines stability in your life?  If that was taken away, [...]]]>

I’m behind on my posting this week and it’s already Friday!  So, I’m going to lump all of the categories into one post here for the 4 of diamonds.

Theme for 4 of Diamonds:

Stability & Security in values and finances

Question/Concept: What  defines stability in your life?  If that was taken away, what would you do?

Character Keywords:

Needs/Has Financial stability

Loves to work & accomplish

Positive thinker

Practical planner

Self-reliant

Can be too critical or stubborn

Likes to put great effort & hard work into what they believe in

To find contentment—needs to blend imaginative ideas or aspirations with practical plans or financial objectives.

Meticulous, loyal, sincere

Conflict:

Can be uncooperative or unsympathetic

Can have a resistence to being restrained—needs freedom to move—but can conflict with need for stability, security & hard work. Can cause flucuating moods.

Restlessness & impatience can undermine hard work.

Person/Place/Thing:

The “Boss”

Office/cubicle

Business card

Bank card

Cash register

Bank office

Lottery ticket

Teachers Pet

Top of desk

Desk drawer

Workaholic

Over-achiever

A closet-fully stocked & organized, ready for anything

“Nose to the grindstone”

Bank vault

Stubborn work horse

Landlord

*My personal challenge for this card/week:  I drew 4 cards to write a short romance

Card 1- Heroine

Card 2- Hero

Card 3- Where/How they bumped into each other

Card 4- Ending

The main object/trope in the story will be a business card.

I’d love to hear any additions to this card or if you used it for a creative project!

The Creative Tip for the 4 of Diamonds is:

While stability, consistency, determination and hard work are important for creative success–take the time to relax and be good to yourself. Fulfill your own needs. If you feel a dissatisfaction with what you’re working on/doing, lighten up–walk away for a [...]]]>

The Creative Tip for the 4 of Diamonds is:

While stability, consistency, determination and hard work are important for creative success–take the time to relax and be good to yourself. Fulfill your own needs. If you feel a dissatisfaction with what you’re working on/doing, lighten up–walk away for a bit and find something pleasurable to engage in. Dreams can’t become REALITY, if you never allow yourself to DREAM!

 

The card draw for this week is the 4 of Diamonds. I had to laugh as it was originally the card I drew for last week. But as well, I had drawn a 4 of hearts as one of my three characters for my writing prompt (which I used to write a short story based on: 3 cards walk into a bar )

I confused myself with notes on both sitting in front of me and I ended up using the 4 of hearts here on the blog–which was fine.

This week, I shuffled my deck and drew for the card of the week, and what showed up again?  The 4 of diamonds.  That card has something to say!

I also find it interesting that the  “Four” showed up again. The keyword is of course:  stability.

Things feel very unstable in the world right now. I think many of us are seeking stability.

What defines stability for you?

I’ll admit, I chuckled over the type of character, or situation this card represented. It has a duality. I know someone who is the 4 of hearts (it’s their birth card) and  I took my creative cue [...]]]>

For my personal weekly card challenge, I decided to write a cinquain for the 4 of hearts.

I’ll admit, I chuckled over the type of character, or situation this card represented. It has a duality. I know someone who is the 4 of hearts (it’s their birth card) and  I took my creative cue from that. I tend to look at the dark, more tragic side of things in order to find a story, but really, the 4 of hearts is someone who loves the idea of love. They must be in a relationship, they must be married or they just can’t function.

Of course, how beautiful is that? Someone who loves marriage, building a stable home, loves their family and is loyal.

As well, it’s very easy to find conflict and tragedy when using that type as a character for a story or as images for a painting, or for fodder for a poem, yes?

Here is my cinquain:

Love me

Forever, please

I am no good single

Cuddle into this rut with me

Love us.

This post states the theme of the card. Take  the theme, add to it the other meanings I’ll be posting and I hope it will inspire something magical!

Creative Tip:

Build your creative foundation on emotional stability. Create with passion and love, but ground yourself in common sense, structure, the skills of your craft and support from those who truly desire the best for you.

As creative individuals, we can be [...]]]>

This week’s card is: Four of Hearts

Creative Tip:

Build your creative foundation on emotional stability. Create with passion and love, but ground yourself in common sense, structure, the skills of your craft and support from those who truly desire the best for you.

As creative individuals, we can be tugged from two opposing forces. One which touts, just go with your intuition, follow your bliss, let it all hang out and muffle the critic!
The other end is rational and talks to us about the skills we need to be good at our craft, the wisdom supplied by those who have forged the path before us and the need to practice, practice, practice!

When I was in high school, one of my art teachers was right out of college and one of my biggest influences.
I was typically a nose-to-the-grind-stone student, but one spring day I came to class feeling, well, spring fever and a little cockiness. My art technique had blossomed and I was feeling good.

I decided to spend that class talking with a close friend.
My art teacher called me out on my actions in front of everyone.
“What are you doing today?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t feel inspired,” I said.

If only I could recall his words verbatim, but basically he told me how utterly stupid that was.
A real artist doesn’t only work when they’re inspired, they work daily, they practice, they experiment and they challenge themselves. They might be proud of their art, but they never get cocky enough to think, ah hell, I’m just not inspired today.

Even when we take a day off, or we take a break, or we encounter a block that keeps us from moving forward, we don’t put off our work until we are feeling full of go juice again.

Unless we are just hobbyists.
Unless we just like to dabble in our creativity (which is fine if it is just an on the side fun thing we do once in a while)

The balance between inspiration and perspiration is what the 4 of hearts represents.
It’s stability within passion. Like a marriage that still has its oh lala and zip-pity do da , but has lasted decades because the couple works at it and knows that it takes work.

It’s creativity that sparkles, shines and buzzes with excited electricity, yet, the grounding wires are thick and not going to come lose when you hit a slight bump in the road.

Box yourself in with four strong, loving walls of inspiration, practice, dedication and support.