, most commonly used for divination or to seek answers about the future of one’s life, can also have more 鈥渃reative鈥� functions. As participants of the workshop on Friday, Feb. 7 learned, the symbolism and imagery of tarot cards can be used as aids in developing stories.聽
is a collective within the University of Pittsburgh that hosts a variety of workshops centered around creative expression for Pitt students, faculty and affiliates.聽
Angela Oddling, a staff member at the Center for Creativity, facilitated Friday鈥檚 workshop. She came up with the idea to conduct a storytelling workshop based on her own background with storytelling through tarot.
鈥淚 have used tarot or as a divination and creative tool since I was in my teens,鈥� Oddling said. 鈥淚 am a comic book illustrator and came up with this idea to start using tarot and oracle cards as inspiration for creative prompts. I use the cards to inspire a story or a quick comic I want to make.鈥澛�
originated in 15th-century Italy as playing cards. It wasn鈥檛 until the 18th century that they were adopted for the fortune-telling purposes they are known for today. contain a set of 78 cards, each with a unique meaning expressed through both the image on the card and the underlying symbols associated with it. Oracle cards are similar to tarot in that they are used for fortune telling and life guidance, but these cards have different meanings than a traditional tarot deck.聽
Oddling, aided by a set of oracle cards, guided participants through the creation of a basic story outline, from exposition to resolution. Each part of the participants’ stories was based around the symbolism and imagery of a random card pulled by Oddling, with one card pulled for each of the seven parts of the story.
The 鈥渋ntention鈥� card was pulled for participants to build the main character of their story. This is a card associated with traits of obsession and anxiety. The conflict of the stories was based on the 鈥渨ork鈥� card, associated with traits of compromise and procrastination. Other cards pulled included 鈥渓anguage barriers,鈥� 鈥渕editation,鈥� 鈥渢he ancient ones,鈥� 鈥渕asters of emotion鈥� and 鈥渟ource.鈥澛�
By the end of the exercise, each participant had crafted their own story and was invited to share it with the group. Even though everyone鈥檚 stories were based on the characteristics of the same cards, no single person鈥檚 story was similar to another.聽
Nidhi Cheeyandira, a first-year psychology student, came into the workshop with some prior experience using tarot cards but enjoyed experiencing a more creative way to use them.
鈥淚 have played around with tarot cards in the past, but have always been interested in learning more so I was excited to come to this workshop,鈥� Cheeyandira said. 鈥淟earning about all of the different functions of tarot and how we can use them in our own lives for more creative purposes was very inspiring.鈥�
Rachael Gavlik, a senior in the pharmacy program, did not have much prior exposure to tarot before coming to the workshop and left feeling inspired to use the practices she learned in her own writing practices.聽
鈥淚 went into the workshop with the expectation that the cards would determine a lot more of the specific details of our story for us, but it was really interesting how much more open-ended the experience was,鈥� Gavlik said. 鈥淚 think that this method of using tarot cards for storytelling is something I definitely want to use in my own writing. It could be interesting to try it out when writing letters to friends or creative pieces鈥澛�
Oddling hopes that her workshop will inspire others to adopt creative brainstorming methods in their own writing processes.
鈥淭he basis of the Center for Creativity is that you don鈥檛 have to be an experienced artist or experienced creator,鈥� Oddling said. 鈥淭his applies to storytelling as well, you don’t have to be a master storyteller, so I hope people come into the workshop without the worry of telling a perfect story but rather just be sparked by inspiration, get their ideas down, experience the process of brainstorming and exploring different creative processes in different ways.鈥�