The Reverse Draw Method

For a Reverse Draw, you intentionally pull certain cards you already associate with someone or something to do a deep reading of what the cards mean for you—not necessarily what they mean according to tradition or the booklet they came with.

There are many ways to do a personal analysis of a tarot card:

• You can do an artistic interpretation based solely on the card’s illustrations; 
• You can research the card’s allusions to myth, religion, folklore, art, literature, etc. to draw parallels with your character; 
• Or you can do a free association exercise about what you feel when you see the card: what it reminds you of, what emotions or memories it evokes, what stories or conflicts you see depicted, or what the symbols personally represent for you.

When you’re already familiar with who your characters are, you can pull cards that you feel represent them to get to know them better. For a Reverse Draw reading, I flip through the deck to find specific cards I already associate with my characters.

Every important character in each of my projects has a corresponding tarot card in my deck. I select these cards when doing a reading for a specific aspect or question about the desired person in my story.

For my retelling of the Persephone myth, The High Priestess represents Persephone, The Devil represents Hades, the Ace of Wands represents Artemis, Persephone’s closest friend, and the Two of Cups Reversed represents Leuke, Hade’s ex-lover.

You can also choose cards to represent a setting, a plot point, the narrative arc, or anything that holds significance in your story that you want to center a tarot reading around. Examples include:

• The Tower for the conflict or the moment of denouement 
• The Wheel of Fortune for the twist or reversal 
• The Chariot for the rising action 
• Death for the last act

Reverse Draw Exercises:

1. Find your Muse Card, the card that inspires you to write. This card could represent a character, a real person, a concept, or even yourself. Touch base with this card often, and try intentionally adding it to tarot readings for writer’s block.
2. Choose your protagonist’s card. Use this card in spreads to generate backstories or plot their next move.
3. Choose your antagonist’s card. These are especially helpful for tarot spreads to create conflict or Nemesis Readings to develop conflict between certain characters.
4. Choose a romance card. This represents your main character’s love interest(s) or their ultimate desire. Use it in love triangle spreads.