Tarot Journaling: Spark, Soothe, Sustain

A pre-recorded session for creative recovery

Hi little coven. I’m currently out of office, hanging out in Germany with my family. But I would never leave you hanging - I hope you’ll enjoy this pre-recorded audio session, featuring a spread I’ve been using a lot for my 1:1 clients lately to help facilitate creative recovery.

Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way - a book I have big feelings about - pioneered the phrase “creative recovery” - the work we do to reintegrate, celebrate, and activate our creative impulses and desires. In my work with creatives healing from burnout, block, lack of support, and damaging inner critic narratives, I approach creative recovery through three lenses:

Inspiration: generating ideas and finding joy in the creative process

Validation: regulating the emotional highs and lows of the creative experience - from navigating rejection to confronting the inner critic, and

Activation: taking meaningful steps toward making long-term creative goals come true

My signature Tarot for Creativity sessions tend to these pillars of recovery: Spark sessions bring the tarot out to play and focus on brainstorming and bouncing ideas, Soothe sessions incorporate reflective tarot practices and Shadow work to help creatives confront difficult experiences and care for themselves, and Sustain sessions bring together tarot archetypes and practical coaching strategies for setting and meeting creative goals.

Today’s spread borrows from all of the principles outlined above, and is often one of the first exercises I run my 1:1 and mentoring clients through. You’ll need a deck, about half an hour, and your journal.