What can The Tower card teach us about creativity?

a special excerpt from Tarot for Creativity + this month's free tarot journal password

Hi little coven. I'd love to tell you that living a creative life is all rainbows, sunshine, and orgasms. But sometimes, it's the pit of despair, and no tarot card understands and holds space for the worst things better than the Tower. So begins my introduction to The Tower card in my new book, TAROT FOR CREATIVITY (it hits North American shelves TODAY!!!)

As it happens, this month’s free October Tarot Journal is ready, and the password is TheTower

And so, I want to share a special excerpt from the book … one I hope reframes the Tower for you, sets you up for the month ahead, and gives you a taste of what you can expect once you get my book in your hands…

I'd love to tell you that living a creative life is all rainbows, sunshine, and orgasms. But sometimes, it's the pit of despair, and no tarot card understands and holds space for the worst things better than the Tower. 

Whether you've lost your dream commission, had a devastating rejection from an agent, missed out on a job or promotion, received a diagnosis that significantly sets back your creative vision, or opened up your computer to find that, somehow, the draft of your novel has disappeared forever, there will be moments of your creative life where you feel struck down and smashed to rubble. 

You will wonder how you'll ever build yourself back up again. 

Facing a “Tower moment” in your creative life means encountering the worst-case scenario. This is not a card about love and light. It’s a card about shock, devastation, and disaster.

But the Tower is also a beacon—sitting with the grief, fear, and desolation that this card conjures is the first step in choosing not to let hitting rock bottom be a death sentence.

This Too Shall Pass

I love that this card doesn’t shy away from the drama and disaster of our darkest moments. The freefall depicted here is comforting in a weird way—it acknowledges the very real feelings of loss and wreckage that accompany creative failure. But this is not an image of perpetual despair; it’s an illustration of the very worst moment, and a reminder that we have a choice in how we pick up the pieces.

The lighting strike is important, because it symbolizes that even the worst moments are flashes in the pan. They will do their damage, and leave you to crawl back to your feet, survey the wreckage, and rebuild.

When the Tower comes up, or when you seek out its advice, take the time to reflect on what’s going wrong for you in your creative life. Give yourself permission to sit with the discomfort, the pain, the fear. Allow yourself to have that moment of grief, to respect the devastation. Take stock of the damage and let yourself feel it. You can’t start to heal and rebuild until you’ve confronted the damage and made space for your pain.

In fact, getting a sense of what’s broken, and giving yourself permission to feel it can be incredibly creatively generative. Your experiences may open up new ways of seeing, new things to express, new inspirations to create.

Being struck by lightning can be the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, but it can simultaneously be an electrifying current that sends you off in meaningful new directions.

Creative Prompts for The Tower

Write a letter to your past self at a time when you were experiencing a worst-case scenario. Give that grieving version of you the gift of understanding and the promise of what you have been able to rebuild.

Write a story about two characters who come together after experiencing their own “Tower moments” in life. How are their experiences similar, how are their experiences different, and what will they learn from each other?

Break something—seriously. Then reshape the broken thing into a wholly new piece of art.

Journal about the ways you’ve seen people rebuild and create their way out of their worst moments. This might be people you know, public figures you admire, or beloved characters in books and films.

The Tower Spread

If you’re facing a worst-case scenario moment, let this spread hold space for your experience and offer you options for rebuilding when you’re ready.

Shuffle through your deck and select two cards. Lay them face down on the table in front of you, and turn them over one by one. Then, reflect on how the cards you draw relate to the prompts in the spread.

1. How can I hold space for the pain I’m experiencing?

2. Where can I seek out the strength I need to rebuild?

Want the full experience, featuring gorgeously designed full-color art? Get your copy of Tarot for Creativity now!

++ If you want to learn more about my author journey, have a listen to my latest podcast appearance. I spoke to the lovely Elena Locatelli for The Bookish Journey podcast about how tarot plays a part in my own creative process, my journey to publication, and more!

Before I let you go, I just want to say a huge thank you.

I started work on this book almost four years ago to the day, and I’m overwhelmed to finally see it out in the world. I am unendingly grateful to each of you, for being my readers and my support system, for growing with me, for receiving what I’m offering, for being endlessly curious and enthusiastic.

In the back of the book, you’ll find many acknowledgements. But books are an evolving journey, and inevitably many hands step in to help long after the last word has been penned. When Tarot for Creativity went to the printers, I hadn’t yet begun my Substack journey and connected to all of you here, hadn’t yet settled into a new city where I’ve now made so many meaningful friends, hadn’t yet connected to so many creatives I admire, including

Rebecca Scolnick

and

Theresa Reed | The Tarot Lady

, and hadn’t yet found myself in the safe hands of the incredibly generous and professional team at

Pine State Publicity

. Thanks are owed to all of you, and so I want to take this moment, in print, now, to say much I appreciate you and your support. Thank you.