What To Do When A Tarot Reading Is Wrong

Whether you’re drawing a spread for your story or for your writerly self, there will come times where card meanings just don’t apply.

When we draw a card, we think of all how card might fit our situation. We look for relevance.

Here’s a hypothetical: 

Imagine you’re drawing for yourself. You’re unsure whether to write story A or Story B next. 

You draw the Ace of Cups. This is a concentrated creative energy card, speaks to deep intuition, emotion and flow. So it prompts you to think which of your story options feeds your creative soul the strongest. Alternatively, if you draw the Ace of Pentacles card, a card all about new beginnings in the material world. You might then make your decision based on which project has a better potential market viability.

What happens if you just can’t draw a connection to the meaning, or if what the card is downright wrong for you and your situation?

Say you draw that Ace of Pentacles.

You think about money and markets and material gains and it’s just not appropriate for how you feel about your writing or either of these stories. The card is wrong! The draw failed.

But it didn’t.

Instead, think of it as a reverse prompt.

The card prompted you to think about your decision in one way… To write for money over emotional creativity. And your reaction to that being so wrong has just taught you that no, you need to write for something other than material gain.

So, if you intuitively react negatively to a card and can’t see how it applies, consider why it doesn’t apply and find your answers in the opposite of what the card is suggesting.