creative journaling with cards

If you knew me personally, you would come to find out pretty quickly that I have a great passion for webtoons, manhwa, manhua, and anything in between. My favourite genre is the isekai/reincarnation cliché: a modern-day character tragically dies in a car accident and her soul transmigrates into a trashy romance novel with all the memories of her previous life. During most of the story, the reincarnated female lead acknowledges the existence of everyone else as mere characters and even talks to “god,” the creator of the novel. Yes, we’re totally breaking the fourth wall here. There are other genres I enjoy like sci fi, school drama, or josei but isekai is definitely the one I’ve read the most.

And perhaps because this guilty pleasure of mine has consumed (way too many) hours of my productivity, I’ve come to perceive everyday life as a webtoon as well: gossips, accusations, gaslighting, betrayal, narcissism,.. you name it, I’ve seen it. Some situations are so unbelievable that you’d think someone made them up, and I always felt that I had enough content to write my own soap opera. Interestingly, a lot of the isekai stories I’ve read are set in tarot-inspired environments: there’s typically at least one kingdom (though better plotlines have a few), the female lead is engaged to the knightly prince but tries to break free, or she teams up with the hermit-like head mage of the magic tower to seek revenge… We could call these ‘historical webtoons’ and there are many variations on this same theme.

Putting all of this together, I decided to try a new journaling technique that I will name ‘creative journaling.’ As I’ve mentioned before, I consider myself a journaler (and not a writer). I like to record bits and pieces of my days with no end goal or finished product. Creative journaling is therefore the process of transposing real life into a fictionalised world. In lieu of describing something that happens, I build an entire world for a story and base its characters and events on what I observe and witness. Obviously, as the goddess of this world, I take creative liberties in how I depict characters and situations. And I use different journaling techniques to bring it all back to life. Sounds confusing? I did tell you we’re breaking the fourth wall.

Here’s a different way to explain it: Let’s say I recently had a particularly unpleasant conversation with someone. Instead of ranting about it, I can cherry pick the best parts (sarcasm alert) and insert them into a fictional story. I then use different journaling techniques to record (rewrite) this conversation. In this example, maybe the mischievous male lead is retelling this conversation in a letter that he intends for his mother-in-law. There’s no narration that describes the entire story between the two characters; the only thing that exists is the unsent letter. What I’m producing is the artefact. A different example: the villainess writes down this conversation in her diary before casting a circle to summon a magical beast. I’m journaling from this character’s point of view. That’s creative journaling.

How did this one come about, you ask? Well there was a situation recently that truly resembled the plot of a webtoon. It involved an insufferable princess and a whole lot of contrivances. It took me quite some time to recover emotionally, and every now and then I continue to feel the aftermath. But rather than allowing myself to be consumed by this, I decided that I wanted to channel the energy into something creative. There’s no point in ruminating (and seething) on a situation I cannot change. (Wouldn’t playing with cards make a better pastime?) That precise situation was actually what motivated me to try this new journaling technique. I found the circumstances absolutely distasteful, yet still managed to turn it around and make the most out of it. Look at me adulting, hey.

Dolores, princess of geese

Dolores (“pain” in Spanish, an actual first name) is based on someone from my circle. I have an idea of the kind of person she is, but I wanted to ask the cards for their opinion nonetheless. I pulled the star and the heart from a Lenormand deck. (My disclaimer here is that I’m a Lenormand newbie and my associations are based on intuition rather than tradition.) To me, star + heart signify a person that loves to shine, an attention seeker. (A very precise description of Dolores, indeed.) With these cards alone I can already journal about an event that has passed, but I wanted to give Dolores more feathers and bones. So I flipped through the Tarot de la nuit to look for cards that would best illustrate this character. My focus was on what I saw, not what the cards mean. From there, I tried to journal a letter that would befit this character. (Nene is a type of goose from Hawaii..)

To my Nene, 

An incident of utmost vexation occurred since I last wrote to you, dearest goose sister. "That Peacock" willfully planned to ruin the most important day that was to be my debutante ball. I cannot begin to express how mortified we all are by his actions and insensible nature. I do not understand his purpose in disturbing this day that was meant for me and me alone. I was to shine under the gaze of all, pampered in white and fortune. And yet, this terrible fowl jested his way into the ballroom at the last moment, disregarding all sense of decorum and propriety. Dare I even say he looked haughty and proud, uncaring for the sentiments of those around him. How could he be so villainous, dear Nene? My mother is beyond herself. Please come quickly to console me of his insolence. I shall await your return with impatience. 

Yours etc.

Do you often see these headlines in the newspaper of your mind: self-victimisation, blaming, unfair comparisons, fear of lack, unworthiness, and abandonment, etc.? Ultimately, we see the world as we are. But something unexpected came about with creative journaling. I realised that building characters out of people actually brings back their three-dimensionality. (Unless my characters are flat—and that’s where tarot comes in to remedy the issue.) For instance, at work I frequently deal with emails that deserve a raised eyebrow or two. I find pulling cards to understand the “character” behind the email quite helpful; it’s a reminder that there really is a person on the other side.

One of my favourite yoga teachers loves to teach that the first thought is innocent. It’s from the second thought onward that we truly step into our path as yogis. My first thought pertaining to this one particular email I received from Atalanta was something along the lines of wow this is so entitled… But I wanted to contain my agitation so I decided to pull some cards. And presto, like snapping fingers, I immediately altered my perspective. In general, the Knight of Cups has the ability to handle situations quite graciously, but in this case his shadowy qualities are coming to the surface. He’s convinced he’s fulfilling his life purpose of carrying the grail when he looks at Judgment, but his horse thinks he has taking on way too much. (These emails are usually from individuals who are overworked and overstressed..) Atalanta believes in the importance of her work and she can’t be bothered with the small stuff:

I have five different cases to work through and I'm on a tight deadline. I long to spend more time with my partner, but it's the end of the fiscal year and we need to close these cases to meet our target. I'm running out of steam, I've been working overtime for the past two months. There's a meeting in five minutes and I so don't feel like it... Some firms are starting to restructure, X company is already letting go of 3,000 employees. I've been here for 18 years, there's no way they would fire me... Right? What would I do? And what if... What is this new email? Why is this person requesting this? This is silly, I don't have time for this. Seriously, just do it yourself...    

One thing I’ll say with creative journaling is this: it can certainly help to recognise the humanness in all of us. Everyone is doing their version of what is best. Of course we can’t use this to excuse poor behaviour, but since we can only control ourselves (and not the others), at least we can choose to respond with kindness. (It wouldn’t really help anyone to reply with an equally rude email, right?) Creative journaling allows me more time to arrive, to soften my vata-pitta tendencies. At this time, it’s not a fully defined journaling technique; I’m still trying to perfect some aspects and develop others. But it’s definitely been a lot of fun!

Finally, you may have heard of Tarot for Writers (Corinne Kenner). It’s a book intended to help writers understand the tarot and use it as inspiration for storytelling. It contains some really great suggestions for world building & character creation. In addition to that resource, other journaling techniques I like to experiment with are making lists, planning or visualising the future, dream journaling, writing in the second person, poetry in the margins, free writing, questions and answers, unsent letters, book impressions, and nature & garden journaling.. What’s your favourite journaling technique?

🌘 ♏

References:
For you, Dive Tarot (Muculte)
Tarot de la nuit (Alexandra V. Bach, Carole-Anne Eschenazi)
Lenormand de la nuit (Alexandra V. Bach, Carole-Anne Eschenazi)
Dreaming Way Tarot (Rome Choi, Kwon Shina)
see Corrine Kenner’s book Tarot for Writers
and the Journals of Sylvia Plath for journaling inspiration
Can you tell I’m a fan of Jane Austen?