Month: April 2023

This is a basic practice to get started with Card Play. Decks with figures or entities (people, characters, goddesses, mythological beings, fairies, unicorns, animals, dragons, etc) work best. This is a weekly practice to choose a card to represent a kind of ‘guide’ for the upcoming week. Below I will describe steps you can take, but feel free to modify and make this your own unique practice.

1. Take a moment to close your eyes or softly gaze down and imagine your upcoming week: the challenges, events, and situations you anticipate as well as your broader overall life context. Think about what you could use support with.
2. Choose a card by either: a. Shuffling and randomly choosing a card or b. Specifically looking through the deck and choosing a card you feel drawn to. 
3. Reflect on your interpretations and meanings of the card. If you like, read the card’s meaning in an accompanying guidebook (if available) and/or research elements of the card using a symbols or a dream dictionary. Synthesize and integrate with your own meanings. This is ultimately a creative and personal process.
4. Place this card somewhere you will see it during the week.
5. Optional: during the week further explore this card using additional Card Play techniques (such as ‘Supportive Presence’) which I will describe in future blog posts.
6. Optional: When you choose a new card for another week, develop a ritual of expressing gratitude for/thanking the entity on the card for its guidance and support and ‘release’ it back into the deck.

When working with images in Card Play, the intent is to explore the deeper dynamics being portrayed rather than the literal interpretation. What that means is, a picture of a woman and a house is not just a picture of a woman and a house. How does the woman relate to the house? What does a house symbolize to you? How does the depiction of a house in the image relate to your idea of a home? What are your associations to women and homes? Maybe a house represents boundaries, or safety, or any number of concepts or memories. If the house in the image is destroyed in some way, how does that reflect boundaries and safety? Maybe it’s a picture about curiosity. Go beneath the surface of the image and look for the deeper, underlying dynamics. Notice if there are power differentials. Think symbolically and associate.

Pay attention to what images evoke in you. Notice what emotions arise when you see an image. Be curious, especially if you feel an aversion to a particular card. This may actually be the card for you to explore!

Pay attention to the feelings expressed in the image. You may note a subtle sense of fear or panic, joy or warmth conveyed in an image. If these reflect experiences you have in your life, that image may be worth exploring.

Symbols and Associations

Symbols

Look for the symbolic meaning in the images. Symbols can represent complex ideas or concepts. How would you visually convey ‘forgiveness’? You would need to represent it somehow, communicating it largely without words. How I envision forgiveness in a given situation may be different than you. If we were both working with forgiveness, we might choose different image cards.

Language is inherently symbolic. I can write a sentence about a beautiful magic apple. But there is no apple here; I merely represented the idea of it with the word ‘apple’. Image cards represent abstract concepts through visual symbols. This is what I mean when I encourage you to think symbolically. Your ex-partner will not be explicitly represented in the image (unless you are using photographs) but they can be represented symbolically in various ways. For example, the relationship dynamic you two had might be evident in an image.

Associations

Disneyland. 

What came up for you when you read that word? A memory? An eyeroll? Thoughts about money? Thoughts about a vacation in general? 

That’s your process of association. You and I likely have different associations when we see the word ‘Disneyland’ which, again, is a symbol for a place and, really, an entire experience. We can symbolize an entire experience along with hopes and dreams in one word: Disneyland. It’s just a string of letters but that combination represents something to many people.

Both images and words in card play function in the same way: they evoke personal associations. You have those associations based on your life experiences. A Talmudic idea about dream analysis I’ve seen attributed to the writer Anais Nin is that “we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” (Amien, 2017). How we see things reflects who we are back to us, if we are willing to look.

Sometimes associations are helpful and sometimes they are not helpful. Maybe they once were useful for you but now they hold you back. Being mindful of your associations can help you break the spell of those that do not serve you.

Randomness

An optional way to consider the ‘randomness’ of choosing cards is that of synchronicity. The concept of synchronicity was introduced by the very famous psychologist Carl Jung. It is a spiritual idea describing unrelated events that are meaningfully connected. In the context of Card Play, this means the cards you draw seemingly randomly are not random at all. The cards you draw at the time you draw them are the correct cards for you in that moment. There is an element of meaning in what seems to be a random process.

Let’s step back and think about this. Do we live in a random and chaotic universe? While systems move towards entropy (if we did not clean our homes they would rapidly devolve into a mess of mud and clutter) there is an overall elegance and order to the universe. Although I am not a physicist, quantum entanglement (which has been dismissed by Albery Einstein as ‘spooky action at a distance’) posits that “if you observe a particle in one place, another particle—even one light-years away—will instantly change its properties, as if the two are connected by a mysterious communication channel” (Popkin, 2018).

You are welcome to integrate this concept of synchronicity into how you derive meaning from the seeming randomness of card selection if it resonates with you.

References

Amien, D. (2017, Aug. 4). ‘We do not see things as they are’. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2017-08-05.html

Popkin, G. (2018, April 25). Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance spotted in objects almost big enough to see. Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/einstein-s-spooky-action-distance-spotted-objects-almost-big-enough-see

The central prop used in Card Play are decks of cards with evocative visual imagery. There are many, many, many different card decks available. I will describe the types of decks and props most suitable for Card Play. The most important element of a Card Play deck is the imagery. 

Tarot Cards

Tarot cards are perhaps what most people think of when they think of an image-based deck of cards. While the typical intended use of tarot cards is as a divination system unto itself, they function differently in Card Play. The focus is on the imagery of the card and what it elicits in you. A benefit of using tarot cards is most tarot decks come with a guide book that describes the meanings of the cards. The cards generally reflect some aspect of the human experience, each card a kind of facet of a larger crystal. You can use these ‘meanings’ as ‘points of view’, almost like from another person or part of yourself, to explicitly focus on a certain aspect of your situation or experience. However, before you explore the meanings of your cards using a guide book or other resource, first explore your personal associations and meanings to the imagery of the tarot card. 

Tarot cards in Card Play can be used represent characters or entities, since many tarot decks often portray figures like people or animals.

There are many tarot decks available in a variety of themes.

Oracle Decks

Oracle decks are similar to tarot cards. Oracle cards often have concepts written on them, in addition to imagery. In Card Play, sometimes you can use the oracle card as a Concept Card (described below). When you are choosing an oracle card to work with in Card Play, you may be choosing it partly because of the image and partly because of the concept words on it. For this reason, at times you may prefer to work with oracle cards as opposed to purely image-based cards.

Some oracle decks are centered on entities such as fictional beings or creatures (real and fantastical). These can be useful when exploring characters, inner roles, and parts of self in Card Play.

Archetypes or Symbols Decks

Decks that focus on archetypes are useful when exploring characters, parts of self, and inner roles. Although they may have images on them, the archetype, character, or role portrayed is the most salient aspect in terms of Card Play. These can function as Character Concepts, described below.

Affirmation Decks

These can be useful additions to Card Play to help explore different and supportive perspectives. These can function as helpful and supportive thoughts or perspectives you may want to incorporate into your daily life.

Emotion Decks

These can be helpful to assist deepening understanding of emotional experiences explored in Card Play.

Instead of or in addition to emotion cards, a ‘feelings wheel’ or a feelings list can help you identify subtleties among emotional experiences. Here is a free helpful list from the Hofmann Institute

Image-Only Decks

Imagery used in card play should be evocative. Unlike tarot and oracle cards, image-only cards rely solely on your interpretations and associations, making them a potent element in Card Play. There are decks available to purchase. However, you can also make your own using photographs and other images. You can be creative in terms of how you obtain your image decks. This process of seeking cards from different sources supports developing a creative skill of seeing different ways to use an object. When you see something visual, consider whether or not it will be useful for you in Card Play. Other ideas: postcards, greeting cards, games…any large collection of evocative images in card form.

Psychotherapy Decks

Often written by mental health professionals, these present specific skills from psychotherapy modalities. These can be used to help determine what to do in a given situation explored through Card Play. These can inspire practices for daily life.

Intention Decks

Similar to Affirmation Decks, these are often small cards and consist of a single word, typically evocative. Use these as Concept Cards due to the evocative nature of the words.

Self Care Decks

Similar to psychotherapy decks but not necessarily written by a mental health professional. Nevertheless, these can often point to concrete actions that can be taken to support overall wellbeing.

Question Decks

Some decks have lots of introspective questions. Answers can be explored using Card Play processes. As described above, Card Play facilitates exploration from a variety of perspectives.

Concept Cards

Concept Cards aren’t random words. They are evocative. There are various decks available, such as for creating stories or poems, that can function as Concept Cards. You can create your own using paint chips from hardware stores. Paint chips can be helpful when coming up with titles for your Card Play. I’ve created four sets of different Concept Cards useful in Card Play, putting careful thought and intention in choosing the words. Concept Cards are primarily words. 

Character Concepts: a collection of characters and roles useful in exploring internal roles and parts of self. Often in Card Play these are externalized as characters. Often archetypal.

Location Concepts: A collection of various settings intended to augment and deepen exploration. Can function as metaphors.

Healing Concepts: A collection of various objects that symbolize strengths and resources. Function symbolically and as metaphors.

Concepts Cards: A fundamental Concept Card is added to an image card to direct a new meaning or interpretation.

Props That Are Not Cards

I mention the below items to encourage outside the box thinking when approaching Card Play. In a sense, Card Play creates an ephemeral collage.

Word Tiles 

I have a large container of ‘word tiles’ I purchased at Target. Although not evocative in and of itself, I might pull a tile and associate it to something else. These are not nearly as useful as Concept Cards but they can function as props and therefore are an option.

Similar to word tiles are word beads, which I have purchased at Michael’s craft store. With words like, ‘wish’ and ‘dream’ these are slightly more evocative than the tiles.

Story Prompt Flip Book

I bough this at a teacher’s supply store. It has creative prompts for stories. This or something similar can be used as prompts for Card Tricks.

Story Cubes

Symbolic in nature, these can function like Concept Cards to add an idea/concept in Card Play or present some kind of strength or helping factor to a character. The idea is for you to free associate with the symbol; what does it mean to you in the context of your current Card Play process?

There are also cubes with words on them that can function as Concept Cards.

Bag of Tricks

I created this after learning of a similar idea in one of my classes in graduate school. Essentially, I curated a collection of small symbolic objects. Like Concept Cards, these represent concepts, ideas, people, or strengths/resources.

I became fascinated with the myriad creative uses of various types of card decks during my graduate drama therapy program. Cards with imagery on them (like tarot and oracle cards) can be especially potent tools to explore the dynamics of who you are and the wide array of options available in any given moment. Imagery cards can be combined with other types of decks and props to augment self exploration in processes that can ultimately be distilled into action.

Working with image cards to explore the depths of one’s human experience facilitates appreciation for the truth behind that common saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. Art has a potent power to unleash emotion. We look at art and we feel something: admiration, awe, fear, uncertainty, disgust. Art can reflect our greatest accomplishments and strengths or the darkest shadows we’d rather not acknowledge. We can see our story mirrored in someone else’s. Art can unveil truths. These can be inspiring, inconvenient, ugly, profound, motivating, encouraging, frightening. They can be catalysts for change, a compass, a call to action. 

Card Play uses visual prompts, typically in the form of imagery cards, to help you explore the nuances and complexities of your life. Bring your hopes and dreams, your worries and fears, your thoughts and questions, to the cards. Unlike a divination process like tarot and oracle, the process of Card Play is intended to assist you in discovering your own path and your own truth. While there are many processes embedded in Card Play, two prominent ones are improvisation and collage.

If you have ever seen an improv show, you will know that the performers frequently ask for suggestions from the audience. The performers, though many are brilliant and well-trained, use prompts from an external source (the audience). They use these prompts to trigger associations, memories, and related ideas. The props in Card Play function similarly. The cards, words, images, and objects are all intended to help you associate your own meanings and connect the dots in ways that are relevant to you.

The other key creative element is collage. A collage integrates bits and pieces from different sources, ultimately creating something wholly unique. Similarly, I include multiple types of card decks as well as objects in Card Play. We can draw on and integrate inspiration from a variety of sources.