Inside this post: How to get inspiration for writing? Oracle cards as a source for writing inspiration, including an example of related writing inspired by one card. Spiritual writing.
I sit in front of the blank document, or part of what I feel should be my outline, and I am stuck. No. It’s not writer’s block. It is usually me trying to be disciplined and write daily (or at least try to do something related to writing daily). It’s also me, sometimes plainly tired. I am also a homeschooling mom, and walk my days with some additional hats.
What is your source of inspiration?
What helps you when you get stuck?
When I get to these blank paper moments—white as only snow that just fell can be, soft, pure, and untouched—I try to reach for the stillness within. To bring forth that vision of snow-covered earth, no footsteps, no mud or melting. So bright that, like a mirror, it reflects the beauty within wishing to come into words.
It opens up my chest and always helps me breathe deeper. Like all of us, humans, when I breathe, I expand and when I expand, creativity washes over me, and the words start to flow.
Nature is the one source of inspiration that never disappoints. Sitting at a café, people watching, rarely inspires my writing. Going into the woods or between the fields surrounding our village always washes me with ideas, metaphors, and words.
Sometimes I write them only in my head. Sometimes, when they wish to become more, I write them down in my notebook in the serenity of the outdoors, or immediately when I come home.
Writing with the help of oracle cards?
Working with cards or photographs is nothing like going out into Mother Nature. But it has its advantages, as there are no distractions other than being inspired and putting it into words.
I use decks of cards that show images of nature. As an energy healer working with shamanic tools, I sometimes also use very powerful card decks offering not only images from nature but their archetypical theme or energy.
(1) I shuffle the card deck.
(2) I blow my intention into it. My intention is focused on the piece I am trying to write. Usually, an article for my blog, or more often, in-depth ideas and insights on the essence of spiritual parenting I learned from my NDE, now shared in The Promise We Made, and slowly gathering into additional following insights (and book) :).
(3) I pick one card. And whatever comes out, I start writing about it. Not in general. But in relation to the topic I am trying to deepen my writing about. I don’t look at the booklets offering various interpretations, even if I know they are wise ones. I stick with the image. Sometimes, it is the perspective within it. Other times, it is a very small detail or a color that catches my attention.
(4) I write one sentence. I write a few paragraphs. Whatever that card evokes.
Then, (5) I pick another one.
Once, I went through a whole card deck. I was working on an outline for a new project. I opened Scrivener (the writing program). Each card took me to a different chapter or section, and the blank white screen filled up with many words.
Does writing with oracle/nature cards really work?
It works for me. Will it work for you?
Using cards is very similar to writing prompts. But with one significant difference.
Images!
Images, especially images of nature, invoke not only our mental processes—thoughts and interpretations—but they also speak to us in a symbolic manner, penetrating the many limiting mental boundaries we all accumulate growing up, and that often constrict our writing.
Good card decks offer us this symbolism. Speaking to us not in ordinary words but with those of their archetypical meaning. Meanings that connect all humans in our hearts and invite a shared understanding of people worldwide.
An example of writing with nature cards
(Trying) to walk my talk, I will try to give an example by pulling a card right now, while writing.
I will use an oracle deck called Earth Magic. This is a deck I often use when working with children in my practice, my own daughters like using it, and I often recommend it to my clients.
I light a candle (not a must, but a recommended ritual) and shuffle it (yes, right now). I take a moment to think of the intention I wish to blow into it. I don’t want to blow in just the “writing about using cards for writing.” In a way, I wish for guidance on
(this blank space is intentional… I’m thinking)…
Eventually, I blow… “The intention to share this inspiring tool, connecting us to deeper layers of our beings, with others in a fruitful, inspiring way.” I spread the cards upside down and then randomly (or guided, depending on perspective) pick a card with an expanding image of a rainbow, clouds, and some clear sky.
… Writing is a process with many aspects. As people writing, we thrive on those moments when inspiration strikes, opening up like an enormous rainbow above us, speechless to the words that seem to stream so easily from our fingers and carry messages that we know came not only from us. That blessing of inspiration, knowledge, and co-creation with the divine. No matter how many words felt stuck within, like those little drops of rain crowded in a dark cloud that has yet to find where it chooses to pour them down to nourish the Earth. The rainbow invites a flow. The words rain down, the sun comes up, and suddenly we are inspired. Everything is possible. All colors dance together.
As writing people, we all share the sense of stillness, that of the clear sky, after the clouds released all the words to the now full page. A solid feeling. The task is done. There is now more space for a wide deep breath.
Final words
Using cards always enriches what I write. When I write even just a few words that offer me the blessings of nature, my whole day changes. As a mother, I am more patient, available, and present. When writing takes me to the mythical, as the use of oracle cards does, I, as we all do, walk closer to my essence, even if this is only for those short moments when the sky just cleared, as new dense clouds of words may soon show up asking to rain down onto our blank document or page in our notebook. Once some words have been spilled, I am already so much more centered that the next cloud of words can flow onto the page with much more grace.
Do you use cards when writing? Try it, and please share 🙂
Learn more about working with children and teens with Oracle Card decks and Nature Card decks, and on How to use oracle/nature card decks to craft healing stories.
Learn about my journey, and the insights it offers to parents in The Promise We Made: Three Universal Soul Promises We Made to Our Children 🙂
