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There’s something about creative work that makes it feel almost alive. A novel sits half-finished, seeming to mock you from across the room. A business idea hums in the background of your thoughts, waiting. An art piece stares back, unfinished and somehow accusatory. We pour ourselves into these projects, and yet they develop their own character, their own momentum or lack thereof. The relationship between creator and creation is rarely straightforward.
I think that’s why tarot can be such a valuable tool for creative work. Not because the cards will tell you whether your project will succeed or predict some future outcome, but because they offer a structured way to examine what’s actually happening in that relationship. They give you permission to ask questions you might not otherwise voice. What am I bringing to this work right now? What is the work itself trying to become? Where are we stuck, and why?
This spread is designed specifically for that inquiry. Five positions, each one prompting you to look at a different aspect of your creative process. Perhaps you’re a writer wrestling with a manuscript, an artist returning to your practice after a break, or an entrepreneur building something from scratch. The medium doesn’t really matter. What matters is the willingness to sit with the questions and see what emerges.
Understanding the Spread’s Purpose
Before we look at the individual positions, it helps to understand what this spread is actually for. This isn’t about fortune telling or getting definitive answers about whether your project will be published, exhibited, or funded. Those outcomes depend on countless variables, many of which are entirely outside your control or the scope of what tarot can address.
Instead, think of this spread as a reflective mirror. Each card position invites you to pause and examine one facet of your creative experience. The value comes not from the cards themselves, but from the internal work they prompt. You might discover that you’ve been avoiding your project because of perfectionism rather than genuine disinterest. Or you might realize the obstacle isn’t time or resources, but an unexamined fear you’ve been carrying.
I find that creative blocks often have more to do with our relationship to the work than with the work itself. We get tangled up in expectations, comparisons, or stories we tell ourselves about what we should be doing. This spread creates space to untangle some of those threads. To look honestly at where you are, what you’re feeling, and what might need to shift.
Position One: The Project’s Current Energy
The first card explores what’s happening with the project itself right now. Not what you wish were happening or what should be happening, but the actual state of things. Is the project in a phase of expansion, contraction, transformation? Does it feel dormant, waiting for something? Or is there momentum you haven’t fully acknowledged?
When you draw this card, sit with whatever comes up. If you pull something like the Four of Swords, you might reflect on whether the project is in a necessary resting phase. Maybe it needs to sit quietly while other pieces of your life shift into place. If you draw something more active, like the Eight of Wands, you could consider whether the project has energy you haven’t been matching or utilizing.
The key here is to separate the project’s energy from your feelings about it. They’re related, obviously, but not identical. A project can have vibrant potential even when you feel disconnected from it. Or it might genuinely be in a fallow period, regardless of how much urgency you’re experiencing. This position asks you to look at the work itself with some objectivity, almost as if you’re observing something outside yourself.
What does this card suggest about the project’s natural rhythm right now? What phase of development might it actually be in, regardless of your timeline or expectations?
Position Two: My Current Energy Toward It
Now we turn the lens inward. This position is about your energy, your emotional and creative bandwidth, your current relationship to the work. Are you excited? Resentful? Avoidant? Overwhelmed? Curious but cautious?
This is where things often get uncomfortable in a good way. Perhaps you’ve been telling yourself you don’t have time, but the card that appears suggests something more like creative exhaustion or a need to replenish before diving back in. Or maybe you thought you were fully committed, but the card reflects ambivalence you haven’t wanted to face.
I think we often know these things on some level, but articulating them is different. Drawing a card and sitting with what it means in this context can give shape to vague feelings. The Seven of Cups might indicate you’re scattered across too many ideas. The Five of Pentacles could point to a sense of depletion or lack of support. The Ace of Wands might show you’re more ready and energized than you realized.
Whatever card appears, receive it without judgment. Your energy is what it is right now. That doesn’t make you a bad creator or mean the project is doomed. It’s just information. Useful information that can guide what you do next.
Where is your creative energy actually focused these days? What are you feeling when you think about this project, underneath any surface explanations?
Position Three: The Main Obstacle
Every creative project has obstacles. Some are practical, things like time, money, or skill gaps. Others are internal, those sticky psychological barriers that seem to regenerate no matter how many times you think you’ve worked through them.
This card position invites you to identify what’s actually blocking forward movement right now. Not every obstacle that exists, just the primary one. The thing that, if addressed or shifted, might allow everything else to flow more easily.
Sometimes the obstacle is obvious once you see it named. The Devil card might point to an unhealthy attachment or pattern you’re stuck in with this work. The Two of Swords could suggest avoidance or an unwillingness to make a necessary decision. The Ten of Wands often shows up when you’re carrying too much, trying to do everything yourself rather than delegating or simplifying.
Other times, the obstacle is more subtle. The High Priestess might indicate you’re trying to force action when the project actually needs more time in the intuitive, planning phase. The Emperor could suggest your structure has become too rigid, leaving no room for organic development.
Sit with this card and see what resonates. What story does it tell about what’s in your way? And perhaps more importantly, is this an obstacle that needs to be overcome, or one that’s teaching you something important about your creative process?
Position Four: How I Can Best Nurture This Project Now
This is my favorite position in the spread, probably because it’s inherently constructive. Instead of focusing on problems, it asks: what does this project need from you right now? What kind of attention, energy, or approach would serve it best in this moment?
The answer might surprise you. You may have assumed the project needs more hours, more discipline, more pushing. But the card that appears might suggest something gentler. The Star could indicate the project needs hope and vision more than immediate action. The Three of Cups might point toward collaboration or bringing more joy into the process. The Hermit could suggest stepping back for deeper contemplation before moving forward.
Or maybe you’ve been treating the project too delicately, and what it actually needs is structure and decisive action. The cards don’t prescribe a single approach for all creative work. They reflect back what might be most beneficial in your specific situation right now.
When you look at this card, think about it as advice from the wisest version of yourself. What would someone who deeply understood both you and this project recommend? What small shift in how you approach the work might make a meaningful difference?
Position Five: The Project’s Hidden Potential
The final position looks at what you might not be seeing yet. Every creative project contains possibilities that aren’t immediately visible. Seeds that haven’t sprouted. Directions you haven’t considered. Skills you’ll develop in the process that you can’t anticipate at the beginning.
This card isn’t predicting success or guaranteeing outcomes. Rather, it’s pointing toward latent qualities or opportunities within the work itself. Think of it as turning the project slightly and catching the light from a different angle. What becomes visible that wasn’t before?
The Nine of Pentacles might suggest this project has the potential to create genuine independence or mastery in your life. The Six of Cups could point to unexpected connections with your past work or childhood dreams. The Wheel of Fortune might indicate the project contains more flexibility and possibility than you’ve been allowing yourself to imagine.
Sometimes this card shows you something entirely unexpected. You started the project thinking it was about one thing, but the hidden potential points somewhere completely different. That’s okay. Actually, that’s often how creative work unfolds. We begin with one intention and discover we’re making something else entirely.
What might this project become if you remain open? What could it teach you? What doors might it open, not necessarily in terms of external success, but in your own growth and understanding?
Working With Your Reading
After you’ve drawn all five cards and sat with each position, take a moment to look at them together. Do you notice any patterns? Cards from the same suit clustering in particular positions? Major Arcana appearing where you expected Minor, or vice versa?
Write down your initial impressions before you start analyzing too deeply. What was your gut response to each card? Which position felt most charged or uncomfortable? Where did you feel resistance or relief?
Then come back to the reading later. Tomorrow, perhaps, or next week. Creative projects unfold over time, and so do insights from tarot. You might notice something in a card that didn’t register initially. Or the reading as a whole might make more sense after you’ve spent a few days working with your project in light of what came up.
The goal isn’t to follow the reading like instructions. It’s to use it as a catalyst for deeper awareness of where you are and what might serve you. Let it inform your choices without dictating them.
Your relationship with your creative work is ongoing, shifting, alive. This spread is simply one tool for checking in with that relationship, for asking questions that matter, for creating space to listen to what emerges. The real work, as always, is yours to do.
