9 Cards for Struggling to Create

Card readings are one of my favorite tools for gaining clarity when I feel stuck on a creative project, but don’t know why. Normally, I tend to keep my readings to myself. But I wanted to share this one because I thought I might not be the only one feeling this way.

I didn’t think my usual reading method of question-shuffle-pull-spread-interpret was going to help, so I opted for a more intuition-led approach.

After shuffling the 25-card deck, I spread them out in a wiggly line and waited. The first three cards I noticed were all tucked behind their neighbors, so I pulled them and set them aside. The next three I pulled called my attention. Two seemed to have more card showing than the rest, and one of the snakes on the back of the third looked like it was trying to catch my eye. I thought that was all, but I noticed something else. Pulling the previous cards had nudged a few others. Three more cards tilted in the same direction.

I ended up with nine cards to help me understand what was going on and why I couldn’t create.

What is Hidden

Since the first three cards I pulled appeared to be hiding, I read these as clues to what I wasn’t able to see or connect with right now:

• Divination, clairvoyance, spirit communication
• Energy, ambition, productivity
• Intelligence, deftness, inner depths

An apt description for my stuckness. For the last few weeks, I’ve been making great progress on multiple projects. My plans were clear and aligned with both my goals and the constraints motherhood puts on my time and energy for creative work. Everything was going well, and I felt more confident in my abilities than I had for a long time.

But I felt none of that this week. Hopefully, the rest of the reading could help me understand how I lost the connection and how to get it back.

What is Pulling

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of the cards that had caught my attention. I’d hoped they would help me see where my focus should be. Instead, these cards seemed to describe everything vying for my attention:

• Influence, rumor, persuasion
• Temptation, constraints, negativity
• Luck, confidence, grounding

I’ve been determined to stay informed on the many ongoing horrors dominating the news. My time on social media is split between consuming content that helps regulate my nervous system and sharing news and information we can’t afford to ignore.

Minnesota. The SAVE America Act. Rampant AI. The Eptstein Files. Environmental destruction. Pervasive moral decay calling itself manifest destiny.

So many things that feel beyond my ability to fight in any meaningful way.

Yet I believe art and creation are forms of resistance against all these things. I want that to be true. It helps me feel like I’m not being selfish when I work on my manuscript. It reminds me that the core purpose of the business I’ve been trying to start for the last few years is to amplify the voices and visibility of other creatives.

What is Needed

The last three cards all pointed in the same direction. These, hopefully, held some insight into what I could do to fix my weird feelings and get back to working on something:

• Withholding, setbacks, delays
• Wisdom, spirituality, dreams
• Divine assistance, cooperation, guidance

Instead of the solution I hoped for, I saw a reminder. It’s easy to feel like the struggle of working through a creative block is trivial compared to those whose lives and freedoms are being actively taken away. It’s easy to feel like drawing a few lines or drafting another 400 words does nothing to dismantle the ideas and systems preying on our society.

When we doubt the worth of our creative contributions to the world, we doubt our ability to contribute at all. The support of our fellow creatives doesn’t just keep us creating. It keeps us going.

So if you’re feeling stuck and unable to create right now, you’re not alone.