The symbolic language of tarot is intensely powerful, and it lends itself readily to spellcraft. Here is a step-by-step guide to using tarot symbolism in writing creative and original spells for any purpose.

1. Identify Your Desired Outcome
Magic begins with knowing what you want. If we cast nebulous spells, we get nebulous results, and we often don't end up with what we were really hoping for. It's important to set a clear outcome as the goal for your spell so that you can identify whether your magic has succeeded. My general rule is to use SMART goals for magic; that is to say, goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timed.

Specificity is important because it gets you what you actually want. Just saying, "I want love" could mean a thousand different things, but saying, "I want a long-term relationship with a dependable man my age" is much clearer. You want to have some way to measure the success or failure of the goal—what counts as a positive outcome and what counts as a misfire? The goal should be actionable in the sense that you can apply magical pressure to make it happen (see step 2). It needs to be grounded in reality, because magic can't do the impossible; "I want Brad Pitt to fall madly in love with me" is probably asking too much. And finally, you want a sense of time-sensitivity. When does the spell need to be accomplished by? If you can meet all five of these conditions, you've laid a solid foundation for your spellwork.

2. Identify Pressure Points
Having a desired outcome is all well and good, but what are you going to do about it? Magic needs to somewhere to go, and it always takes the path of least resistance. If you want to meet a new lover, fine—but how? Are you enchanting your dating app to get more matches? Are you going to try to meet someone at a bar? It's important to think not just about the final outcome, but about how you want your magic to achieve that outcome.

As you consider the goal you've set for yourself, what is the simplest way to achieve it? What magical action is going to get you there? Ideally, you want something that requires minimal deviation from how the world currently is. Remember, magic follows the path of least resistance. A spell to increase the likelihood of an online match is going to be much easier than a spell to make the perfect lover's car break down spontaneously outside of your home. Ask yourself: If I could change just one thing to achieve my goal, what would it be? Once you've answered that question, you have the focus of your spell.

3. Find an Appropriate Card
Once you know what you're trying to do and how you're going to do it, you'll want to choose a tarot card that reflects themes appropriate to the work at hand. For a love spell, something like the Two of Cups would be an obvious choice, but you may wish to choose something tailored to your specific outcome and pressure points. If you're looking for a man whose defining feature is his dependability, you might choose the Knight of Pentacles. Think about the themes associated with each of the 78 tarot cards and try to find the card that most closely aligns with the magical change you're trying to achieve.

More complex magical goals may require involving multiple cards, but I generally discourage that approach. The simpler your magic is, the more room it has to breathe. If you can, try to choose just one card that encapsulates your magical work. Don't overcomplicate things lest you lose the plot.

4. Extract Relevant Symbols
The language of magic is symbolism, and in order to convert a tarot card into a spell, you need to identify its key symbols. You've chosen your card for its specific themes, and now it's time to extract the images that contribute to those themes. In some cases, the imagery will be obvious. For the Two of Cups, for example, you would want to structure a spell around the symbol of two cups. For the Knight of Pentacles, you might note his horse and his pentacle.

In other cases, the symbolism might be more abstract. This will depend largely on the deck that you're working with, as each artist brings their own perspective to the tarot and adds in symbols and images that are personally meaningful to them. Some cards, like many of the Major Arcana, may require you to reflect deeply about which elements of their visual composition are the most thematically significant. Try to identify just a few key images, because these are the ones you're going to incorporate into your spell—and as noted in the previous step, we don't want to make things too complicated.

5. Convert Symbolism to Action
Once you have your symbols, you'll want to figure out what to do with them. Magic isn't inert; it's an active process whereby we enact the change we want to see in the world. You don't just choose symbols and let them sit there doing nothing. Instead, you take your symbols and apply them in a ritualistic action that recreates your desired outcome.

If you chose two cups for the Two of Cups, you might fill one of them with a sweet drink and then pour that drink back and forth between the two, producing sweetness and reciprocity. If you chose a horse and pentacle for the Knight of Pentacles, you might inscribe a pentacle on a chess knight and carry it with you to show steadfastness and devotion. Whatever your core images are, you want to find a physical activity that highlights why you have chosen them and that creates a microcosmic representation of the effect you are trying to have on the world.

6. Write Your Script
A spell is a kind of ritual. It's a set of purposeful, symbolic actions that recreate the universe in miniature, identify the objects of magical manipulation, and then act out a process of change affecting those objects. Having identified the action you're going to take, it's now time to write a script that frames that action and makes it magically significant. Spells can be highly ceremonial or stripped-down depending on your personal taste, but there are a few core elements that are always useful to have. To start with, you'll want to write a declaration of purpose to formally announce the work you are about to do. Once that's done, you'll want to ritually declare the nature of any objects with which you're working, explaining what they represent. If you have a set of cups for your Two of Cups spell, you would say something like, "These cups are myself and my lover. As this drink flows between them, so love flows between us." For your Knight of Pentacles, you could say, "This horse is steadfast and true. As it remains with me, so shall an enduring love find me." The important thing here is to consciously articulate the nature of the symbolic action you have planned.

From there, you can complete your pre-determined symbolic actions. Close the spell with a formal declaration of success, something like, "My will is achieved. It is done!" You can add components to the spell if you like, including activities like singing or incantation, but these are the main elements that you really shouldn't do without.

7. Perform the Spell
When all is said and done, all that remains is for you to cast the spell you've written! There is so much flexibility available with tarot symbolism, and you will never run out of new and creative ways to bring tarot imagery into your magic.