201: Tarot to understand a book (creative analysis of Love By Design)

Did you know you can use Tarot to understand books? It’s time for another “book insights” Tarot reading, in which we do a creative analysis of a book using Tarot cards! The question: “What does Love By Design [my most recent romance novella] want to teach you, or tell you, as the reader of this story?” This was a 5-card spread: 

1. Overall message that this book (Love By Design) wants readers to know: Ace of Swords. 
2. Hidden teachings from this book that you might have overlooked: Ace of Wands. 
3. What the setting of this book can tell you about your own strengths: Knight of Cups. 
4. The most important characteristic or trait of the main character, Ripley, to pay attention to: XIX The Sun. 
5. How you can embody the lessons of this book into your own life: XV The Devil. 

Tune in to the full episode of this Author Diary Entries podcast to get a full interpretation of each card as it pertains to Love By Design.

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• Love By Design (Book 2 in the Small Town Stilettos contemporary romance duology): https://books2read.com/u/bOVMXA 
• More “why choose” romance novels — the Polyamorous Passions series and Small Town Stilettos: SaganMorrow.com/books 
• Connect with Sagan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saganlives 
• Connect with Sagan on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@saganlives 
• Episode 193 of this Author Diary Entries podcast: LIVE Tarot reading — what this “why choose” novel (Kiss Me) wants you to know: https://www.buzzsprout.com/400015/episodes/19211180-193-live-tarot-reading-what-this-why-choose-novel-kiss-me-wants-you-to-know 
• Tune in to ALL episodes of the Author Diary Entries podcast at https://saganmorrow.com/podcast 
• Leave a voicemail for the author after tuning in to this episode, to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and comments: https://www.buzzsprout.com/400015/fan_mail 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

You’re listening to the Author Diary Entries podcast. I’m your host, Sagan Morrow, and this is episode #201. Access the show notes and transcript of this episode at SaganMorrow.com/podcast. 

Today we are doing another “book insights” Tarot reading! We did this live back in May of this year for a different book I wrote, Kiss Me (you can tune in to Episode 193 of this Author Diary Entries episode to get that Tarot reading).

…so for THIS episode, I altered the layout of the spread and the questions slightly, but I did a Tarot reading for my most recent romance novella, Love By Design. The overall question I asked for this 5-card reading was: “What does Love By Design want to teach you, or tell you, as the reader of this story?”

But first, be sure to grab a copy of this book, Love by Design, at your favourite e-bookstore, or visit SaganMorrow.com/books. Happy reading! 

Now let’s get to the results of that Tarot reading I did for this romance novella…

Card 1: Overall message that this book wants readers to know: Ace of Swords. 

You hold the key! You are immensely powerful, and you have all that you need at your fingertips. 

This card also reminds you to have the courage to be yourself and cut through to the truth of who you are and what you stand for. 

I think there’s an element of trusting in yourself: This isn’t just about taking up space and being unapologetically yourself and experiencing breakthroughs and new ideas, but it’s also about trusting yourself to hold all of that and do all of that. 

How will you wield your sword? In the Ace of Swords, it isn’t being used as a weapon; it’s depicted as a symbol. And there’s a lot of power in symbols. 

Card 2: Hidden teachings from Love By Design that you might have overlooked: Ace of Wands. 

Yes, another Ace! The Ace of Wands reminds us that your imagination is one of your most powerful assets — stop overlooking it!

What I love about the Ace of Wands is that it is representative of “making your heart happy” — pursuing your passions and taking action on your dreams. 

So if we think of the Ace of Swords, as the overall message that Love By Design wants you to know, as being about self trust and courage, then we can think of the Ace of Wands as being about following your heart. When you have that trust and courage, it’s a whole lot easier to follow your heart’s desires.

Card 3: What the setting of this book can tell you about your own strengths: Knight of Cups. 

You can withstand the storms. Accepting outside help, and knowing your own limits, can be strengths!

Another piece that I think we can also glean from this card, as it relates to Love By Design, is that the lake is frozen in Love By Design. It’s winter time, it’s cold, there’s snow on the ground. Water, and Cups, represent emotion in the Tarot — we see here with the Knight of Cups that he’s approaching a flowering river. If we envision the setting with its frozen water slowly thawing as the story goes on (since the book starts in January and ends a few months later), we can look at this as the strength of *allowing yourself to connect more with your emotions,* in healthy ways. 

Ripley gets lost in the woods, and she’s freezing when Logan finds her. He warms her up and helps her: rather than succumbing to our emotions or getting stuck in them, we are stronger when we let people in!

Card 4: The most important characteristic or trait of the main character, Ripley, to pay attention to: XIX The Sun.

Joyful optimism and an eagerness to be part of everything! 

There’s definitely a “look on the bright side of life” approach here, along with an appreciation for the simple things, the little moments, the everyday experiences.

Something that is so sweet in Love By Design is that even though Ripley is instantly attracted to Logan, we see her falling in love with — and him with her — over the course of the book through who they each ARE, as well as their actions. There aren’t big sweeping grand romantic gestures; it’s all the little things that add up and show how much they care about each other and think about each other. There’s a thoughtfulness and a joy in simply BEING together. So there’s a simplicity in the presence of this card, and an appreciation and joy in LIFE that Ripley has.

Card 5: How you can embody the lessons of this book, Love By Design, into your own life: XV The Devil. 

A) Be mindful of temptations, and B) Watch for the prison you create for yourself! Just because you’re taught that something “isn’t done,” doesn’t necessarily make it “wrong.” 

This card also connects back to this recurring theme in Love By Design in which everyone around Ripley is skeptical about her moving to Fort Edwin. They’re all wondering why she’d want to move there. And if she’d listened to any of them, she probably wouldn’t have moved there! So this really goes back to the Ace of Swords, and that concept of trusting in yourself. Here, with The Devil, we’re reminded not to get caught up in other people’s expectations of us; we’re cautioned against giving ourselves up. 

Overall impressions of this Tarot reading…

I’m astonished that not only did we get two Aces, but we also had to Major Arcana cards (and a court card!). This is an important reading! I think it really speaks to the power of Love By Design. It’s the best book I’ve written so far, and we SEE that in this spread. 

I might play around a bit more with this particular Tarot spread — I changed the layout so it’s now a simple v-shape, and I changed the questions a bit since last time; I might alter them again before I do another one of these Tarot readings — but overall I enjoy getting the chance to hear what my books want us, as readers of these books, to take away from them!

That’s a wrap on today’s episode! If you are enjoying the Author Diary Entries podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review it on your favourite podcast platform — it means so, so much to me when you do that.

Thanks so much — I appreciate you!