365 Tarot Spreads: Revealing the Magic in Each Day - Sasha Graham 2014

Failure and Imagination Spread

On This Day

Rowling conceived of the idea for the Harry Potter series while riding on a train from Manchester to London. Rowling lived in poverty until the first Harry Potter book was released.

British novelist J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, was born today in 1965.

Summation of Spread

The Five of Cups is the failure and imagination card. The spilled cups represent unfulfilled hopes and dreams. A bridge looms in the background, his exit point to salvation and reinvention. The Five of Cups stands as a reminder not to wallow too long in sadness. The two remaining cups suggest that not all is lost.

Are you afraid of failure? It may be just the very thing provoking you forward. This spread is inspired by the commencement speech J. K. Rowling gave to Harvard’s 2008 graduating class. In her speech, she mentioned the essential importance of failure as a learning tool. Rowling claims failure facilitates change, forces creativity, and fuels determination.

Cast Your Cards

The Failure and Imagination Spread’s cards are cast in two groups, with a final independent card.

1. How does failure strip away the inessential?

2. How is rock bottom a solid foundation to build upon?

3. How does my imagination transform me?

4. What am I capable of?

5. How does my imagination allow me to understand

the lives of others?

6. How do I touch other people’s lives by simply existing?

7. How can I empower those who are powerless?

8. How can I imagine better?

9. Final word.