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How To Find Your Tarot Birth Card

When working with the Tarot and building your relationship with the archetypes, a really nice way to connect deeper and use as an anchor point for further introspection is calculating your Tarot birth card! This is done in a similar way to figuring out your numerological life path number, but in a way that brings about two Major Arcana cards for you to use as guidance.

Read on below for how to find your Tarot birth cards:

How To Find Your Birth tarot Card

Calculating your own personal Tarot cards is a really great way to connect deeper to the medicine and wisdom of the cards, and to use as a jumping off point for inner introspection and exploration about your personality and life path (especially if you don’t immediately vibe with yours)! It works on the Numerology of your birthday and usually condenses into a double digit number first and then a single digit number second (sometimes it will include a triple digit number), these two will comprise your so-called birth card and your “teacher” or helper card.

Similar in the way that there is a saying that the solutions to the 9s is in the 3s (of the Minor Arcana), your birthday card has another card that can help you bring to life or live out your birth card. For example, if you have Strength as your birthday card (number 8), this would make The Star card (number 17; 1 + 7 = 8) your teacher card. This can look like expressing your inner strength in a hopeful way (The Star). Finding your own meaning within the messages is where the magic really begins to happen.

Here’s how to calculate your personal birth Tarot card and some combination significations below:

How to Calculate Your Tarot Birth Card

What you will need to do is breakdown your birth date into four double digits such as MM DD YY YY. For example, if you were born on November 6th 1989, you would use 11 06 19 89. Then you will add these four pairs together, continuing if until you get single digits, like so:

11 + 06 + 19 + 89 = 125

If the sum of your birthday comes to three digits like above, you add the first two digits to the last one. So in this case it would 12 + 5 = 17. This makes The Star card one birth card and the Strength card (1 + 7 = 8) your second birth card, or “helper” card. This could signify holding on to hope through your inner strength. Or being a beacon of faith and respite through the marriage of your courage and vulnerability.

As another example, if you were born on April 25th 2002, this would be 04 + 25 + 20 + 02 = 51. Your birth card would be The Lovers (5 + 1 = 6) and your helper card would be The Devil as card number 15, it also reduces to 6. In this we can see the task of finding union in duality, an inner and outer harmony by confronting your shadow and embracing it all.

If your birthday numbers reduce down to equal 19 you will have three cards instead of two because 1 + 9 = 10, and 1 + 0 = 1, meaning your birth card would be The Sun, with The Wheel of Fortune and The Magician as helper cards.

If you’d rather not do the math, here’s a free Tarot School calculator for you!

Here are the Major Arcana Tarot cards numbered in order:

Magician
High Priestess
Empress
Emperor
Hierophant
Lovers
Chariot
Strength
Hermit
Wheel of Fortune
Justice
Hanged One
Death
Temperance
Devil
Tower
Star
Moon
Sun
Judgement
World

Obviously, The Fool, being numbered 0 cannot appear in the list as anyone’s birth card (usually a Tarot deck will have the numbers listed on the images).

Here are some brief card combination meanings:

The Magician (birth card) + Wheel of Fortune (helper/teacher card)

With The Magician as your birth card, your path is to manifest great potential and harness your ship, to be the captain of your fate. It is related to the capacity of your innate power. Your helper for this is to embrace the inevitability of change, to understand that the Universe is in constant flux, making it the only constant.

The High Priestess + Justice

With the High Priestess as your birthday card, you are here to channel great spiritual wisdom and connect to your divine inner knowing. You can do this by seeking the help of the Justice card, understanding that not everything that is fair is equal, that nature is constantly readjusting to find a place of homeostasis, to embrace the grey areas.

The Empress + Hanged One

With The Empress as your birth card, your path is to embrace true creation, fertility, and nourishment. To nurture the seeds that wish to bloom from you and seek generativity in all that you do. To assist you, you have the liminal space of The Hanged One, the pregnant pause that is oh so necessary for our development, everything has its right timing, nature cannot be rushed and neither should you.

The Emperor + Death

With The Emperor as your birthday card you are here to seek out true leadership and define what authority means to you, how to harness sacred sovereignty and healthy ego, how to take up space like the mountain, not to overbear on others but simply because it is its birthright to do so. Your helper in this is Death, the necessary composting, to make room for growth, to go through many cycles and transformations. A true leader is egoless, knowing that to lead is to serve.

The Hierophant + Temperance

If you have The Hierophant as your birth card, it can symbolise a call to spiritual teaching, to finding the balance between inner and outer wisdom, formal and innate learnings. In how to be an eternal student of the world while sharing of your gifts. Your helper is Temperance, a message to seek the harmony between the two opposing forces, the constant marriage of internal and external.

The Lovers + Devil

If you have The Lovers as your birth card, you are tasked with finding union in duality, with embracing your wholeness and using others as a reflection of the self. In finding the similarities and celebration of difference. To assist you, you have The Devil. This is a reminder to integrate all parts, the shadow as well as the light. It is again a mirror to harmonising your own vices you see within playing out in others.

The Chariot + Tower

With The Chariot as your birth card, your message is to persevere on your quest and find strength in vulnerability. To question the methods and ways you go about doing things on your path, if the containers you put yourself in are efficient. To help you, you have the teachings of The Tower, a reminder that what’s not built on sturdy ground will come crashing down eventually. It is a message to go slow and steady, while being prepared for the inevitabilities of life- fear does not stop death, it stops life.

Strength + The Star

If you have Strength as your birth card, your path is to find strength within, to befriend your inner wildness and tame the beast, not for domination but to greater harness its qualities in harmony. To assist you in shining your strength with the world, you have The Star card, a beacon of hope and symbol to never give up your faith.

The Hermit + The Moon

If The Hermit is your birth card, your journey is to seek internal wisdom, to find solace within your inner ravines, and search for experience-based knowledge. It is the path of introspection and alignment within. To assist you, you have The Moon, a reminder that not everything is as it seems, and some things need to be intuited rather than seen.

Wheel of Fortune (birth card) + Magician (helper/teacher)

Now we have the reversals, if the Wheel of Fortune is your birth card instead, you are tasked with embracing the constant turning of the wheel, to accept the flux and motion, to get comfortable with the unknown. To assist you, you have The Magician as reminder of your innate power and that you create your reality.

Justice + High Priestess

If Justice is your birth card, your path is one of finding harmony, balance, and equality. In knowing that life is inherently a grey area, and seeking out the homeostasis of nature, the constant micro-adjustments to bring about fairness which may not necessarily always be equal, but rather equitable. To help you, you have The High Priestess, a message to listen for the answers within, to take heed the quiet inner voice that does not speak with reason.

Hanged One + Empress

With The Hanged One as your birth card, you are invited to embrace the liminal space, to float in the in-between space and seek a spiritual understanding and devotion, knowing that things are constantly evolving outside of your control. To help you, you have The Empress, a reminder to nourish your garden and where you stand, to find solace and nurturance in the wildness.

Death + Emperor

If you have Death as your birthday card, your path is one of many transformations, to surrender attachment, and alchemise ego deaths like the phoenix. It is one of remembering the inevitability of endings and that in every ending is comprised a new beginning and vice versa. Nothing is created or destroyed, only transmuted. To assist you, you have The Emperor, symbol of taking charge and leading the change you wish to see.

Temperance + Hierophant

With Temperance as your birth card, your path is of finding the middle ground and marriage of opposites. Of merging your alchemical nature and fusing a new power to move forward with grace and ease. A reminder of the cyclical nature of life and the constant balancing art that it is. To help you, your teacher card is The Hierophant, the teacher. Seek to harmonise internal wisdom with the lessons of others, of combining innate knowledge with learnt experience.

Devil + Lovers

If you have The Devil as your birth card, your path is to make peace with the shadow and integrate all aspects of the self. To look beyond the material and befriend vices. To help, you have The Lovers as a reminder of the inherent polarity in all things and the beauty of finding union in duality, within and without.

Tower + Chariot

With The Tower as your birth card you path is to seek a solid inner foundation that is grounded on sturdy frameworks, knowing that the default mode of the world is change, and the more we know the less we know (as we discover there is always more to know). To help you have The Chariot, symbol of perseverance and preparing for the journey. Of ensuring the containers and way in which you move through life are supportive.

two-wander-the-chariot-rider-waite-tarot

Star + Strength

If The Star card is your first birth card, your path is one of finding hope, faith, and trust. Of seeking a beacon of light, rest, replenishment, and renewal. In this, you can nourish others along your journey. To help you do so, your second birth card, Strength, acts as a reminder of the true strength in softness, in vulnerability, and opening up. It is a reminder that you are always inherently strong, and through this courage you can befriend the wildest parts of yourself.

Moon + Hermit

With The Moon as your birth card, your path is one of finding how to navigate through the dark, relying on instinct and intuition. In learning how to discern between what’s “real” and what’s not, and how to distinguish what that means in the first place. It is about integrating the shadow self, unconscious, subconscious, intuition, and domesticated self into one. To help you, you have The Hermit, symbol of journeying within to find the answers.

Sun + Wheel of Fortune + Magician

If your number was 19, then you have The Sun as your first birth card. This is a symbol of finding and expressing your joy! Of celebrating your wins and successes, of leaning into vitality and abundance. To assist you, you have The Wheel of Fortune, a reminder that what goes up must come down and the only constant is change; and The Magician, symbol of powerful capacity to harness your fate and master the destiny you choose.

Judgement + High Priestess

If you have the Judgement card as your birth card, it is a message of reflection, to take a big picture view and see you part and that of others objectively in all things. It is a call to have perspective. To assist you, you have The High Priestess, an intuitive guide reminding you that you already know all the answers instinctively.

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World + Empress

If you have The World card as your birth card, your path is one of finding completion and the wholeness in all things. A reminder that in every beginning is an ending, to seek the lessons in all undertakings. To help, you have The Empress, a reminder of your infinite creative potential and the never-ending fecundity of the earth, to find sustenance in your daily mundane life.

How to Find Your Personal Tarot Card of the Year

One final way to use your personal birth card is it add it to the card of the year. For example, 2022 is a Lovers year (20 + 22 = 42; 4 + 2 = 6). If you add your single digit number to this you get your personal card for the year, within The Lovers year. So if you have Strength (or The Star) as your birth card 8 + 6 = 14; 1 + 4 = 5. This means that you are in a personal Hierophant year in 2022.

If your birth card is The Hierophant, your card for the year would be Justice (5 + 6 = 11). You can also use your double digit number although it might start to get a bit complicated to have so many cards representing your year, but feel free to use this too if it calls to you.

This is about finding your own lessons, wisdom, and teachings (Hierophant), within duality and reflection in others (The Lovers). It can be a call to share your spirituality or step up in a more leading capacity.

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Of course, within all of these, the true magic lies when you infuse them with your own card meanings. It can be nice to calculate your card for the year in January so you have a theme to work with throughout the year, but my money is on its message making more sense in December once you have the whole year to reflect on! I like to make periodic check-ins with my Tarot card of the year to see what aligns with it and what doesn’t (and even throughout the year it’s still pretty accurate before the whole story is pieced together).

So that’s how to find your Tarot birth card, I hope it’s insightful for you! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all about it or anything else to add in the comments section below.

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