Tarot birth cards

Your tarot birth card is a Major Arcana card found by adding the day, month and year of your birth, then adding the digits of the total until you reach a number from 1 to 21. That number is your birth card. Many readers also reduce it once more to a single digit, giving a pair or trio of cards that share a theme.

How do you find your tarot birth card?

Finding your tarot birth card takes a minute and a pencil. The method was popularised in the late twentieth century by tarot writers, most widely by Mary K. Greer, and it has become the common way of working out a birth card. It uses only the 22 cards of the Major Arcana.

Step one: add the date as numbers

Write your date of birth as three numbers, the day, the month and the full year, and add them together. Someone born on 14 July 1990 adds 14 + 7 + 1990, which gives 2011.

Step two: add the digits of the total

Add the digits of that total together. For 2011, that is 2 + 0 + 1 + 1, which gives 4.

Step three: reduce again if needed

If the result is 22 or higher, add its digits again until it is 21 or lower. A result between 1 and 21 is your birth card, numbered as in the Major Arcana. For 14 July 1990, the result is 4: the birth card is the Emperor.

Step four: the second card, if there is one

Many readers take the process one step further. If your number has two digits, add them once more to reach a single digit, and treat both cards as your birth cards. A 19 gives 1 + 9 = 10, and 10 gives 1 + 0 = 1, so a 19 points to three cards at once: the Sun, the Wheel of Fortune and the Magician. A number that is already a single digit, such as 4, gives one card, though readers often think of it as belonging to the same family as its higher partner, here Death, card 13.

Worked examples

Three examples show the arithmetic at each stage.

• 12 March 1975. 12 + 3 + 1975 = 1990. Then 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19, which is under 22, so the birth card is the Sun. Reducing further, 1 + 9 = 10 gives the Wheel of Fortune, and 1 + 0 = 1 gives the Magician.
• 8 June 1981. 8 + 6 + 1981 = 1995. Then 1 + 9 + 9 + 5 = 24, which is 22 or higher, so add again: 2 + 4 = 6. The birth card is the Lovers, a single card, in the family it shares with the Devil, card 15.
• 3 November 1985. 3 + 11 + 1985 = 1999. Then 1 + 9 + 9 + 9 = 28, so add again: 2 + 8 = 10. The birth card is the Wheel of Fortune, and 1 + 0 = 1 adds the Magician as its partner.

The Fool, card zero, cannot be reached by addition. When a total comes to exactly 22, some readers stop there and take the Fool as the birth card, since some traditions number the Fool 22 and set it after the World. Others reduce 22 to 4 and read the Emperor. Both are reasonable; choose one and keep to it.

What do the birth card pairs mean?

The birth card pairs group the Major Arcana into nine families, each sharing a single-digit root. A note on numbering first: this Library’s deck follows the Rider-Waite-Smith order, where Strength is card 8 and Justice is card 11. Older decks in the Marseille tradition swap the two, so if you read with such a deck, your 8 and 11 trade places.

• 1, 10 and 19: the Magician, the Wheel of Fortune and the Sun. Will, timing and vitality: the impulse to make things happen, and the warmth of doing so in full view.
• 2, 11 and 20: the High Priestess, Justice and Judgement. Inner knowing, fair weighing and awakening: truth sensed quietly, tested honestly, then acted on.
• 3, 12 and 21: the Empress, the Hanged Man and the World. Creation, surrender and completion: bringing things to life, letting them ripen in their own time, and seeing them whole.
• 4 and 13: the Emperor and Death. Structure and transformation: building order, and knowing when a structure has served its purpose and must give way.
• 5 and 14: the Hierophant and Temperance. Learning and balance: tradition received and passed on, and the patient blending of opposites.
• 6 and 15: the Lovers and the Devil. Choice and attachment: the values you choose by, and the ties that hold you more tightly than you would like.
• 7 and 16: the Chariot and the Tower. Drive and upheaval: forward momentum held on course, and the clearing away of what was built on weak ground.
• 8 and 17: Strength and the Star. Courage and hope: gentle, patient power, and the quiet renewal that follows a hard season.
• 9 and 18: the Hermit and the Moon. Solitude and the unconscious: wisdom found by your own light, and the instinct that guides you through what is not yet clear.

In a pair, readers often treat the higher card as the outward face of the theme, the way it shows in your life and dealings with others, and the single-digit card as its deeper current. The Sun over the Magician, for example, can describe a bright, sociable surface resting on a steady instinct for making ideas real.

The SunSuccess in full daylight: achievement, recognition and joy after the toil.

A lens, not a label

A tarot birth card is best held as a lens rather than a label. It does not describe who you are in any fixed sense, and it does not decide what your life holds. It offers a small family of images to return to over the years, to think with when you ask what strength you rely on, or what difficulty you meet most often.

Readers who find their birth card useful tend to use it lightly: they notice when it turns up in a reading, and they read its shadow side as well as its gifts. The Emperor as a birth card can describe a gift for order and responsibility, and also a tendency to hold on to control after it has stopped helping. Neither is a verdict. Both are questions.

The EmperorAuthority, order and iron will: the mind ruling over the heart.

If your birth card does not feel like you, it may describe a quality you have not yet grown into, or one you prefer not to see. Or it may simply not speak to you, in which case let it go. The arithmetic is a tradition, not a test.

Your year card

A year card applies the same method to the current year instead of the year of your birth. It gives a theme to reflect on for the twelve months ahead. For someone born on 12 March, the 2026 sum is 12 + 3 + 2026 = 2041, and 2 + 0 + 4 + 1 = 7 gives the Chariot, a year that may ask for steady direction and self-command. Readers differ on when a year card begins. Some change it on 1 January, others on the birthday.

Your birth card in the Library and the app

Once you know your card, look up its full meaning in the Library, which holds all 78 cards of the Gilded Garden deck with their upright and reversed meanings. The guide Numbers in tarot, in this Library, explains why cards that share a root can feel related.

Then try a single card with your birth card in mind. In the TarotSeeker app, draw one card, from your own deck or by the app’s virtual shuffle, and ask: “What does my birth card ask of me this year?” Add your first impression before the companion’s reading appears, so its reading never anchors yours. The guide The one-card draw, in this Library, says more about reading a single card.

Questions readers ask

How do I find my tarot birth card?

To find your tarot birth card, add your day, month and year of birth as numbers, then add the digits of the total. If the result is 22 or higher, add its digits again. The final number, from 1 to 21, is your birth card in the Major Arcana. For 14 July 1990, 14 + 7 + 1990 = 2011, and 2 + 0 + 1 + 1 = 4, the Emperor.

What if my tarot birth card number is 22?

If your total comes to exactly 22, you have a choice. Some readers take the Fool as the birth card, since some traditions number the Fool 22 and set it after the World. Others add the digits again, 2 + 2 = 4, and read the Emperor. Both approaches are in use. Choose one and apply it consistently.

Can you have more than one tarot birth card?

You can have more than one tarot birth card. If your number has two digits, many readers reduce it again to a single digit and take both cards together. A 19 reduces to 10 and then to 1, giving three birth cards: the Sun, the Wheel of Fortune and the Magician. A single-digit result such as 6 gives one card, the Lovers.

Is my tarot birth card linked to my zodiac sign?

Your tarot birth card is not linked to your zodiac sign. They are separate systems. The birth card comes from the numbers of your birth date. The zodiac link comes from the traditional astrological correspondences of the Major Arcana, under which Leo, for example, is linked with Strength.

What is a tarot year card?

A tarot year card is found the same way as a birth card, but with the current year in place of your birth year. Add your birth day, birth month and the current year, then reduce the digits to a number from 1 to 21. The card gives a theme to reflect on for that year, not a forecast of what it holds.