How to Calculate Your Soul Card in the Tarot
I became aware of the concept of Soul Cards while listening to Between The Worlds formerly known as Strange Magic Podcast by co-hosts Sarah Faith Gottesdiener and Amanda Yates Garcia.
Most simply, they are like a personality “test” except they are so much deeper and intangible than that - in the best way possible.
I might even argue, in an essential way.
Essential to our Essential Self - an ancient idea reflected in many spiritual and psychological traditions, like IFS. That essentially (wink wink), we have a presence inside of us - a soul, a spirit, a truth, that is wise, hopeful and loving, and inspires us towards “positive” change.
A Soul Card is one of the first Nine Major Arcana Cards in the Tarot symbolizing why you are here in this life, in this body, at this time in history. Your Purpose.
Some call it Destiny, some call it your North Node, some call it your life path…here we call it The Spiral. Whatever you call it, you know what it offers - Some containment and ideally affirmation of who life is asking you to become.
From your Soul Card, you can better anticipate and recognize the lessons you are meant to learn and lean into them with less fear and trepidation, and even release resentment you might be experiencing towards “universe”.
From your Soul Card, you can make more intentional decisions in every aspect of your life from your Surviving-Capitalism-Job to romantic-platonic-and-everything-in-between relationships to what your Soul is fed by and called to pour back out into the world.
Ultimately, knowing your Soul Card is a helpful anchor back into the roots of who you are when you need direction or hope.
An added gift of knowing this facet of yourSelf, is you can now calculate your Card of The Year. This gives you the vibe of the primary themes of your Gregorian Calendar year. For example, 2023 is the Devil Card year for me: Liberation - the same year I received my unrestricted MFT license, received Gender Affirming Top Surgery, and opened my twin healing businesses: Full & Plenty Joy and S.L. McIntyre Psychotherapy. So much freedom! Let alone all the internal shifts away from shame and self judgement: all offerings from my Card of The Year.
So how do you calculate the Soul Card and Card of The Year?
Easy! So easy as in this is the one type of math I enjoy as a non-math-wiz autistic kid.
We’ll use my birthday as a working example:
Step 1: Add up all the numbers in your birthdate like so:
February 24th 1990 or
2/24/1990 =
2 + 2+ 4 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 =
(broken down further)
2+ 2 = 4
4 + 4 = 8
8 + 1 = 9
9 + 9 = 18
18 + 9 = 27
all soul card numbers are 1-9 so we must break this number (27) down further
27 =
2 + 7 =
9 = YOUR SOUL CARD
Mine is Tarot card # 9 - The Hermit - The Spiritual Teacher
This card (and my North Node being in Aquarius) have helped me accept my work as a therapist - coach - teacher - consultant. It has helped me accept my deeply spiritual and intuitive side. It has helped me better articulate who I am in my work in the world to clients and colleagues. It has helped me make hard, but important decisions about what to spend my time and energy and resources on. It has helped me gain clarity about my Social Change Ecosystem roles, such as Healer and Visionary.
Step 2: Add up your Birthday Day and Month (no year) with the current year or year you are wanting to calculate
We’ll do my 2024 Card of the Year as an example:
February 24th (birthday) 2024 (year I am calculating) =
2 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 4 =
(further breakdown)
2 + 2 = 4
4+ 4 = 8
8 + 2 = 10
10 + 0 = 10
10 + 2 = 12
12 + 4 = 16
16 = MY YEAR CARD
For Year Cards, you can have 1-21 numbers - which are all Twenty-One of the Major Arcana.
If you want to learn more about Soul Cards listen to this episode of In Betwixt.
Let us know in the comments what your Soul Card and Year Card are. Bonus = And what they mean to you.
