TAROT FOR 2009

I have been away from my blog due to end-of-semester stuff, followed by holiday preparations and entertaining. However, now that I’m getting back to things, I’ll continue to write about Tarot and Magic, even though I’m on winter hiatus as far as my workshops are concerned.

Here we are on the verge of 2009, and the New Year’s Eve is a time when people traditionally perform divinations to forecast the year ahead. A simple way to do this with the Tarot is to do a 12-card spread, with each card representing a different month of the year. However, this is also a good time to do a card search using your personal “Year Card.”

The Year Card technique links birth date numerology to the card numbers of the Major Arcana: you add the day and month of your birth to the current year, to find out which card will be offering special life lessons. For example, a person born on February 5th would add 2 + 5 + (2+0+0+9) to get 18, which is the number of “The Moon” card, (which can indicate something of a mystical year ahead). If you should get a number above 21, such as 25, you would add 2 + 5 to get 7. The basic idea of the “Year Card” is discussed in Mary K. Greer’s “Tarot for Your Self,” and she credits this and other numerological configurations to Angeles Arrien, (who uses the term “Growth Symbol” for the Year Card in her “Tarot Handbook.”)

So, to do a card search divination for the year ahead, figure out which card is your Year Card, and pose a question like, “What can I learn in the year ahead?” After shuffling and cutting in your normal, preferred manner, thumb through your deck until you find your Year Card, and look to the cards flanking it to tell you more about what sort of context the year 2009 provides for your growth lessons.