More on Numerology-Tarot Card Correspondences

We had been looking at how the numerology of a person’s—and in this case, Barack Obama’s—birth day, month, and year can be added up and then broken down to correspond with tarot cards that serve as Soul symbols and Personality symbols, as well as challenges for a specific year. However, when we contemplate the individual numbers that make up a person’s birth date, we can see further tarot correspondences by looking at the cards associated with the individual numbers for day, month, and year.

So, in the case of Barack Obama, whose birth date is 8-4-1961, Eight corresponds to Strength, Four to the Emperor, 1961 (1 + 9 + 6 + 1 = 17) to the Star, whose 1 + 7 further breaks down to 8, the number of Strength. From a general psychological viewpoint, we tend to resonate to the number associated with our birth day moreso than our birth month and year, so it is interesting that Emperor energies are central to Obama’s numerology. Because Strength comes up twice in this formula, the powers of the Strength card are also underscored in his life. Similar principles apply when we look at his year card portrait: 8-4-2011, which combines Strength and the Emperor with, once again, the Emperor, meaning that those already central Emperor energies will be emphasized this year.

Seeing that the different components of the birth date correspond to tarot cards, a person’s birth date suggests a natural tarot arrangement that comprises something of a personal tarot “snapshot,” and which can be mused upon for purposes of magic and meditation. How many cards you would include in such a layout depends on whether, in the process of breaking down the numbers, you get cards between ten and twenty-one, which in turn can be reduced to cards between one and nine. Some folks may get a good number of cards in their arrangement, but everyone will get at least three cards out of the process. In Obama’s case, you could use a three card layout: Strength-Emperor-Star, or a four-card: Strength-Emperor-Star-Strength. Because Strength is used twice, you would need to pull a Strength card from another deck if you wanted to do this as a card arrangement. If, instead, you wanted to focus on Obama’s presidential challenges for the year—or anyone’s challenges for a given year—you could lay out an arrangement based on the birth day and month, plus the card for the present year. Furthermore, you could also do arrangements based on whatever numerology-card correspondence combinations you can come up with for a person, including layouts based on his or her Soul and Personality Symbols.

One other quick observation on playing with President Obama’s card combinations: If you add his birth day and month, you get the number Twelve, which corresponds to the Hanged Man card, and which, in turn, can be broken down to Three, corresponding to the Empress. Traditionally, the Hanged Man could denote issues around life in suspension, though modern tarot readers emphasize its positive aspects related to time out for meditation, self sacrifice, and the ability to see things from a different perspective. Mary Greer relates it to unconditional love and complete devotion to one’s work or cause [“Tarot Constellations” 69]. The Empress denotes generativity and abundance, and relates to the creative forces of the number Three. We already looked at the numerology by considering Three’s creative qualities applied to the Emperor Year. However, in considering Obama’s personal life, we can also see the Empress symbolism has bearing on the central role Michelle plays both as wife and First Lady. So, for example, if you were musing on Obama’s Emperor Year numbers, using the basic numerology system described in previous posts, 3 + 4 = 7, and represented that visually with tarot cards, Empress + Emperor = Chariot, you get a certain harmony in the pairing of Empress and Emperor, and can consider how the idealized archetypal pair inspires the movement and innovation suggested by the number Seven, and by the Chariot. (If one wanted to get into Chinese symbolism, the harmonious relationship of Emperor and Empress is essential to the balance of the cosmos, and is denoted by the dragon and the phoenix)

OK, to conclude my discussion on how a person’s birthday numbers can provide images and arrangements for tarot meditations and spells, in my next post, I will discuss why and how you can use such techniques. Also: how to use tarot spells in a way where you are not trying to use coercive magic to force other people to do your evil bidding, but rather, put positive images out into the universe as suggestions for empowerment or improvement.

Obama’s Numerology, continued

For those who were confused by the previous post, I have gone back and edited it a little, which I hope will better explain the two different systems of looking at a person’s “year card.”

So, to continue the discussion: we have gotten an inkling as to how Barack Obama’s August 4th birthday numerology might have larger implications in the Emperor year 2011. Now, let’s take a closer look at how his birthday numbers correspond to some other tarot cards, and the sort of personal meanings these cards can hold.

In a system which I believe was developed and introduced by Angeles Arrien, and which has been further articulated by Mary Greer, you can find Major Arcana cards that serve as Life-Time Soul and Personality symbols. This involves adding the numbers in your birth day, month, and year, and then breaking them down numerologically to get a number between one and twenty-one, (if possible--not everyone will be able to do this), and then a number between one and nine. Everyone has a number between one and nine that corresponds to one of the first tier of Major Arcana cards, and this card serves as you Soul Symbol. For persons who can only get one tarot card correspondence, that functions as both Soul and Personality symbol. The Soul card symbol pertains to a core need for spiritual fulfillment, and the Personality symbol reveals some unique form of personal expression that you display as a means of meeting your soul needs. When the Soul and Personality qualities are combined, the underlying spiritual drive is more immanent in your personal expression.

When we distill the numbers for Barack Obama, born on 8-4-1961, we find a Soul card number of Two, which corresponds to the High Priestess. An individual with this Soul symbol will strive to see into the nature of things. In the political arena, such a person would want to explore all the issues, as well as the needs and philosophical motivations of the different political actors and factions. Whether those are qualities we Americans value in our leaders, I don’t know, but I would hope that it provides the ability to establish some common ground.

Getting a personality number between ten and twenty-two for Obama, I have discovered, is interesting, because it makes a difference whether you do the numerology horizontally like this: 8 + 4 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 1 = 29 and 29 = 2 + 9 =11 (the Justice Card, though in some systems, the Strength card ), or whether you initially stack the numbers vertically, which is the technique that Arrien and Greer use, and which in Obama’s case results in 20, (the Judgment card). [For numerological reasons that I am not sophisticated enough to understand, it appears that the horizontal method casts a nine.] I won’t attempt to replicate the vertical example in this blog, because I’m not sure I can get the numbers to line up in the right columns. So, it would seem that Barack Obama has two personality cards, depending on whether you add horizontally or vertically. This does not suggest a split personality, as both Justice and Judgment share the High Priestess’s number Two as their root or Soul core. Here, we might see the High Priestess’s emphasis on intuition expressed through a personality that tries to understand both sides of an argument, and that tries use this understanding to achieve transformation.

So, that is some of what we can learn about President Obama using the Soul Card and Personality Card system. However, there are still some other observations to be made in relating his numbers to tarot cards, and how a person’s tarot portrait can be used in empowering meditations and such, so this discussion will be continued in the next post.

CORRECTION TO YESTERDAY’S POST--ON YEAR CARDS

When I wrote about Year Cards yesterday, I fired off my post in too much haste, so I didn’t adequately explain the method for calculating year cards, and that in combining numerology with tarot, you can experience year cards going up to the number 21. That is because in the narrowly focused technique I was describing, I was just concerned with the most basic building blocks of peoples’ experience, as personal year experiences are informed by the year as a whole, which is an Empress year, and hence my reason for distilling the birth date and Year Card numbers to between 1 and 9.

So, to clarify the basic year card technique, the way you get your personal year card is you add your birth day and your birth month to the current year. So, for a person born on January 4th, he/she would add 1 + 4 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 0, which gets 8, and corresponds to the Strength card, while a person born on June 23rd would get 14 (6 + 2 + 3 + 2 +0 + 1 + 0 = 14), which corresponds to Temperance. However, if a person was born on January 4th and the current year happened to be 2098, his or her numbers would add up to 24, (1 + 4 + 2 + 0 + 9 + 8 =24), which takes us outside of the tarot deck. In that case, he or she would have to add 2 + 4 to get 6 (the Lovers) for a personal year number. Because 2010 gives us such a low number (3) with which to do magical numerology, most of us won’t have to break our numbers down too many times to get a number below 22.

So that is how you find your personal year card, though there are other nuances. Angeles Arrien, who as I have said I believe invented the technique, reckons the year from birthday to birthday, as opposed to the calendar year. However, others go by the calendar year, and I tend to go along with that, because in our cognitive perception and memory, we tend to experience years as entities. Thus, when Queen Elizabeth had had a particularly bad year, she described it as her “annus horribilus,” and a lot of us think of 2001 in a certain way, due to 9-11.

Now, getting back to yesterday’s exercise that involved looking at 2010 as an Empress Year, and thinking about how that could combine with our personal year card experiences: for the purposes of that particular exercise, I was having everybody condense their year card numbers to one digit between 1 and 9, because as I have said, we were looking at the most basic building blocks of the experience. Also, when you have a year card number or other type of number of 10 or above, you have one of the 1-through-9 numbers as a seed or shadow factor at work. So, a person whose Year Card number is 13 (Death), has 4 (the Emperor) as a background influence--and when you think about it, both Death and the Emperor are concerned with consolidation and setting limitations as a way of forming structures; (a “terminus” is necessary in laying out and defining a structure). Looking at the lower numbered cards as factors in the higher numbered cards, in fact, viewing them as “tarot constellations” is another Angeles Arrien innovation introduced in “The Tarot Handbook,” and further developed by Mary K. Greer in “Tarot Constellations.”

CLAIMING YOUR POWER IN 2010

As we get farther into 2010, we can also think about its tarot card correspondence, which is The Empress (2 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 3, the number of the Empress card). Last year’s card was Justice, and at that time I wrote about how that might have pertained to the new Obama administration and other world trends. As the Empress stands for abundance, as well as the ability to nourish creative visions, let’s hope that this is good news for the economy, as well as a good year for “cultural creatives.”

To get a notion of what an Empress year could mean for you personally, add the day and month of your birth, and then break that number down, if necessary, to a number between 1 and 9. So, March 7th = 3 + 7 = 10 = 1 + 0 = 1. Now, consider how traditional numerological symbolism harmonizes your number with the Empress qualities. So, if your birth day plus month equals 1, the pioneering impulse of the Number 1 unites with the Empress’s creative abundance (3). Adding those numbers, 1 + 3 = 4, we see that your initiative combined with the Empress’s creative abundance will lead to the Number 4’s stable foundations. Because the Number 4 also corresponds to the Emperor card, that brings additional nuances to the interpretation; in this case, the Emperor’s ability to “make it so.” So, in this particular example, while The Empress is the year card for 2010, the Emperor is the year card for the individual whose birth day and month add up to 1. (You get your year card by adding your birth day and month to whatever the current year is, and then reducing those numbers as described.)

What we are doing is looking at how larger Empress Year qualities shape the individual’s experience of his or her personal year card.

I don’t know for sure who came up with the original idea of linking birth date numerology to tarot cards, but I believe it was Angeles Arrien, because in Mary Greer’s 1984 book, “Tarot for Your Self,” Greer demonstrates a number of these techniques, including how to find Personality and Soul cards, and credits Arrien as having taught this to her. You can learn a lot more about creating your “tarot profile” in Greer’s book, as well as in Arrien’s, “The Tarot Handbook.”

To continue with how the Empress year might be experienced by the other numbers:

For the person whose birth day and month add up to the number 2, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with the value you place on relationships, leading to more stimulating and meaningful ways of engaging larger groups of people, (#5). The additional energy of the Hierophant as your year card can help you communicate these things.

For number 3, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your natural creativity, doubling the benefits and leading to the easy expression of good energies, (#6), often in a community of celebration. The additional energy of the Lovers as your year card can help you harmonize these energies.

For #4, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your ability to create structure, leading to a workable creative vision (#7). The additional energy of the Chariot as your year card can help you take control of your life.

For #5, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your versatility in channeling multiple energies, enabling you to achieve critical mass in your ability to influence larger communication networks (#8). The additional energy of Strength as your year card can help you grapple with these energies.

For #6, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your ability to promote social harmony, leading to a wealth of opportunities, (#9). The additional energy of the Hermit as your year card can help you discriminate, to focus on the more meaningful paths.

For #7, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your visionary ability to see ahead of your time, leading to pioneering innovations (#1). The additional energy of the Magician as your year card can help you identify resources.

For #8, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your ability to organize your world, leading to rewarding relationships and your ability to nurture others (#2). The additional energy of the High Priestess as your year card can help you gain the necessary insights.

For #9, the Empress’s creative abundance combines with your ability to multiply your options and resources, leading to even greater creative abundance (#3). The additional energy of the Empress as your year card can help you nurture your dreams.

In the above examples, I arrived at the potential interpretations by blending and harmonizing the qualities of the different numbers and cards involved. Each new year will be different of course, because it involves new numbers and tarot archetypes that are blended in a different mix in a different way. For people who are really into numerology, there are additional levels of complication that could be brought in, but I won’t get into that.

Finally, you can also use your numbers for this year to create a personalized “tarot spell of the year.” So, in the example of a person whose birth day and month add up to the #1, you could lay out The Magician (which is card 1), the Empress (the card of 2010), and the Emperor (your personal year card), and visualize yourself bringing about the changes you’d like to see through actions associated with these cards. Similar principals apply for the other numbers, unless your birth day and month add up to #3 or 9, because then your spell would require two Empress cards; however, it’s OK to just make do with one Empress, or raid another deck.