TAROT SPELL FOR EMPOWERING THE YEAR 2026

As mentioned in the previous post, the tarot card correspondence for the year 2026 is the Wheel of Fortune.  An interesting thing about this card is that it is part of a “constellation” that includes The Magician and The Sun cards.  That’s because The Sun is card number 19, which in magical numerology can be broken down to 1 + 9 = 10, the card number for The Wheel, and that in turn can be broken down to 1 + 0 = 1, which is The Magican’s number.

If you take these three cards together, you can make a spell out of them:

First, lay down The Magician while thinking about how you are in charge of your life.  (This can be a New Year’s resolution, if taking charge has been an issue for you.)  You can say an affirmation like, “I am the Master [or Mistress] of Magic!  All I need to make my own magic is before me, and within me.”

Then, lay down The Wheel while thinking how you as the magician can take advantage of opportunities for change.  Think about what sort of opportunities are likely to come up in 2026, perhaps in your career, relationships, or creative endeavors— and how you'll recognize and seize these moments when they arise.  You could also affirm, “Fortune’s wheel is turning, carrying me onward and forward, with blessings revealed at every revolution."

Finally, lay down The Sun while thinking about how good you feel as your forward momentum helps to generate happiness and harmony.  You could affirm something like, “Let 2026 be a year when I enjoy my time in the sun, a time to bask in life’s brightness.”

As a special talisman for 2026, you could glue these three cards to a piece of cardboard, frame that, and mount it to the inside of your front door, (or other convenient location).

By the way, the concept of tarot constellations has been developed by Mary K. Greer in her book Tarot Constellations: Patterns of Personal Destiny.  I also think it would be interesting if aspiring tarot artists kept these constellations in mind when coming up with new card designs, because you could use cross-referencing graphic imagery for cards within a constellation.

CHANGES OF FORTUNE IN THE YEAR 2026

As each year can be related to a tarot card, 2026 corresponds to the Major Arcana card number 10, The Wheel of Fortune.  (In magical numerology, 2 + 0 + 2 + 6 = 10.)  This means that 2026 may be a year of major changes, but also major opportunities, as each station of the wheel is a nexus point where we can take our lives in new directions.

Here is a little blessing for the year 2026:            

    As the Year Wheel turns,

we welcome the Year 2026,

    for this is the year of the Wheel,

the Wheel of Fortune.

    Let every nexus point on Lady Fortune’s wheel

bring new and brighter blessings!

By the way, although The Wheel of Fortune is the year card for the larger world in 2026, we all also have individual year cards based on the day and month of our birth.  So, for example, my birthday is March 4^th; March is the 3^rd month, and as 3 + 4 = 7, I add 7 to 2026’s year number 10, and get 17, which is the number for The Star card.  I am therefore looking forward to changes involving spiritual guidance and growth.  If your month and day of birth add up to something larger than 21, (as the Major Arcana only goes up to 21 numbered cards), you would then add the digits again, to break it down to a smaller number.  So, for example, if your birthday is December 14^th, 12 + 14 + 10 = 36, which then breaks down to 9, the number of The Hermit.  (For such a person, the changes in store may result in a period of isolation, or looking within.)

2025 - YEAR OF THE HERMIT (continued)

 Yesterday I wrote about The Hermit as the year card for 2025.  Here is another snippet from the tarot magic book I’m working on—it is about using The Hermit in tarot spells.

Tarot Spells:  When The Hermit card comes up in a reading, you can look for interesting graphic associations if the Hermit is holding up his lantern to an adjoining card.  For example, The High Priestess card often denotes secrets or hidden knowledge, so (using the RWS deck) The Hermit appearing to the right of the Priestess would indicate his help in illuminating the mysteries that the High Priestess conceals.  (By contrast, if he appears to the left of the High Priestess, it would indicate that you are looking in the wrong place for the information you seek—maybe too absorbed with the past to notice what is right before you.)

Going on the same principle, when you want to create a tarot spell to bring some matter to light, you can set The Hermit to the right of whichever card best illustrates your concerns. Based on the example of the High Priestess, (and depending on whether the deck you use has The Hermit figure facing left), you could lay The Hermit to her right when you want to uncover some secret or gain intuitive knowledge.  (If using a deck in which The Hermit is facing to the right, the Priestess would go to the right.)   In other examples, The Hermit placed next to Justice can be used for seeking justice and transparency in legal matters, next to The Star for seeking a spirit guide, next to The Hierophant for clarification of received teachings, to The Moon to shed light on a path through darkness, the Ace of Pentacles for transparency in financial matters, the Page or Knight of Pentacles for help with gaining practical information, the Knight of Cups for a better understanding of what he brings to his mission of healing, the Seven of Swords to reveal the identity of a thief-- and so on and so forth.  The possibilities are numerous.

  

In this example, notice the graphic resonance between the Knight's pentacle and the Hermit's lantern.

2025 – YEAR OF THE HERMIT

In magical numerology, 2025 is the year of The Hermit, because 2 + 0 + 2 + 5 = 9, which is the number of The Hermit card in tarot.

So, the question is, how might this affect us as individuals, as well as our larger society? 

This is just speculation on my part, but we in the U.S. have just gone through a very contentious election, so whether you are happy with the results or unhappy with the results, a lot of people are sick and tired of the social strife, and may decide to just turn inward, focus on their own interests, and avoid friends and family members who still want to argue politics. 

Alternatively, it is possible that some situation could arise that would result in enforced isolation, so I hope we won’t be experiencing another pandemic, (though I am optimistic that we’ve gotten better at managing epidemic situations). 

 Also, in earlier days before the card was labeled “The Hermit,” it just portrayed an old man carrying an hourglass, (the archetype of the “Senex”), so the focus was on aging and the wisdom of elders. For our society, issues around aging and elder care could come into prominence. [I also note that we’ve just replaced one very elderly president with questionable mental acuity with another very elderly one, so that might have some implications for government and for society.]

Regardless of what else is going on in the world, taking some time for quiet reflection is good for introverts and extraverts alike. If you are in a living situation where you feel constantly put upon, and The Hermit card comes up in a tarot reading for advice, you can see the appearance of The Hermit as giving you permission to carve out some time and space alone for yourself.

Here is a snippet about The Hermit from a book I am currently working on:

Seeking Solitude:  In an extraverted society, introverts often find themselves apologizing for their desire for solitude.  If you feel guilty about wanting time to yourself, let the appearance of The Hermit card signal a time to indulge in what Nietzsche called, “the good solitude, the free, high-spirited, light-hearted solitude that, in some sense, gives you the right to stay good yourself.”  If your life circumstances have necessitated your living alone, you can also find some philosophical solace in Nietzsche, who noted, “To live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle.  Leaving out the third case: one must be both—a philosopher.”  If your circumstances are so unfortunate that you can’t find decent people to associate with, then take to heart the words of the Buddha, who said, “Better it is to live alone; there is no fellowship with a fool.  Live alone and do no evil; be carefree like an elephant in the elephant forest.”

President Obama in the Emperor Year

In a recent post I mentioned that 2011, being an Emperor year, is potentially auspicious for a president, so I have been taking a closer look at President Obama’s numerology. Barack Obama was born on 8-4-1961, so if we apply the basic technique for magical numerology demonstrated in the previous post, by adding the birth month (8) to the birth day (4), we get 12; then, we reduce that to the smallest number, so 12 = 1 + 2 = 3. The creative qualities of the number Three can combine with the Emperor’s concern with establishing order and laying foundations, so we have the potential for a very productive year. And indeed, because Obama’s Three combined with the Emperor’s Four yield Seven, the number of innovation, this can lead to the creation of systems that actually solve problems.

There is, however, one aspect of the Emperor that some folks may regard as being somewhat disconcerting, and that is his military interests. Although the Emperor archetype has various ancient father-god affiliations, the Golden Dawn system of tarot interpretation associates the Emperor card with the war god Mars, and indeed, the figure in this card is typically portrayed with weapons and armor, often wearing a ceremonial helmet, (a practice historically associated with the emperor Constantine). Consequently, Obama’s 2011 could also see more creative forms of warfare and military build-up. However, let us hope that the afore-mentioned problem solving potentials will ensure security by finding more creative diplomatic arrangements.

The system I have described that involves breaking the birth day and month to a number between one and nine is slightly different from, but ties in with the system for obtaining a personal year card, developed by Angeles Arrien, who refers to this as the Growth Symbol for the year. The latter technique involves adding the individual numbers of your birth day and month to those of the present year, and then breaking them down to a number between one and twenty-one. This gets you a personally meaningful tarot card correspondence. So, in Obama’s case, we add 8 + 4 (i.e., 12) to 2011 to get 2023, which breaks down to the number 7, associated with the Chariot. So, his personal growth for this year will likely involve taking control of forces that want to pull in different directions, and harness them to ride a wave of energy into the future. However, other persons might get a number between one and twenty-one, so their challenges would relate to those higher-numbered cards. Basically, the difference between the two Year Card systems I have described is the former relates the card of the year to other basic numerological principles, while the latter more specifically relates the year to the symbolism of a particular card determined by one's individual numbers. Of course, as there is a relationship between the cards' symbols and numbers, the two systems do have a certain amount of overlap.

Having gotten into Obama’s numerology, I have a great deal more to say about it, including ways that it brings in the symbolism of other tarot cards, and how Michelle is part of the picture, and even how one could use this information to construct tarot spells promoting global well-being. However, as I find it difficult to get computer time, I shall try to break this information up into a series of short posts over the next few days or weeks.

Surveying Your Empire in 2011

In the previous post, I ended with a suggestion about surveying symbolic worlds and setting them in order. Because 2011 is an Emperor year, you can work with some basic numerological correspondences by adding the numbers of your birth day and year, reducing them to a number between one and nine, and then adding them to the Emperor’s number Four. This gives you a new number that illuminates some possibilities for structuring your own world. (Note: the principles and nuances here are slightly different from finding your personal year card, which involves adding your birth day and year to the number Four, and then, if need be, reducing that number to 21 or less, to identify a corresponding tarot card.)

For example, suppose a person was born on May 6th, so 6 + 4 = 10 = 1 + 0 = 1. The Number One is the impulse to lead and innovate, so this combines with the Emperor’s will to create structure and stability. Furthermore, because 1 + 4 = the energetic Number Five, this in turn may facilitate social change.

In the case of someone whose birth day and year gives Two, the Emperor’s will to create structure and stability guides his or her ability to promote relationships and foster understanding, which supports more satisfying personal and social relationships.

For a birth day and year that make the number Three, you can find creative ways to apply the Emperor’s planning and decision making to new innovations and ideas.

A birth day and year that yield the stable and foundational number Four, combined with the Emperor year’s number Four, may result in especially solid new structures and levels of personal organization.

The number Five’s multi-sensory, multi-tasking qualities combine with the Emperor’s ability to think big, yielding a multiplicity of new possibilities.

The number Six’s interest in the quality of social life combined with the Emperor’s interest in social engineering can generate lifestyle improvements.

When the number Seven’s innovative qualities are applied to the Emperor’s structures, a positive result may be the creation of systems that do a better job of solving problems and meeting human needs.

The number Eight’s concerns with organization can combine with the Emperor’s executive functions to realize a grand vision and projects carried out on a large scale.

The Emperor’s ability to bring ideas into reality applied to the number Nine’s powers of magical proliferation can result in stability that generates abundance.

For a better understanding of applying the year card to basic numerology, you might also refer to my last year’s comments on the Empress Year card.

CARD OF THE YEAR

This new year, 2011, has the Emperor as its year card, because in magical numerology, 2 + 0 + 1 + 1 = 4, the Emperor’s number. This makes it a potentially good year for building more stable structures and for accomplishing realistic goals. However, as the Emperor is also concerned with boundaries and consolidation, he also tends to require some discipline, austerity, and self-sacrifice.

In terms of our larger economic situation, people who have been slammed by the hard times have had to do a lot of retrenching, whether that requires streamlining and refocusing their businesses, or going back to school, or moving in with their parents or children. However, once these people have gone through the worst and lost what there was to lose, (getting down to the bare bones—after all, the Death card’s 13 [13 = 1 + 3 = 4] is a shadow factor for the Emperor), the groundwork that they lay for the next phase of their lives will likely be informed by the Emperor’s practical outlook, based on what is most secure and workable. While this probably won’t translate into immediate benefits for society in general, it will make a difference in the long run. Although the Emperor may sometimes set some narrow boundaries in accommodating the reality principle, he also has the ability to see the big picture and take the long view.

I believe that the Emperor as year archetype bodes well for President Obama, because the Emperor tarot card seems to be favorable for incumbents. For example, I predicted that George Bush II had a good shot at a second term, because the Emperor was the card that came up when I inquired as to who was most likely to win that particular election. Perhaps now that the worst part of the Recession seems to be getting behind us, Obama will be able to do more to restore order in the symbolic cosmos which the Emperor’s orb and crown suggest, (the 8-sided crown being a medieval symbol for the ideal society). This is also a good time for us as individuals to survey our own symbolic worlds and consider the best ways to set them in order.

Our Years in Memory

To pick up on the previous discussion of 2010 as an Empress Year because 2010 adds up, numerologically, to the Empress’s number “3,” this gives us a way to think of the year in terms of a personality. So, as different events occur in our lives and in the larger world, we can reflect on how these events either relate to or do not relate to Empress qualities. Of course, the same principle applies to our personal Year Cards, so we can also reflect on how well these cards are able to characterize our more personal experience of the year. (See the previous post explaining personal Year Cards.) However, in looking back, it may be easier to associate the card for the year as a whole, (as opposed to the personal Year Card), because there’s a little less math involved.

Thinking of different years as different personalities is a good mnemonic, (i.e., it helps us form memory clusters). When, in later years, we look back on our personal timelines, we might reminisce, “Oh yes, that event happened during an Empress year, and it was followed by that other event in the Emperor year, leading to such-and-such a development in the Hierophant year.” (This example could pertain to a situation where you started acting on a creative dream one year, had established some foundations for it by the next year, and had achieved some social authority in your relative field the following year.)

Also, mindful that 2010 is an Empress year, whenever the Empress comes up in a Tarot reading, you can think about how the matters it pertains to relate to your experience of 2010 as a whole. (Again, this also applies to your personal Year Card.)

Year Cards offer an additional level of interpretation to apply when you are doing tarot readings that involve a time line reaching into the past or future. So, if you are working toward some long-term goal and wondering when you’ll reap the rewards, if the Chariot (#7) comes up in a critical position such as the outcome position, that could—in addition to whatever else that card normally represents--denote the year 2014, (or whichever year is your personal Chariot Year). Similarly, when you are working with card spreads that include a position pertaining to the past, (such as the “below you” position in the Celtic Cross spread, which can sometimes point to past influences that exert an Unconscious motivating force), you might add up the numbers to see if the card in question may also point to a particular year whose significant events left a lasting impression or have some other bearing on the present matter.

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.