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.