Quick answer
Tarot birth cards are two Major Arcana cards worked out from your date of birth by adding its digits. The method is modern, popularised by tarot author Mary K. Greer in the 1980s, and it does not describe your personality or predict your life. What it gives you is a fixed pair of cards to study and journal with, which many readers find a useful way into the Major Arcana. The sums below use the Rider-Waite-Smith numbering, where Strength is 8 and Justice is 11.
Working out your birth cards, step by step
Step one: write your birth date as month, day and year in numerals, and split the year into two pairs. For 15 March 1987 that gives 3, 15, 19 and 87. Step two: add those four numbers together. 3 plus 15 plus 19 plus 87 equals 124. Step three: if the total is 23 or more, add its digits together. 1 plus 2 plus 4 equals 7, and 7 is the Chariot. Step four: find the partner card. When the result is a single digit, its partner is the two-digit Major Arcana number that reduces to it, so the Chariot (7) pairs with the Tower (16), because 1 plus 6 equals 7. This person’s birth cards are the Chariot and the Tower.
When the total lands between 10 and 22, that number is the first card and its digit sum is the second. Someone born on 28 November 1990 adds 11, 28, 19 and 90 to get 148, then 1 plus 4 plus 8 to get 13. Thirteen is Death, and 1 plus 3 is 4, the Emperor, so the pair is Death and the Emperor. Two totals are special. A result of 19 reduces to 10 and then to 1, giving three cards: the Sun, the Wheel of Fortune and the Magician. A result of 22 is taken as the Fool, numbered 0 in the deck but counted as 22 here, and pairs with the Emperor. Once you have your pair, the usual way to work with it is to put both cards side by side and ask what the two images have in common and where they pull in different directions. The Major Arcana guide gives a short meaning for each card if you need a starting point.
| Reduced total | Birth card pair in the Rider-Waite-Smith numbering |
|---|---|
| 10 / 1 | Wheel of Fortune and the Magician |
| 11 / 2 | Justice and the High Priestess |
| 12 / 3 | The Hanged Man and the Empress |
| 13 / 4 | Death and the Emperor |
| 14 / 5 | Temperance and the Hierophant |
| 15 / 6 | The Devil and the Lovers |
| 16 / 7 | The Tower and the Chariot |
| 17 / 8 | The Star and Strength |
| 18 / 9 | The Moon and the Hermit |
| 19 / 10 / 1 | The Sun, Wheel of Fortune and the Magician |
| 20 / 2 | Judgement and the High Priestess |
| 21 / 3 | The World and the Empress |
| 22 / 4 | The Fool and the Emperor |
Keep in mind: Birth cards are an arithmetic convention, not a finding about who you are, and a pair that sounds harsh, such as Death and the Emperor or the Tower and the Chariot, says nothing about your character or your future. Use the cards as a standing journaling prompt, and take real questions about health, money or safety to the professionals who deal with them.
Read the full guide
The hub explains how numbers work across the whole deck, from Ace to Ten and through the Major Arcana.