Reference
Tarot Birth Card Methods
Four methods for turning a date of birth into a Major Arcana card are in common use, and they do not agree. Below they are worked through on the same three dates so the disagreement can be seen rather than asserted. Every step is arithmetic you can check on paper.
The short version
Someone born on 23 March 1983 has a birth card of Justice, Judgement, Wheel of Fortune, or The High Priestess, depending entirely on which of the four calculations is run. Nothing about the person changes. Only the reduction rule does, and no authority exists that can settle which rule is right.
The four methods compared
Each column is one method. Each row is one date run through all four.
| Birth date | 1. Full date | 2. Year in halves | 3. Last two digits | 4. Reduce each part |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 March 1983 | Justice (11) | Judgement (20) | Wheel of Fortune (10) | The High Priestess (2) |
| 15 March 1990 | Wheel of Fortune (10) | The Sun (19) | The Hermit (9) | The Magician (1) |
| 1 January 2000 | The Emperor (4) | 22: Emperor or Fool | The High Priestess (2) | The Emperor (4) |
Two of the three dates return four different cards. The third returns three, and one of those three is itself unresolved.
1. Add the whole date, then sum the digits
Add the month, the day, and the full four-digit year. Sum the digits of that total. Sum again if the answer is 22 or higher. Stop between 1 and 21.
3 + 23 + 1983 = 2009, then 2 + 0 + 0 + 9 = 11, Justice.
Set out in Mary K. Greer's Tarot for Yourself, and the method this site uses. It is the only one of the four that can land anywhere in the full 1 to 21 range, so it is the only one where every Major Arcana card is a possible result.
2. Split the year into two two-digit numbers
Add the month, the day, and the two halves of the year as separate numbers. Reduce a three-digit total by splitting off its last digit.
3 + 23 + 19 + 83 = 128, then 12 + 8 = 20, Judgement.
What most online calculators run, which is why a reader who checks two sites usually finds two answers. It is also the method that produces the 22 problem below, because 22 is a reachable total rather than an intermediate step.
3. Use only the last two digits of the year
Add the month, the day, and the final two digits of the year. Sum the digits until the answer falls between 1 and 21.
3 + 23 + 83 = 109, then 1 + 0 + 9 = 10, Wheel of Fortune.
A holdover from when a birth year in the 1900s could be written as two digits without ambiguity. Applied to anyone born from 2000 onward it treats the year as almost nothing, which is the reason it drifts furthest from the other three.
4. Reduce each part first, then add
Reduce the month, the day, and the year each to a single digit. Add those three. Reduce once more if needed.
3, then 23 becomes 5, then 1983 becomes 21 and then 3. So 3 + 5 + 3 = 11, and 11 becomes 2, The High Priestess.
Standard numerological practice applied to a date, common among readers who came to tarot through numerology. Reducing at every stage means the result can only ever be a card numbered 1 to 9, so half the Major Arcana is unreachable by this method.
The 22 problem
Method 2 can land on exactly 22, and 22 is not a card in a 78-card deck numbered 0 to 21. Two answers are given, and both have a defensible basis. Reducing again gives 2 + 2 = 4, The Emperor, which is consistent with how every other total is handled. Treating 22 as The Fool relies on the older printings, where the unnumbered Fool was placed last and carried the number 22 rather than 0.
Someone born on 1 January 2000 hits this: 1 + 1 + 20 + 00 = 22. Under method 1 the same date gives 1 + 1 + 2000 = 2002, then 2 + 0 + 0 + 2 = 4, The Emperor, with no ambiguity at all. Our calculator returns both readings whenever a sum reaches 22 instead of choosing for you.
How to choose, and how much it matters
Method 1 is the most defensible starting point for two reasons that have nothing to do with tradition. It uses the whole date, so no part of the information is thrown away, and it can reach every Major Arcana card from 1 to 21, so the result is not restricted by the arithmetic before the date is even considered. Method 4 can only ever return nine of the twenty-two.
Beyond that, pick one and stay with it. Running all four and keeping whichever card you liked best is a way of choosing a card and calling it a calculation. The disagreement documented on this page is a good reason to hold any single result loosely, and a poor reason to shop between methods until one flatters you.
A birth card is arithmetic performed on a calendar date. It is a decent prompt for reflection and a weak claim about a person, and the fact that four correct calculations give four different answers is most of the evidence you need for both halves of that sentence.
Sources and further reading
- Mary K. Greer, Tarot for Yourself: A Workbook for Personal Transformation, which sets out the full-date method and the pairing of a two-digit result with its reduction.
- The Tarot de Marseille ordering, where The Fool is unnumbered and conventionally placed last, which is the basis for reading 22 as The Fool rather than reducing it.
- This page is free to cite and to quote. If you are writing about birth cards and want the comparison table, take it, with a link back to https://sotarot.com/tarot-birth-card-methods.
Birth card methods: frequently asked questions
Why do tarot birth card calculators give different answers?
Because four different reduction methods are in circulation and no authority exists to settle which is correct. For 23 March 1983 they produce Justice, Judgement, Wheel of Fortune, and The High Priestess. All four are doing the arithmetic correctly. They disagree about what the arithmetic should be, which is a question tarot has never had a governing body to answer.
Which tarot birth card method is correct?
None of them holds that status, and any page claiming otherwise is stating a preference. The full-date method is the most widely documented and the only one that can reach all 21 numbered Major Arcana, which is the strongest practical argument for it. That is a reason to prefer it, not evidence that the others are wrong.
What happens when a birth card calculation lands on 22?
Two readings split here. One reduces 22 to 2 + 2 = 4, The Emperor. The other treats 22 as The Fool, numbered 0 in modern decks and printed as 22 in several older ones, including the Tarot de Marseille ordering. 1 January 2000 reaches exactly 22 under the second method, so it is a real case rather than a hypothetical.
Can I have more than one tarot birth card?
Yes, under the methods that can land above 9. A two-digit result reduces once more to give a second card: Wheel of Fortune at 10 reduces to 1, The Magician. The larger number is usually read as the outward, lived version and the smaller as what drives it. A single-digit result stands alone and has no pair.
Does the method I choose actually change anything?
It changes which card you are handed, and on two of the three dates worked above the four methods agree on nothing. Anyone treating a birth card as a fixed statement about a person has to explain why the statement changes with the arithmetic. Read as a prompt for reflection rather than a diagnosis, the disagreement matters much less.
Which method does So Tarot use?
The first one: month plus day plus the full four-digit year, reduced by summing digits. The calculator shows every step of the sum so the result can be checked by hand, and it shows both readings when a calculation reaches 22 rather than picking one silently.
Work out your own
The calculator runs method 1 and prints every step of the sum, so you can follow it against this page.
Calculate your tarot birth card