Getting a tarot reading near the beginning of the year is a common practice for those interested in tarot. Many people like to get a glimpse of the year ahead. Another way you can incorporate tarot is by finding your personal card, which can help summarize the energy of the coming year. And if you did get a new year’s reading, it can help confirm that message or clarify parts of the reading. Finding your tarot card can be a quick way to know what to expect and it is something everyone can do, even those who are not tarot enthusiasts.
A tarot deck is divided into two groupings — the major arcana and the minor arcana. The major arcana cards represent the pivotal events of our lives, the structure of the bigger picture. The major arcana is made up of some of the most well-known tarot cards. These are the cards you’re likely to see used in movies or shows, but there are only 22 cards in the major arcana. Some of those include The Fool, The Magician, The Empress, Death, and The Moon. The minor arcana cards, which make up the bulk of the deck, tend to be more about the daily details of your situation. This is not to say they aren’t important, just that they represent the people, tasks, decisions, and events that fill our everyday experiences. These are the small details that add color and texture to the big picture of our lives. And if there is ever something in a tarot reading that you do not like and want to change, making adjustments to minor arcana messages is much easier than trying to change the direction of any major arcana cards in that reading. The minor arcana is the portion of tarot that is made up of suits much like playing cards — swords, wands, cups, and pentacles.
To find out which card is your card of the year, all you will need is your phone. For this exercise, we are only going to focus on the major arcana portion of the tarot deck. Although there are 22 cards, they are numbered 0-21. When you do the math to get the number correspondence for your card, you will want a number between 1 and 22. It is impossible to get a 0 when you are adding numerical values higher than 0 together. To compensate for not being able to have 0 as a number, if your final number is 22, then that means The Fool card, card number 0, is your card for the year.
The first thing you will do is add your birth month and day to the current year, 2024. Let’s look at an example. For our example, we’ll use a birthdate of February 10th. You can add 02 (for the month of February) plus 10 (for the day) plus 2024. If you add 02+10+2024, you get 2036. 2036 is much bigger than numbers 1–22, so we will need to reduce this number. Next, we will add 2+0+3+6, which gives us 11. Using this method, card number 11 — the Strength card — will be your card for the year.
You could also let the universe decide what your card of the year is by simply selecting a random tarot card from your deck. If you use this method, you can use just the major arcana portion or you can use the entire deck. Shuffle your deck and then randomly pull a card.
My personal card for the year does summarize my tarot reading for the year, as well as focuses on the big work I will need to do. It is not my favorite tarot card, but it is appropriate. If you choose to discover your card for 2024, I hope it brings you the same clarity and guidance that mine has brought to me. And if you have any tarot questions, feel free to bring them to The Broom Closet and we’ll be happy to help you out.
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.
