Tarot for Your Self: Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with the Cards, Part 1

We continue with the read through of Tarot for Your Self with chapter 1. For a book focusing on learning to read tarot for yourself, it only seems fitting that chapter 1 starts us off with creating a tarot profile.

A tarot profile helps you gain insight into your own personal life journey.

I’ll admit, I’ve never seen so many personal profile cards calculated at once and I haven’t heard of a lot of these. It’s a bit daunting, but we’ll go through them one at a time. I’m hoping we come back to them in a later chapter, but if not, maybe we can come up with some exercises to explore the meanings behind these cards more too.

Personality & Soul Cards

The Personality Card “indicates [your] life purpose, aspirations, and lessons to be learned,” while the Soul Card “indicates [your] soul purpose and qualities that will assist [you]”

These cards/numbers are calculated using your birth date. You add all the numbers together, combining them down until they reach a number smaller than 22.

For example, if your birthday is October 14, 1947 it would look like this:

10
14
+1947
=1971

Then add each digit together: 1+9+7+1 = 18

This number is your Personality number, or The Moon in this case. If you add the 1 and 8 together, you get your Soul Number: 9, or The Hermit.

My Personality and Soul Cards are both The High Priestess. What I found interesting was that those of us with the same card for both are specifically working on our soul purpose in this lifetime.

Along with the Soul Card, we have four minor arcana cards that correspond to it, representing lessons and opportunities. It matches the number, so in my case I have the High Priestess, or a 2. My four minor arcana cards would be the 2 of pentacles, cups, wands, and swords. This is a new one to me. Interesting though. I’d never though about incorporating minor cards into profile cards before.

Hidden Factor Card

The Hidden Factor Card “indicates qualities [you] fear, reject, or don’t see that can become [your] greatest strengths. Mary lists a chart for finding out what these cards are. In my case, I get two, Justice and Judgment.

I have to think more about what these cards mean in this position. This is one of the ones I’d never heard of before. And I found this section a confusing one to read. I’d love to get your take on this, what did you think?

Your Year Card

This card changes every year. It represents the “tests, lessons, and experiences you will go through this year.”

In this case you add the month and date of your birth to the current year. So for the above example, you’d just swap out 1947 for and add away 2010, ending up with 9, or The Hermit.

My year card is an 11, Justice:

Your Zodiac Card

Each of the astrological signs is represented by a card. I’m a Scorpio so my card is Death:

Along with the Zodiac Card, Mary adds in another element called Your Zodiac Lessons and Opportunities Cards. These are minor cards that correspond to our sun signs. And each sun sign has three corresponding minor cards, which Mary lists on a chart. My cards are 5, 6, and 7 of cups:

What this means in terms of zodiac lessons and opportunities, I have no clue yet. Do any of you have any idea why it would be a zodiac lesson as opposed to a general lesson?

Your Destiny Card

Your Destiny Card is the minor arcana card that corresponds with your actual birth date. It’s pulled from one of your Zodiac Lessons and Opportunities cards. My card in this case would be the 6 of cups:

Persona Cards

Lastly, we have Persona Cards. These are calculated based on your sun, moon, and rising signs. If you don’t know yours, create a birth chart (it’s free!) to find out what they are.

My sun sign is Scorpio, so my Personal Potential Card is King of Cups.

My moon sign is Leo, so my Inner Teacher Card is King of Wands.

My rising sign is Aquarius, so my Mode of Expression in the World can be described by: King of Swords.

I’m apparently all about the kings. I have no idea what these mean at this point since this section is another new one to me.

Now that I’ve gone through the exercise, I need to spend some time with each card and think things over. If you feel overwhelmed by the number or profile cards, maybe start with the Personality and Soul Cards. If you are feeling ambitious, add in Your Year Card. Worry about the other cards another time. Spend some time with each of the few you choose and journal the first thoughts that come to your mind for each card. Don’t hold back and don’t be afraid to write any random thing down. You don’t know where that idea will lead you on your quest to read for your self.

So that’s that for this part of chapter 1. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted, and a bit overwhelmed. How did you do with selecting profile cards? If you posted them somewhere, please feel free to share in the comments by linking to them. Is there any part of this you’d like me to go over in detail? The only one I’m really confused about is the Hidden Factor/Teacher Card but I can look into that too if anyone else is curious.

Anyway, that’s that. I’m going to spend some time journaling on these myself and will be back with part 2 where we’ll talk about tarot rituals.

Have a happy day!