Confusion on year cards

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 03 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Alex	03 Jan 2004
I started building a year's card cycles for myself. So my personality card is VI-The Chariot. Naively, then, I started laying consecutive cards beside each consecutive year, thinking, we all go through cycles of 21 years and visit every single Major Arcanum card consecutively, with the exception of The Fool. Stupid of me, no wonder arithmetics was never more than a passing C for me. Can someone who knows a bit more take a look at this? I was born at 11 Sep 1967. So went trhough 7 Chariot 8 Strength 9 Hermit 10 Wheel of Fortune 11 Justice 12 Hanged Man And Then since cycles of: 4 Emperor 5 Hierophant 6 Lovers 7 Chariot 8 Strength 9 Hermit 10 Wheel of Fortune 11 Justice 12 Hanged Man Never had a Death year (?!) but seem to be going to have one by 2009 (11+9+2009= 2029=13). If I survive the second Death year, I'll have my first Temperance year by 2019 (11+9 +2019= 2039)= 14. This is SO odd!!!!!!!!! Alex.

MeeWah	04 Jan 2004
Alex: I do not know how correct my understanding of this is, but I think the lack of 13-Death until your later years is due to the original 4-digit base number. Ditto for the occurence of 14-Temperance. In your case, the base number of 1987. In her book Tarot Constellations, Mary K Greer provides a Year Card Chart on page 137 that is based on Angeles Arrien's original work on the Lifetime Cards. Depending on the base number, an individual will not see certain Year Cards within their lifetime. This chart is constructed in ten-year cycles. On page 138, Greer states: "...every ten years [one jumps] to a new cycle of numbers, usually beginning one number higher than the last cycle. If you are young, or if the sum of your birth month and day is a high number (like 12+29=41), you will not experience the higher numbered major arcana cards. Nevertheless, they are quite common for most of the famous people listed as examples for each constellation pattern. Each historical "age" has its own characteristic pattern of Year Card numbers, which indicates its stage in the cyclical ebb and flow of our "Christian Era" (or "Common Era" as some people prefer to call it) as defined by the Gregorian calendar. Remember that the Year Cards, like the Personality and Soul Cards, give us a look at ourselves in a mirror colored and blurred by this Western Anglo-European society we live in. Perhaps we need a spiritual lunar calendar such as the ancient Mayans used, in which we might see a clearer reflection of our soul's true potential. "People born in any one year could hvae any of 42 possible four-digit Base Numbers, but these reduce to a far more limited range of cards, depending on the year. For example, people born in 1992 can only have Personality Cards between 2 and 13, or 11 of the 22 constellation patterns. Someone born in 1959 can only have one of 15 possible cards. A person born in 1892 cpi;d jave any of 18 possible cards from 5 to 22, but not Single 2's, 3's or 4's--which did not become possible until January 1, 1957. After 1991 there will be no more 19-10-1's or 22-4's until the close of the 21st century, yet these numbers have grown steadily in frequency throughout the last five hundred years until now. These give us our generational factors. "In a lifetime of 80 or so years, the average person will experience the majority of the major arcana cards as Year Cards." Greer goes on to explain that an examination of one's list of cards will show some cards one will never experience. These could represent qualities already developed. The cards that occur the most will probably be the most difficult to learn.

Inana	13 Jan 2004
Alex, I remember months ago i tried to calculate my cycles too . I did it wrong and needed to edit after. Now i dont know where i put that paper! You arent the only one bad at maths!! There were cards i wasnt going to have (the higher and lower ones), and i was going to be most of the time through chariots, justices, hangued men and deaths. Thanks for all the explanation MeeWah. Its logical and sounds reasonable to talk about generations...

The Confusion on year cards thread was originally posted on 03 Jan 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.