A Guide to Exploring Our Tarot Year Cards
With 2026 approaching, the time for self-reflection and preparation has arrived. Our transformative journeys can often feel stagnant, but identifying our year cards allows us to zoom out and see the larger vision. Our year cards can provide insight into what energy has been present in 2025, and what energy will be influencing 2026. Realizing where we are in our journeys will help us flow with each phase instead of trying to force them along. Our journeys are meant to be slow, they are too important and powerful to rush.
How to Find Your Year Card
To start, you will need to calculate your personal year number. Add your birth month and date to the current year. Then add those digits together. If the sum is greater than 21, add those digits together. The major arcana card your number lines up with is your year card. In this chart I’m excluding The Fool, which is card 0.
Example for July 6 birthday: 7 + 6 + 2025 = 2038. 2 + 3 + 8 = 13. 13 is the Death card.
2025 Year Card Reflection
Journal prompt: Now that you know your year card, reflect on a time when you’ve felt your year card’s energy in 2025.
Reflection is important, but the year isn’t over, there is still work to do in our card. The following spread brings further reflection and exploration into how we can work with this card for the remainder of the year.
Sometimes it can feel hard to receive a clear answer from just one card. If needed, pull a clarifying card. I pulled one for the second question.
Previous Year Card Reflections
Journal prompt: If you want to do an even deeper dive, reflect on how the energy and events that took place during previous years lined up with your respective tarot year cards.
Personally, I went back and reflected on every year from 2019 onward, and was blown away by how perfectly they lined up. In the following paragraphs I’m going to summarize how they lined up for me, to inspire you to make your own connections. I want to point out that my reflections will not match your reflections. There are so many ways to interpret the cards, and we are not going through the same journey. Just because I struggled during my Hanged Man and Justice years doesn’t mean you will struggle in yours. And honestly, I won’t be dreading them next time around, because now that I know them, I feel more equipped to work with them.
2019 was my Chariot year, which is all about finding your identity. That year was full of synchronicities that led me to a deeper connection with my creative and spiritual practices. In 2020 I entered what I learned to be line two, the death line, which encompasses Strength through Temperance. When I entered Strength, everything I thought I knew about myself changed; it has been an intense journey of shedding and surrendering ever since. In 2021, I entered The Hermit, aligning as my most introspective year, filled with shadow work and emotional exploration. The only year I felt I got a break from the intensity was 2022, my Wheel of Fortune year. I moved to Colorado, fell in love with my person, and got to explore nature in a way I had never experienced. That year I could see a glimmer of the vision, I felt like my path was starting to align. Suddenly, I lost the glimmer. I moved into Justice and The Hanged Man, two extremely hard and uncomfortable years where nothing was clear. To be real, I felt like I had lost touch with spirit, creativity, and hope almost entirely.
This year I entered my Death year, finally nearing the end of line two. Stagnant energy has been fading and my confidence has been increasing throughout the year. In April I started creating again; in September I relaunched my art shop with an entirely new direction; and by October the Death card energy became abundantly clear. I have been slowly shedding an unaligned version of myself since I entered Strength, by listening to my body, prioritizing what feels good, and releasing what doesn’t. This year, I am finally feeling the effects, and showing up accordingly.
It’s been so insightful learning the story of the major arcana and how I’ve been moving through it. A part of me can’t help but wish I knew this earlier, but I’m grateful to have the awareness now and going into 2026.
2026 Year Card Preparation
Engage in the following spread to receive further insight into your 2026 year card.
My 2026 year card is Temperance, and I am very comforted by that. I’ve pulled this card frequently over the past month, and each time I feel a warm comforting “everything will be okay” energy. My Temperance pulls have emphasized connecting with my guides, surrendering to the unknown, and prioritizing aligned creations and activities. Although transformation will continue to be slow, there is a difference between slow progression, and sticky stagnant energy like what I felt in the Hanged Man. Temperance is a reminder for me that deep soul work is too important to be rushed.
For my second 2026 year card, I pulled the Devil. Right before I pulled my 2026 year cards, I was in a meditation, when I started doubting my intuition. Right before I pulled the Devil, I knew I was going to pull it, confirming what I also knew, those thoughts were not true. The idea of “being the witness” came to me during this pull. Working with the Devil, I will learn to be the witness to my negative thoughts instead of judging them. The witness doesn’t get intertwined, just observes and lets those thoughts drift away. The Devil is the first card in line 3, the rebirth line. Embodying the witness would certainly feel like a massive rebirth.
I pulled 8 of cups for what it will feel like to move through 2026, confirming my thoughts on the Devil card clear as day. 8 of cups signifies leaving a harmful cycle. My entire life I have been trying to heal anxious loops, and embodying the witness just clicked when I pulled the Devil card.
7 of pentacles will help me flow with this energy. I have been receiving the message of patience, trust, and surrender a lot recently. As an anxious girly, this is something I struggle with daily. Since I’ve already received this message with Temperance, I’m taking this as an emphasis and call for action. Physical reminders are one of my strongest tools to stay on track, so I set this reading as my phone background. I plan to enhance it with some added graphics later and turn it into a 2026 vision board!
I pulled 5 of swords reversed for the message for my future self when things feel heavy. “The cycle you’re in is supposed to be slow, slow is natural. Even though it’s slow, it will come to completion. You’re doing the work, you’re breaking free, the end is coming.”
Inspiration and Resources
Mary K. Greer developed the method for finding your tarot year card, and explains this method in her book “Tarot for Your Self”. I personally have not read this book, but it is on my list!
I heard about this concept from Lindsay Mack, creator of my favorite podcast “Tarot for the Wild Soul” which I highly recommend, along with any offering from them. I first heard them talk about this concept in episode 274. For a deeper understanding of what it means to move through each card, you can listen to episode 14, where they explore the three lines of the major arcana and connect them to the birth, death, and rebirth cycle.
I used the deck “Divina” by Mary Evans for this reading. Her drawings are super unique and have been such a helpful tool in my tarot learning process. Temperance is my favorite card in this deck, and the imagery has significantly contributed to how I feel when I pull this card.
To fully benefit from your 2026 spread, use the cards as reminders during important and challenging moments. To make sure you remember your 2026 messages, take a picture of your 2026 spread and set it as your phone background, or print it and put it somewhere you’ll see often. You can also use your cards to create a 2026 vision board. Wishing you a supportive and nurturing 2026, and hope this helps you tap into a better understanding of your transformative journey!