Facing the Shadows:  How the Tarot Illuminates Our Soul's Journey

by Beth Owl's Daughter

As we have been discussing, the sequential progression of the Major Arcana (trumps) in the Tarot, often called The Fool's Journey, seems to parallel the stages of life and lessons that are common to the human experience.  And based on the numerology of your date of birth, the Tarot offers a system that can help you understand the patterns of your own life's challenges.

Up to now, we have focused on reducing the date of birth to the lowest single-digit number, as we have explored the meanings of cards 0 through 9.  But we had noted in the first article that if your birth date reduces to 22 or less, it is within the numbering system of the Tarot Major Arcana.  This means that more than one card has lessons for us.

For example, Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1929. 4+4+1929=1,937.  And 1+9+3+7=20.  So, in part, she is under the influence of card 20, which is the Judgment card in the Major Arcana of the Tarot.  But the 20 can also be reduced to 2.  So, a second card affects her, that of card 2 -- the High Priestess. 

Thus, adding up the numbers of your birthdate, if any reduce to a number between 1 and 22, you have determined one aspect of your Tarot profile -- your Personality number.  If that number is a double-digit, you can further reduce, to get a single-digit number.  That base number will be your Soul number.  In the example of Maya Angelou, her Personality number is 20, and her Soul number is 2. 

The Personality card indicates the more fluid personality traits as you change and grow with this life's experiences.  The Soul card is the lowest reduced number, and reflects the steady, golden thread of your inner self and the soul's tasks of this lifetime.  These are the qualities that you must express, or else you will always feel that something is missing from your life.

And what about people that don't have double-digits?  What if your Soul and Personality cards are one and the same?  For instance, if your birthday happened to be November 2, 1981, you would figure 11+2+1,981=1994, which reduces to 23. This does not fall in the range of the Major Arcana (1 to 22), so you reduce it down to 5.  For people with the same card for Soul and Personality, their present incarnation is one in which they are very focused on deep soul work, at every level. 

But as we will soon see, they, like those who have separate Soul and Personality cards, are still under the influence of another card, one that determines their lessons, challenges and the shadow aspect of their life's journey.

Here's how it works.  As was mentioned in a previous article, not since 998 C.E. has anyone been born on a date that reduces to one, without first reducing to a number between 1 and 22.  But many people may have dates that reduce to 10 -- for example, April 25, 1970. 

This person, then, is under the influence of both the 10 (Wheel of Fortune) as the Personality card and the 1 (The Magician) as the Soul card.  On the other hand, someone born, say, on July 9, 1938 would have the Sun (19) as their Personality card and the Magician as their Soul card.  Both people would be said to be in the Magician profile, because that is the base number of their birthday.

The Magician profile therefore consists of three influences - The Magician, the Wheel of Fortune, and the Sun.  But for the person born 4/25/70, the Sun card, although a part of the profile, is not overtly to be found in their numbers.  It is therefore said to be a "hidden" factor, a shadow lesson that must be understood in order for the Magician profile person to be fully actualized.  Similarly, the part of the profile missing for the July 9 person is The Wheel of Fortune. 

All of the Tarot profiles have this shadow aspect, with some more obvious than others.  For example, for a person whose shadow aspect is 13 (Death), the challenges may be obvious -- learning that Death is not an enemy to be feared or conquered, but a natural part of life, with its own beauty inherent in the workings of the Universe.  But what about our April birthday example above?  How can The Sun card be a shadow factor?

The normal meaning of the Sun card has to do with happiness, open-hearted trust, and success.  But as a hidden factor, it is what Carl Jung calls a "bright shadow."  This idea says that our darker side has an equal counterpart: the bright or golden shadow which contains our highest potential, but whose aspects may not have yet manifested themselves in our life.

For our April birthday example, this is a person who needs to learn how to acknowledge their accomplishments and talents.  They need to open up more to the joys of friendship and trust that life is not out to get them. Their challenge is to understand that in tandem with their Magician soul energy, they have enormous power to create their own reality.

In fact, all of the profiles contain both the light and dark shadow aspects.  As Jung said, "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."  It is only by fully understanding and making peace with our shadow side that we can encounter our true potential and live in balance.

Here is a chart to help you discover what your hidden aspect or shadow lessons in the Tarot are.  Next time, we will resume our discussion of the meanings of the remaining cards in more detail.