What’s your go-to birthday tarot spread?
Mine’s in a few days and I want to try something new this year. I’ve been doing a simple past/present/future spread on my birthdays, but I’m ready for something with… more depth. Ideally, spreads that look at soul lessons or karmic patterns for the year to come. Also, does anyone else notice their birthday readings tend to be super accurate? Like the cards just work harder on your solar return? Share your birthday tarot traditions please!
Deepen Your Tarot Practice Beyond the Cards
Finding meaningful tarot discussions and authentic guidance can be surprisingly difficult. Discover a space where your questions are welcomed and your intuitive growth is celebrated: Start Your Journey
The Wheel of the Year spread works great for birthdays.
Eight cards in a circle representing the seasonal shifts ahead. Pull a ninth for the center as your core theme. Been doing this for six years and I plan to keep doing it. I also do this for my regular clients but I’ll pull additional cards for some months.
Happy early birthday! The solar return thing is real, I swear the universe pays extra attention around our birthdays.
For soul lessons, I do a 12-house spread that mirrors the astrological houses. One card for each area of life for the coming year. Takes forever, but you get this whole map of what’s coming, and I only ever do this for my birthday (or my client’s birthday), so I don’t mind putting the extra time in.
The 12th house card (hidden enemies, karma, unconscious patterns) always gets me. Last year mine was The Tower there and… yeah, had to face some old patterns I’d been avoiding.
Another one I love is the “gift, challenge, and hidden strength” spread. Three cards but you pull three for each position, so nine total. The layers you get from reading them in combinations show stuff a simple spread would miss.
I also pull a card for each month ahead on my birthday, then check back monthly to see how it’s playing out.
Like giving yourself breadcrumbs for the year.
I keep a birthday tarot journal where I write down my yearly readings. Been doing it for a while now. It’s weird how often the same cards show up years later in similar spots. Like the deck remembers what it was trying to tell me before.
I just do a massive Celtic Cross on my birthday and call it done. But I write everything down and reread it throughout the year.
The stuff that doesn’t make sense at first always clicks later.
Try pulling your birth card (based on numerology) plus your year card for the upcoming age, then three cards for how they’ll interact.
Mine showed The Hermit meeting The Lovers last year and that pretty much summed up my whole “learning to date again after being single forever” situation.
Been doing the 7 chakra spread lately after years of just cartomancy.
The tarot version has way more layers to it. What I like is how each position digs into different aspects; you’re not just getting surface-level stuff.
Maps out everything from root to crown, so you see the spiritual, emotional, and physical all at once. Kind of like getting a readout of what’s happening internally and where to focus.
Here’s a birthday spread I’ve been using: Take your Tarot Year Card and put it in the middle. Place four cards around it for Ally, Challenge, Practice, and Gift.
Where you put the cards matters. When the Year Card pops up again in the spread, you get a much clearer reading. Without that, it’s more of a broad overview for the year.
The five-card setup looks nice with most decks too.
Birthday readings are great because you’re in this liminal space between years. The veil is thinner.
I pull 13 cards - one for each lunar cycle in the year ahead. Document everything, even the cards that seem wrong. By the next birthday, you’ll be amazed at what actually played out.
Anyone else notice certain cards stalk them around birthdays?
Three of Swords showed up in every spread for a week before mine last year. I was dreading it, but it turned out to be about necessary endings, not heartbreak.
Still intense though.
Birthday readings should be done at your birth time, not midnight. That’s when the energy is supposedly aligned with when you entered the world.
Yeah the Celtic Cross could work for that.
It’s good for getting a general picture when you’re not sure what to ask about. I’ve been using it as my default spread lately. Covers a lot of ground without needing a specific focus. Some people swear by it, others prefer different spreads.
I do this birthday card thing every year with my sister and two friends. We all learn to pull our own cards together - feels more like we’re shaping the year rather than just hearing predictions.
The spread we use has 5 cards:
The Wish
What fuels it
What dims it
Practical step
Blessing
We count which suits show up most and pick candle colors to match the element. Been thinking about tracking which suits dominate each birthday reading to see if there’s a pattern. Cup-heavy years and relationship stuff, that kind of thing.
I learned the Birthday Wheel from my mentor, 13 cards total.
Your birth card goes in the center and the other 12 go around it for each month of the year. Been doing it for years now. The center card is meant to show what you’re working through that year.
Did a Shadow at the Threshold reading last year around my birthday.
The spread has you look at the top card for your year’s theme and the bottom card for what you’re avoiding. Then you split the deck into three piles, each of which is supposed to give you practical advice. Mine basically told me to stop procrastinating on something I already knew I needed to deal with.
Birthday reads: I keep the tone open. No third-party peeking, no health or legal calls. You decide what to do with the info.
For deeper work, I like an 8-card Karmic Mirror-Contract, Current Lesson, Repeating Loop, Catalyst, Choice Point, Boundary, Support, and Integration for the year.
I usually stick to Majors and Aces for a big-picture feel, and I cut after breathing your age in and out. If a heavy theme shows up, I name the tendency and suggest one action.
That’s it. Prefer a spread that names patterns without prescribing anything.
I’ve been using the Solar Return spread lately, it’s where you combine your solar return astrology chart with tarot cards. You get your solar return chart online (it’s calculated for your birthday each year), then pull tarot cards to represent where each planet falls in the houses. Creates a really personalized yearly reading. Some houses won’t have any planets, which is fine. You just work with the ones that do.
Southern Hemisphere here. Birthday wheels are different - June birthdays get their Sun or Empress in winter, so I read it as internal reflection rather than summer expansion. I’ve been doing these at parties and always start from the birthday month, not January. Throws people off when I pull cards at New Year’s and December is their midpoint.
I did this 5-card spread for a friend recently that’s based on the Wheel of Fortune. It shows the ups and downs of your year in a mountain shape.
You put the cards out with the third one at the top.
The first card is about your past year
Second is what you need to let go of.
The middle card (the peak one) is a gift you’re giving yourself.
Fourth shows what to bring in
Fifth is about the coming year.
My friend got a lot out of it. The mountain layout really helps the reading make sense.
