What is a birthday tarot reading?

It is a reading done on or near your birthday that looks back over the year just ended and ahead to the one beginning. This version adds a gift, a challenge and a lesson, so it gives you something to carry as well as a picture of the year.

Can I do a birthday reading for someone else?

You can, as a gift, though it tends to mean most when the person is there to shuffle and talk the cards through with you. Read it as an invitation to reflect, and let them decide what the cards mean for their year.

Birthday tarot spread: your year ahead

About the Birthday spread

The Birthday spread is a five-card reading for the start of a new year of your own life. It looks back at the year behind you and forward to the year ahead, names a gift and a challenge the coming year may bring, and places at its centre the lesson worth carrying with you.

Use it on your birthday or in the days around it, or at any personal new beginning, such as an anniversary or the start of a new chapter. It is a good reading to write down and keep, so you can look at it again next birthday and see how the year actually unfolded.

The positions

1The Year Behind. What did this year bring and teach?
2The Year Ahead. What does the coming year hold?
3The Lesson. What should you carry into the new year?
4Its Gift. What will be on your side?
5Its Challenge. What will you need to work through?

How to lay it out with your own deck

Shuffle while thinking of the year just finished and the one beginning.
Lay The Year Behind at the top left and The Year Ahead at the top right, with a space between them.
Lay The Lesson in the centre, below that space.
Lay Its Gift at the bottom left and Its Challenge at the bottom right, so the five cards form an X with The Lesson at the heart.

Drew the cards at home? Choose “Enter my own cards” above and get the written reading for the cards you drew.

How to read it

Read the top two cards as a pair: the shift from The Year Behind to The Year Ahead is the shape of the change you are moving through.
Its Gift and Its Challenge sit side by side at the bottom. They often answer each other, the gift being what helps you meet the challenge.
The Lesson sits in the centre because everything else passes through it. Read it last, in the light of the other four.
Keep a note of the cards and read them again a year from now. The Year Ahead card often makes more sense in hindsight.

Questions

What is a birthday tarot reading?: It is a reading done on or near your birthday that looks back over the year just ended and ahead to the one beginning. This version adds a gift, a challenge and a lesson, so it gives you something to carry as well as a picture of the year.
Can I do a birthday reading for someone else?: You can, as a gift, though it tends to mean most when the person is there to shuffle and talk the cards through with you. Read it as an invitation to reflect, and let them decide what the cards mean for their year.