Year card quiz: how your tarot year is calculated
Add your birth day and month to the current year and find your card. A quiz on the maths, on when a personal year starts and on reading hard cards.
- 5 questions
- ≈ 2 min
- +5 bronze keys for a flawless run
What is the year card and how is it calculated?
This quiz checks how well you know the year card: which numbers make it, when it starts and how to read it. The year card is a Major Arcana card worked out from your birth day and month plus the current year. Unlike the personality card, it changes every year and describes the theme of a stretch of life rather than your character.
The maths is simple. Add your birth day, your birth month and the year number. Add the digits of the result together until you reach 22 or less. That gives an arcanum from The Magician to The World, and a total of 22 goes to The Fool. Your birth year is not part of it, so everyone born on the same day and month shares the same card for the current year.
When does your personal year begin?
A personal year is not the calendar year. The new card takes over on your birthday and lasts until the next one. If you were born in December, you spend almost the whole calendar year still under last year's card. Tayna's calculator allows for that and shows the card that applies right now.
Next year's card is easy to find in advance. Take the same day and month, add next year's number and reduce the digits. It is worth doing on paper and laying the two cards side by side: which theme is leaving, and which one is arriving to replace it.
Reading a difficult year card
Every card is both a lesson and a resource. The Hermit asks for less noise and more listening to yourself, Wheel of Fortune teaches flexibility, Temperance looks for balance between work and rest. Hard cards such as The Tower, The Devil or The Moon do not mean a bad year. The Tower speaks of release from what had long been cracking, and The Moon teaches you to trust intuition where nothing is clear.
The year card does not map out events month by month, and it promises nothing. Treat it as a frame for reflection, and come back to it halfway through your personal year to ask where its theme has already shown up.
Each run takes five random questions from twelve, including sums on real dates, and every answer comes with the full working.
All questions and answers
Open after you play: the full question set with right answers and explanations.
1. Which numbers are added to find your year card?
Right answer: Day, month, current year
Your birth day and month are added to the current year, then the digits are reduced to 22 or less.
2. Someone's birthday is 31 December. What is their card for 2026?
Right answer: The Star
31 + 12 + 2026 = 2069, digits 2 + 0 + 6 + 9 = 17. Card seventeen is The Star, a year of hope and healing.
3. You need your birth year to work out your year card.
Right answer: Myth
The year card describes a stretch of time, not you. The current year replaces your birth year; day and month make it yours.
4. Your birthday is 20 December and it is October 2026. Which year card is active?
Right answer: The 2025 card
A personal year runs from birthday to birthday. Until 20 December the previous year's card is still in play.
5. Your birthday is 4 April. What number is your 2026 year card?
Right answer: 9
4 + 4 + 2026 = 2034, digits 2 + 0 + 3 + 4 = 9. That is The Hermit: a quiet year of finding answers within.
6. From which day does a new year card start to apply?
Right answer: From your birthday
A personal year is not the calendar year: the new card starts on your birthday and lasts until the next one.
7. Your birthday is 9 September. Which year card begins in 2027?
Right answer: Justice
9 + 9 + 2027 = 2045, digits 2 + 0 + 4 + 5 = 11. Card eleven is Justice, a year of fair and honest decisions.
8. Your year card is The Hermit. What is the lesson of that year?
Right answer: Less noise, more listening
The Hermit as a year card points to a time to make less noise and listen to yourself more.
9. Two people were born on 30 December in different years. What is their 2026 card?
Right answer: The same: The Tower
The birth year plays no part: 30 + 12 + 2026 = 2068, digits give 16. Both get The Tower.
10. Your year card is The Tower. How does Tayna read it?
Right answer: Release from what is worn out
A hard card does not mean a bad year. For Tayna The Tower is not disaster but freedom from what was already cracking.
11. Your birthday is 1 January. What is your card for 2026?
Right answer: The Hanged Man, 12
1 + 1 + 2026 = 2028, digits 2 + 0 + 2 + 8 = 12: The Hanged Man, a year to pause and see the familiar anew.
12. How can you find next year's card ahead of time?
Right answer: Add next year instead
Take your birth day and month, add next year's number and reduce the digits the same way.