BTP39: Tarot by Numbers with Kari Samuels

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BTP39: Tarot by Numbers with Kari Samuels

BTP39: Tarot by Numbers with Kari Samuels

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One of the fastest ways to learn Tarot is to understand basic numerology.

When you know what the numbers 1 to 10 signify, you can start to de-code the 40 numbered Minor Arcana cards and you gain deeper insights into the Major Arcana cards.

So in this podcast, I invited intuitive counsellor and numerology expert, Kari Samuels, to talk about how to master the Tarot by numbers.

In this episode, Kari and I discuss:

- What the numbers tell us about the Tarot cards… and what the Tarot cards tell us about the numbers
- How to create a personal connection with the numbers in the Tarot
- The significance of the numbers from 1 to 10
- How to look for meaningful patterns in your Tarot readings using the numbers

Additional Resources:

Podcast Transcript

Brigit: You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, and this is Episode 39: Tarot by Numbers with Kari Samuels.

Voice-Over

Welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast, where you will learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and live an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide.

Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence. And now, here is your host Brigit Esselmont.

Introduction

Brigit: Hello and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot Podcast.

I am so excited to have you here for episode 39. Now remember you can get all your show notes over at BiddyTarot.com. And for this episode it's BiddyTarot.com/39.

Now one of the quickest and fastest ways of learning Tarot is to understand the numbers behind the Tarot cards.

You don't have to learn hundreds and hundreds of different numbers, just knowing what the numbers from one through to ten mean, can give you some really rich and deep insights into the Tarot card meanings.

I know a little bit about numerology, but I don't a huge amount about numerology, so I invited my friend Kari Samuels to come and share her knowledge about the numbers.

The beautiful thing about Kari, apart from her being an absolute gorgeous, gorgeous soul, is that Kari has experience across numerology, Tarot, and astrology. Every week, she's on her social media sharing various forecasts using all three tools.

So I was thrilled when Kari said, “Yup, I'm going to come on to your podcast and I'm going to help your listeners learn all about numerology.”

So in this interview Kari, shares with us a little bit about how we can use numerology in Tarot, plus she shares all of the different meanings from numbers one through to ten and how we can create that personal and intuitive connection with the Tarot but through the numbers.

Let's welcome Kari Samuels.

Brigit: Hello, and welcome Kari. I'm so, so pleased to have you here today.

Kari: Oh my gosh! Giddy, giddy I am. I'm so giddy to be here Brigit. I just called you giddy because that's how I feel being with you. That's so funny. Yes, I'm excited. Can you tell?

Brigit: Just a little. That's all good.

Kari: It's Giddy Tarot, not Biddy Tarot.

Brigit: So Kari, tell me a little bit about how you got into Tarot in the first place.

Kari: Well, Tarot is my roots, so now I'm a psychic and a teacher of all things psychic and intuitive divination. However, I find that, for me, Tarot was the roots of my divination journey and my psychic journey.

A long time ago, around 20 years ago, I started getting psychic messages, but they were very uncontrolled, like it was random. Psychic energy, I guess it was like a psychic puberty, you know like stuff happens when you don't want it to. You're just like, “What's going on with me?”

So I needed a way to channel this energy, so I got some Tarot cards and I got a book on Tarot and I started doing readings for people with the Tarot, but I didn't do in-person readings at the time. I did like for people I hadn't seen for a while. I'd call them on the phone and I'd say, “Can I do a distant reading for you?”

I would do a reading and then I would call them and tell them my answers. That was the foundation of my whole psychic journey, my divination journey. It just opened up so many doors for me. Yeah, that's what happened for me.

Brigit: Yeah, wonderful. These days, how are you using Tarot in your everyday life?

Kari: Well, here's the thing, I was a Tarot – I didn't have a TV for like 11 years. I would mostly read about a lot of the Tarot actually, all things divination kind of thing. I studied the Tarot very intensely.

What happened as a result of that is I became very psychic without the Tarot, if that makes sense. But I'd use Tarot for like years and that's how I started with clients and that's how – I mean years and years and years.

What happened is because it's such a good vehicle for intuition it actually started to become faster for me not doing readings with the Tarot.

However, I always recommend when people are devolving their psychic ability, always, or want to get in touch with their guides or want to get in touch with their angels, which is basically what I teach, I always recommend starting with the Tarot. Always.

Because it's like having an interpreter between you and your guide. It's like having an intermediary. It gives your spirit guides and your angels a vessel to communicate to you. That's not your dreams. It's basically a lucid dream that you're very active about. So I always recommend that.

But still to this day, I do astrology and numerology forecast videos. Because I have found the Tarot to be how I learned numerology, and astrology to a lot of extent, but especially numerology, I started bringing the Tarot into to how I explain the numerology because I feel like it does such a thorough job and it helps people understand it with the visual and all the archetypal information that's encoded in it. I bring it into that.

And I also do on Instagram and Facebook a weekly Tarot forecast. And everyone always says, “Did you write this just for me?” Because as you know, it's very accurate

Brigit: Yeah, yeah. I find that too with the weekly Tarot card draw that I do. People say, “Yeah, exactly. Did you write it just for me?” Like, “No, I wrote it for about 25,000 people.” But I'm really glad it resonates because it's tapping into our collective energy that we're all experiencing, so, of course, it's going to resonate in some way or another. Yeah, it's wonderful.

I'm really interested, one because we're going to talk about Tarot and numerology, but what I find interesting is that you use Tarot to explain numerology because, for me, I use numerology to explain Tarot. I'm really intrigued to see it working the opposite way as well.

Tell me just a little bit how does that work for you when you're teaching numerology. How are you integrating the Tarot into that?

Kari: Oh, it's essential because, again, with the Tarot a picture's worth a thousand words, especially with everything maybe more than a thousand words, with all the archetypal information that's in these cards. There's so much symbolism.

Basically, let's say August is an eight month or whatever, so the energy of the Strength card, everything in it, all the symbolism and all the meaning behind it, it's really going to be what our lesson is for the month. Every month, it's pretty accurate.

The lessons of the energy of eight – it's not just say like the Strength card. It would also be the Eight of Swords, the Eight of Cups, the Eight of Pentacles, the Eight of Wands. They all have lessons about strength and power. All of those feed into it.

For instance, when I'm doing my July video, this is hypothetical because people are listening to this after. Let's say I'm doing a July video, let's just say for instance because this was something I did for my July video. I was thinking the Chariot was a really good lesson for us is learning how to control your mind and your emotions and it's very spiritual and the sphinxes and looking inward.

However, to me, this month, in that month of July that I did that, the Seven of Cups seemed more, to me, intuitively representing it because there's that sense of soul searching. There's that sense of discrimination. So it's such a good illustration of the energy of the number because of that.

It's like because I'm so connected to the numbers but I'm also connected to how I learn the numbers through the Tarot and all the – because the Minor Arcana, they're our daily lessons. All of those seven cards would represent the seven energy and our daily lives.

To me, that's such a great way of illustrating the numbers because they are such a good pictorial and energetic interpretation. Does that make sense?

Brigit: Yeah, absolutely. What I really like here was, many things I really liked, but this sort of conscious grouping of all of the seven say, in the Tarot or even with all of the eights.

Say with the eights and the Strength card, looking at how does strength and power – how does that emerge in the Eight of Cups, how does that emerge in the Eight of Swords and so on. And finding this beautiful thread between all of the eights or all of the sevens and thinking about how does that then give you some additional information about those cards.

I also love that you're connecting them with the months. I've never thought of that, but it's so obvious.

Kari: Well I do, again, it's an astrology/numerology forecast every month and every time I would talk about it, I would see these cards in my head, so I was like, “I'm just going to start bringing them into the videos,” because, first of all, it's fun. We all love We all love those divination tools and it helps people. It helps people so much.

And you know the best way to learn any divination is to personally connect to it, so when I'm doing that I'm building a personal connection between what they're experiencing and the number and the astrology and the Tarot weaves it all together. But the Tarot just naturally weaves those elements together, so I'm glad it exists so that I have an opportunity to do that.

Brigit: Yeah. It's just given me this idea of if you're listening to this and thinking, “Oh yeah, I really want to get deeper into the numerology behind Tarot.”

Every month, take January, number one, have a look at all your aces in the Tarot deck and have a look at all the sort of the one cards and just start to connect personally and intuitively with that energy for that whole month.

January is such a good month to think about number one.

Kari: Absolutely.

Brigit: Once we get into February, then start looking at all your twos and see how you can sort of integrate the energy of the two's in the Tarot throughout that month. Oh, that could be such a fun exercise to do.

Kari: It is really fun. It is really fun. The thing is in 2016, at the time of this recording, we're in a nine universal year, so the months – the one, January, is a one month, but it's also a one universal month, meaning that if you add the number of the month to the year, it's exactly the same.

In 2017, in numerology, the month will change, but you can still apply it because it is a one month if you say January is the first month. And it is a fresh start, so it is good to look at the aces.

It's a little bit different in classic numerology in terms of universal months and months of the year, but I actually think it's a good way to go starting in January with the aces because it is a new start. I still think that's a really, really good way to go. Truthfully.

Brigit: Wonderful. I'd love to sort of tap your brain around each of the numbers. We're not going to go up to 100 or 1,000 or anything crazy like that.

I'm just curious to just sort of hear you speak about say the numbers from one to ten and what's kind of the significance behind those and maybe what does that tell us about the Tarot or even just life in general. If you'd be happy to walk through one through ten.

Kari: Of course, absolutely.

One, like we talk about the aces, one is beginning energy. It is initiation energy.

But it's also the number of individuating. It's the number of you having something that's a new inspiration or something that's not been done before. The magician as we know, pointing up to the heaven and then toward earth to manifest and incorporating all those elements. That is the energy of inspiration and getting some kind of new idea.

One energy is very much about independence though as well because it's about making yourself number one or being the first at something.

Now number two is intuition, just like the High Priestess has to find that balance between the two parts of the brain and find that centering to find her intuitive center. It's very much about intuition, but it's also about partnering and relationships. You see that a lot in the Minor Arcana, right?

Brigit: Yeah. Definitely.

Kari: Two teaches you lessons about that, about the balance, different types of balance and you see those again. This is why I like the Minor Arcana because you wouldn't necessarily find that all in the High Priestess, but she's the ultimate. She's the most empowered version of it.

In three, the Empress. I love the Empress. You know how the Empress has that Venus and the heart, the Venus symbol. So three is very much associated with self-love and expressing your feelings and expression and joy and beauty and really about creation. So you're creating something and that's why, of course, the Empress is often pregnant.

Then the Emperor brings us to squaring your corners. It's all about foundations, squaring the corners of your life because four is about that square. All things physical manifestation, logical. It's interesting because a lot of creative types are four life paths; however, they like to have a creative business.

I don't know if you're a four life path, but you feel very much like one.

Brigit: Yeah, it's sounding like me.

Kari: Yeah, I was thinking, “Brigit feels very four to me.” They like their corners squared and they're very much about security and family, but because of that Emperor energy, they like to have their own empire. But they could still be very creative. It's just in a way that's not like a fly-by-night thing.

I'm curious to do your life-path number I could almost guarantee you have four in there somewhere. And you have two kids, so there are four people in your family.

Five is the midpoint, so it's looking forward and backwards. Five shakes things up. In the Tarot, you see it shake things up a little bit. It's that sense of ooh, all this stability that was created with the four is now like let's test that foundation. You want to experience them through your five senses.

The Hierophant is questioning those foundations to create something radical and new or sometimes traditional, but there's always a sense of creating new traditions or questioning the traditions that are there. But there's that sense of self-inquiry and learning for yourself and learning, as always, with the Hierophant.

But five is very much a number of expression. Learn by doing. It's an experience number. It's all about the five senses. You're going to learn by doing.

The six, well, of course, it's Lovers. The six is all about love and harmony and beauty and very much about decisions. Six in numerology has the sense of responsibility. It's the most family-oriented number. It's the most domestic-oriented number.

The original Lovers card of the Tarot was instead of the two lovers looking at each other and then the woman looking at archangel Raphael, it was a man with his mom on one side and then his lover on the other because he had to choose between what was really in his heart.

The six always brings that lesson of truly listening to your heart as opposed to what you feel other people want. That's why it is for lovers. It's about really truly finding your passion.

And the seven, so we have the number of spirit and creation which is the three in addition to the number of the earth and manifestation, four, three plus four is seven. This is considered the number of the soul. It's about where spirit and matter meet, like we have seven major chakras.

That's why there's all that questioning in the seven cards. There's that sense of spiritual discernment. That's why we have the sphinxes and the chariot. There's that sense of looking in and questioning. It's not just your heart but really your soul, like what's your soul's purpose.

Then we get to the eight, which is we know in numbers eight is infinity on its side, except its heaven balanced with earth.

We look at the Strength card and that's definitely about channeling passion in some way. That's when you really have your material wealth, when you're truly channeling your passions in a way that you're manifesting it.

That's how the eight is. It's trusting the abundance of the universe to have power flow through you, so you can have abundance and heaven and earth.

Then nine, we're wrapping it up. We're wrapping up the cycle. We get to the Hermit. That's the wise soul. There's a lot of letting go with the nine energy. You're finishing up the whole cycle. That's why the Hermit is at the top of the mountain, somewhat older.

That's when you're meant to teach and counsel and heal and help others by truly knowing your spirit so well, by truly knowing what's right for you so well. You no longer are swayed by the opinions of others because the Hermit, of course, is looking in.

This is when we see the Moon card. It's like a mirror. That's an 18, which is also a 9, so it's mirrored. You see that throughout all of that number constellation in the Tarot.

Ten, of course, the Wheel of Fortune. We start the cycle all over again and it's about learning how to deal with those cycles. You have the one of beginnings with the zero of spirit. It's learning how to trust. It's like that zero Fool energy, learning how to trust the whole cycle of change.

Brigit: Yeah, yeah. My goodness, Kari, I could listen to you all the time because so many light bulbs are going off.

I've used Tarot for 20 years and still as you're walking through the cards and their numerological associations, I'm just like, “Ah, now I see how that all fits in.” It's quite fabulous.

I just think even just from that brief summary of what the numbers mean, it just seems to inform our connection and our understanding of the Tarot cards, but also life in general so much.

You can even pick out probably any of your own cycles that you're in right now. Maybe there's a project that you're working on. Maybe it's nearing completion. Maybe it's at the very start. Just think about how those number even relate to an actual real project.

There's so many ways you could look at it. I get too excited.

Kari: That's why I said giddy in the beginning. It was a slip of some sorts, but – Giddy Tarot, maybe you want to rebrand. I don't know.

Brigit: Very funny.

Kari: Maybe not.

Brigit: Yeah, yeah. How else can we sort of play with these numbers? How can we really make this a part of our Tarot practice? What are some tips that you might have for our listeners?

Kari: Because you teach numerology with the Tarot. Is that what you were saying? You teach it as part of the –

Brigit: Yeah, it's part of it, but certainly the focus is on the cards, rather than the numbers. It's been so fascinating hearing you because your focus is on the numbers and then the Tarot sort of integrates with that.

Kari: It's kind of both. I can't separate the two.

For instance, I do these weekly readings. Yesterday I pulled eleven. I pulled Justice and then Two of Pentacles and then the third card was a Five of Wands. Anyway, because Justice, eleven reduces to a two, I thought, “Oh wow, there's a lot of this two energy here, so we're learning about balance.”

It informs it. You want to maybe look at the numbers and see the patterns that are coming up in the numbers and how that can inform some of this because there's a very – especially on the Kabbalah, the tree of life, this numeric system that they put into these cards. It's so detailed and not random. The numbers mean something.

Again, let me say this though too. I don't want people to get heady with this because this happens with astrology and numerology because people are like, “But wait, if the Mercury is this –“ People get very like – and then ultimately I say, “Just listen to your intuition. You're driving yourself crazy.”

I don't want to say this in lieu of the amazing imagery. I would never want it to get in the way of that. If that makes sense. I'm careful saying this. I'm very careful saying this because I don't want people to get obsessed and start getting heady with it.

However, let's say you do a daily Tarot card or whatever, write down the card, write down the number. You might see some patterns.

I'll tell you how I learned numerology. I started getting clients before I – it just kind of happened to me. Someone recommend me and they're like, “How much does she – “ Whatever. It was one of those things. I started getting clients before I felt ready and I think I a lot of us feel like that. No one ever feels ready.

I learned this numerology thing. I said to myself, “This is going to be great. I'm going to start out with numerology, life-path numbers before I – and we can talk about life-path numbers in a second because I have something to help people there. I'm going to start off with these life-path numbers to give me something to talk about once I start the session.”

As it happened, I got clusters of the same life-path number. I would get life five in a row who have a six life path. Then I'd get like four in a row of people who had a three life path. It was not random. It was like my guides orchestrated it. It gave me an opportunity to see the different facets of it.

So if you're writing in a Tarot journal, write down the numbers and notice the patterns. You may see some patterns. You may see all odd numbers. You may see all even numbers. You may see lots of twos.

Maybe you're working on partnership stuff.

It's important to notice that stuff. Don't obsess. Don't overthink it. Just notice it. And you will see patterns over time.

Brigit: I think you're right in that it is a balance as well. You want to make sure that those patterns that you're observing are meaningful in some way because I've seen it happen before where sometimes folks get so carried away. They're adding up numbers. “Oh well the left side of this reading, the number is this. The right side is this. Then if we add it all up, then the number is this.” I'm like, “Oh, okay.”

I think seeing those overall patterns and paying attention to those, particularly if that resonates with where you're sitting currently or if it's helpful information, then absolutely. I think it's really fabulous.

You mentioned these life-path numbers. You keep talking about this. Tell me more because I think maybe I've entered it into a website once. I completely forget what my life-path number is. Tell me more about it.

Kari: The life path number is you add your – I actually have a calculator on my site because I got so many questions about it. I paid the developer to put a calculator there so people just plug in their birthdays.

But this is the easy way to do it. This is easy peasy. Anyone who is even interested in Tarot can figure this out.

You take the day of your birth, the month of your birth and the four digit year. You add those numbers all across. There's different ways to do it, but I just want to do the easiest way. And you're going to get a two-digit number. Let's say you get 26.

Brigit: Oh wait, let's say my birthday is on the 27^th, am I going 2 plus 7, or am I just doing 27?

Kari: Sorry, thank you for asking. It's so second nature to me.

Let's say it's March 27^th. You 2 plus 7 plus 3. Let's say you're born in 1972, so it's 1 plus 9 plus 7 plus 2. You'd add those all across. Make sure you do the four digit year.

Brigit: Yes, all right. I've just done mine.

Kari: Uh-huh and what is the two-digit number you have?

Brigit: I've landed on 39.

Kari: Oh, you're not a four. Okay. Then you would add 3 plus 9.

Brigit: That's 12.

Kari: You actually have, again, it's still a double-digit number. You want to keep adding the two-digit number until you get a single-digit number. Then 3 plus 9 is 12. Then you would add 1 plus 2 and you get three.

Brigit: Yeah, awesome.

Kari: So you're a three life path. Three is the Empress. Then you can just look at the qualities of the Empress and then learn about your life path.

Brigit: Yeah, wonderful. I like that. Yeah.

Then even to sort of take that a little bit further is to look at those other three's in the Tarot as well. Or what about even looking at the 12 in the Tarot. That might be quite interesting.

Kari: You would. You can look at all the things that add up to it. Absolutely. It is quite interesting. Go down the rabbit hole, Brigit. See what happens.

Brigit: I won't be editing this podcast. I'll be looking at my numbers Wonderful. It's been such a joy to talk about all of this. Is there anything else that you want to just wrap up with, particularly, keep in mind we've got Tarot readers, like how they can really use numerology from here on in a positive and happy way.

Kari: There's so many ways to use it in a positive and happy way.

There's a geeky ways of learning numerology, but as with Tarot, I find the best way is to actually physically experience what these mean for you, yourself. I say play with this, play with it. Just play.

As soon as you start feeling your head getting involved, don't play with it anymore. Just go back to something that brings you back into that intuitive mode, is the best way to learn anything.

Brigit: Yeah, wonderful. Excellent advice. Kari, where can people find out more about you?

Kari: Well, I'm everywhere under my name, so YouTube, Facebook, actually no, not Facebook. Facebook it's KariSamuels.intuitivecounselor because I didn't know what was going on when I opened my Facebook page.

Brigit: Don't you hate that?

Kari: Yeah, I was just like, “Oh well. They'll find me.” You can go to KariSamuels.com. That's KariSamuels.com.

Brigit: Wonderful and we'll make sure to include those links in the show notes which are over at BiddyTarot.com/39. I'm going to make sure that we also include the links to your life-path calculator, so we can all get in there and geek out on our life path numbers.

Kari, thank you so much for being a part of the podcast. I got so much out of diving into the numbers and really thinking about how they integrate with Tarot. I think it's a really exciting place to look at.

Thank you so much and I know that we're going to connect again very soon.

Kari: Yeah. Before I go I want to say, isn't that a synchronicity that this is episode 39?

Brigit: Ohh.

Kari: I told you those numbers were going to keep repeating themselves. Once you look at numbers, they repeat themselves. I just thought that was fascinating. Anyway, a joy and a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Brigit: All right. We'll speak soon. Bye.

Kari: Take care. Bye.

Brigit: Again, thank you so much to Kari. She has shared so much knowledge with us and I am super inspired now to pay even more attention to the numbers in Tarot.

Remember you can find the show notes, the transcript and the links to Kari's website and her life path number calculator all over at BiddyTarot.com/39.

Wrap-Up

If you've really enjoyed today's podcast, you are going to love the Biddy Tarot Community. Step inside the community and you'll get access to private discussion forums, where you can ask any question about the Tarot and get an answer almost straight away.

You can view the Tarot 101 course to help you start reading Tarot immediately. I've also included a number of different Tarot resources and PDFs to help you get started really quickly.

Of course, we have Tarot monthly webinars to help you learn Tarot and our free Tarot readings platform, where you can get real life experience reading for real life people.

It is so amazing to see the amount of positive change and transformation that's happening for all of our community members as they connect with their Tarot tribe, they learn how to learn how to read Tarot with confidence and they really just harness this beauty of Tarot.

I really do encourage you to join us inside the Biddy Tarot Community. Head on over to BiddyTarot.com/Community to learn more.

Thank you so much again for listening. It is an absolute pleasure to be in your ears talking Tarot and I can't wait to connect with you next time.

Thank you and good-bye.