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Archetypal Tarot: What Your Birth Card Reveals About Your Personality, Your Path, and Your Potential
“A fantastic book that gives deep insights into your personality, life, and journey based on your birth card.” —Theresa ReedThe tarot cards associated with your birth date and name form a pattern of personal destiny. They describe the theme of your life—the challenges and the gifts. In Archetypal Tarot, popular tarot practitioner and astrologer Mary Greer connects astrology and numerology to the tarot to create an in-depth personality profile that anyone can use for self-realization and personal harmony.
Greer takes readers on a personal exploration of how the tarot can be used as a tool for learning more about themselves and others.
The book
Detailed instructions, charts, and exercises on how to determine your soul and personality cardsHow to determine your year card and name cardThe opportunities and challenges you will faceJournaling and exploratory exercisesArchetypal Tarot is a valuable tool for anyone wishing to learn how to use the tarot to interpret their strengths, challenges, and innermost desires. All you need is a pen and your date of birth and you can learn to cast your own tarot chart. This book was previously published as Who Are You in the Tarot. This new edition includes a foreword by Theresa Reed, author of No Questions Asked, and a new preface by the author.
Greer takes readers on a personal exploration of how the tarot can be used as a tool for learning more about themselves and others.
The book
Detailed instructions, charts, and exercises on how to determine your soul and personality cardsHow to determine your year card and name cardThe opportunities and challenges you will faceJournaling and exploratory exercisesArchetypal Tarot is a valuable tool for anyone wishing to learn how to use the tarot to interpret their strengths, challenges, and innermost desires. All you need is a pen and your date of birth and you can learn to cast your own tarot chart. This book was previously published as Who Are You in the Tarot. This new edition includes a foreword by Theresa Reed, author of No Questions Asked, and a new preface by the author.
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2021
About the author
Mary K. Greer
58 books157 followersMary K. Greer is a scholar, writer, teacher and professional tarot consultant. With more than forty years experience in tarot as an author and teacher, she advocates a revolutionary approach to learning and using the cards that emphasizes personal insight and creativity. As an expert tarot reader, she works as a ‘midwife of the soul,’ using techniques that are interactive, transformational and empowering.
Mary is the founder of Tools and Rites of Transformation (T.A.R.O.T.) and is a member of many international tarot organizations. She is a featured speaker at tarot conferences and symposia around the world.
The author of nine books on tarot and a biography of four female magicians, Mary’s latest book is Who Are You in the Tarot? (RedWheel/Weiser, 2011). Her previous book, 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card (Llewellyn, 2008) won the COVR award for best divination book.
Mary is the proud recipient of the 2007 International Tarot Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2006 Mercury Award from the Mary Redman Foundation for “excellence in communication in the metaphysical field.”
With an M.A. in English literature, Mary was a faculty member and administrator of a college in San Francisco for eleven years. She is an Arch-Priestess/Hierophant in the Fellowship of Isis. As a world traveler, she has lived in Japan, Germany, England, Mexico, six states in the U.S., and currently resides in Northern California.
Mary is the founder of Tools and Rites of Transformation (T.A.R.O.T.) and is a member of many international tarot organizations. She is a featured speaker at tarot conferences and symposia around the world.
The author of nine books on tarot and a biography of four female magicians, Mary’s latest book is Who Are You in the Tarot? (RedWheel/Weiser, 2011). Her previous book, 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card (Llewellyn, 2008) won the COVR award for best divination book.
Mary is the proud recipient of the 2007 International Tarot Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2006 Mercury Award from the Mary Redman Foundation for “excellence in communication in the metaphysical field.”
With an M.A. in English literature, Mary was a faculty member and administrator of a college in San Francisco for eleven years. She is an Arch-Priestess/Hierophant in the Fellowship of Isis. As a world traveler, she has lived in Japan, Germany, England, Mexico, six states in the U.S., and currently resides in Northern California.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 4, 2025
Love this, going to shelve this for now. I got deep into tarot constellations but need to get back into Year and Name sections later. Truly appreciate this work being re-published for new generations!
May 28, 2021
As a word witch who's been poring over any little scrap of information written/recorded about various ways of divination for ten plus years now, it's rare for me to pick up a book and be thoroughly engrossed by each and every word that I read, and not feel the urge to skim through certain parts, but Archetypal Tarot by Mary K. Greer, blew me away!
I've heard about determining your birth cards through the years, and the concept intrigued me, but the thought of having to calculate all the things on the astrology side was a strong deterrent for me. To be completely frank, astrology and all the symbols and degrees of planets etc. and how they correspond to each other boggles my freakin’ mind because math is hard, and I did my time through school damn it. (For my fellow HP lovers out there… yes, I 100% was visualizing Sirius Black at that moment and equating high school and college as a sort of Azkaban LOL).
So I've put off looking into them because as it is, knowing what the 78 cards of the tarot mean, let alone how they correspond with each other, is a lot of information to wade through. Add in how they correspond with planets, and this witch is suddenly sitting in a pile of flow charts, graphs, a notebook with pages of unintelligible scribbled notes, and enough open books around me to form a ritual circle sans chalk or salt. Needless to say… past attempts haven’t gone well, but there’s hope my fellow witches...
From page one, Greer makes it easy to understand exactly what a birth card is , and how to figure out what your particular birth card is . No protractor or advanced degrees needed here, folks, it’s all broken down into easy to follow (and FUN!) steps so you can plug in your info and get to exploring all the things!
Not only did I learn about my birth cards, which are scarily accurate, and actually full of surprises at the same time... Just as Greer mentions in the book, I went on a birth card finding spree, calculating my parents, my best friends, my co-writer, my grandparents, etc. And it was a BLAST! I can't count how many times I said out loud "that is so you" when I was telling everyone about their birth cards, whether they wanted to hear about it or not LOL.
As a bonus - if you’re like me and you like the ability to jump around and read different sections rather than having to read linearly, (hello, ADHD, my old friend) in a ‘follow along/lesson’ type of book such as this one, you’re in luck! The layout of this book allows you to read any section you want, in any order, without feeling like you’re completely lost, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve worked with or studied the cards.
Which, can I just say, as someone who’s been focused on other means of divination for a while, and set Tarot aside for a while there, it was a GLORIOUS feeling to be able to open a book about Tarot cards (that’s not like a beginners guide 101) and have zero issues whatsoever following along and immersing myself in the process.
I know that I'll be referencing this book for years to come in my personal practice, my own writing, and for friends, family, and those I work closely with, because it’s just that much fun to figure out what makes certain people tick.
I would like to put the disclaimer that if you’re like me, and like to take notes on what you’re reading to include later in a BOS or Grimoire, or directly in the book, you should definitely buy two copies of this book. Because even after my first read through, my copy looks like it went through the Hunger Games of highlights/notes/underlines and barely made it out alive LOL! So I'll definitely be picking up a second copy to ensure that I've always got a back up because Archetypal Tarot is pure spiritual book gold, and I can’t recommend it enough!
Reviewers Note: I received an ARC of Archetypal Tarot from the publisher, Weiser Books, in exchange for an honest review of this title. I was not paid in any way and all thoughts are honest and my own opinions.
I've heard about determining your birth cards through the years, and the concept intrigued me, but the thought of having to calculate all the things on the astrology side was a strong deterrent for me. To be completely frank, astrology and all the symbols and degrees of planets etc. and how they correspond to each other boggles my freakin’ mind because math is hard, and I did my time through school damn it. (For my fellow HP lovers out there… yes, I 100% was visualizing Sirius Black at that moment and equating high school and college as a sort of Azkaban LOL).
So I've put off looking into them because as it is, knowing what the 78 cards of the tarot mean, let alone how they correspond with each other, is a lot of information to wade through. Add in how they correspond with planets, and this witch is suddenly sitting in a pile of flow charts, graphs, a notebook with pages of unintelligible scribbled notes, and enough open books around me to form a ritual circle sans chalk or salt. Needless to say… past attempts haven’t gone well, but there’s hope my fellow witches...
From page one, Greer makes it easy to understand exactly what a birth card is , and how to figure out what your particular birth card is . No protractor or advanced degrees needed here, folks, it’s all broken down into easy to follow (and FUN!) steps so you can plug in your info and get to exploring all the things!
Not only did I learn about my birth cards, which are scarily accurate, and actually full of surprises at the same time... Just as Greer mentions in the book, I went on a birth card finding spree, calculating my parents, my best friends, my co-writer, my grandparents, etc. And it was a BLAST! I can't count how many times I said out loud "that is so you" when I was telling everyone about their birth cards, whether they wanted to hear about it or not LOL.
As a bonus - if you’re like me and you like the ability to jump around and read different sections rather than having to read linearly, (hello, ADHD, my old friend) in a ‘follow along/lesson’ type of book such as this one, you’re in luck! The layout of this book allows you to read any section you want, in any order, without feeling like you’re completely lost, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve worked with or studied the cards.
Which, can I just say, as someone who’s been focused on other means of divination for a while, and set Tarot aside for a while there, it was a GLORIOUS feeling to be able to open a book about Tarot cards (that’s not like a beginners guide 101) and have zero issues whatsoever following along and immersing myself in the process.
I know that I'll be referencing this book for years to come in my personal practice, my own writing, and for friends, family, and those I work closely with, because it’s just that much fun to figure out what makes certain people tick.
I would like to put the disclaimer that if you’re like me, and like to take notes on what you’re reading to include later in a BOS or Grimoire, or directly in the book, you should definitely buy two copies of this book. Because even after my first read through, my copy looks like it went through the Hunger Games of highlights/notes/underlines and barely made it out alive LOL! So I'll definitely be picking up a second copy to ensure that I've always got a back up because Archetypal Tarot is pure spiritual book gold, and I can’t recommend it enough!
Reviewers Note: I received an ARC of Archetypal Tarot from the publisher, Weiser Books, in exchange for an honest review of this title. I was not paid in any way and all thoughts are honest and my own opinions.
March 24, 2025
A nivel de análisis de símbolos, es un libro completísimo y muy ameno, pese a lo árido que pueda parecer especialmente cuando empieza a relacionar grupos de cartas afines (que acá llaman "constelaciones"). Creo que es de los libros que he leído sobre el tema el más completo, siguiendo el trabajo de Angeles Arrien en The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols
June 10, 2021
As a word witch who's been poring over any little scrap of information written/recorded about various ways of divination for ten plus years now, it's rare for me to pick up a book and be thoroughly engrossed by each and every word that I read, and not feel the urge to skim through certain parts, but Archetypal Tarot by Mary K. Greer, blew me away!
I've heard about determining your birth cards through the years, and the concept intrigued me, but the thought of having to calculate all the things on the astrology side was a strong deterrent for me. To be completely frank, astrology and all the symbols and degrees of planets etc. and how they correspond to each other boggles my freakin’ mind because math is hard, and I did my time through school damn it. (For my fellow HP lovers out there… yes, I 100% was visualizing Sirius Black at that moment and equating high school and college as a sort of Azkaban LOL).
So I've put off looking into them because as it is, knowing what the 78 cards of the tarot mean, let alone how they correspond with each other, is a lot of information to wade through. Add in how they correspond with planets, and this witch is suddenly sitting in a pile of flow charts, graphs, a notebook with pages of unintelligible scribbled notes, and enough open books around me to form a ritual circle sans chalk or salt. Needless to say… past attempts haven’t gone well, but there’s hope my fellow witches...
From page one, Greer makes it easy to understand exactly what a birth card is, and how to figure out what your particular birth card is. No protractor or advanced degrees needed here, folks, it’s all broken down into easy to follow (and FUN!) steps so you can plug in your info and get to exploring all the things!
Not only did I learn about my birth cards, which are scarily accurate, and actually full of surprises at the same time... Just as Greer mentions in the book, I went on a birth card finding spree, calculating my parents, my best friends, my co-writer, my grandparents, etc. And it was a BLAST! I can't count how many times I said out loud "that is so you" when I was telling everyone about their birth cards, whether they wanted to hear about it or not LOL.
As a bonus - if you’re like me and you like the ability to jump around and read different sections rather than having to read linearly, (hello, ADHD, my old friend) in a ‘follow along/lesson’ type of book such as this one, you’re in luck! The layout of this book allows you to read any section you want, in any order, without feeling like you’re completely lost, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve worked with or studied the cards.
Which, can I just say, as someone who’s been focused on other means of divination for a while, and set Tarot aside for a while there, it was a GLORIOUS feeling to be able to open a book about Tarot cards (that’s not like a beginners guide 101) and have zero issues whatsoever following along and immersing myself in the process.
I know that I'll be referencing this book for years to come in my personal practice, my own writing, and for friends, family, and those I work closely with, because it’s just that much fun to figure out what makes certain people tick.
I would like to put the disclaimer that if you’re like me, and like to take notes on what you’re reading to include later in a BOS or Grimoire, or directly in the book, you should definitely buy two copies of this book. Because even after my first read through, my copy looks like it went through the Hunger Games of highlights/notes/underlines and barely made it out alive LOL! So I'll definitely be picking up a second copy to ensure that I've always got a back up because Archetypal Tarot is pure spiritual book gold, and I can’t recommend it enough!
Reviewers Note: I received an ARC of Archetypal Tarot from the publisher, Weiser Books, in exchange for an honest review of this title. I was not paid in any way and all thoughts are honest and my own opinions.
I've heard about determining your birth cards through the years, and the concept intrigued me, but the thought of having to calculate all the things on the astrology side was a strong deterrent for me. To be completely frank, astrology and all the symbols and degrees of planets etc. and how they correspond to each other boggles my freakin’ mind because math is hard, and I did my time through school damn it. (For my fellow HP lovers out there… yes, I 100% was visualizing Sirius Black at that moment and equating high school and college as a sort of Azkaban LOL).
So I've put off looking into them because as it is, knowing what the 78 cards of the tarot mean, let alone how they correspond with each other, is a lot of information to wade through. Add in how they correspond with planets, and this witch is suddenly sitting in a pile of flow charts, graphs, a notebook with pages of unintelligible scribbled notes, and enough open books around me to form a ritual circle sans chalk or salt. Needless to say… past attempts haven’t gone well, but there’s hope my fellow witches...
From page one, Greer makes it easy to understand exactly what a birth card is, and how to figure out what your particular birth card is. No protractor or advanced degrees needed here, folks, it’s all broken down into easy to follow (and FUN!) steps so you can plug in your info and get to exploring all the things!
Not only did I learn about my birth cards, which are scarily accurate, and actually full of surprises at the same time... Just as Greer mentions in the book, I went on a birth card finding spree, calculating my parents, my best friends, my co-writer, my grandparents, etc. And it was a BLAST! I can't count how many times I said out loud "that is so you" when I was telling everyone about their birth cards, whether they wanted to hear about it or not LOL.
As a bonus - if you’re like me and you like the ability to jump around and read different sections rather than having to read linearly, (hello, ADHD, my old friend) in a ‘follow along/lesson’ type of book such as this one, you’re in luck! The layout of this book allows you to read any section you want, in any order, without feeling like you’re completely lost, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve worked with or studied the cards.
Which, can I just say, as someone who’s been focused on other means of divination for a while, and set Tarot aside for a while there, it was a GLORIOUS feeling to be able to open a book about Tarot cards (that’s not like a beginners guide 101) and have zero issues whatsoever following along and immersing myself in the process.
I know that I'll be referencing this book for years to come in my personal practice, my own writing, and for friends, family, and those I work closely with, because it’s just that much fun to figure out what makes certain people tick.
I would like to put the disclaimer that if you’re like me, and like to take notes on what you’re reading to include later in a BOS or Grimoire, or directly in the book, you should definitely buy two copies of this book. Because even after my first read through, my copy looks like it went through the Hunger Games of highlights/notes/underlines and barely made it out alive LOL! So I'll definitely be picking up a second copy to ensure that I've always got a back up because Archetypal Tarot is pure spiritual book gold, and I can’t recommend it enough!
Reviewers Note: I received an ARC of Archetypal Tarot from the publisher, Weiser Books, in exchange for an honest review of this title. I was not paid in any way and all thoughts are honest and my own opinions.
August 26, 2026
Mary K. Greer is one of those Tarot authors who continually reminds me just how much more there is to the cards than divination. Archetypal Tarot explores Tarot birth cards, calculated using your birth date, and uses them as a framework for understanding personality, life patterns, challenges, strengths, relationships, and personal growth.
What fascinates me about this system is that it completely changes your relationship with certain cards. Usually we shuffle the deck and discover which cards appear in response to a particular question or moment. With birth cards, certain archetypes are with you for your entire life. Instead of asking, "Why did I pull this card today?" you begin asking what it means to spend a lifetime developing a relationship with its mysteries.
Greer goes much deeper than reducing this to a Tarot personality test. Your birth cards aren't labels determining who you are or what you're destined to become. They're archetypal patterns containing a range of possible expressions. Their gifts can be developed, their challenges can be confronted, and their meanings can change as you do. I particularly appreciate that lack of fatalism. The cards reveal possibilities rather than imprisoning you within definitions.
There's a wonderful blend of Tarot, numerology, psychology, and archetypal thinking throughout the book. The numerical relationships reveal connections between cards that aren't always obvious, while Greer's interpretations explore how those archetypes can manifest through personality, relationships, struggles, talents, and different stages of development. It gives you a much richer understanding of individual cards while simultaneously teaching you to think about Tarot structurally.
It's also incredibly fun to calculate the birth cards of partners, friends, family members, and people you know well. Seeing how their cards resonate with their personalities can be illuminating, and comparing birth cards creates another fascinating lens for exploring relationship dynamics. For readers, it also offers an additional layer of information that can be incorporated into a Tarot consultation before a single card is shuffled.
Like so much of Mary K. Greer's work, this isn't a book you're meant to passively read once and put away. The calculations, exercises, and opportunities for reflection encourage you to actually work with the material. Because your birth cards remain the same while you continue changing, it's also the kind of book you can return to years later and discover something completely different in the same archetype.
Archetypal Tarot beautifully demonstrates that Tarot isn't only a tool for asking what might happen next. It can also be a language for examining who we are, the patterns we carry, and the possibilities we're continually growing into. For anyone interested in the intersection of Tarot, numerology, psychology, and self-knowledge, this is an incredibly rich system to explore.
What fascinates me about this system is that it completely changes your relationship with certain cards. Usually we shuffle the deck and discover which cards appear in response to a particular question or moment. With birth cards, certain archetypes are with you for your entire life. Instead of asking, "Why did I pull this card today?" you begin asking what it means to spend a lifetime developing a relationship with its mysteries.
Greer goes much deeper than reducing this to a Tarot personality test. Your birth cards aren't labels determining who you are or what you're destined to become. They're archetypal patterns containing a range of possible expressions. Their gifts can be developed, their challenges can be confronted, and their meanings can change as you do. I particularly appreciate that lack of fatalism. The cards reveal possibilities rather than imprisoning you within definitions.
There's a wonderful blend of Tarot, numerology, psychology, and archetypal thinking throughout the book. The numerical relationships reveal connections between cards that aren't always obvious, while Greer's interpretations explore how those archetypes can manifest through personality, relationships, struggles, talents, and different stages of development. It gives you a much richer understanding of individual cards while simultaneously teaching you to think about Tarot structurally.
It's also incredibly fun to calculate the birth cards of partners, friends, family members, and people you know well. Seeing how their cards resonate with their personalities can be illuminating, and comparing birth cards creates another fascinating lens for exploring relationship dynamics. For readers, it also offers an additional layer of information that can be incorporated into a Tarot consultation before a single card is shuffled.
Like so much of Mary K. Greer's work, this isn't a book you're meant to passively read once and put away. The calculations, exercises, and opportunities for reflection encourage you to actually work with the material. Because your birth cards remain the same while you continue changing, it's also the kind of book you can return to years later and discover something completely different in the same archetype.
Archetypal Tarot beautifully demonstrates that Tarot isn't only a tool for asking what might happen next. It can also be a language for examining who we are, the patterns we carry, and the possibilities we're continually growing into. For anyone interested in the intersection of Tarot, numerology, psychology, and self-knowledge, this is an incredibly rich system to explore.
May 12, 2023
Overall an interesting book, but I think it started to unravel when it talked about Name and Zodiacal cards. There is a lot of useful information about birth cards and how these can relate to year cards, but the information on zodiacal cards is basically limited to one paragraph that isn't very explanatory and the name cards section is filled with several different processes for identifying name cards and none of them are very well laid out as to why to use one process over another. The processes are kind of melded together but not in a well defined way. Essentially, there was a lot of effort that went into explaining the birth and year cards and this led to a well explained and detailed majority of the book. The zodiacal and name cards are covered in a much more cursory manner and, when adding them into the mix (the name cards in particular) there is the potential for your "Life" cards to encompass almost half of the available cards. At that point it's tough to say that they're telling you anything in particular without going through an in-depth astrology like look at relationships and correspondences, which isn't really done. I think this might have been better if the name and zodiacal cards were excised and used as the basis for a second book to be used in conjunction with this one.
January 23, 2023
Pretty good book for self discovery via tarot. I feel like this is a great resource for shadow work, or any self development work. It's a little dense at times, and since I have a PDF version from Humble Bundle, it wasn't optimized for my kindle which also at times made it a slog.
But overall I liked it, definitely keeping it for when I do delve into some personal work.
But overall I liked it, definitely keeping it for when I do delve into some personal work.
September 17, 2025
I'm really interested in this book and how it blends numerology and tarot. Going in I assumed this would be more linked to my star sign cards but instead it shows you how to work out your primary card and your lessons you should learn. So far I've only done this for myself and my husband but I've been finding it really interesting.
May 19, 2024
3.75 closer to 4 stars than 3. This would be a good book to own and refer to if needed but only a portion of the information did I find useful at this stage in my tarot journey. I would revisit this in the future and my rating may change.
January 2, 2022
My tarot bible.
April 14, 2022
Fun!
This was such a fun book to work through and I will be referencing it often! Take a walk through the archetypes!
This was such a fun book to work through and I will be referencing it often! Take a walk through the archetypes!
April 17, 2024
Parte de um conceito interessante mas torna-se confuso e pouco prático.
A autora anda de frente para trás e de trás para a frente o que não facilita a leitura.
Não recomendo.
A autora anda de frente para trás e de trás para a frente o que não facilita a leitura.
Não recomendo.
September 20, 2023
Creo que "El Tarot Arquetípico" de Mary K. Greer es, sin lugar a dudas, una obra notable en el mundo de la numerología, el tarot y, porque no, la magia. Sin embargo, mi experiencia con esta obra dejó un matiz particular que quisiera compartir. Es innegable que Greer presenta una exploración minuciosa y detallada de la relación entre los números y los arcanos del tarot, lo que, para los estudiosos serios del tema, puede arrojar una nueva luz sobre esta fascinante baraja. Mi único punto de reserva con respecto a este libro es que, a pesar de la información que presenta es muy completa, encontré que gran parte de esta ya se encuentra en numerosas otras obras esotéricas. Esto me llevó a cuestionar si esta obra fue tal vez traducida al español con un cierto retraso (en inglés salió a la luz, creo, el año 2011), dado que la información contenida aquí podría haber sido incorporada por otros autores en obras previas.
Dicho esto, es importante subrayar que "El Tarot Arquetípico" es una explosión ordenada de sabiduría en lo que respecta a la intersección entre los números y los arcanos del tarot. Los estudiosos serios y aquellos que buscan una perspectiva más profunda sobre esta conexión encontrarán en este libro una valiosa fuente de conocimiento. A pesar de mis reservas sobre la originalidad de la información, la forma en que Greer presenta y organiza los conceptos es impecable.
Dicho esto, es importante subrayar que "El Tarot Arquetípico" es una explosión ordenada de sabiduría en lo que respecta a la intersección entre los números y los arcanos del tarot. Los estudiosos serios y aquellos que buscan una perspectiva más profunda sobre esta conexión encontrarán en este libro una valiosa fuente de conocimiento. A pesar de mis reservas sobre la originalidad de la información, la forma en que Greer presenta y organiza los conceptos es impecable.
March 3, 2024
Increíble libro. Recomiendo leer antes el libro :El tarot un viaje interior, que es de Mary K Greer también. Hay cosas relacionadas en ambos libros.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews