2024 – The year of Strength, Fortitude and Justice
Blending the numerology of the calendar year with the tarot is a very common practice. I’ve done it several times over the years.
I prefer to calculate the card of the year via a method I first encountered years ago in Mary Greer’s ‘Tarot for Your Self’. I add the numerical digits of the day, month and year together to determine which card of the Major Arcana is associated with the current year. This year’s card, determined by addition 2 + 0 + 2 + 4 is card 8, Strength.
The Strength card in the Tarot is not so much strength as might but strength as fortitude. It is not strength with intent to win but intent to tame. Strength in the Tarot is more the Diplomat than the General. It is a softer, gentler strength.
2024 will be a year of fortitude
Fortitude is often defined as strength in the face of adversity or strength in response to a challenge. With this card as our Tarot card of the year, 2024 will require fortitude. It may be a year where you are faced individually, or we as a collective, with a challenge or with adversity that will require a show of ‘soft’ strength.
2. 2024 will also be a year of justice
Card number 8 in the Tarot’s Major Arcana is an interesting one. Once a standard numbering system emerged in the Tarot, card 8 was not Strength but instead Justice. Strength was card 11. The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck, published in 1909, switched the positions of Strength and Justice. Since the RWS is the most dominant deck from which modern decks derive, Strength is more often than not in the number 8 position. Nonetheless, I don’t believe we can dismiss the influence of Justice. After all, she is the ‘OG’ of the number 8 position in the Major Arcana.
This might mean that the adversity in which we must show our strength may show up in the arena of justice.
I go into more detail about the card of the year and other cards whose energy might show up in the first three months of 2024 in this video with Kelly.
Tarot and Astrology overview – Jan-March 2024
In case you were unaware, each quarter, astrologer Kelly Surtees and I share a little insight from the stars and the cards via YouTube. I really do look forward to these discussions with Kelly!
We began this joint exploration of our respective areas of passion one year ago (we did miss the October – December 2023 because… you know… life) and I have yet to write about this experience here.
So, as a New Year’s exercise in gratitude, I’d like to express mine to Kelly for sharing her space with me. I’m positive that, were it not for our personal connection – if you were unaware, I’m Kelly’s husband – I would not be engaging in this way with someone of her stature. (To use a hockey analogy (because I’m a huge fan), it’s like a 4th line centre playing on a line with the team’s all-star winger) I am thankful for the opportunity that she provides for me to share my passion for the Tarot with a broader audience.
I am always surprised by our process. It’s pretty simple. We set a date to record our session, we set up our individual spaces – often in our different offices in the same house – prepare our individual information, meet online and push ‘record’. We never discuss nor prepare together ahead of time. And yet, in each session we have done so far, there are amazing moments of synchronicity between these two divination systems. I learn something new every time we collaborate.
And finally, speaking of learning, if you’re looking to learn something new and begin your learning journey with the Tarot, why not start with my upcoming ‘Learning the Tarot: A Beginner’s Journey’, a five-lesson overview of this wonderful 78-card deck! This course starts in just a few days so ACT NOW and visit the course page.
