birth card Archives - Empowered Cardology

Mar 24 2026

What is Cardology, Really?

OK, so picture this.

You’re at a party — or a coffee shop, or a dinner table — and someone pulls out a regular deck of playing cards. Not to play a game. Not to do a magic trick. But because they genuinely believe those 52 cards contain a map of who you are, why your life looks the way it does, and what you’re really here to do.

You think: that’s a stretch.

And then they tell you what your birth card is, and your jaw drops a little, because — how does a card know that about you?

That’s the moment I fell in love with Cardology. And it’s the moment I want for you, too.

Let me tell you what Cardology actually is. Not the textbook version. The real one. The one I’d tell you over coffee if you leaned across the table and said, “Ashley — what is this thing you keep talking about?”

It starts with a deck of cards you already have.

Here’s something that might blow your mind: that ordinary deck of playing cards sitting in your kitchen junk drawer? It’s not ordinary at all.

The deck of 52 playing cards is an ancient wisdom system. It wasn’t invented for Go Fish. It was created to map the energetic patterns of the Universe — the same patterns that move through everything, including you.

Think about it for a second. There are 52 cards. There are 52 weeks in a year. There are 4 suits. There are 4 seasons. Add up the numeric value of every card in the deck (with the Joker counting as 1) and you get 365 — the number of days in a year. This is not a coincidence. This is a system.

Someone, a very long time ago, encoded the rhythm of time and life into something we’ve been carrying around in our back pockets ever since.

Cardology is the study of that system — and how to use it to understand yourself and your life.

So what does it actually tell you?

Here’s where it gets personal.

Every single day of the year is associated with a specific playing card. The day you were born on is called your Birth Card — and it’s your entry point into the whole system.

Your Birth Card isn’t just a personality type or a fun fact. It’s more like… a soul fingerprint. It reveals:

The core of who you are — your gifts, your tendencies, your deepest nature
The challenges you’ve been bumping into your whole life (and why they keep showing up)
The kind of relationships that light you up — and the ones that drain you
The energy that’s available to you in any given year
Your soul’s deeper purpose in this lifetime

And here’s the thing that always gets people: it’s not vague. It’s not the kind of “you’re sensitive and you love deeply” stuff that could apply to anyone. It’s specific. Almost uncomfortably so.

When I found out my birth card — the 6♣ — was known as the psychic card, and that 6 of Clubs people have a deep responsibility to truth and to showing the way for others… everything that had felt confusing about me suddenly made sense.

That’s what Cardology does. It gives you language for things you’ve always felt but never quite had the words for.

How is this different from Tarot?

I get this question all the time, and I love it because the answer reveals something important about what makes Cardology unique.

Tarot is a divination tool. You ask a question, draw cards, and interpret what they’re reflecting back to you in that moment. It’s powerful, it’s intuitive, and it shifts every time you sit down with it.

Cardology is more like Astrology. It’s based on your birthday — a fixed point in time — and it describes the energetic blueprint you were born with. It doesn’t change depending on what you had for breakfast or how you’re feeling. It’s your map. It’s always your map.

In fact, Cardology weaves together numerology AND astrology — every card carries a number (which has its own energetic meaning) and a suit (which aligns with an element), and your spread of cards is laid out according to planetary positions. It’s a complete system.

You don’t have to choose between Cardology and Tarot or Astrology. Most people who love one, love all three. They’re just different lenses for looking at the same truth.

The four suits — and why they matter so much

One of the most immediately useful things about Cardology is the suits. There are four, and each one corresponds to an element and an area of human experience:

Hearts = Water = Emotions The heart, feelings, intuition, love, relationships. If you’re a Hearts card, you move through life through what you feel.

Clubs = Air = Knowledge The mind, ideas, communication, learning, truth. Clubs people live in a world of thoughts, words, and endless curiosity.

Diamonds = Fire = Building Action, creation, value, manifestation. Diamonds people are here to build things — businesses, families, structures, futures.

Spades = Earth = Wisdom Experience, depth, transformation, knowing. Spades carry the oldest energy in the deck — hard-won wisdom from a life fully lived.

Read that list and notice where you felt a little flutter of recognition. That’s not nothing.

Most people know which suit they belong to before they even check their birth card. Because we’ve always known, on some level, who we are. Cardology just hands you the language.

But it goes deeper than personality

I want to be clear about something, because I think this is what separates Cardology from a personality quiz.

Your Birth Card is not a category you fit into. It’s an energy you’re working with. There’s a difference.

Around your Birth Card is an entire spread of cards — your Life Path Spread. Each card in that spread sits in a planetary position (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn…) and each one has something specific to say about a different area of your life.

Your Mercury card speaks to how your mind works and how you communicate. Your Venus card reveals what you love and how you attract. Your Saturn card shows where your biggest life lessons live. Your Pluto card… well, that one’s the card of deep transformation. The one that’s been doing the heavy work in the background of your life whether you knew it or not.

And then there’s your Yearly Forecast — a completely new spread of cards that activates on your birthday each year, giving you a personal energetic roadmap for the 12 months ahead.

This is why I call it a life-long tool. You don’t learn Cardology once and move on. You grow with it. It meets you wherever you are.

How I found it — and why I’ve never looked back

I came to Cardology the long way around.

I’d always felt things deeply — too deeply, I was told. I was overly sensitive, seeing things others couldn’t see, knowing things before they happened. It created a lot of anxiety. A lot of feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere or fit neatly into any box.

I studied Tarot. I studied astrology. I studied numerology. Each one gave me pieces, but I kept feeling like there was something more — some system that would show me not just what was happening, but who I actually was at my core.

When I found the 6♣ as my birth card and read what it meant, I sat there quietly for a long time. Because there it was. Every confusing piece of me, reflected back in a single card.

Once I knew who I was at my core, everything else started to open up. The right people came in. The right opportunities appeared. The anxiety got quieter. Not because life got easier — but because I finally had a map.

That’s what I want for you. That’s why I do this work.

So… is this for you?

Let me ask you a few questions and you can answer them honestly, just for yourself:

Have you ever felt like you were meant for more, but couldn’t quite name what that was?
Do you find yourself drawn to the same kinds of patterns — in relationships, in work, in how life unfolds — and wonder why?
Is there a part of you that already knows things, feels things, understands things that you can’t quite explain to other people?
Are you ready to stop guessing at who you are and start living from a place of genuine knowing?

If any of those landed for you — even quietly, even a little — then yes, this is for you.

Cardology doesn’t create who you are. It reveals what was always there. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it — in the best possible way.

Ready to meet your card?

Everything I’ve shared here? It becomes real the moment you see your own Birth Card looking back at you.

Use my free calculator to discover your card — which suit you belong to, which element is the essence of you, and what energy has been shaping your life all along.

And as a welcome gift: enter your name and email when you discover your card, and I’ll send you 15% off your first reading with me. No strings. Just a real invitation to go deeper and continue hearing about how the cards can assist you on your journey!

↓ ↓ ↓

Your next step

Start here: discover your Birth Card.

Use my calculator on this site to find out which playing card you were born under — and get a first look at your suit, your element, and what your card’s energy is asking of you.

Then come back here. Because I have a lot more to share with you.

We are in a remarkable time right now — a time when knowing who you truly are isn’t just a nice idea, it’s a necessity. The cards have always known that. They’ve been waiting for you to catch up.

Welcome to Cardology. I’m so glad you’re here.

— Ashley
Discover your Birth Card + get 15% off.

Enter your details below. You’ll be taken to my free Birth, Ruling and Life Path spread cards calculator.

Jan 07 2019

My Birth Card Says I Should Be Successful, How Come I’m Not?

Many Birth cards (and their life path) are deemed as very successful, very powerful, can achieve anything…

Yet, I’ve witnessed it over and over while doing readings. The person sitting across from me is one of those cards and when I tell them how fortunate their birth card is, they look at me with disdain. But, I’m NOT successful!

I experienced the same thing being a six of clubs. When I first read about my card and how successful it can be, I thought, what?!?! My life has been nothing but heartache and poverty!!

As I studied my Life Path cards, I began to see where and why I was not succeeding and what was getting in my way – then I worked at changing those issues!

There are many factors that create the life we are experiencing. We can be a Leo and hate being in the spotlight or be a Pisces and not like being near water even though those might be known as typical for those two signs.

As with Astrology and Numerology, there are two sides to every card – a low side and a high side.

We can be living the low side and missing out on all the positive gifts that card (and it’s path) has for us.

Here are 3 reasons why you might have a positive birth card, but are not yet experiencing that success!

When you first learn that you have a birth card, you only know about that one card. That card might be a powerful card (such as an 8, 10 or Court card), but the cards of the Life path (the 12 cards that are to the left of your birth card) tell the whole story. As I shared in my post about the 10 of diamonds (known as the Most Blessed card), the cards of the 10 of diamonds Life Path aren’t all easy cards. One has to utilize and work through the issues of those cards in it’s Life Path that aren’t easy in order to experience the success or power of that birth card.

2. Your Life Path might have a difficult number of years, then finish with the more successful, powerful cards. Each card in your path represents a time frame- a number of years- and speaks to the energy of those years. One might have a difficult childhood, then enter years of ease and success. For many, those years of hardship set up the rest of their lives because they never move past the pain, failures or hardships and believe that is all their life will be.

I’m reminded of the celebrity Bobby Bones. He is a 6 of spades/ 8 of diamonds. He had a very rough childhood of poverty, but never stopped dreaming of being a radio host and using that to escape the extreme poverty. The 6 of spades path has a Queen of hearts as their Mercury card that speaks to their early childhood of a heavy influence from a female (he was raised by his mom and grandmother) with possible addiction issues (his mom was an addict).

It can be a childhood of extreme addiction, fears/phobias and/or constant escapism into a fantasy world that one really never comes out of (on the low side). Bobby did escape, but many 6 of spades let those early issues rule their entire lives, even though the 6 of spades has a very successful life path as their middle years are spent with the cards of the Crown line!

3. Where does your birth card sit in the Solar Spread? You might have a powerful/successful birth card, but the combined energies of where it sits in the Solar spread speaks to how that card can be powerful OR get stuck. As with the 10 of diamonds, which sits at Jupiter and Jupiter (Jupiter is the most benevolent planet and is why it is called the Most Blessed card), an abundance of Jupiter can lead to gluttony, over extension, ignoring negative realities, pretense and being pompous.

The King of Spades – the most successful card in the deck – sits at Saturn and the Sun (or Crown line). Those planets have a combination of restrictions/responsibility (Saturn) and Identity/ego (Sun). It is either an energy of hard-working, responsible, disciplined with a strong sense of purpose OR an exaggerated feeling of failure, having to be responsible for everyone 24/7 and that life is nothing BUT hard work, struggles and barriers.

Each of us (and each card) has a duality – that low side we can be, or the high side we can be. We can discover where our strengths are and tap into that. We can see where our weaknesses can be so we can see if that is why we feel stuck or as if we aren’t the powerful, successful person we want to be.

In the same sense that a person born into wealth doesn’t guarantee happiness or success, a successful/powerful card isn’t a guarantee of an easy-peasy, powerful, abundant life. Each card has its gifts, potentials, and difficulties to overcome, but in the overcoming of those difficulties, a more powerful, stronger and expanded Self is created.

To me, that is empowerment.

To take what you are given and choose to not play the victim. Instead, grow, overcome and be victorious as the Divine being that you are!

Sep 20 2016

How the Cards can Reveal the Energy of Your Soul Contracts

Do you ever wonder why you have the friends you have? We all think we had no choice in who our parents are, but what if we actually chose them?

Do you wonder why you met a specific person? Why did they come into your life?

Have you ever thought about soul contracts? That the people that come into your life are there for a reason? At a non-physical level, you both agreed to assist or work with one another.

We have many soul contracts and there are many who are co-creators with us as we walk our path. Gratefully, a BIG part of Cardology is a way for us to better understand all of those various relationships that are soul contracts.

First, a tiny bit about soul contracts:

Soul contracts are agreements you are making from the multidimensional aspect of you. This can include the non-physical as well as the physical. It is an agreement between your partner, your family, your friends, a pet, a job, a place that you live, etc. They are contracts you are making in order to share, change, grow, and appreciate the present through variety of experience. Life would be pretty boring if we were truly alone with nothing to prompt evolution!

The “mystical” or confusing soul contracts are usually “larger” and made from the non-physical, which is why they typically feel a little bit like a head-spin. So our advice to you is to use your heart!

I don’t know about you, but sometimes a person will come into my life, cause what feels like unnecessary pain, and I am shouting, WHY!?!
Many times it is confusing as to why certain people behave as they do and we wonder why we are dealing with them at this point in our lives. We struggle with how we can help the situation. (Unless you enjoy relationship drama!)
One of the most popular topics I get with clients when doing readings is about their confusing or painful relationships.

Within the system of the cards is an in-depth formula for better understanding our relationships.

Because it is so in-depth, I can’t share all the ways the cards can clarify things in a single blog post, but I wanted to share a few basic ways you can see what might be going on between you and another person and why you are in what might seem like a frustrating or confusing relationship.

All you need to check in with this basic formula is two things:

Know the birthday of the other person
Use the Solar spread chart (You can see it below)

If you know anything about the cards, you probably know that we each have a birth card and a ruling card (much like we have an astrological sun sign and a rising sign). If you don’t know anything about the ancient system within the deck of playing cards, learn more here.
You can use the birth chart here on my website to see what your birth card is if you don’t already know.
You’ll want to also see what the birth card is for the person you are wondering about. (You need to know what their birthday is.)

The Solar Spread chart (also called the Earth Spread) is how the cards are naturally arranged. Below is an image of the Solar /Earth Spread.

Find your birth card in the chart.
First, you want to see what cards are in your birth card spread – these are the cards that comprise the blueprint of you and define your birth card. There are more than 8 cards in this spread, but for the sake of keeping this simple, we will only use 8.
All you need to do is see what the 8 cards are following your birth card.
You do this by finding the card that sits to the left of your birth card and continue going left.
The first card to the left will be your Mercury card, then Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and finally Pluto.

The image below shows what my birth card spread is. I’m a 6♣. I wanted to use my card as an example so you can see what to do if the card you are looking at sits at the bottom of the chart.

The rule for finding your birth card spread is: always go to the left, then drop down to the next row, start on the right side and continue left.

The exception to this is when the card is found on the bottom row. In that case, you’ll go up to the top, start on the right and count left. I’ve circled my birth card and used numbers to show what cards are in my Birth card spread.

I’m only using 8 planets, which goes to Pluto.
Card #1 is Mercury
Card #2 is Venus
Card #3 Is Mars
Card #4 is Jupiter
Card #5 is Saturn
Card #6 is Uranus
Card #7 is Neptune
Card #8 is Pluto

Those cards are my Mercury through Pluto cards.
Next, do this same thing with the birth card of the other person – find their birth card spread.

Now, you’re ready to look at three ways to see what energetic relationships are going on between your card and their card.

1. The first method for seeing what your relationship might be about is to see if the other person “is” one of your birth spread cards.

What do I mean by this? A close friend of mine is a K♠. You can see that my Saturn card is the K♠. This shows me that she will represent my Saturn card. Energetically, she will be very “Saturn” to me and be someone who will be showing me what my Saturn card is about. Remember that the cards represent the people in our lives as well as an energetic pattern. How can we realize what an “energy” is for us, unless we experience it in the physical? The best way for us to do this is by experiencing it through the people we relate to day in and out!

One of the very helpful things about realizing this is that while I will experience her in this way, others in her life won’t. If we have mutual friends, we won’t all experience her this way – they will experience her in whatever energy their relationship is. This is so helpful to know when any drama erupts between a circle of friends!

You will be looking to see if the person you are inquiring about is one of the cards in your spread, or you are one of the cards in their spread.

Now, in the above example between my friend and I – it is only that she is my Saturn – I’m not Saturn to her. My 6♣ birth card is not in her Birth card spread.
This means she’ll be a certain energy for ME – but she won’t feel that energy FROM me.
This is the first basic thing to look for when you’re checking on another person and what might be going on between you two.

2. The second thing to look for is called the Vertical connection.

I’ll use my daughter as an example. Her birth card is the 9♥.

As you can see from the chart to the right, her Birth card spread is not the same as mine at all – but we do have a connection.

Her card is directly above mine or “vertical” to me.
Since her card is 2 spaces away from mine, that makes her Venus to me. (remember that Mercury is 1, Venus is 2 – so 2 spaces is Venus)
But, it is not the same for her.
Since we only go up when we look at vertical connections, we see from her point of view, if she goes up to the top (K♠), she would then go to the next column to the left, and back down to the bottom (6♠). So, while we have other connections because of our Ruling cards, she doesn’t have anythng ‘vertical’ to me.

This means, to me, her energy is Venus. I will experience Venus with her.

**Below I explain the energy of each planet and what they mean in a relationship.

3. The third thing to look at is if your card and their card has a diagonal connection.

I’ll use my housemate as an example. Her birth card is the 3♣. Looking at the image below, you can see that she sits diagonally from me 2 spaces.
Because it is diagonal, it is mutual. Meaning, I am also Venus to her. So, there is a Venus energy that flows between us. Unlike my other example, we will both experience the Venus energy. (I’ve been using examples that are all two spaces away…remember, it can be 1 space away , which is Mercury, or 3, which is Mars, or 4 which is Jupiter, etc.)

Once you see what type of relationship your two cards have, you can use the reference below to get a better idea of the type of energy there will be between you and the other person.
Remember that unless the connection is diagonal, the point of view will be different and that alone can affect a relationship!

Note: Many family members or close friends will have a Venus connection – that easy, loving connection. However, that connection can suddenly go very wrong (or have major issues!) Why? I talk about that here because it is another big topic within relationship connections.

*Here is what each planet represents as an energy in a relationship:

If the other person is Mercury to you – You will find that you both think and talk in a similar way. You communicate easily and share similar ideas and points of view, or you stimulate one another intellectually and converse well.

If the other person is Venus to you – You will love, appreciate and enjoy them. You won’t feel the need to change them, you feel no issues, it is a very loving, easy relationship!

If the other person is Mars to you – they will motivate you, give you strength to move forward, or make you angry. If this is a romantic relationship, there will be a lot of passion and heat between you two.

If the other person is Jupiter to you – they will be a blessing to you – giving things to you without being asked! They will support and encourage you. You are very compatible.

If the other person is Saturn to you – They will act as a teacher for you and you might not always like it! They might feel like a burden or make you feel less than because they might always be telling you what you “should or shouldn’t” be doing. But, they can be a great opportunity for you to grow and improve yourself by not taking their criticism personally and instead use it constructively.

If the other person is Uranus to you – They will do unexpected things that take you by surprise, and you might feel uncertain with them or their actions and you can’t control them. But there is a deep friendship when you allow them to be who they are and not place any expectations on them.

If the other person is Neptune to you – you will probably see them through rose-colored glasses and there will be a sense of disillusionment with them. This can be a difficult relationship if you only see them as you think they should be, or it can be very enlightening if you take a step up with this relationship and allow the spiritual essence of it to allow you both to grow. There will be a strong psychic bond between you two.

If the other person is Pluto to you – They will be challenging to you and they can help transform you. They can be a reminder of what you want to become, or they can feel like someone who is shining the light on your shortcomings, or wanting to control you. They will do things that brings Pluto energy into your life so you can transform something you need to transform.

There is a low and high/positive and negative to every planetary energy.

A Venus or Jupiter relationship might be someone who has a soul contract to help you, assist you or be the one who delivers the blessings of the Universe to you. If we constantly refuse their gifts to us, we are blocking our blessings and the love that Source is showing us.

A Mars, Saturn or Pluto relationship can feel challenging or hard, and we might think it best to be rid of them, when in fact, if we are aware of what is going on, we can step up and improve our life from what they offer us. (I want to add here that abuse or any dysfunctional relationship that is hurting you is not one to stay in – when I say “challenging”, I’m not referring to abuse.)

Every relationship is an opportunity for us to evolve and experience what we came to experience in this life.

If you feel confused by someone, ask yourself these questions:

Why did I choose to have this relationship?
What would I change about this relationship?
What is awakening within me because of this person?
What about them is just like me?
What about them is something I wish was me?
How do my answers reflect the energy of the planet(s) represented in the relationship between our cards?

What I’ve shared in this post is but a tiny part of what the cards can reveal about our relationships, but even one small “aha” can make all the difference in your life when navigating relationships!

If you would like to really get to the heart of what is going on between you and someone else in your life, you can always book a session.

Soul contracts are essential to our experience on earth as a human being. Whether easy, fun, hard or challenging, the people in our lives are there for a reason. 🙂