Align Your Year with Tarot & Astrology
TL;DR
New Year planning doesn’t have to happen in January—you can use divination tools to plan your year ahead at any transitional time (birthdays, solar returns, seasonal changes, major life shifts).
Tarot Methods:
🂠 13-card year-ahead spread (one card per month plus a theme card)
🂡 Choosing a word of the year with cards
⚑ General year-ahead reading you revisit monthly for twelve months or until you feel the transition has taken place
Astrology Methods
⟲ Secondary Progressions: Track major life transitions using “a day for a year” symbolism
☸︎ Lot of Fortune & Lot of Spirit with Zodiacal Releasing: Map your material life and vocational calling through timed periods and identify critical points for when to build, when to release, when to pivot
♛ Annual Profections: Each year activates a different house and planetary time lord
☀︎ Solar Returns: Cast a chart for when the Sun returns to your birth position to see your year’s themes
Fun to Practice: Combine tarot and astrology—astrology tells you when and what, tarot tells you how and provides actionable guidance. When both point to the same themes, you’ll feel confident that’s your focus for the year.
New Offering: A comprehensive 12-Month Master Plan using Zodiacal Releasing and the lots for an actionable roadmap of your year’s cosmic timing.
It’s two weeks into 2026, and as usual, I’m late to post something about the new year. In all honesty, the older I get, the more arbitrary New Year’s feels as an ending-into-beginning line in the metaphorical sand. So many other times in the year feel more transitional than the day the calendar rolls over.
Christmas, for one, always feels more like the end of the year to me. Just as many of us are trying to get back into the swing of things, we face two more days—some of us get off, some of us don’t, but most parents will need to take off or arrange daycare because our kids will have it off. Or we’ll want to go out and celebrate and likely need New Year’s Day to recover.
If I had it my way, Christmas would mark the beginning of our new calendar year. We’d all celebrate in one big holiday season finale and then get back to our lives once the festivities are over.
However, most of us live according to the Gregorian calendar, and thus, we celebrate the new year on January 1. And when in Rome…
One way I choose to mark this societally agreed-upon transition is by choosing a word for my new year. 2026 is FORTITUDE (Flower Organic Resilience, Tend Inherent Treasures, Uncover Dependable Endurance). But that’s not what this post is about.
With so many people using this time of year to reflect and reset—their minds focused on planning the year ahead—this is a season I receive a lot of requests for readings. Over the years, I’ve uncovered more and more ways a person can use Tarot and Astrology to look ahead and receive internal and spiritual guidance for living their cosmically aligned life.
The great thing about using divination tools to look ahead (and to be clear, this doesn’t always mean predicting the future—this is more like receiving the wisest advice to follow a path that leads to living in alignment with your soul’s purpose) is that they can be called upon at any time of year.
Because here are some other transition phases that mark a ‘new’ year for us:
Birthdays
Or even better, your solar return which marks the time the sun will return to the sign and degree it was at when you were born. This may land on your birthday, but is often a day or two before or after.
Seasonal changes
Imbolc → traditionally marked the beginning of spring way back when, and springtime is always a time for new beginnings as the plants are starting to emerge again;
Spring Equinox or Ostara → the modern astronomically calculated beginning to the spring season;
The Solstices → summer transitions from the time when the sun is in the sky longer than the moon, while winter marks the return of the light.
The lunar new year
The lunar new year is a holiday celebrated in many cultures, marking the beginning of a new year based on the lunar calendar rather than the solar calendar. It typically falls between late January and mid-February, when the new moon appears between these dates.
A move or major change in one’s life
Making a major change brings about a transitional period and a ‘new’ beginning and is a good time to seek this same kind of guidance.
Something to consider about which tools to pull out to aid in your forecast:
Astrology lends itself well to timing questions—when will I launch my business?
Looking for recommendations or guidance pairs well with tarot, lenormand, and oracle card readings.
Themes of your year can be defined by both, and I recommend using them in tandem because they often support each other and help to get a more definitive answer
Tarot-Based Methods
13-Card Year Ahead Tarot Spread
Using one card in the center of the spread as your ‘theme of the year’ place twelve cards around the center, like a clock or zodiac wheel. Each of the twelve cards can correspond to a month or a zodiac season, whichever you prefer. I read mine in a clockwise order, but I’ve met readers who read counterclockwise as well.
Choosing a Word of the Year with Tarot
You can use tarot, lenormand, or oracle cards in many ways to choose a word of the year, theme, or intention. I read tarot 99.99999% of the time using the Celtic Cross spread, but you could easily pull a single card, especially if using an oracle deck, and see how it resonates with you—adding clarifying cards afterward if needed. With Lenormand, I use “the plan” spread from Anna Oginski, author of the Romantic Lenormand. My Florialis lenormand deck includes theme cards beyond the original 36, which helps narrow down an overarching intention.
celtic-cross-free-spread-downloadsDownload
General Year-Ahead Readings
This year, I read my 2026 tarot a little differently. I already had my word (tarot-inspired), so I asked the deck: what recommendations does the Universe have for me to live with fortitude this year? I photographed the spread, made notes in my tarot journal, and recorded my initial interpretation. My plan is to revisit the spread each month and see how the cards and their message stay true or adapt throughout the year. For this method, you can use any deck and any spread that feels right—the aim is to keep reflecting on the message throughout the year, so how you ask for it is based entirely on your personal preference and practice.
Astrology-Based Methods
Please Note: I practice traditional Hellenistic astrology with the occasional modern twist. This means my charts are run with Tropical calculations as Geocentric using the Whole Sign system. Charts run using alternate calculations like sidereal (used in Vedic astrology) or using the Placidus (most often the default) house system may look differently from charts I run.
Secondary Progressions
What Are Secondary Progressions?
Secondary progressions use the symbolic formula “a day for a year”—each day after birth represents one year of life. For example, if you’re 35 years old, your progressed Sun has moved 35° from its natal position.
Example: I was born on June 20, 1986 and my sun was at 28° Gemini. My progressed sun is at 6° Leo, which is 39 degrees away from my natal sun, having passed through the final two degrees of Gemini, all thirty degrees of cancer, and six degrees into Leo.
Why Use Secondary Progressions?
As astrologer Dane Rudhyar explains: “In the secondary progressions we see the purpose of ‘being’ at work through the ‘becoming.’ The various positions of the ‘progressed Sun’ on each successive degree of the zodiac after the day of birth show the evolution of the purpose of the life-activities in the midst of change: purpose as it slowly perfects and refines itself throughout the life.”
How to Calculate
Astrologers examine the ephemeris (a table of planetary positions) and use the transits occurring in the 90 days following birth to understand major shifts over approximately the first 90 years of life.
Key Point: The Sun moves about one degree per year in progressions. Someone born with the Sun at 0° Taurus might reach 13° Leo by age 80.
What Secondary Progressions Reveal
While your natal chart remains your foundation, the progressed chart shows how your consciousness, identity, and emotional life shift and mature over time. This technique is particularly valuable for understanding:
Major life transitions
Periods of growth versus contraction
The unfolding chapters of your personal story
When to Pay Special Attention
While you can check your secondary progressions anytime, certain moments have more significant impact:
When a planet, celestial body, chart point, or angle is about to enter a new sign or has just changed signs
If any of the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars) go retrograde and they’re stationed direct in the natal chart—or vice versa, if they’re retrograde in your natal chart, look for when they station direct in your progressions
To run your secondary progressions using free tools:
https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/astrology-secondary-progressions-directions-chart
https://www.astro.com/cgi/genchart.cgi
Lot of Fortune and Lot of Spirit
The Lot of Fortune and Lot of Spirit are two of the most important calculated points in Hellenistic astrology, and when combined with Zodiacal Releasing, they create a powerful framework for mapping out the themes and timing of your next twelve months. Note: in order to calculate these, your birth time is necessary for accuracy. Without it, you may get close but it there’s a lot that won’t be acurate and can sway the overall message.
What are the Lots?
Lot of Fortune represents your body, material circumstances, health, and daily rhythm. It shows how you experience the physical world and where material success flows naturally. The sign and house placement of your Lot of Fortune reveals the terrain of your embodied life—your well-being, resources, and the conditions that support your day-to-day existence.
Lot of Spirit represents your rational soul, life direction, career, reputation, and vocation. It reveals your daimon (guiding spirit) and the work you’re meant to do in the world. The sign and house placement shows the higher purpose and calling that guides your choices and shapes how you’re known publicly.
What is Zodiacal Releasing?
Zodiacal Releasing is an ancient Hellenistic timing technique that maps out major life chapters and periods based on your natal chart. It calculates time periods (called “releases”) that activate different signs in your chart in a specific order, essentially showing you the “seasons” of your life—when to build, when to release, when to pivot.
The technique operates in nested levels:
Level 1 (L1): Major life chapters lasting years or decades
Level 2 (L2): Sub-periods within L1, lasting months to years
Level 3 (L3): Smaller time windows, often weeks to months
Level 4 (L4): The finest granularity, days to weeks
Within these releases, there are special markers:
Peak Periods (+): Times of heightened activity and visibility in that area of life
Loosing of the Bond (*): Major release/breakthrough points where energy shifts or something comes to completion
How to Use Them Together for Your Next 12 Months
Step 1: Identify Your Current Releases
Calculate your Zodiacal Releasing periods from both the Lot of Spirit (for career/vocation) and the Lot of Fortune (for body/material life). Look at what L2 and L3 periods you’re currently in and what’s coming in the next 12 months. (If you don’t have an astrology software, I found a nifty website that calculates the zodiacal releasings and gives some basic info for free, see below )
Step 2: Read the Sign and House Themes
Each releasing period activates a particular sign and house in your chart. For example, if your Spirit is releasing through Sagittarius, that period favors expansion, teaching, publishing, and philosophical ventures. If your Fortune is releasing through Virgo, your material success comes through health optimization, process refinement, and service.
Step 3: Map Critical Transition Points
Note any Loosing of the Bond dates in the next 12 months—these are natural release points where something crystallizes, completes, or shifts. These are ideal times for launches, decisions, or letting go of what’s no longer serving you.
Step 4: Align Life and Career Timing
When Spirit and Fortune are in harmony (both in complementary elements or themes), it’s easier to manifest goals. When they’re in tension, you might feel pulled between vocational calling and material/health needs. The releasing schedule helps you anticipate these dynamics and plan accordingly.
Practical Example
Someone with Lot of Spirit in Taurus in the 9th house might be releasing through Sagittarius at L2 from January 2025 to March 2027. This suggests a period of teaching, publishing, or expanding their philosophical reach—but grounded in their Taurus need for practical, lasting value. If they have a Loosing of the Bond on January 28, 2026, that’s a natural completion point where a project or decision will likely crystallize.
Meanwhile, if their Lot of Fortune is in Aquarius in the 6th house and releasing through Leo, they’re experiencing visibility and performance in their daily work life—but need freedom and innovation in their routine to sustain their well-being. When Fortune shifts from Leo to Virgo in March 2026, the focus changes from visibility to optimization and health.
By tracking both streams of releasing, you can see when to push forward with career initiatives (Spirit), when to tend to your body and resources (Fortune), and when major life transitions are likely to occur (Loosing of the Bond points). This technique is particularly powerful because it doesn’t just predict events—it reveals the underlying chapters and themes of your life, helping you work with cosmic timing rather than against it.
Resources for Calculating Your Releases
To calculate your own Zodiacal Releasing periods, you can use:
Annual Profections and Time Lords
One of my favorites! Similar to secondary progressions in that they change year over year as we age, but these are much easier to look up on your own and usually easy to understand.
The basics are:
Your Ascendant will always be your first house. So year, 0-1 your time lord is the ruling planet for the sign your ascendant is in.
For each birthday you shift to the next house, and your time lord changes to the ruler of that sign.
The ruler of that sign, as your time lord for that year, marks a theme for your year and gives you a basis for a deity and/or spirit guide for that year.
For example, I’m in a 4th house year.
My 4th house is in Scorpio.
As a traditional astrologer, that makes Mars my time lord. As someone who doesn’t completely disregard modern astrology and the planets that were discovered in recent centuries, I could’ve chosen Pluto as my time lord as he is the modern ruler of Scorpio.
And as much as I love Pluto, as important as Pluto is in my chart, and the fact that Pluto is located in my 4th house, it would’ve been easy to choose him. But, since my Mars placement is somewhat challeneged and I’ve always struggled to connect with Mars, this actually why I chose him for the year.
The signs that have traditional rulers and modern ruluers are:
Scorpio: Mars (traditional); Pluto (modern)
Aquarius: Saturn (traditional); Uranus (modern)
Pisces: Jupiter (traditional); Neptune (modern)
Resources for Calculating Your Time Lord
Astro-Seek has both a chart like the one below you can download and keep on-file based on your Rising (ASC) sign, or a calculator that will generate one specific to you:
You can see it already provides you with the traditional rulers, but again, you can choose the modern ruler. Or, if you don’t resonate with either, look to other deitites outside the Greco-Roman pantheon who have similar traits.
Solar Returns
This another one that is meant to outline your next year according to your birthday.
What is a Solar Return?
A solar return occurs when the Sun returns to the exact degree and minute it occupied at the moment of your birth. This doesn’t always happen on your birthday—it can occur a day before or after. When the Sun reaches this precise natal position, astrologers cast a chart for that exact moment, creating what’s called a Solar Return chart.
How Solar Returns Forecast Your Year Ahead
The Solar Return chart is a theoretical chart, similar to progressions, with the Sun as the primary focal point. It reveals the themes, challenges, and opportunities that will unfold during the year ahead—from one solar return to the next. This technique allows you to see “where the light takes you” over the coming twelve months.
What the Solar Return Chart Shows:
Overall themes for the year to come: The general energy and focus areas
What parts of your natal chart may be emphasized: Which houses and planetary energies will be most active
The most important areas of activation: Thematically, where you’ll experience growth or challenges
Planets that may act as tools, guides, and create places of “ease”: Supportive energies to work with
How to work with your annual timelord: Integration with profection techniques
Key Factors to Examine in Your Solar Return Chart:
The Sun’s placement: What house is your Sun in? This shows the primary area of focus for the year and which natal house is emphasized.
The Moon’s placement: Reveals your emotional landscape and where you’ll find comfort or need nurturing.
The Ascendant (ASC): What sign is rising in your Solar Return? This activates a specific house in your natal chart, bringing those themes “to the ascendant” for emphasis.
Repeated patterns: What placements appear in both your natal and Solar Return charts? Repetition amplifies those energies.
Major aspect patterns: Stelliums or notable aspect formations, especially when aligned with angles, indicate significant themes.
Eclipse placements: Where do the year’s eclipses fall in your Solar Return chart?
Angular planets: Planets on or near the angles (AC, DC, MC, IC) are especially powerful for the year.
Your timelord’s placement: Where is your annual profection timelord positioned? Are they angular or making important aspects?
Location Considerations
When calculating your Solar Return chart using Hellenistic techniques (like the Profected Timelord method), root the chart in your birth location rather than your current location. This allows you to observe patterns over time in your Solar Return charts. There is no evidence in ancient or Hellenistic texts for relocating the Solar Return chart.
Using Solar Returns in Combination
Solar Returns are most powerful when used alongside other techniques like annual profections, transits, and secondary progressions. Together, these methods create a rich, multidimensional picture of what lies ahead, helping you work with cosmic timing rather than against it.
Resources for Calculating Your Solar Return
To calculate your Solar Return chart, you can use:
https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/astrology-secondary-progressions-directions-chart
https://www.astro.com/cgi/genchart.cgi
Integrating Multiple Divination Methods
I often use the cards and an astrology method together to answer most questions (when I can).
Why Combine Tarot and Astrology for Year-Ahead Planning?
While each divination method offers valuable guidance on its own, combining tarot with astrology creates a multidimensional roadmap for the year ahead. Here’s why this integration is so powerful:
Astrology provides the timing and themes: Techniques like Zodiacal Releasing, Solar Returns, and Annual Profections reveal when major life chapters unfold and what areas of life will be emphasized. They show you the cosmic weather patterns you’ll be navigating.
Tarot offers guidance and nuance: The cards speak to the how—providing practical recommendations, highlighting emotional undertones, and revealing hidden dynamics that pure astrology might not address. Tarot helps you understand how to work with the astrological energies rather than feeling subject to them.
Together, they create a complete picture: When you know from your Zodiacal Releasing that February through April is a peak period for partnerships (Spirit releasing through Libra), and then pull cards asking “How can I best navigate this partnership season?” you receive both the what and when (astrology) plus the how and why (tarot).
Cross-confirmation builds confidence: When both systems point to similar themes—say your Solar Return shows emphasis on your 10th house of career, and your year-ahead tarot spread pulls multiple Pentacles cards—you can trust that vocational development is genuinely central to your upcoming year.
They complement each other’s blind spots: Astrology excels at prediction and timing but can feel impersonal. Tarot excels at personal guidance and emotional insight but lacks precise timing. Together, they cover what the other misses.
For example, someone in a Loosing of the Bond period (a major release point in Zodiacal Releasing) might pull the Death card, the Tower, or the Eight of Cups in their year-ahead spread—all cards of completion and transition. This cross-confirmation helps them prepare emotionally and practically for the shift, understanding not just that something is releasing, but how to move through it with grace.
Introducing: The 12-Month Master Plan
For those ready to work deeply with their cosmic timing, I’m now offering a comprehensive 12-Month Master Plan based on the Lot of Fortune, Lot of Spirit, and Zodiacal Releasing method. This is the most thorough year-ahead guidance I provide.
What’s included:
An overview of your current major astrological period and what it’s asking of you
Key themes shaping the next 12 months (career, purpose, visibility, learning, rest, or restructuring)
Identification of critical timing windows, including periods of acceleration, recalibration, and release
Insight into your Lot of Spirit (life direction, calling, career arc) and how it’s activating this year
Insight into your Lot of Fortune (daily work, material reality, health rhythms) and how to support it
Guidance on when to initiate, when to refine, and when to let go
Strategic advice for aligning decisions with your natural momentum instead of forcing outcomes
A tarot reading specifically designed around your releasing periods to provide actionable guidance
This master plan gives you a complete roadmap for the year, showing you exactly when your vocational life (Spirit) and material/health life (Fortune) are in harmony or tension, and what each season of the year is calling you toward. It’s ideal for entrepreneurs, creatives, anyone in transition, or those who simply want to live in alignment with their cosmic timing.
Not sure which technique is right for you?
You can also request a personalized reading using any of the methods outlined in this post:
Solar Return interpretation for your birthday year
Annual Profections with Time Lord guidance
Secondary Progressions analysis
Year-ahead tarot spread (13-card or custom)
Combined astrology + tarot session
If you’re drawn to these techniques but feel overwhelmed by interpretation, I’m here to help. Each reading I offer includes not just the technical information, but practical, grounded guidance you can actually use. We’ll look at your unique chart, your current life circumstances, and what you’re seeking to cultivate in the year ahead.
To learn more about the 12-Month Master Plan, click here—or schedule any type of year-ahead reading, email me at message@bbsoto.com or Request A Reading here.
