Romeo's Personality and Soul Card

I must admit that I have a difficult time reading Romeo's tarot cards. I suspect it's because of his dementia. The information that's transmitted to me is scrambled, garbled, out of focus, and I haven't been able to relate it to his life...because his life isn't a typical life. It's a life with dementia.

I am by no means an expert at tarot. I dabble in it. Or should I say that I dabble at dabbling in it. So I'm lost and don't know what to make of Romeo's cards. Nevertheless, I'll take a stab at it. Who knows? Something useful or insightful may come out of my ramblings.

I made calculations to determine which of the Major Arcana tarot cards represent both Romeo's and my Personality and Soul cards (see instructions below for how to determine your Personality and Soul cards). You can think of the Personality and Soul cards as being similar to astrological signs. They are your personal lifetime cards. They help give insight into your life, to your personal journey.

The Personality card symbolizes what you've come into this particular lifetime to experience, learn, study. The Soul card indicates your soul's purpose throughout all of your lifetimes. As it happens, Romeo's Personality card and his Soul card is the same card, and so is mine, albeit we each have different cards. Because our Personality cards and Soul cards are the same, it means that we're both working specifically on our soul's purpose. It means that we are more focused, more direct. The word intense comes to mind.

Romeo's Personality and Soul card is The Chariot. Mine is The Hermit. Here's my take on Romeo's Chariot as it relates to his life (for an interpretation of my Personality and Soul card, see the next post).

Typically, The Chariot is about harnessing and directing all of your forces toward your goal, about taming your fears and staying in tune with your inner wisdom so you can fight for what's important to you, to meet your challenges and be able to succeed.

As Romeo's Personality card, as his Soul card, does this accurately represent what his life has been about? I do not know. He's had dementia during most of our time together, and I don't know if his recall of his life is accurate. I know he was and still is a spiritual seeker, that it has been his driving force for many years, that he traveled to India from his home in Britain and then eventually to Oregon to be with his spiritual teacher.

Throughout Romeo's life, he wasn't interested in raising a family, he wasn't interested in developing his career as a computer programmer, and he wasn't interested in accumulating material things. His life was about spirituality. His goal was spiritual development, his goal was enlightenment. Period. He was focused, it was easy for him to stay on target, and he struck down obstacles with such ease that they hardly seemed like challenges.

In this sense, The Chariot proves him right as a Personality and Soul card -- he most definitely has been successful at directing all of his energy toward his goal, toward spiritual development, and he's been so successful that a number of people believe him to be enlightened. I know better -- I've lived with him -- wink, wink, grin, grin. But he is the most spiritually developed person I know. Romeo is my hero, my rock, my lighthouse.

Now, with dementia, Romeo's light is fading, and he no longer thinks of spiritual development. He doesn't quite follow the logic in our spiritual discussions, although he comes up with some insights that wow me.

Is the tarot game over? Does Romeo have any life purpose and soul purpose left? He claims he has no goals. I think he does. He may not be conscious of them, but he is definitely living a purpose, contributing something in his every day life, at least on his "good" days. He is a channel for Love. It seeps out of him as he greets people, as he speaks with them, interacts with them, and even as he simply sits silently. He is Love. Simple, pure. He melts hearts and raises the level of love present in the room. What an honor it is for anyone to be in the presence of this man -- whether they know it or not.

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To determine your Personality and Soul cards, follow this process (from Tarot for Yourself: a Workbook for Personal Transformation, by Mary K. Greer):

Add together your month, day, and year of birth.

Example:

October 14, 1947

10 + 14 + 1947 = 1971

Then add each digit. 1 + 9 + 7 + 1 = 18.

If the resulting number is 1-22 (as it is in this example), this is your Personality Number. Then match up the number with the corresponding Major Arcana card. In this example, it's the 18th Major Arcana card, The Moon. To determine the Soul Number, add 1 + 8 = 9. The corresponding Major Arcana card is #9, The Hermit.

When the birthdate number adds up to be more than 22, reduce the number down to 22 or less. This is the case for both Romeo's birthdate and mine.

Romeo's birthdate:

November 23, 1944

11 + 23 + 1944 = 1978

1 + 9 + 7 + 8 = 25

2 + 5 = 7

Corresponds to Major Arcana card #7, The Chariot

Juliet's birthdate:

September 28, 1952

9 + 28 + 1952 = 1989

1 + 9 + 8 + 9 = 27

2 + 7 = 9

Corresponds to Major Arcana card #9, The Hermit

When the birthdate is reduced to a 1-22 number, the corresponding Major Arcana card is both that person's Personality and Soul cards. This means that in this lifetime, you're working specifically on your soul purpose, which makes you more focused and directed.