Tarot-y 9s... a whimsy... 🐉

Truly more fun than last week's 5 of Swords!

Arithmancy¹…

I want you to try something for me… yes? It’s not hard, honest 😊

Can you add together these two numbers - 4 + 9 - then reduce the answer to a single digit… make a mental note of the answer, would you? 🧐

How about 7 + 9… same thing… 👍🏼

What do you notice?

Yep, you’ve got it! Well done! Adding any number to 9, and then reducing the sum of those numbers to a single digit, will always result in the added number…

4 + 9 = 13 = 1 + 3 = 4, and 7 + 9 = 16 = 1 + 6 = 7

… or… how about…

323 (3 + 2 + 3 = 8) + 9 = 17 = 1 + 7 = 8… and, just for fun… 323 + 9 = 332 = 3 + 3 + 2 = 8

It surprised me the first time I tried it 😀

So… this is on my mind because this year, 2025 (2+0+2+5) = 9, and we are in a nine year; the year of IX·The Hermit. It is also the year that I came across this lovely paragraph from Andrea Green…

As we explore numbers, there is always a pattern, both obvious and hidden. You can tell if a number is divisible by 9 by adding the numbers within it up, and if the result is divisible by 9, the whole number is also divisible equally by 9 - a great party trick²

It therefore follows that…

Numbers multiplied by nine will always reduce to nine…

2 x 9 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9, and this rule follows, however large the starting number…

… e.g. 271 x 9 = 2439 = 2 + 4 + 3 + 9 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

Cool, huh! 😎… Nines are a bit special and unique, right? No other single-digit number does this! What else can we learn about nine?

The numerology guru Decoz describes the characteristics of the number nine like this…

The 9 has similarities with the 6 – including its shape (turned upside down). However, where the 6 is a symbol of love and compassion directed to people close to them (friends, family, the local community), the 9 Nine offers love and care to the world at large.

So, nine’s take a more global, detached view; suggesting a kind of detached quality where personal connection takes second place to the well-being of all.

So, back to Tarot… the main major arcana Tarot card encapsulating this quality - the nine-ness of detachment - is IX·The Hermit, my personal choice, and that of centuries of Tarot card designers, too! 😀 A seeker of knowledge and enlightenment around the human condition, ultimately translated into benefit for all.

IX·The Hermit from the Curious Travels Tarot Deck by Amelia Rozear

Nines in general…

When Tarotistas write about the nines in numerology, they will generally use keywords like: completion, end of a cycle, evaluation, fulfilment. They will also point out that nine is the last single digit number, representing releasing and letting go, before the ten transitions us back to one again (10 = 1 + 0 = 1) beginning a new cycle. I saw this wonderful line from a BBC³ learning exercise…

Since ancient times, nine seems to have been associated with the horizon, the last point on a numbering system before beginning again.

The horizon… yes… We don’t know what’s beyond, but we do know that we have to continue rowing, if we are to ever find out… don’t we? 🤔

Let’s Tarot…

Two useful ways to play with the meaning of nine in a Tarot reading…

Example 1

“Adding any number to 9, and then reducing the sum of those numbers to a single digit, will always result in the added number…”

Let’s imagine a business person has called in for a reading about a new initiative they have planned for their rapidly expanding business… Following lots of cards, and focussing on some of the details of the initiative, the reader (me) brings the reading to a close with two cards for the purpose of offering advice…

“Ok… so The Chariot reflects your rapid expansion and overcoming many challenges along the way, whilst The Hermit tells us now is a very good time to review your progress and apply what you have learned from hard-driving it.

Ultimately, we can see The Hermit looking back to The Chariot, and the numerology of these two cards actually brings us back to VII·The Chariot. I read this as suggesting that you should continue driving hard with your new initiative, but only after careful reflection on, and then application of, what you have learned along the way so far!”

So… the Hermit nine, added to the Chariot seven, will ultimately return us to VII·The Chariot (9+7) = 16 = (1+6) = 7, as the overall energy of this reading 🧐

As a side note whimsy… elementally, the earth energy of the Hermit, will be nourished by the water energy of the Chariot, further underlining the message of continuing to drive hard… just sayin’ 🤓

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Example 2

Adding a series of numbers together with a resulting nine can often point to a likely end point for the topic of the question…

4 + 5 + 9 = 18 = 9

A Seeker visits our lovely Tarot Reader (me again!) for advice about their business partnership. They are uncomfortable sharing any information, before seeing what the cards and reader can tell them. The reader selects a simple three-card past/present/future spread to determine what might be happening…

… there is an audible gasp of recognition from the Seeker 😲 (yeah, I know… dramatic licence, ok? 😆) as the cards above are turned over, and Seeker and Reader go on to discuss them… the reader then summarises as follows…

“… ok, so we can see that your partnership has had some wonderful moments in the past, but some of your joint financial decisions have worked out less well than you would have hoped for, and it looks like you may be heading into a time of considerable worry in the near future.

Numerologically, I see a 4 and a 5 leading up to the present, they sum to 9 which suggests to me that you are now at a transition point… added to this, the incoming 9 of Swords energy, suggests another transition point, as you understand that this can’t continue… summing up all of the cards gives us 4 + 5 + 9 = 18, which then also reduces to 9.

This numerology suggests, along with the card images, that you may need to accept your relationship in its current form, has reached a conclusion, and you need to develop a new approach before you can both move forwards…”

So… nines everywhere!!!… the sum of everything leading up to, and including, the present, the future incoming energies, and the overall numerology of the reading… can you see a happy resolution here? Comment below, if you can, ok?

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Bonus thought…

Ok… this thought isn’t exclusive to the nines, but, hey, it’s on my mind whilst writing this, so I thought you might find it interesting, or useful, too…

The Major Arcana cards corresponding to nine are IX·The Hermit (9), and numerologically related XVIII·The Moon (18)… Perhaps you have drawn, or received XVIII·The Moon as an advice card for a difficult situation you find yourself in…

“We know that The Moon represents those stirrings of the subconscious, and ‘darkest before the dawn’ moments for many of us, and we know that certainly fits for you at the moment; but dawn, and inevitable change are coming. If we reduce the number 18 to a single digit, we get 9, which echoes the Moon’s message of endings heading towards a new dawn. 9 is also represented in the major arcana by The Hermit, a card of deep reflection and self-learning… leaning into these darker moments right now, and taking what learning you can from them, will surely help you towards the sunrise…”

Thinking of 9 as the reduction and essence/foundation of 18 🙂

You can, of course, apply this reduction to all of the other double-digit majors, and it can be very helpful! 🤓

Conclusions…

I hope you have found this Tarot-y 9s whimsy entertaining, or possibly even useful, please feel free to add your observations in the comments below…

… so, a final whimsy for you…

… when I Googled ‘sets of nine things’ for further inspiration behind this article, Google’s AI offered me the following… there are 9…

• … months of a human pregnancy

• … lives of a cat

• … Regions of Westeros (Game of Thrones)

• … circles of Hell (Dante’s Divine Comedy)

• … Greek Muses

• … Reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh

So there! 😀

I welcome your thoughts on the above, and how this whimsy resonates (or not!) for you... please feel free to comment below (I am very open to respectful disagreement and discussion!) and share this free post if you feel it might interest others, thanks... 😊

Love, light, and laughter... always,

tarotbyphil 🕯️

1

Arithmancy is the ‘correct’ term for divination using numerology. Numerology is when you assign special significance to numbers but arithmancy is when you add up numbers in a date, word etc. and interpret the number you get. Essentially, arithmancy is what you do when you put numerology to use. However, most diviners use the phrases interchangeably. Divination and Fortune Telling

2. Green, Andrea; Numerology: Including Simple Number Spells & Tarot, [2020] Kindle Edition.

3. BBC: Nine things about nine things