Life path number calculator

What is a life path number?

Your life path number is usually treated as the most important number in Western numerology. It comes from your full date of birth and describes the general direction of your life: the strengths you lean on, the lessons that keep coming back and the kind of work and relationships that tend to suit you. It's one number from 1 to 9, unless your sum lands on 11, 22 or 33, the master numbers. Because it comes from your birth date, it never changes.

How to calculate your life path number

The standard method reduces each part of the date on its own first, then adds them together:

1. Reduce the day. Add its digits until you have one digit. Days 11, 22 and 29 (2 + 9 = 11) stay as 11 or 22.
2. Reduce the month. January to September are already single digits. October is 1, November stays 11 and December is 3.
3. Reduce the year. Add all four digits, then keep adding until you reach one digit. A year that adds up to 11 or 22, such as 2009 or 1993, stays as it is.
4. Add the three results and reduce once more. If you land on 11, 22 or 33, stop: that's a master number. Many numerologists only keep 33 when one of the three parts was already 11 or 22; otherwise 33 becomes 6.

Example: March 15, 1990

Day 15 → 1 + 5 = 6. Month 3. Year 1990 → 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19 → 1 + 9 = 10 → 1. Then 6 + 3 + 1 = 10 → 1. Life path 1, the Initiator.

Example with a master number: July 28, 1992

Day 28 → 10 → 1. Month 7. Year 1992 → 21 → 3. Then 1 + 7 + 3 = 11. It stays as 11: life path 11, written 11/2.

Why calculators sometimes disagree

Some sites add every digit of the date in one go. Most of the time you get the same answer, but not always. Born January 9, 1985, the method above gives 9 + 1 + 5 = 15 → 6, while adding every digit gives 0 + 9 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 5 = 33, a master number. If you see two different results, that's usually why. This calculator uses the separate-parts method, which is the one most numerology books teach.

Life path numbers, themes and tarot cards

Tarot numerology uses the same birth date but stops reducing at 22, so every Major Arcana card can come up. Each life path number has a matching card:

Your arcana number often shares a root with your life path. Born March 15, 1990, the arcana is 10, the Wheel of Fortune, and 1 + 0 = 1, the same root as life path 1. More on that in arcana number vs life path number.

How to read your life path result

• The big number is your life path. If it shows two numbers, such as 29/11 or 19/1, the first is the total before the last reduction and the second is your life path. Numerologists sometimes read the first one as a hint of how the number works for you.
• 11/2, 22/4 and 33/6 mean a master number. Read the meaning of the master number first, then the root number underneath it, which is how you're likely to feel it on an ordinary day. More on master numbers.
• A total of 13, 14, 16 or 19 on the way down is a karmic debt number. The result flags it and links to its meaning.
• The arcana card is a second reading of the same date, from tarot numerology, which reduces to 22 or less instead of 9.

What to do with your life path number

• Read your number's page. Each life path meaning covers strengths, challenges, love, career and money.
• Add your name. The numerology calculator adds your expression, soul urge and personality numbers, which fill in the detail.
• Compare with someone. The life path compatibility calculator rates how two numbers tend to get on.
• Check this year. Your personal year number tells you which part of the nine-year cycle you're in now.