What Goes Up, Will Come Down: Meditations on the Wheel of Fortune
The Wheel of Fortune invites us to consider what we think Fortune IS.
The Wheel of Fortune in any tarot deck is normally chock full of symbolism, all meant to convey that there is a cycle to life — at one moment down, the next up — but the wheel continues to rotate. In the corners of the card are symbols representing the four fixed signs of the zodiac (each representing a season), all with copies of the Torah. Fours abound — the sphinx is the combination of four creatures, the four letters spell either ‘Tarot’, Tora’, or ‘Rota’ (for wheel)depending on how you read it, and the four letters ‘Yod’, ‘Heh’, ‘Vau’ ‘Heh,’ which are the name of God (Yahweh) are included as well. The inner spoke of the wheel invokes the four alchemical symbols for mercury, water, sulphur, and salt. Anubis rises on the right of the card, while the knowledge-drenched sphinx rules the top, and Typhon, an ancient destructive monster, descends on the left.
The Wheel of Fortune is a card speaking to the movement of life and the constant patterns and cycles of change, and often said to represent good luck (and bad luck when reversed). I was taught the tarot shows a mutable future, so for me the Wheel of Fortune in a reading can represent a pivoting point. For me the Wheel of Fortune represents a key moment in which a querant shift the tides of a situation, and render an outcome different from the rest of the reading. Which says a bit about luck, I think. How much of luck is opportunity we create just by showing up? How much of it is truly just a ‘bad turn’? The Wheel of Fortune is there to help sort things like that. It’s interesting to read how many people take the interpretation of the Wheel of Fortune to indicate that when upright, the Wheel is representative of the universe working in your favor, while reversed it largely gets chalked up to the querant learning to take ownership of their behavior. In reality, reversed or upright — the Wheel of Fortune invites us to meditate on our own ability to change our fate, or at least to have perspective on where your current situation fits in the grand scheme of things.
Of all of my decks, I enjoy the Wheel of Fortune on Ciro Marchetti’s Legacy of the Divine Tarot the most, because it really brings home a few points. You can see that it is the fool who is gripped to the wheel, and the motion of the wheel changes how precariously the Fool finds themselves perched. It integrates the imagery from the four suits, and the Fool is even using the wand and the cup to help gain footing and reach for the lovely pentacle.
This card also makes explicit the connection of the Wheel of Fortune with Jupiter, the planet generally associated with Luck.
Meditating on the Wheel of Fortune invites us to consider the ideas of cycles, karma, consequence, and luck. It demonstrates that the only constant in the universe is change.
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