The Wheel of Fortune, so loaded with symbolism is a card that one can dive very deep into indeed. For this card represents the microcosm of the cycles we go through as human beings, but also reflects the changing circumstances around us as a macrocosm.
In the traditional Rider Waite Smith, we have many symbols to unpack. In the center of The Wheel we have the name of the Tetragrammaton represented by the Hebrew letters: yod, he, vau, he (this is why you cut into four piles in the Thoth system of reading). BUT the Wheel continues to take us further yet again! We have the acronym: Taro, Rota, and perhaps like the scroll the High Priestess herself holds: Tora. Rota is Latin for Wheel, but with the inclusion of “Tora” Waite brings his writing back to that source of knowledge that we cannot know all, and once again the circumstances around us may change outside of any illusions of control we might have. As Rachel Pollack says of this card: once you’re on the wheel, you’re on the wheel.
When you look on the outside of the wheel you see 3 different beings: the serpent (typhon), Anubis, and The Sphinx. Chaos, the changing nature of life, and reminders of our own mortality challenge us when we look at this card as well. While it may be Jupiter’s Trump here to bring us a “good turn”, or not in some cases ultimately The Wheel calls us to reflect on where we are in the present moment. Will Jupiter the Great Benefic bring us gifts, or are we to descend into the underworld like Anubis, or vanish from sight like the once worshipped Cycladic goddess we see depicted on The Chrysalis Tarot deck?
Well reader, the answer isn’t up to you exactly. When The Wheel comes up we must ask ourselves too does Fortune favor the bold ? Or does it favor the downright brash? For at times it would seem to favor the brash more. This is another illusion of The Wheel however, The Wheel crushes our sense of ego “it’s not fair!”, and much like Judgement can take us down our own karmic turns as well.
When The Wheel comes up to be grateful; you are exactly at the right spot in this cycle in time. Check in with yourself too; be good to yourself and others. Realize that nothing is permanent; be it good or bad in ones subjective point of view. Continue on your path while trusting in the Divine plan of The All That Is; there is meaning there if you look for it, even when things seem to have taken a downward turn of The Wheel. Trust the nature of your path as it unfolds before you; like the scrubby looking wheel in The Chrysalis deck there is always meaning in this moment, the next breath, even if it seems that things are stagnant around you. Surrender yourself to the turnings of Fortuna, and have faith in your own inner guidance.
For more information see: The Pictorial Key to The Tarot by A. E. Waite, Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper meanings by Rachel Pollack, and Chrysalis Tarot by Toney Brooks and Holly Sierra.
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