Wheel of Fortune

Major Arcana X

UprightReversed

In short

Upright: Changing cycles and an opportunity to adapt.
Reversed: Resistance to change or feeling stuck in a cycle.

What the card shows

A large orange wheel hangs in a sky of grey clouds. Its rim carries the Latin letters T, A, R, O with four Hebrew letters between them, and alchemical signs fill the inner circle. A blue sphinx holding a sword sits on top; a yellow snake slides down the left side, and on the right a reddish figure with a jackal’s head rises. In the four corners, on clouds, sit winged creatures, a man, an eagle, a bull and a lion, each with an open book. Waite wrote that the letters on the rim read both as TARO and as ROTA, “wheel”.

Upright

The wheel turns: what was at the bottom rises, and what was at the top goes down. Change keeps its own schedule here: an unexpected offer, a chance meeting, a turn in a matter you had stopped hoping about. It is a card of fate, but it passes no sentence. The Wheel says that no position lasts forever, the good ones and the hard ones alike.

In the four corners the winged creatures go on reading their books while the wheel turns: change doesn’t cancel what you know and can do. The chances a turn brings have to be noticed and taken, and that takes steadiness, neither grabbing at everything nor clinging to what is leaving. The card suggests staying ready, with skills in shape, contacts alive and plans flexible, so that a lucky moment finds you able to act.

Keywords: change, cycles, turning point, lucky opening, movement, fate

Reversed

A reversed Wheel speaks of resisting change. It has already turned. The job has changed, the relationship is different, the old way of living no longer works, and you keep holding on to the position where things were good. That resistance is understandable, but it uses up strength you’ll need for the next turn. It helps to name what you’re trying to keep, and what you would lose by letting go.

The same arguments, the same projects, the same Mondays: sometimes the wheel seems to have jammed and everything repeats. It may really be a loop you keep running without noticing. Find the storyline that comes round again and again in your life, and the point in it where the next move is yours. The wheel shifts from small things; one new decision inside an old circle is often enough.

Keywords: resisting change, stagnation, repeating pattern, clinging to the past, vicious circle

Wheel of Fortune in relationships

A turn of the Wheel can reach the heart too: an unexpected meeting, someone from the past reappearing, a new phase in a relationship that had stood still. Reversed, it asks whether you keep repeating one script with different people, or holding on to a relationship that has already changed. Couples can take it as a reminder that love has seasons, and a low point doesn’t have to mean the end.

Wheel of Fortune at work

On the job, the Wheel of Fortune speaks of shifting circumstances: a reorganisation, new management, an unexpected offer, a change in your field that rewrites the rules for everyone. Reversed, a stalled career often comes down to working the way you did before things changed. Look for what the new situation offers you in particular, and let the old routines go. It’s a useful time to refresh your CV, skills and connections.

Wheel of Fortune as advice for the day

What has changed in your life lately that you haven’t yet admitted out loud? Name it to yourself. Then pick one action that depends only on you, and do it. Let the rest go; the wheel doesn’t turn because you push it. Your part is to sit like the sphinx: calm on top while the wheel turns.

The card’s lesson

Wheel of Fortune reminds you of cycles and of the limits of control.

A question for yourself

What can you do while circumstances are changing?

Place on the Fool’s journey

Major Arcana: Major life themes and turning points.

The Wheel of Fortune is the tenth trump, where the traveller meets something stronger than his will. The Magician believed everything could be done by his own hands; the Hermit found an inner light; now the world turns on its own. This is a lesson in the limits of control. Justice (XI on the 1909 cards) follows the Wheel: circumstances change, but each person still answers for their own part of the road.