Wendywu
The Wheel
The first thing to realise about this card is that we’re looking down on the scene. One figure is me/you – the other is the Goddess as Fortuna. What I am seeing is that moment when I finally got up the faith to offer my heart to Fortuna and realised that whatever comes, it is all in the hands of the Goddess. As a result of faith there is a flowering, a blossoming and instead of my heart being lost to the Goddess, she returned it to me. But what she gave me was far, far more than I ever gave her! And this is true of my whole life. Each time I’ve accepted my fate and lived through whatever experience was offered, I’ve come out the other side somehow more me than when I went into it.
Some of the gifts Fortuna has given me to learn from have been awful and it’s only some time afterwards that I’ve been able to find the lesson and the love. Likewise some lasted rather longer than I might have liked. In this connection though, I look at the nails around the Wheel – each is placed to remind us of the solstices and equinoxes of the year. This tells me plainly that when the Wheel spins there is no guarantee as to how much of a year (or indeed how many years) might be taken up with what is given.
I like the way the Wheel itself is placed firmly in the middle of the World Tree. Such is my absolute belief in that Tree that placing the Wheel on it in this way is completely right – after all, many trees live through the Wheel of the Year more times than you or I can comprehend. Then looking at the Wheel as a tarot card, this placing of it on the Tree enhances my belief in the Wheel-as-a-card, and all it stands for. Everything this Wheel teaches me is relevant to my whole world. I can’t look on one experience as only relevant to one aspect or another of my life. Everything relates to everything else. I might be able to block out a disagreement with one person whilst I talk with another but there’s no ignoring or forgetting the disagreement – the problem remains to be dealt with. In that regard one can see the Wheel as a traditional spoked Wheel – there is a path from each section to every other. Likewise, my understanding of the Cosmic Web has blossomed with my study of Ironwing and so I can see my experiences, problems and joys as actually impacting on everything else – not just me, my life and possibly the lives of family and friends.
Total aside but I put it here because it flowed from my study of this card:
I suddenly thought of Trivial Pursuit, and the little “pieces of pie” that are the game counters. Each is a different colour but all are necessary to win the game. And in so many respects life is a game. There is a Dion Fortune quote, which rather neatly sets out a view of things:
“Once you have had some memory glimpse, however dim, of your own past, you are certain of your future; therefore you cease to fear life. Supposing I make a mess of an experiment today, I clear up the mess, go to bed, sleep, and then, in the morning when I am rested, I start again. You do the same with your lives when once you are sure of reincarnation. It is only the man who does not realize as a personal fact the immortality of the soul who talks of a ruined life and opportunities gone never to return.”
This quote originally deals with the matter of death but it does illustrate rather neatly that my life (although it is all my ego knows) is not the be-all and end-all of me. I am a believer in reincarnation, and in the fact that the essential me (in consultation with the Goddess) chooses the life I am to experience before I am born and, hopefully, I learn the lessons it was decided that I should attempt. If I don’t – no worries – I can repeat this class but another format will be chosen for the lesson
And back to our scheduled programming:
Thinking about wheels in general – roulette wheels, car wheels, Catherine wheels, gears (!) – we use wheels in so many unexpected places. I spent quite a while thinking about wheels and the varied places we use them. So many!! As a society, where would we be without the wheel? How incredibly different would our story have been if instead of the wheel we’d discovered a different means of moving things – say, magnetism? The wheel has been essential for our development as a species. (I spent a long time on this particular thought, and involved others in discussions which ranged far and wide in the uses or wheels or substitutes). Likewise the Wheel (of Fortune) which offers me so much has been critical for me because although at the time my misfortunes were difficult to live through (and I was far from grateful or appreciative!), I long ago realised that they are the times when very real inner growth occurs.
In the four corners of the card the suit emblems occur in the traditional way, but because Ironwing doesn’t utilise those particular correspondences there are no astrological symbols. I love the way each suit forms a small mandala– I will be enlarging these individual sections of the card as images in their own right. As is usual the fact they are all there, placed around the Wheel, informs us that at some time or another in each year we can expect to live through the sorts of events/patterns associated with each suit.
The Goddess Fortuna. She is utterly awe inspiring; indeed, from our view of her she appears quite a scary figure. Her hair curls around the circle of the Wheel in snake-like tendrils, seeming almost to reach for the much smaller, more frail human. And oh, the courage in confronting such a figure and then offering her your heart freely (for a gift is worth nothing if not given freely). And Fortuna – fully aware of the fear she produces in us – reaches out with gentle hands to put her own gift into place within us.
Invictus
(William Ernest Henley 1849 – 1903)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced or cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
This poem is unfashionable and gloomy in outlook, betraying a lack of personal faith in anything, but for me it has echoes that understand the Wheel. Face what comes with courage – stare Fortune straight in the eyes with acceptance and love – and feel the comfort that comes flooding back if you listen with the right ears. I feel that William Henley only had it half right, but this poem is one I learned by heart in my early teens and I have never forgotten its call to courage.
The difference between me and Henley is that I am not a hostage to fate. I am not a victim. I am tied to the Wheel by choice and so in that respect I do agree with Henley – I am the Master of my fate and the Captain of my soul.
Going back to the nails – I am reminded of the children’s rhyme about the kingdom that was lost – all for the want of a horse-shoe nail. For the moment, I am not thinking of them as representing solstices but merely as marker points in my life – I see that my life is a circle, a wheel slowly turning and in due time I shall have gone full circle and return to the Goddess. The nails anchor me to my reality. Within the Circle of my life my whole story is played out – how awful if an image of my life showed me refusing the Goddess. Thinking about it refusing her would be pointless really – if I turn my back on her the Wheel turns anyway and look – there she is in front of me offering me another opportunity to show my trust and love. Another chance for personal growth. I suppose I could keep on refusing her – but then the lessons of my life would be futile because I would see them as ordeals to be endured. I would end this cycle no wiser than when I started but – I would have lived through exactly the same experiences. However – because my view of them and their purpose would be different – I think they might be even more difficult to struggle through.
For me this card is about courage. Having the guts to accept all that is offered in the Spirit in which it is offered. No-one said I was going to win the game, I was just offered a chance to take part and play to the best of my ability.
I love the way the heart that Fortuna gives back is blossoming with life – so filled with beauty. I get a sense that it is her gentle touch that feeds the growth. What she gives, and gives and gives makes my offering look puny. But I am not ashamed of it – I gave all I had. Next time my gift will be bigger and better for there will be more to give. And Fortuna’s gift to me will be even more all-encompassing.
The first thing to realise about this card is that we’re looking down on the scene. One figure is me/you – the other is the Goddess as Fortuna. What I am seeing is that moment when I finally got up the faith to offer my heart to Fortuna and realised that whatever comes, it is all in the hands of the Goddess. As a result of faith there is a flowering, a blossoming and instead of my heart being lost to the Goddess, she returned it to me. But what she gave me was far, far more than I ever gave her! And this is true of my whole life. Each time I’ve accepted my fate and lived through whatever experience was offered, I’ve come out the other side somehow more me than when I went into it.
Some of the gifts Fortuna has given me to learn from have been awful and it’s only some time afterwards that I’ve been able to find the lesson and the love. Likewise some lasted rather longer than I might have liked. In this connection though, I look at the nails around the Wheel – each is placed to remind us of the solstices and equinoxes of the year. This tells me plainly that when the Wheel spins there is no guarantee as to how much of a year (or indeed how many years) might be taken up with what is given.
I like the way the Wheel itself is placed firmly in the middle of the World Tree. Such is my absolute belief in that Tree that placing the Wheel on it in this way is completely right – after all, many trees live through the Wheel of the Year more times than you or I can comprehend. Then looking at the Wheel as a tarot card, this placing of it on the Tree enhances my belief in the Wheel-as-a-card, and all it stands for. Everything this Wheel teaches me is relevant to my whole world. I can’t look on one experience as only relevant to one aspect or another of my life. Everything relates to everything else. I might be able to block out a disagreement with one person whilst I talk with another but there’s no ignoring or forgetting the disagreement – the problem remains to be dealt with. In that regard one can see the Wheel as a traditional spoked Wheel – there is a path from each section to every other. Likewise, my understanding of the Cosmic Web has blossomed with my study of Ironwing and so I can see my experiences, problems and joys as actually impacting on everything else – not just me, my life and possibly the lives of family and friends.
Total aside but I put it here because it flowed from my study of this card:
I suddenly thought of Trivial Pursuit, and the little “pieces of pie” that are the game counters. Each is a different colour but all are necessary to win the game. And in so many respects life is a game. There is a Dion Fortune quote, which rather neatly sets out a view of things:
“Once you have had some memory glimpse, however dim, of your own past, you are certain of your future; therefore you cease to fear life. Supposing I make a mess of an experiment today, I clear up the mess, go to bed, sleep, and then, in the morning when I am rested, I start again. You do the same with your lives when once you are sure of reincarnation. It is only the man who does not realize as a personal fact the immortality of the soul who talks of a ruined life and opportunities gone never to return.”
This quote originally deals with the matter of death but it does illustrate rather neatly that my life (although it is all my ego knows) is not the be-all and end-all of me. I am a believer in reincarnation, and in the fact that the essential me (in consultation with the Goddess) chooses the life I am to experience before I am born and, hopefully, I learn the lessons it was decided that I should attempt. If I don’t – no worries – I can repeat this class but another format will be chosen for the lesson
And back to our scheduled programming:
Thinking about wheels in general – roulette wheels, car wheels, Catherine wheels, gears (!) – we use wheels in so many unexpected places. I spent quite a while thinking about wheels and the varied places we use them. So many!! As a society, where would we be without the wheel? How incredibly different would our story have been if instead of the wheel we’d discovered a different means of moving things – say, magnetism? The wheel has been essential for our development as a species. (I spent a long time on this particular thought, and involved others in discussions which ranged far and wide in the uses or wheels or substitutes). Likewise the Wheel (of Fortune) which offers me so much has been critical for me because although at the time my misfortunes were difficult to live through (and I was far from grateful or appreciative!), I long ago realised that they are the times when very real inner growth occurs.
In the four corners of the card the suit emblems occur in the traditional way, but because Ironwing doesn’t utilise those particular correspondences there are no astrological symbols. I love the way each suit forms a small mandala– I will be enlarging these individual sections of the card as images in their own right. As is usual the fact they are all there, placed around the Wheel, informs us that at some time or another in each year we can expect to live through the sorts of events/patterns associated with each suit.
The Goddess Fortuna. She is utterly awe inspiring; indeed, from our view of her she appears quite a scary figure. Her hair curls around the circle of the Wheel in snake-like tendrils, seeming almost to reach for the much smaller, more frail human. And oh, the courage in confronting such a figure and then offering her your heart freely (for a gift is worth nothing if not given freely). And Fortuna – fully aware of the fear she produces in us – reaches out with gentle hands to put her own gift into place within us.
Invictus
(William Ernest Henley 1849 – 1903)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced or cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
This poem is unfashionable and gloomy in outlook, betraying a lack of personal faith in anything, but for me it has echoes that understand the Wheel. Face what comes with courage – stare Fortune straight in the eyes with acceptance and love – and feel the comfort that comes flooding back if you listen with the right ears. I feel that William Henley only had it half right, but this poem is one I learned by heart in my early teens and I have never forgotten its call to courage.
The difference between me and Henley is that I am not a hostage to fate. I am not a victim. I am tied to the Wheel by choice and so in that respect I do agree with Henley – I am the Master of my fate and the Captain of my soul.
Going back to the nails – I am reminded of the children’s rhyme about the kingdom that was lost – all for the want of a horse-shoe nail. For the moment, I am not thinking of them as representing solstices but merely as marker points in my life – I see that my life is a circle, a wheel slowly turning and in due time I shall have gone full circle and return to the Goddess. The nails anchor me to my reality. Within the Circle of my life my whole story is played out – how awful if an image of my life showed me refusing the Goddess. Thinking about it refusing her would be pointless really – if I turn my back on her the Wheel turns anyway and look – there she is in front of me offering me another opportunity to show my trust and love. Another chance for personal growth. I suppose I could keep on refusing her – but then the lessons of my life would be futile because I would see them as ordeals to be endured. I would end this cycle no wiser than when I started but – I would have lived through exactly the same experiences. However – because my view of them and their purpose would be different – I think they might be even more difficult to struggle through.
For me this card is about courage. Having the guts to accept all that is offered in the Spirit in which it is offered. No-one said I was going to win the game, I was just offered a chance to take part and play to the best of my ability.
I love the way the heart that Fortuna gives back is blossoming with life – so filled with beauty. I get a sense that it is her gentle touch that feeds the growth. What she gives, and gives and gives makes my offering look puny. But I am not ashamed of it – I gave all I had. Next time my gift will be bigger and better for there will be more to give. And Fortuna’s gift to me will be even more all-encompassing.
