78 Weeks: Wheel of Fortune

[Sinduction]

Vargo's Wheel

This card feels out of place in this deck. It's got golden Chinese dragons (although they do have wings so that is more of the standard dragon image for me, maybe because they are gold it feels Chinese) and golden greenmen. It's almost too cheery and positive for a deck this dark so far. The gold and red and the dragons really do portray the Chinese good fortune, but not so much gothic, is it?

I get the greenmen as I am quite familiar with what they represent. However, they are all the same image. I would have liked some differences in their expressions. I see it as copy/paste job and that takes away from this card for me.

I do see balance and change. The cycles of life and what not, but not in a gothic sort of way.

The book also points out the fact that the 4 greenmen, 2 dragons, and 4 rings add up to 10. I would like if there were more to it than just that it adds up to ten. I really feel this card is lacking and out of place.

I suppose I will get over it, how many times will I actually draw this card anyway.

 

[kmartin60]

W.O.F. (Vargo)

I agree this card is sooo out of place? I handt really paid much attention to the greenmen in the 4 corners but I do like the dragons and the celtic knotwork in the center.

And not a card one is likely to pull very often.....In all the practice readings, and draws Ive done trying to get to know this deck this is one card that never seems to pop up......I def. need to study this card (Along with quite a few more!) deeper......

 

[Wendywu]

Ironwing - The Wheel

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 long 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 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 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 rights. 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 circumstances
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 Henle3y 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 us 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 so 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 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.

 

[gregory]

Thoth

Card name: Fortune

First impressions
The wheel strangely combines stasis and movement – it looks rock solid, but the trails from each spoke look as though they are moving – like a Catherine wheel firework. Behind it there is a pyramid suggesting masculinity, and with rays in its base. There’s a sphinx at its top, a monkey (Hanuman ?) on the left and a creature with a crocodile head, holding an ankh, whose tail appears to be a snake. A start at the centre, and above a starry sky whose stars shower down lightning bolts.

From the Book of Thoth (all of it, as I haven’t time today to edit down !)

i. R.O.T.A. The Wheel
This card is attributed to the planet Jupiter, “the Greater Fortune” in astrology. It corresponds to the letter Kaph, which means the palm of the hand, in whose lines, according to another tradition, the fortune of the owner may be read. [Kaph 20 Peh 80 =100, Qoph, Pisces. The initials K Ph are those of .te.. and fa....] It would be narrow to think of Jupiter as good fortune; he represents the element of luck. The incalculable factor.

This card thus represents the Universe in its aspect as a continual change of state. Above, the firmament of stars. These appear distorted in shape, although they are balanced, some being brilliant and some dark. From them, through the firmament, issue lightnings; they churn it into a mass of blue and violet plumes. In the midst of all this is suspended a wheel of ten spokes, according to the number of the Sephiroth, and of the sphere of Malkuth, indicating governance of physical affairs.

On this wheel are three figures, the Sworded Sphinx, Hermanubis, and Typhon; they symbolize the three forms of energy which govern the movement of phenomena.

The nature of these qualities requires careful description. In the Hindu system are three Gunas - Sattvas, Rajas and Tamas. The word “Guna” is untranslatable. It is not quite an element, a quality, a form of energy, a phase, or a potential; all of these ideas enter into it. All the qualities that can be predicated of anything may be ascribed to one or more of these Gunas: Tamas is darkness, inertia, sloth, ignorance, death and the like; Rajas is energy, excitement, fire, brilliance, restlessness; Sattvas is calm, intelligence, lucidity and balance. They correspond to the three principal Hindu castes.

One of the most important aphorisms of Hindu philosophy is:
“the Gunas revolve”.
This means that, according to the doctrine of continual change, nothing can remain in any phase where one of these Gunas is predominant; however dense and dull that thing may be, a time will come when it begins to stir. The end and reward of the effort is a state of lucid quietude, which, however, tends ultimately to sink into the original inertia.

The Gunas are represented in European philosophy by the three qualities, sulphur, mercury and salt, already pictured in Atu I, III and IV. But in this card the attribution is somewhat different. The Sphinx is composed of the four Kerubs, shown in Atu V, the bull, the lion, the eagle and the man. These correspond, furthermore, to the four magical virtues, to Know, to Will, to Dare, and to Keep Silence.

[These are the four elements, summed in a fifth, Spirit, to form the Pentagram; and the Magical Virtue corresponding is Ire, to go. “To go” is the token of Godhead, as explained in reference to the sandal-strap or Ankh, the Crux Ansata, which in its turn is identical with the astrological symbol of Venus, comprising the 10 Sephiroth. (See diagram)].

This Sphinx represents the element of sulphur, and is exalted, temporarily, upon the summit of the wheel. She is armed with a sword of the short Roman pattern, held upright between the paws of the lion.

Climbing up the left-hand side of the wheel is Hermanubis, who represents the alchemical Mercury. He is a composite god; but in him the simian element predominates.

On the right hand side, precipitating himself downward, is Typhon, who represents the element of salt. Yet in these figures there is also a certain degree of complexity, for Typhon was a monster of the primitive world, personifying the destructive power and fury of volcanos and typhoons. In the legend, he attempted to obtain supreme authority over both gods and men; but Zeus blasted him with a thunderbolt. He is said to be the father of stormy, hot and poisonous winds; also of the Harpies. But this card, like Atu XVI, may also be interpreted as a Unity of supreme attainment and delight. The lightnings which destroy, also beget; and the wheel may be regarded as the Eye of Shiva, whose opening annihilates the Universe, or as a wheel upon the Car of Jaganath, whose devotees attain perfection at the moment that it crushes them.

A description of this card, as it appears in The Vision and the Voice, with certain inner meanings, is given in an Appendix.


R.O.T.A.-THE WHEEL
[The Vision and the Voice (4th Aethyr.)]
“There cometh a peacock into the stone, filling the whole Aire. It is like the vision called the Universal Peacock, or, rather, like a representation of that vision. And now there are countless clouds of white angels filling the Aire as the peacock dissolves.

“Now behind the angels are archangels with trumpets. These cause all things to appear at once, so that there is a tremendous con- fusion of images. And now I perceive that all these things are but veils of the wheel, for they all gather themselves into a wheel that spins with incredible velocity. It hath many colours, but all are thrilled with white light, so that they are transparent and luminous This one wheel is forty-nine wheels, set at different angles, so that they compose a sphere; each wheel has forty-nine spokes, and has forty-nine concentric tyres at equal distances from the centre. And wherever the rays from any two wheels meet, there is a blinding flash of glory. It must be understood that though so much detail is visible in the wheel, yet at the same time the impression is of a single, simple object.

“It seems that this wheel is being spun by a hand. Though the wheel fills the whole Aire, yet the hand is much bigger than the wheel. And though this vision is so great and splendid, yet there is no seriousness with it, or solemnity. It seems that the hand is spinning the wheel merely for pleasure-it would be better to say amusement.

“A voice comes: For he is a jocund and ruddy god, and his laughter is the vibration of all that exists, and the earthquakes of the soul.

“One is conscious of the whirring of the wheel thrilling one, like an electric discharge passing through one.
“Now I see the figures on the wheel, which have been interpreted as the sworded Sphinx, Hermanubis and Typhon. And that is wrong. The rim of the wheel is a vivid emerald snake; in the centre of the wheel is a scarlet heart; and, impossible to explain as it is, the scarlet of the heart and the green of the snake are yet more vivid than the blinding white brilliance of the wheel.

“The figures on the wheel are darker than the wheel itself; in fact, they are stains upon the purity of the wheel, and for that reason, and because of the whirling of the wheel, I cannot see them. But at the top seems to be the Lamb and Flag, such as one sees on some Christian medals, and one of the lower things is a wolf, and the other a raven. The Lamb and Flag symbol is much brighter than the other two. It keeps on growing brighter, until now it is brighter than the wheel itself, and occupies more space than it did.

“It speaks: I am the greatest of the deceivers, for my purity and innocence shall seduce the pure and innocent, who but for me should come to the centre of the wheel. The wolf betrayeth only the greedy and the treacherous; the raven betrayeth only the melancholy and the dishonest. But I am he of whom it is written: He shall deceive the very elect.

“For in the beginning the Father of All called for lying spirits that they might sift the creatures of the earth in three sieves, according to the three impure souls. And he chose the wolf for the lust of the flesh, and the raven for the lust of the mind; but me did lie choose above all to simulate the pure prompting of the soul. Them that are fallen a prey to the wolf and the raven I have not scathed; but them that have rejected me I have given over to the wrath of the raven and the wolf. And the jaws of the one have torn them, and the beak of the other has devoured the corpse. Therefore is my flag white, be cause I have left nothing upon the earth alive. I have feasted myself on the blood of the Saints, but I am not suspected of men to be their enemy, for my fleece is white and warm, and my teeth are not the teeth of one that teareth flesh; and mine eyes are mild, and they know me not the chief of the lying spirits that the Father of All sent forth from before his face in the beginning.
(“His attribution is salt; the wolf mercury, and the raven sulphur.)

“Now the Lamb grows small again, there is again nothing but the wheel, and the hand that whirleth it.

“And I said: ‘By the word of power, double in the voice of the Master; by the word that is seven, and one in seven; and by the great and terrible word 210, I beseech thee, O my Lord, to grant me the vision of thy Glory.’ And all the rays of the wheel stream out at me, and I am blasted and blinded with the light. I am caught up into the wheel. I am one with the wheel. I am greater than the wheel. In the midst of a myriad lightnings I stand, and I behold his face. (I am thrown violently back on to the earth every second, so that I cannot quite concentrate.)
“All one gets is a liquid flame of pale gold. But its radiant force keeps hurling me back.

“And I say: By the word and the will, by the penance and the prayer, let me behold thy face. (I cannot explain this, there is con fusion of personalities.) I who speak to you, see what I tell you; but I, who see him, cannot communicate it to me, who speak to you.

“If one could gaze upon the sun at noon, that might be like the substance of him. But the light is without heat. It is the vision of Ut in the Upanishads. And from this vision have come all the legends of Bacchus and Krishna and Adonis. For the impression is of a youth dancing and making music. But you must understand that he is not doing that, for he is still. Even the hand that turns the wheel is not his hand, but only a hand energized by him.

“And now it is the dance of Shiva. I lie beneath his feet, his saint, his victim. My form is the form of the god Phtah, in my essence, but the form of the god Seb is my form. And this is the reason of existence, that in this dance which is delight, there must be both the god and the adept. Also the earth herself is a saint; and the sun and the moon dance upon her, torturing her with delight."

Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:

X. Fortune. By the attribution of this card to the planet Jupiter. it is made to represent the Universe in its aspect of continual change. The appearance of all sorts of celestial phenomena emphasises this. In the middle is the ten-spoked wheel, the accepted symbol of Fortune. The three figures attached to the wheel symbolise the three forms of energy, expressed in the Hindu System by the term Guna. At the top sits the Sphinx, typifying intelligence and balance (Sativas): Hermanubis, in the semblance of an ape, represents the restlessness of brilliant, unstable reason (Rajas): and at the bottom, almost falling from the wheel, is the reptile-headed Typhon (Tamas), the symbol of destruction, sluggishness, an ignorance. The alchemical attributes of the Gunas are Sulphur, Mercury and Salt.

Also:

Jupiter. Kaph.
On the Wheel of Fortune at the top is the Sphinx meaning intelligence and balance (Hindoo=Sattvas).
On the left is Hermanubis the Ape who is unstable brilliant reason (Hindoo=Rajas).
At the bottom of the Wheel is Typhon who expresses ignorance and sluggishness (Hindoo=Tamas).
Here we have the implication to be found on all these cards of possible regeneration in all circumstances, for Typhon holds the Ankh of salvation with one hand and in the other the hook with which he snatches the soul.
The eclipse of stars at the top of the card generates in forked lines the circle of the wheel.

The lightning bolts refer to Zeus – Crowley equates him to Jupiter here. They come from the divine wheel – the tilted circle at the top of the card that I totally missed when looking at it ! Hermanubis and Typhon are opposites – Hermanubis creates, Typhon destroys – and the Sphinx connects the two and holds the polarities in balance. Together they form a trinity of the three Indian deities, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the destroyer. This also shows that heaven and hell, darkness and light are not only battling opposites but they also balance each other. Both are needed.
The Wheel says that birth and death are not two sides of the same coin; they are the same side, separated by time, the wheel, in constant motion and yet unchanging.
The two wheels- the earthly, vertical wheel symbolises the eternal pattern of growth and decay. The divine wheel, above it, is the heavenly wheel of fortune or “the cosmic clock of fate.” (Banzhaf.) Life is flow, and the flow is time. The star on the centre of the wheel may – as Crowley says – be seen as the Eye of Shiva; when it opens the universe will be destroyed. The wheel itself, with the swirls emanating form it, may also be seen to represents the energy of fertility.
Banzhaf suggest that the three powers on the wheel correspond to the three paths so often offered in fold and fairy tales – the Prince can go left, right or straight ahead, and must choose wisely. Each carries its own risks and rewards and these are often spelled out in the fairytales.
Change is stability, says DuQuette, and with stability comes order.
The triangle on the card with the rays within is the symbolic key to the secret of Jupiter, and also to transcending the secret of Jupiter. The Rites of Eleusis were a series of seven public invocations or rites written by British occultist Aleister Crowley, each centered on one of the seven classical planets of antiquity. In the Jupiter rite,, the three beings on the wheel bicker with each other while trying to reach the centre of the wheel and failing. They are locked in a perpetual game of one-upmanship, as DuQuette puts it. The SECRET of Jupiter is given to them in the end by Centrum In Centri Trigono, the centre of the wheel:

Feeling, and thought, and ecstasy
Are but the cerements of Me.
Thrown off like planets from the Sun
Ye ae but satellites of the One.
But should your revolution stop
Ye would inevitably drop
Headlong within the central Soul,
And all the parts become the Whole.
Sloth and activity and peace,
When will ye learn that ye must cease?

Aim for stasis and calm. Stop fighting it all.

Snuffin refers to the card as a glyph of the machinery of the universe, expressed as the three alchemical principles spinning on a wheel. He refers to the wheel as spinning counterclockwise drawing IN the plumes of energy, like a whirlpool.

He also draws attention to the tiny fist at the base of the wheel, from which emanate 6 rays – this ties in with Crowley’s original design for the card, which was for a wheel of six shafts (DuQuette.) This indicates that the force driving the wheel is balanced; it is the number of Tiphareth.

Hermanubis is a composite of Hermes and Anubis, both of whom use to act as psychopomps. He represents Mercury. Typhon represents Salt, and the Sphinx, Sulphur. The Sphinx has the head of a woman and the body of a lion, signifying male/female balance. Snuffin also draws attention to the triangle behind the wheel, and the fact that the wheel’s axle is placed so as to suggest the Eye in the Triangle – the symbol of spiritual enlightenment.
Typhon holds an ankh and a crook – he is separating them – the ankh represents life and Osiris’ crook represents death. This is because Typhon is associated with Set, who killed Osiris.
The stars around the divine circle represent the fact that every person is a star and they are distorted to show that we are all unique.


Traditional meanings –
Cribbed shamelessly from Wasserman
X FORTUNE. Change of fortune, generally good. Destiny.
From the Book of Thoth:

X.
Follow thy Fortune, careless where it lead thee.
The axle moveth not: attain thou that.
Change of fortune. (This generally means good fortune because the fact of consultation implies anxiety or discontent.)

My impressions (appearance of the card):
I find it confusing, to say the least. The way it seems to be both stationary and turning is another indication of balance, perhaps, I winder why the colour purple was chosen for the background, too… I am also puzzled by the snake as the tail of Typhon.

My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
Changes, choices, fate, the need to accept change as part of life. The card is often said to be the good luck card – that isn’t actually true; it is the LUCK card, perhaps – the luck can equally be bad. I would see this as the need to take control and determine your own future, while adapting to circumstances which change all the time. Life may in fact be out of your control. but you can still make the best of it. Balance will out.

 

[jackdaw*]

X The Wheel of Fortune (Rider Waite Tarot)

First Impressions
The central image on this card is rather occult and talismanic on first view – a floating orange disc with seemingly random symbols and letters in both the English and Hebrew alphabets. A yellow snake is undulating head down on the left-hand side of the disc; a reddish-orange fox with a human body contorts his body to circle the bottom and right-hand side of it. And a sky-blue Sphinx sits on top, wearing an Egyptian headdress and holding a sword. It seems to crouch in a human kind of way, and stares directly out of the card in a come-hither manner.

All of this is floating in the middle of a flat blue sky a little deeper in shade than the Sphinx. A big pale gray cloud covers much of the upper half of the sky; two fluffy white clouds occupy the bottom two corners of the card. And each corner has a yellow creature sitting comfortably on the cloud reading books: clockwise from the top left they are an angel, an eagle, a winged male lion and a winged bull. All seem to be smiling as they hold their books open.

Knowing what I know about the card and what it’s supposed to mean, I can make sense of the central image, even if much of the symbolism might be lost on me. The Wheel of Fortune is a common medieval symbol for the cyclical nature of fate. The central image is a wheel: round and constantly in motion. The creatures on its outer edges are in very precarious positions. The Sphinx is on top, but all the wheel has to do is turn a little more and he’s on the way down, or falling off altogether.

This card always makes me hum the Byrds to myself (okay, I know it comes from Ecclesiastes, but this version is catchier):

To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

[…]

What I had always taken away from this card is that good luck and good fortune are fleeting and random. For those at the top of the wheel, enjoy the view but don’t get too comfortable. For those at the bottom, hang on because that will soon change. There’s a time at the top, and a time down below. The thing about a wheel is that it isn’t stationary; it’s always in motion, carrying any point along the outer rim of that wheel through high points and low. And always returns to where it started.

Creator’s Notes
Waite said, in reference to existing versions of the card:

10. The Wheel of Fortune. There is a current Manual of Cartomancy which has obtained a considerable vogue in England, and amidst a great scattermeal of curious things to no purpose has intersected a few serious subjects. In its last and largest edition it treats in one section of the Tarot; which--if I interpret the author rightly--it regards from beginning to end as the Wheel of Fortune, this expression being understood in my own sense.

I’m a little confused. Isn’t this Manual of Cartomancy actually by Waite? Or at least by him under the pseudonym “Grand Orient”? Then why that cute little throwaway comment about “curious things to no purpose”? I wonder if the fact that Waite and Grand Orient were one and the same not common knowledge until later, that he really did think he was throwing up smokescreens by such comments.

I have no objection to such an inclusive though conventional description; it obtains in all the worlds, and I wonder that it has not been adopted previously as the most appropriate name on the side of common fortune-telling. It is also the title of one of the Trumps Major--that indeed of our concern at the moment, as my sub-title shews. Of recent years this has suffered many fantastic presentations and one hypothetical reconstruction which is suggestive in its symbolism. The wheel has seven radii; in the eighteenth century the ascending and descending animals were really of nondescript character, one of them having a human head. At the summit was another monster with the body of an indeterminate beast, wings on shoulders and a crown on head. It carried two wands in its claws.

It is true that Waite’s version is just one of many incarnations. From the early Visconti decks with their human figures (with some bestial aspects, but only a few) on a cartwheel turned by the goddess Fortuna, they grow gradually more and more bestial as they traverse the Minchiate and Marseille decks, finally taking leave of all humanoid features as the occultists took over. So Waite just took this last and ran with it, as he says below:

These are replaced in the reconstruction by a Hermanubis rising with the wheel, a Sphinx couchant at the summit and a Typhon on the descending side. Here is another instance of an invention in support of a hypothesis; but if the latter be set aside the grouping is symbolically correct and can pass as such.

Oh, well that’s all right then

And as to his own version, he goes on to say:

In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Éliphas Lévi, who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate--as I have intimated--to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form.

Covering his own butt, Waite follows the Egyptian themes of Lévi but it’s okay because he doesn’t actually believe in it. Fair enough.

The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of Lévi in respect of Ezekiel's vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. With the French occultist, and in the design itself, the symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic universe and for the flux of human life. [Bolded emphasis is mine]

I had been wondering where they come into it; I don’t believe there is any precedent for this aspect (the four creatures reading books) in the Wheel of Fortune, which I assume was borrowed from the World. I do, however, agree with the bolded bit. It’s the card in a nutshell.

The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein.

I don’t believe that. The Sphinx is on top, but on top of a rotating object. How long will that last? I believe the equilibrium would be the centre of the wheel. The Sphinx is no more stable or stationary than the other creatures shown around the wheel’s perimeter.

The transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name--to shew that Providence is imphed through all.

This must be the Hebrew letters interspersed with T-A-R-O; the Yod-He-Vav-He that occultists and Qabalists are so big on, that form the Tetragrammaton, the name of God.

But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement.

The Marseille decks had this – showed the uppermost rider on the wheel actually resting on some kind of platform atop the frame rather than attached to the wheel itself. But I agree with Waite that this kind of defeated the purpose. What had that beast to fear from the turn of the wheel when he could just look down over the edge of his perch and watch the other poor suckers go around and around?

Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added that, from the days of Lévi onward, the occult explanations of this card are--even for occultism itself--of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honour, ruling authority, etc. The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.

Interesting – wonder where Waite is getting these other interpretations? If they’re legit then I agree with his assessment of occult explanations as “fatuous”. I would also assume that when he refers to fate and the denial of chance, he is referring to the Divine aspect he mentions earlier. And if I understand correctly, then I’m in agreement in my dislike of that interpretation.

Others’ Interpretations
Waite says:

10. WHEEL OF FORTUNE.-Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.

Clearly this focuses on the “turn for the better” side of the Wheel of Fortune in the upright.

Symbols and Attributes
The Wheel of Fortune is linked to the planet Jupiter, rather than one of the twelve astrological signs. Ruled by the element of Fire, Jupiter is an expansive, lucky planet (or so I noted in my Lenormand study notes). It is associated with expansion, and also with fluctuating forces – turning wheels? The esoteric title of this card is the Lord of the Forces of Life, which seems to me to speak of Jupiter the god, if not the planet.

This card’s illustration is heavily borrowed from Eliphas Lévi’s works Transcendental Magic, which Waite would be quite familiar with, having translated it from the original French for publication in England:

Hieroglyph, the Wheel of Fortune, that is to say, the cosmogonical wheel of Ezekiel, with a Hermanubis ascending on the right, a Typhon descending on the left, and a sphinx in equilibrium above, holding a sword between his lion’s claws – an admirable symbol …

Key symbols in this card include the wheel, the letters and symbols on it, the creatures around the perimeter of the wheel, and the four winged creatures in the corners.

The wheel at the centre of the image has many interesting letters and symbols. Around the outer perimeter, the letters T-A-R-O are the most recognizable. Obviously TARO can be interpreted as Tarot, particularly given the circular nature of the wheel: TAROTAROTARO … but reading in different orders scholars also get ROTA or Wheel; TORA or law, ATOR or Hathor, Egyptian goddess of love … the permutations can be endless.

These letters are spaced out by the Hebrew letters Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh, which I’m not even going to try to insert here. This is the Tetragrammaton, or name of God. If translated to English it likely comes to Yahweh, which eventually ended up as Jehovah. This ties in, I guess, to Waite’s going on about the Divine.

Radiating from the centre of the wheel are eight spokes that come as far as the inner perimeter; superimposed over the four cardinal points are esoteric symbols that the likes of Bob O’Neill and similar assure me are alchemical in nature. From the top and going clockwise they are mercury, sulfur, water and salt, each of which were big symbols for the Golden Dawn.

Sitting at the very top, at the uppermost point of the wheel’s rotation, is a sword-wielding sphinx. First, it recalls the Egyptian origin theory of the Tarot that was trendy in Lévi’s time. The Egyptian Sphinx, with its human head and breast and its lion’s body, symbolized access to both wisdom and strength, although it’s commonly representative of wisdom. Given its lofty perch atop the wheel, he shows here the triumph of intelligence. It holds a sword, indicating conciseness and the ability to cut through to the heart of the matter. Its expression, which seems both mocking and challenging to me, symbolizes the riddles of which the mythical Sphinx was so fond.

Hermanubis – the human-bodied, fox-headed character ascending the right-hand side of the wheel – is an Egyptian god. Actually, he’s got the head of a jackal, my mistake. The name derives from Greek Hermes and Egyptian Anubis, both of whom apparently had similar duties as conductors of souls. He represents the intellect and the search for truth. And the jackal or fox head makes me think of craftiness, slyness.

Typhon was a deadly monster in Greek mythology; supposedly the deadliest, in fact. Usually a lot scarier than he looks here, Waite and Colman Smith chose to represent him as a serpent – there was apparently Golden Dawn precedent for this. As Typhon I would see him as representing fear and perhaps chaos; he was the most feared of the Greek monsters, however unassuming he looks here. He’s descending the wheel.

So do these three together, and their respective positions, mean anything? The descent of unreasoning fear, the rise of truth and intellect to achieve wisdom?

The four creatures in the four corners are the toughies. I mean, I get what they’re supposed to represent, sort of. They are supposed to symbolize the four fixed astrological signs fiery Leo (the lion), earthy Taurus (the Bull), watery Scorpio (the Eagle; I vaguely remember reading somewhere way back when that this is an accepted substitute for the scorpion to represent this sign) and airy Aquarius (the human, the water-bearer). As fixed signs in static positions at the four corners, they provide a counterpoint to the rotating wheel. They’re also mentioned ad nauseum in Ezekiel and Revelation, and later came to represent the four evangelists; when depicted in stained glass for the evangelists, they’re usually depicted as winged, as they are here. Why they are reading books, though, is lost on me, unless it’s to underline the connection to Matthew (the angel), Mark (the lion), Luke (the bull) and John (the eagle) by having them each read the Gospels.

Traditionally these four creatures weren’t on the Wheel of Fortune, but they were on the World. To me, this rounds out the Major Arcana nicely, forming a kind of symmetry. The Wheel of Fortune and the World, the two “circular” cards, can be considered the centre and the end (and beginning) of the Majors.

My Interpretation
Life is cyclical. And frequently random, arbitrary, whimsical. Sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re not. Nobody can stay on top of the wheel forever, no matter how it may feel. To me this card is not about circumstances you make yourself, but Fate, factors beyond your control. It’s a card of luck, and luck has both good and bad facets. When this card appears in a reading, one can expect changes, freak occurrences, lucky breaks or bad luck. Just grit your teeth and hang on, or enjoy the ride.

Recolouring
The red wheel suits the Fire element that rules Jupiter. The yellow Sphinx represents the mental processes, the wisdom he is supposed to embody. I tried to match the colours of each of the four creatures in the corners to their elemental attributes – red and yellow for the Fire of the lion, green and brown for the Earth of the bull, yellow for the Air of the man and blue for the Watery eagle.

 

[Anna]

THOTH

Card name ~ Fortune

Keyword ~ The Lord of the Forces of Life
Element ~ Fire
Tree of Life attributions ~ Path 21, joining Chesed 4 (mercy) to Netzach 7 (victory)
Astrological / other attributions ~ Jupiter, Hebrew letter Kaph (palm of hand)

First impressions
A fairly traditional looking Fortune card; the wheel and it’s 3 creatures are present. What’s weird is the swirling purple background and the way that the top part of the card is almost cut off fron t the bottom. It looks a bit like the wheel is under water, and that the stars and diamond shapes are above the water. Surrounding the wheel are what look like lightning strikes of orange. The impression all of this gives is of movement and action, of changing fortunes and things in motion.

From the Book of Thoth
It would be narrow to think of Jupiter as good fortune; he represents the element of luck. The incalculable factor. This card thus represents the Universe in its aspect as a continual change of state.
Of the 3 figures of the wheel: In the Hindu system are three Gunas – Sattvas, Rajas and Tamas. The word “guna” is untranslatable. It is not quite an element, a quality a form of energy, a phase, or a potential’ all of these ideas enter into it. Tamas is darkness, intertia, sloth, ignorance, death and the like; Rajas is energy, excitement, fire, brilliance, restlessness; Sattvas is calm, intelligence, lucidity and balance.
The gunas revolve. That means that nothing can remain in any phase where one of these Gunas is predominant; however dense and dull that thing may be, a time will come when it begins to stir.
The gunas are represented in European philosophy as sulphur, mercury and salt.

From Duquette: For centuries, the Wheel of Forune has been interpreted as a card of good luck. This is only partially true. It is also the card of bad luck; and the card of luck getting better; and the card of luck getting worse. Whatever kind of luck we are talking about, one thing’s a sure bet. It’s going to change.
Change is stability, and with stability comes oder.

Images and Symbolism
Above, the firmament of stars. These appear distorted in shape, although they are balanced, some being brilliant and some dark. From them, through the firmament, issues lightnings; they churn it into a mass of blue and violet plumes. In the midst of all this is suspended a wheel of ten spokes, according to the number of the Sephiroth, and of the sphere of Malkuth, indicating governance of physical affairs.
On the wheel are three figures, the Sworded Sphinx, Hermanubis, and Typhon; they symbolise the three forms of energy which govern the movement of phenomena.
The Sphinx is composed of the four Kerubs, the bull, the lion, the eagle and the man. The Sphinx represents the element of Sulphur, and is exalted, temporarily, upon the summit of the wheel. Climbing up the left hand side is Hermanubis, who represents alchemical Mercury. On the right hand side is Typhon, who represents the element of salt. Typhon was a monster of the primitive world, personifying the destructive power and fury of volcanoes and typhoons. In the legend, he attempted to obtain supreme authority over both gods and men, but Zeus blasted him with a thunderbolt. In this card he may be interpreted as Unity of supreme attainment and delight.
The lightnings which destroy also beget; and the wheel may be regarded as the eye of Shiva, whose opening annihilates the Universe, or as a wheel upon the Car of Jaganath, whose devotees attain perfection at the moment that it crushes them.

Traditional meanings (Marseille/RWS)
My understanding of this card across the Marseille and RWS has been that it represents a change of fortune; sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. It is a card of both good luck and bad luck, although I’ve usually seen it as leaning more towards good luck.

From tarotpedia: ”In the earliest known list of the Trumps (Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis), this card is called La Rotta (The Wheel). The Wheel of Fortune was a very popular allegory during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and many images of it can be found. In the Tarot de Marseille, La Roue de Fortune (The Wheel of Fortune) is one of the most intriguing cards. Like The Moon, it shows no human figures: instead, there are bizarre animals dressed up in skirts and capes, crawling over a wheel that is turning counter-clockwise and in some decks appears to float on waves. A "sphinx" with a little sword and crown sits above. The figure who has fallen from the wheel in other decks has been omitted. As on the Cary Sheet, a large handle is left untouched, as if the creatures are bound to the wheel and incapable of taking control (or unaware of this possibility).”

From Thirteen’s tarot card meanings: ” The wheel symbolizes completeness as well as the rise and fall of fortunes and the message that what goes around comes around. Almost every definition of this card indicates abundance, happiness, elevation, or luck; a change that just happens, and brings with it great joy.The Wheel can mean movement, change or evolution, and in that respect it can be about how we all change positions, some of us rising some of us falling, some dropping to a nadir, some reaching a zenith. Most of the time, however, this card suggests that such changes will bring with them good fortune.”

My take on the card
I would say that this card represents the whole of the Universe at work and in motion; the Universe is in a continual process of change, and it is that which brings stability and balance to the whole. All actions and non actions have consequences. These consequences are not the result of mankind’s notions of right and wrong, they occur simply because each change that happens in the Universe is felt across the whole of it, kind of like a huge spider’s web. Consequences occur because the Universe must maintain balance.

So; this card is about change, actions, consequences and movement. When it appears in a reading, I would think it indicates a change in circumstances, possibly for the better, the worse, or even both or neither. There are no value judgements attached to the change, it just is what it is. I would read the cards surrounding this one to decide what sort of change was happening and how this might affect the querent.

 

[linnie]

ATU- X Fortune (Wheel of… ) - THOTH

First impressions – Imagery… I see a golden wheel upon which recline an ape, a crocodile (with twinning serpent tail) and a sphinx. The sphinx holds a sword between her front paws, the ape climbs the wheel and, in doing so, appears to turn it; the crocodile, with hook or crook in one arm (“By hook or by crook”?) and Ankh type key in another, also seems to propel the wheel.

Purple swirling background upon which is paler mauve triangle and 6 almost trumpet-like markings…. All enveloped in mauve and blue swirling lines around the outer wheel. Inner wheel has ten-pointed star as centrepiece of its axle, along with many other stars of various colours and configurations. The image initially appeared fairly still, but upon closer examination all the swirls definitely created much movement.

Colours: Gold, purple, mauve, blue, yellow.

LWB – “Follow thy Fortune, careless where it lead thee. The axle moveth not: attain thou that.” This generally implies good fortune due to the fact that consultation implies anxiety or discontent.

BofT – “It would be narrow to think of Jupiter as good fortune; he represents the element of luck. The incalculable factor.”

Wasserman – X Fortune – “Change of fortune, generally good. Destiny.”

Harris - X Fortune - “By the attribution of this card to the planet Jupiter, it is made to represent the Universe in its aspect of continual change. The appearance of all sorts of celestial phenomena emphasises this. In the middle is the ten-spoked wheel, the accepted symbol of Fortune. The three figures attached to the wheel symbolise the three forms of energy, expressed in the Hindu System by the term Guna. At the top sits the Sphinx, typifying intelligence and balance (Sativas): Hermanubis, in the semblance of an ape, represents the restlessness of brilliant, unstable reason (Rajas): and at the bottom, almost falling from the wheel, is the reptile-headed Typhon (Tamas), the symbol of destruction, sluggishness, an ignorance. The alchemical attributes of the Gunas are Sulphur, Mercury and Salt.”

Here we have the implication to be found on all these cards of possible regeneration in all circumstances, for Typhon holds the Ankh of salvation with one hand and in the other the hook with which he snatches the soul.”

DuQuette: Mentions Centro in centri trigonio… equating to the ‘Secret of Jupiter’, where Typhon = Feeling
Hermanubus = Thought
Sphinx = Ecstasy

Hebrew letter: Kaph (Palm of hand)

“The Zen-like secret of Jupiter:
Feeling, and thought, and ecstasy
Are but the cerements of Me
Thrown off like planets from the Sun
Ye are but satellites of the One.
But should your revolution stop
You would inevitably drop
Headlong within the central Soul,
And all the parts become the Whole,
Sloth and activity and peace,
When will ye learn that ye must cease?”

Symbolism -

My impressions – The letter Kaph (palm of hand) is very telling. Fortune’s Wheel does turn and won’t stop turning, but still we have the whole world in the palm of our hand… isn’t that so? It becomes not so much a case of good or bad fortune, but of the inevitability of Change, and of what we make of such change. As our friend William Shakespeare notes… "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". This philosophy fits in well with the LWB’s urging to “Attain thou that”… to go with the flow. The centremost point of a spinning top is also its stillest. This card seems to speak of doing whatever one can to embrace what Life throws at us. Sometimes, a change for the worse is exactly what is needed to prick someone into action, to step outside of their comfort zone.

A change of circumstance, yes, perhaps good, perhaps bad, but invariably inevitable, as change is a given… so…. Best to accept what comes flying out of left field, integrate whatever is beneficial, and discard that which doesn’t serve almost as a duck sheds water.

A little more alchemy, too, with the combination of the attributes of Typhon (feeling) with Hermanubus (thought) and Sphinx (ecstasy). The palm of a hand holds much in it, and, if we consciously combine the various aspects to create a greater whole, so much the better… balance is what will help us find the centrepoint of the Wheel…

How to read with it – With caution… it won’t always herald a change in fortune for the better. My main take would be that, like a spinning top, we are most still and unperturbed at our centre, and so this card bids us Be!!! As suggested in the B of T, the Wheel of Fortune represents “The incalculable factor”, and in a reading I would be persuaded to suggest that one cannot ever really know what life has in store, and that a winning philosophy would be to make the most and see the silver lining in whatever cloud Life serves up for us, as there surely will be a silver cloud, if we but see it. Yes… this card is, essentially, about staying within your still, sweet, spot regardless of what comes your way… not ‘maintain the rage’, but let it go… and move with the flow!