The Wheel of Fortune isn’t too different from how it sounds. It has to do with all we associate with fortune – luck (perhaps good luck), random chance, a little touch of so-called karma. It can talk about changing tides and unexpected windfalls. But the wheel part also has some sway over the meaning. Natural cycles, circular thinking, and the seasons of life, death, and reincarnation are just a few of the perhaps less intuitive ways one could interpret this card.
I like to think of it as a combination of “what goes around comes around” and winning the lottery. Most tarot readers tend to take a positive spin on the Wheel of Fortune, so long as it’s upright. It has a random, untamed element, holding you hostage to forces beyond your control – but, in this case, those forces are generally benevolent. It may feel like surprise good fortune here – not necessarily worked for with blood, sweat and tears – but it was probably earned fair and square, through the natural flow of energetic cycles. Perhaps even in another life.
The Wheel of Fortune Upright
▹Karma and reincarnation
▹Cycles
▹Recurring motifs
▹Chance, luck
▹Recognition
▹Cyclical thinking
▹New opportunities
The Wheel of Fortune Reversed
▹Bad luck, misfortune
▹Unforeseen setbacks
▹Resistance to change
▹Breaking old cycles
▹Feeling helpless
▹The need to take control of your life
The Wheel of Fortune, both upright and reversed, is a healthy reminder of our place in the grand scheme of things: we don’t get to choose the details of what life throws at us, but our hands aren’t exactly tied either. Chained tough we are to this Wheel, we can at least decide what kind of energy we put out into the world. And whatever that is might just come back to us.