The Wheel of Fortune Tarot card image looks like a roulette. The outcome is uncertain, no matter what you do, so you can only hope to be lucky. The one thing to be expected is surprise. Sometimes fate plays tricks on us. What can we do but wish for the best? You need to look beyond this point of time to get a glimpse of how the outcome will affect you — winning the lottery or losing a costly bet. If you worry, maybe you just shouldn’t take this path. The powerful methods of divination (that’s most of them) have no problem revealing the future. But sometimes it’s like they just don’t want to, as if that’s against some master plan concealed from us. The Wheel of Fortune card of the Tarot deck is a reminder of this, whenever it appears in a reading. Don’t try to know everything in advance. It’s not allowed. At heart we have to agree with what the Wheel of Fortune Tarot card implies. What’s the fun of living if there are no uncertainties and no surprises? We thrive by curiosity. Like any nutrition, it only keeps working if we keep feeding on it. What’s hidden from us, even in divination, mainly has this function — keeping us awake and eager to meet tomorrow. As a personal characteristic, the Wheel of Fortune card indicates too much trust in chance. Happy-go-lucky. Some people are blessed with a multitude of joyous tidings, so it may work for them — mostly. Never always. Even the luckiest among us will be struck by misfortune, now and then. If they trusted luck too much, such a blow can be devastating to them and they may find that they lack any kind of insurance, any alternative by which to minimize the losses. So, the Wheel of Fortune can signal a formidable opportunity ahead, but always also a warning: Don’t bet your whole fortune on the most fortunate outcome. Save something for a rainy day. Consider in advance what you can do if things don’t go your way…
First Appearance Ducal courts of northern Italy (c. 1440)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List Sola Busca (1490s) — earliest surviving deck [Open Culture] [WaiteSmith.org]; Monde primitif… (Vol. 8: “Du Jeu des Tarots”) (1781) by Antoine Court de Gébelin; Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots (1783–1785) by Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette); Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1856) by Éliphas Lévi; The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune-Telling, and Method of Play (1888) by S. L. MacGregor Mathers; Le Tarot des Bohémiens (1889) by Papus (Gérard Encausse); Rider Waite Tarot (1909) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith [WaiteSmith.org]; The Tarot of the Bohemians (1910) by A. P Morton [Internet Archive]; The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911, 1959) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith; Le tarot des imagiers du moyen âge (1926) by Oswald Wirth; The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians (1944) by Aleister Crowley; Le Tarot de Marseille (1949) by Paul Marteau; The Tarot Revealed (1960) by Eden Gray; Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling (1970) by Stuart R. Kaplan; The Encyclopedia of Tarot (Vol. 1) (1978) by Stuart R. Kaplan.
Sample Read The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911, 1959) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith [Internet Archive]
Description The Wheel of Fortune Tarot card image looks like a roulette. The outcome is uncertain, no matter what you do, so you can only hope to be lucky. The one thing to be expected is surprise. Sometimes fate plays tricks on us. What can we do but wish for the best? You need to look beyond this point of time to get a glimpse of how the outcome will affect you — winning the lottery or losing a costly bet. If you worry, maybe you just shouldn’t take this path. The powerful methods of divination (that’s most of them) have no problem revealing the future. But sometimes it’s like they just don’t want to, as if that’s against some master plan concealed from us. The Wheel of Fortune card of the Tarot deck is a reminder of this, whenever it appears in a reading. Don’t try to know everything in advance. It’s not allowed. At heart we have to agree with what the Wheel of Fortune Tarot card implies. What’s the fun of living if there are no uncertainties and no surprises? We thrive by curiosity. Like any nutrition, it only keeps working if we keep feeding on it. What’s hidden from us, even in divination, mainly has this function — keeping us awake and eager to meet tomorrow. As a personal characteristic, the Wheel of Fortune card indicates too much trust in chance. Happy-go-lucky. Some people are blessed with a multitude of joyous tidings, so it may work for them — mostly. Never always. Even the luckiest among us will be struck by misfortune, now and then. If they trusted luck too much, such a blow can be devastating to them and they may find that they lack any kind of insurance, any alternative by which to minimize the losses. So, the Wheel of Fortune can signal a formidable opportunity ahead, but always also a warning: Don’t bet your whole fortune on the most fortunate outcome. Save something for a rainy day. Consider in advance what you can do if things don’t go your way…
