TAROT CARD GUIDE

The Wheel of Fortune Tarot Card Meaning & Interpretations

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The Wheel of Fortune Card from the Rider Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Introduction

The number 10 marks the beginning of a new cycle after the completion of an old one. In numerology 10 reduces to 1 (1+0=1) which connects it to Tarot's Aces and The Magician. What makes it different is that it begins on top of a preceding cycle whereas the cards numbered 1 symbolise a fresh start with no history or carry over. Therefore The Wheel of Fortune marks a new beginning for something that is already part of your life. Compare The Wheel of Fortune to the 10s of the Minor Arcana which symbolise a new cycle beginning on the foundations of one, or many, previous cycles of their element. In the 10 Of Pentacles this is collective wealth, accumulated over generations of gathering material possessions, beginning a new cycle. Natural cycles are always different. No two years are ever the same. This is why this card is named Wheel of Fortune because the wheel is cyclic and each cycle, each rotation of it, will bring different fortunes, luck, challenges, defeats and success.

The Rider Waite Smith (RWS) deck uses a mixture of Egyptian, Graeco-Roman and Christian symbolism in its depiction of The Wheel of Fortune. In each of the four corners of the card are the "four living creatures" Ezekiel describes in the old testament (Ezekiel 1:1-10) . They are also described in John's vision in Revelation (4:6–8) as sitting around the throne in heaven. Smith and Waite included the same four characters in the corners of The World card of their RWS deck. In The World they symbolise reaching heaven, ascension or enlightenment. In the The Wheel of Fortune they symbolise the notion that one's fate is dictated by Divine Providence. The Wheel is inscribed with two words, their letters inter-changing. "TARO" and the Hebrew "יהוה"‬ (or YHWH in Latin) which Waite states is the "Divine Name" ie the name of God. The word "TARO" can also be read as "ROTA" from the Latin for "wheel". The Sphinx sitting on top of the wheel is a guardian of sorts to balance the inclusion of the serpent on the left and Typhon below the wheel. Typhon is Greek mythology's equivalent to the Christian Devil. A monstrous deity who tried to over throw Zeus and failed only to be cast down and buried under a volcano. The inclusion of these characters is probably to symbolise the unpredictable and chaotic influences that make each cycle of the wheel different.

The Wheel of Fortune symbolises a feeling of something being different about familiar routines or habits. Like beginning a new year at school you are in the same place but a year ahead, studying more advanced subjects with different teachers and timetables. Your failures or successes from the previous year will no doubt play a part in how this year begins. Fate and destiny will also play a part of how this new cycle starts and unfolds. You have to prove yourself once more and there is no guarantee that this cycle will be a repeat of the last one as your fortunes can rise or fall. A simple interpretation of this card can be gambling, or taking a chance.

The Wheel of Fortune in a Tarot Reading

The Wheel of Fortune marks a new cycle in something already part of your life. It differs from an Ace's entirely fresh beginning because the previous cycle leaves resources, results and experience behind. You begin again, but you do not begin from nowhere.

The familiar setting does not guarantee a familiar outcome. Like returning to school for another year, the framework may remain while the demands and opportunities change. The card asks how you respond when the wheel turns and your circumstances acquire a different balance.

Upright Meaning

Upright, The Wheel of Fortune can indicate a change of phase: another season of work, a renewed arrangement or the next round of an ongoing endeavour. Earlier successes and difficulties may influence the starting position, while new conditions create possibilities of their own.

The number 10 reduces to 1, combining completion with renewed beginning. Something accumulated can now be used differently. Experience may help you recognise an opportunity, but you still need to engage with the particular circumstances of this cycle.

Fortune can improve or become more demanding. The name should not be treated as an automatic promise of good luck. Its useful emphasis is that life is moving and that both personal choices and influences beyond your control contribute to what happens next.

Upright keywords: renewed cycles, changing fortune, turning points, new phases, opportunity, continuity, changing circumstances, inherited momentum.

Reversed Meaning

Reversed, The Wheel of Fortune may describe difficulty adjusting to the next phase. You may expect a previous method to produce the same result even though the conditions have changed. Familiarity can obscure the need for a fresh assessment.

It can also indicate a cycle that feels stuck or repetitive. The same problem may return because its underlying pattern has not been understood. Ask which parts are genuinely outside your control and which choices keep carrying the difficulty into the next round.

Another possibility is an unwelcome turn of circumstances. Context determines whether the emphasis is delay, repetition or changed fortune. The reversal is not proof of punishment or permanent bad luck; it asks how you can respond within the conditions now present.

Reversed keywords: resisted transition, repeating patterns, delayed renewal, changing luck, inflexible expectations, difficult adjustment, recurring challenges.

Love and Relationships

In relationships, The Wheel of Fortune can suggest entering another phase together. A change in routines, responsibilities or wider circumstances may require the couple to discover how the bond works under new conditions. What helped previously may still be valuable without being sufficient on its own.

For an old connection that returns, consider what is different now. Reversed, the same disagreement may repeat because the pattern beneath it remains unchanged. The card does not promise that reunion or change will improve the relationship; it highlights the chance to recognise the cycle and respond consciously.

Work and Career

At work, this card can describe a new business period, renewed contract or another stage within an established career. Your previous contribution forms part of the starting point, but new people, conditions or expectations may alter the task.

Reversed, relying entirely on past success may make adaptation difficult. An unfavourable change can also require a practical reassessment of what is available. Use experience as information rather than as a guarantee that the next cycle should unfold like the last.

Money and Finances

For finances, The Wheel of Fortune can concern fluctuations, recurring commitments and the effect of one period's decisions on the next. A better phase may offer room to strengthen your position, while a harder one may reveal the value of previous preparation.

Reversed, repeating a financial pattern without examining its results can keep the same pressure returning. The card's association with chance should not be taken as encouragement to gamble or as a prediction of a windfall. Focus on how changing conditions affect the commitments you already carry.

Advice from The Wheel of Fortune

Identify what the previous cycle has given you and what this one asks you to reconsider. Work with the influence you have without assuming you control every turn. A flexible response is easier when familiar surroundings do not lull you into familiar assumptions.

Ask yourself: What has changed in this new cycle, and what lesson from the last one can I use now?

The wheel brings another beginning, while experience gives you the chance to meet it differently.

The Wheel of Fortune According to A. E. Waite

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

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. 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. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. 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. 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.

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.