The Wheel of Fortune is a familiar image to many people. This version resembles the classic Marseilles image, lacking the Christian symbolism of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
As in other Egipcios Kier cards, we find a cartouche divided into three sections. In this card, they are all of equal size.
The upper portion contains four magical symbols. We see the parallel diagonal lines again, a polyhedron, a letter from a mysterious alphabet, and a winged sphinx with a pharaonic beard, a serpent-crown, and a staff.
As we shift our attention to the bottom third of the cartouche we see two serpents gracefully periscoping atop golden eggs. Their skin is marked with egg-shaped patterns and a pillar stands between them, suggesting a foundation beyond our vision.
Rising from that pillar, the central image of the card is a six-spoked wheel. On one side, an Egyptian god kneels, tightly gripping the wheel to prevent it from spinning, while on the other side, a frightful creature is positioned head downward, about to fall off the wheel in the downward half of its orbit.
The title of the card includes one symbol unfamiliar to me, as well as the astrological symbol for Scorpio and the Hebrew letter Yud, which has the numerical significance of 10. Thanks to Kaplan's Little White Book, I learned that the unfamiliar symbol signifies the planet Pluto.
Kaplan enlightens us further, identifying the hawk-headed figure holding (or spinning) the wheel as Horus, the sun god, and the figure on the wheel as Ammut “the creature that devours unworthy souls after their judgment.” Kaplan explains the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians regarding the judgment of souls after death. He adds that the sphinx at the top of the cartouche represents the pharaoh, who received full funerary rites following his death, but was nonetheless exempt from afterlife judgment.
According to Kaplan, the upright card has a range of positive meanings: destiny, fortune, felicity, godsend, special gains or unusual losses, culmination, influences shaping the outcome of a problem, inevitability, unexpected events, or the full course of events from beginning to end. In contrast, the reversed card suggests failure, ill luck, broken sequences, interruptions, inconsistencies, and influences that were not previously contemplated.
The Wheel may represent life in all its pain and glory, but it also represents our personal journeys. It encompasses our highest peaks and our most shadowed valleys, and every torturous turn in between. Like the faithfully changing seasons in which the darkest winter solstice is eventually followed by hot summer days, so our wheel of life keeps turning for good or bad. If Horus is indeed trying to keep the wheel still, his effort is in vain.
As Eric Weinstein astutely asked an interviewer, “When your wife’s water broke, did you say, ‘We have to stabilize this situation! We must make sure our child can stay in here forever’? No!”
A crisis, is, as they say, an opportunity, and it we must be active in our responses. It is impossible to maintain the status quo when you’re up against The Wheel of Fortune.
Weinstein reminds us that time continues to sift through the hourglass unimpeded by our refusal to face mortality. Time and fortune flow inexorably whether or not we acknowledge our impending deaths. We must take action because life is too short. Although the Wheel can crush you (as Rachel Pollack points out), it also reveals opportunities. What would you do right now if you truly valued the ever-shorter time you have left?
Some tarot scholars draw a connection between this card, the tenth of the Major Arcana, and The World, the twentieth card, suggesting that after Judgment, we are returned to life renewed. That seems a naive position. This card calls us to attention, “Get off your ass and do something with your life, no matter how afraid or confused you are!” We must enthusiastically embrace possibilities for change and growth.
Norma Cowie, the author of my first and favorite tarot book says that this card tells us “it is time once more to test your knowledge in your daily life.” So accept the invitation and step up to the plate!
In conclusion, the cat’s claws are out—he may play with you or destroy you. It’s nothing personal, so savor every experience.
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