X · Major Arcana
Wheel of Fortune
Change, cycles, turning points, natural rhythms, acceptance
Also known as
Thoth: Fortune — Crowley's Thoth deck shortens this to simply 'Fortune'. The imagery and meaning closely align with the RWS Wheel.
Wheel of Fortune Upright Meaning
The Wheel of Fortune invites you to expand your perspective beyond the current moment. Nothing is permanent — not the difficulty you're facing, not the ease you're enjoying, not the version of yourself that feels unchangeable. All of it is part of a larger cycle, and cycles are the nature of life. This card asks: what if you stopped clinging to the good moments trying to preserve them, and stopped fighting the difficult moments trying to get them over? What if you trusted that the wheel is moving not against you but as you? Equanimity — the capacity to hold the turning with something approaching composure — is the gift of this card.
This card as a mirror: where in your life are you gripping something tightly, trying to keep it from changing — and what if you learned to trust the turning instead?
Wheel of Fortune Reversed
The Wheel reversed often surfaces when you're stuck — when the wheel feels like it's stopped, or when you're trying desperately to stop it from turning. It can point to resistance so strong that you're creating friction with the natural movement of things. It can also suggest that you're experiencing a difficult cycle and feeling trapped within it, losing faith that the wheel actually turns. Occasionally this card reversed points to the opposite: reckless motion without grounding, letting yourself be spun by every gust of change rather than finding your center within the turning.
This card as a mirror: what would happen if you stopped fighting what's trying to change, and started moving with it instead?
Wheel of Fortune Symbolism
Interpretive Traditions
Different schools of tarot bring different lenses to the Wheel of Fortune. These are perspectives, not contradictions.
Waite placed the Wheel of Fortune at position 10 — the completion of the first arc of development — to suggest that the Fool has lived through a full cycle of experience. Now comes the awareness that cycles are the fundamental pattern. The wheel is neither good nor evil; it simply turns. Learning to move with it rather than resist it is the lesson.
Crowley's Wheel emphasises the law of karma — cause and effect, sown and reaped, the inevitable justice of the universe. The Wheel is specifically associated with Jupiter, the planet of expansion and law. This suggests that what appears as fortune or misfortune is actually the manifestation of previous causes ripening into effect.
Contemporary readers often soften the determinism, emphasising that while not everything is within your control, how you respond to the wheel's turning very much is. This card becomes an invitation to agency within constraint — not trying to stop the wheel, but choosing how to position yourself within its turning.
Wheel of Fortune in the Fool's Journey
Act —
Campbell parallel
The Road of Trials — encounter with impermanence and fate
In your life
This card appears when you are gripping something — a situation, a relationship, a version of yourself — tightly, trying to keep it from changing. It invites a different relationship with time: not resistance to the turning, but the kind of trust that comes from understanding that every fall is followed by a rise, that what is now rising will someday fall, and that this is not tragedy — it is how life moves. Can you trust the wheel?
Wheel of FortuneKeywords & Themes
The Wheel of Fortune tarot card is associated with the following themes and keywords across upright and reversed positions: cycles, impermanence, change, acceptance, equanimity, the larger patterns, resistance, stuckness, fighting the inevitable, losing faith in cycles, spinning out of control. Its elemental correspondence is Fire. Its planetary ruler is Jupiter.
Whether you drew the Wheel of Fortune in a daily pull, a weekly spread, or a year-ahead reading, its core invitation is the same: to look honestly at what this card is reflecting in your own life. Tarot Digest uses the Wheel of Fortune — and all 78 cards — as mirrors for self-inquiry, not prediction.
Recommended Decks & Books
Whether you're just starting with tarot or deepening a long practice, these are the decks and books most worth your time.
- 🃏→
The Original Rider Waite Smith Tarot Deck
The deck that defined modern tarot. If you're learning or returning, this is the essential starting point — and every card on this site uses RWS imagery.
- 📖→
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom — Rachel Pollack
The definitive companion to the tarot. Pollack's interpretations are psychologically rich, non-dogmatic, and treat the cards as tools for self-understanding rather than fortune-telling.
- 📖→
The Creative Tarot — Jessa Crispin
A fresh lens on the deck that focuses on the creative process. Excellent for anyone who wants to use tarot as a reflective or artistic practice rather than divination.
- 🃏→
Modern Witch Tarot Deck — Lisa Sterle
A beautifully illustrated contemporary reimagining of the RWS structure with diverse, modern figures. Same symbolism, entirely fresh energy.
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