Tag: Wheel of Fortune

The Fool’s Journey through the Major Arcana: SunFest 2016: The Wheel of Fortune

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

The Wheel turns slowly to the music of  “O Fortuna” from The Carmina Burana. I am the wheel, the cycles within cycles within cycles within cycles that bring birth, death, and rebirth to every being, event, and eon of the Multiverse. I am the cycle of the revolving Earth which brings day then night then day, The cycle of the Moon from dark to full and back to dark. The cycle of the earth around the Sun from spring to summer to fall to winter and back to spring. These cycles control and limit your world, and you ignore them at your own peril. But I have countless other not so obvious turns. Study and intuition will reveal some of them and allow you to use them to your advantage, but many will remain mysteries, beyond your knowledge and control. These hidden cycles twist and turn within the others and bring you both good fortune and bad. I am the Wheel. I make you and… Read More »

The World: The Hero’s Journey and the Major Arcana, Part I

Posted C. LaVielle4 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

She dances freely in mid-air, unconstrained by the laws of gravity and perhaps any of the other laws of this world. She looks totally feminine to me, but all my sources say she’s an androgynous being, which is probably why Pamela Coleman Smith and many of the other tarot artists discretely drape her private parts. Each of her hands holds a wand, suggesting positive and negative poles of energy. The symbolism here is thick and obvious. When we are able to integrate our masculine and feminine natures, our positive and negative sides, our conscious and not conscious minds, we enter into a state of being in which we can accomplish wonders (see my previous posts on The Sun and Judgement). “What can we say of an understanding, a freedom and rapture beyond words? The unconscious known consciously, the outer self unified with the forces of life, knowledge that is not knowledge at all but a constant ecstatic dance of being….”* A quick troll through the… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: Wheel of Fortune, Part III

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of Fortune’s number is 10 which puts it as close to the center of the major arcana cards as you can get, assuming The Fool, 0, is at the beginning, so it signifies a turning point or balance point. The number 10 is also the beginning of the next series of digits after 0-9 (The Fool through The Hermit), so it can be seen as the beginning of a new cycle. This cycle can be either “better” or “worse” than the one before it, but it is always a step up in complexity and challenge. Jupiter is the planet assigned to the Wheel of Fortune. As the largest planet in the solar system, it is the planet of expansion, which is what the Wheel does—it expands not only our outlook, but our options. Astrologers also call it the Greater Benefic, or bringer of good fortune, with Venus, The Empress, being the Lesser Benefic. Kaph, or Kaf, is its Hebrew letter. Its symbol is… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: Wheel of Fortune, Part II

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

Ixion was king of the Lapiths, a tribe in ancient Thessaly, and to my mind, one of the most notorious men in Greek mythology. He lived back in the day when gods and mortals still socialized and when possibly mortals were a bit immortal, since gods and mortals interbred with gusto. Depending on who you are reading, Ixion’s lineage goes back to Gaia herself, or he may have been a son of Ares, or he may have been a mere mortal. At any rate, he murdered his father-in-law, who was a guest in his house, thus becoming both the first kin-slayer and a violator of xenia, the Greek concept of guest-friendship. Because no one had ever slain a family member before, his neighbors had no idea how to perform the rituals that would cleanse him of his guilt. Ixion went mad and roamed the land as an outlaw. Zeus took pity on him, released him from his guilt, and brought him up to Mount Olympus.… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: The Wheel of Fortune, Part I

Posted C. LaVielle5 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Uncategorized

Whether it’s Vanna White that spins the wheel, The Greek Moirae, The Norse Norns, or Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters, this card is about Fate, i.e., Luck. And as you can see, Luck is always a Lady, and she’s usually not real pretty. Like the Three Fates, there is a remorseless inevitability about this card, and I have never understood why most readers regard it as benefic. Fortune is not the same thing as fortunate. Seven days after a child is born, The Three Moirae, come to the infant’s hearth and determine the babe’s fate. Clotho spins the life thread, Lachesis measures it, and Atropos cuts it off. They are remorseless and powerful. Even Zeus bows to their authority. Once a destiny has been spun, measured, and cut there is no changing it. But who wants to surrender their free will to three cantankerous old ladies? We live in a time when marvelous advances in medicine and technology have given us the illusion that we are actually… Read More »