ACTIVATING THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

I have been working on a book that details how to activate the magic within tarot cards.  As 2026 is a Wheel of Fortune Year, here are a few snippets from my section on The Wheel of Fortune card:

Devotions to Fortuna: Although different tarot decks’ graphics emphasize the turning wheel, the card also invokes Fortuna, who is the goddess presence behind the tarot.  Some older decks portray the goddess at the center of the wheel, while in classical art she might be portrayed carrying a cornucopia or a rudder, or standing on a ball.  The ancient Romans believed that each person could have an individual Fortuna as a spirit of good luck, (though, obviously, some people were better served than others), and so made offerings to her.  Fortuna also had many manifestations, including Fortuna Muliebris (luck of women), Fortuna Virilis (luck of young men, though invoked by women seeking a virile mate), Fortuna Publica (fortune of the greater public), and Fortuna Redux (invoking a safe return from travel).  As a way of nurturing your own good fortune, you might want to rise in the morning to greet Fortuna Huiusqce Diei” the “Fortune of this Day.”  Ask yourself, “How is my Fortune doing today?  What can I do to advance my Fortune today?”  Then, open your door wide to activate the magic of opening, while saying, “Fero Fortuna!  Fortuna Abundia!”

Spinning the Wheel: Part of the magical mindset is being game for new things.  This includes taking some chances by making some changes in your routines, pushing beyond some of your normal boundaries, and bringing some randomizers into your plans as a way of playfully spinning the wheel.  This is an area where divination can help.  For example, if planning a vacation, instead of following your usual inclinations, you could ask the tarot for advice on where to go for a magically delightful trip, then pull a card and consider what its images and meanings might suggest.  When you are willing to act on the tarot’s advice, you put yourself out in the realm where marvelous synchronicities can more readily take place.

Wheel Turning Spell: One of the best known of magical charm formulas is the “Sator Arepo” word square shown here.  It is a palindrome, meaning that it reads the same way forwards, backwards, and up and down.  This formula was popular in the Roman world, (with the earliest known example from Pompeii), and spread through all of Europe, where it was engraved on doors and walls, or written on paper and carried on the person.  Its amuletic uses ranged from promoting general well-being, to protecting from fire and other disasters.  Though its origin and meaning are not clear, one loose translation suggests it reads, “The sower Arepo holds steady the wheel.”  In this respect, it conveys the sense of steadily advancing one’s fortune.  You can help direct its forward momentum by inscribing the Sator Arepo square on paper and setting The Wheel card on top of that.

Also, here is a six-day spell for symbolically turning the wheel: write the Sator Arepo square on a piece of paper, and set it out on an altar space.  The next day, prepare another square, but with Sator shunted to the bottom, so it reads, “Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas Sator.”  On the third day, write out another square with Arepo shunted to the bottom, so the square now starts with Tenet.  Go through the same process every day, so on the sixth day, the word square is back to its original state, with Sator on the first line.  This completes your rotations.  Alternatively, you could get six candles, and inscribe the permutations of the word square on the subsequent days’ candles; when the last candle is burned down, a major change may be effected.  Orange candles are most commonly used in spells to change one’s luck.  (Note that this spell can also be used when you draw The Chariot card, as there is a similar sense of taking the wheel.)

More on Tarot Spells with The Hanged Man

One of the fun things about working with new artists’ tarot decks is seeing how the artwork can reveal new graphic relationships between different cards, and how this can be meaningful to divination and also to the construction of tarot spells.

So, my last post described a tarot spell for reversing Hanged Man-type situations, where you feel that your life is in a state of suspension.  One variation of this spell suggests laying out The Hanged Man, The Wheel, and The World while visualizing the cycle of change that can bring you to the idealized position of the dancing woman in The World, (of which The Hanged Man is something of a reversed mirror image).  Comparing how this combination of cards looks in different decks, this particular spell layout makes some striking graphic connections when you use Ciro Marchetti’s “Legacy of the Divine” tarot.  It happens that the man featured in The Hanged Man is the same figure as in The Wheel, as well as in the World; (as an Everyman figure, he is also The Fool and is featured as a prisoner of The Devil).  In the arrangement of cards which I will attempt to upload, (I hope I can insert this in the right place), you can see how nicely he can tumble from the Hanged Man position, onto the turning Wheel, until he flips back to The World position.

By the way, I like how the Cirque de Soleil-type artistry adds to the moving energy of this card combination.  In Marchetti’s other deck, “The Guilded Tarot,” there is also some graphic resonance between The Hanged Man and The Wheel, because The Wheel features a zodiac and the hanging man is suspended from a sun wheel.

Thoughts on “The Wheel” and “The Fool”

I always have a selection of books on hand for night-time reading, so one of the books I’m currently working my way through is “The History of Court Fools” by Dr. Doran (no first name given).  It was published in 1966, but the Victorian writing style makes me suspect it’s a reprint.  Naturally, I am always looking out for tarot symbolism.  On page 91, the author cites an old saying that “if a man would rise in the world, it were better for him to let go a descending wheel, and to hang to one going up-hill.”  This is good advice when The Wheel of Fortune appears in your readings, but it requires discernment, because you need to be attentive to what is going on in your world in order to identify all of the ascending and descending wheels, and to be frank with yourself as to which wheel you are riding.  It is proactive advice, reminding us that we don’t need to be bound to one particular wheel.

The author brings up the court fool’s ability to speak frankly—it’s really true, the traditional jesters were given that privilege.  They also had free access to the king or lord at any time of day—a privilege accorded to none of the other ministers.  There are many cases where the Fool used his [or her] privilege to dissuade a ruler of some disastrous course of action, sometimes speaking out against social injustices.  (This kind of brings to mind the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the old Quaker injunction, “Speak truth to Power.”)  Different writers have commented on how The Fool in the tarot, as an unnumbered card, has the ability to barge into the card sequence or reading anywhere he likes.  So, when the Fool appears in your reading, you might think about how he may be interrupting the flow of the reading with a warning.  Also, in the interest of bold speech, are you being frank with yourself or others?  Is this a situation where there is the proverbial 500-pound gorilla in the room that no one is willing to talk about?

Something that surprised me in reading this book is that the practice of keeping a jester was very extensive, almost universal, rather than some quaint, obscure custom practiced only by a few.  The custom extends back into ancient times, and not just monarchs, but the lesser nobility and even church officials kept fools.  This custom was also practiced in the Orient, and in the New World, where, for example, the Aztec ruler Montezuma also had jesters.  In order to generate a constant stream of witticisms, many fools were very learned, being fluent in different and ancient languages, and educated in the classics as well as other fields of learning.  They also had to be good psychologists, attentive and intuitive enough to read their audiences.  Jesters were generally very well paid, and many were rewarded with lands and titles.

Another thing that surprised me is that women could serve as fools, and some of them were quite the celebrities.  There are some tarot decks which feature female fools, though I can’t, offhand, recall which.  Although I think it’s a good thing to tweak tarot symbolism in order to tease out new insights, I had found female Fool cards to be a little discordant with what I previously knew of historical tradition.  However, now that I have read about lady jesters, I have revised my opinion.  One of the earlier-known female fools officiated in the household of the Roman philosopher Seneca.  Other notables were Artaude du Puy (in the service of Charles I and Jeanne of France, circa 1373), Madame d’Or (called a moult gracieuse folle by St. Remy in 1429), a woman called La Jardiniere as well as a certain Jacquette both served Catherine de Medicis, the dwarf Mathurine entertained the court of the French king Henry IV, and a Spanish folle named Capiton traveled with the Hapsburg Don Juan of Austria.  The last female fool on record was Kathrin Lise, who served the Duchess of Sachsen-Weissenfels-Dahme as late as 1720.  For anyone aspiring to write a historical fiction novella [or nonfiction, too], a story based on a lady jester would offer the reading public some novelty.

Finding Your Teacher, continued

So, we have been considering how to approach major tarot figures as teachers, based on a reading exercise utilizing the Wizards Tarot, and in the previous post, I cited a reading that got The Hierophant as master teacher.  (The other flanking cards in this reading were the Four of Pentacles and The Magician, and the Hidden Teacher card was The Wheel of Fortune—I will get around to these in a bit.)

To continue with the example, in the Wizards Tarot, the Hierophant is represented as the centaur Chiron as master teacher, and he functions as professor of mythology in the “Mandrake Academy,” the magical school around which this deck is structured.  Because Corinne Kenner designed this deck with Golden Dawn correspondences in mind, the Hierophant is conceptually paired with Taurus.  I believe the person who got this as her teacher card is a Taurus, but I wasn’t focused in on the astrological aspects when this card was drawn, and so failed to mention that.  Otherwise, this would have been one of those “Aché!” moments.  (As mentioned in my posts of last September, Puerto Rican practitioners of Espiritismo, Santeria, and brujeria bang on tables, ring bells, and shout “Aché!” whenever an interesting synchronicity manifests, as a way of thanking the Spirit World for the confirmaciones.  (I think that the Aché may come from the Yoruba Ashé, which is an expression of spiritual force.)

If you happen to get a teacher card which corresponds to one of your special signs or planets, (such as your sun sign, moon sign, ascendant, and their planetary rulers), that says something about a teacher who can also help you learn to be yourself, by exemplifying traits that you may have suppressed in the process of trying to accommodate the rest of the world.  If you can identify people who exemplify the qualities of your planet or sign, notice what sort of knowledge they have to share, as well as their teaching styles.

Also, if you are into astrology, you could take a look at what’s going on with the planet or sign in question.  In the case of The Hierophant as portrayed in the Wizards Tarot, in addition to seeing if anything interesting is transiting through or aspecting your Taurus house, you could also look at the activities of the planetoid Chiron.  Since the discovery of Chiron, some astrologers have come to see Chiron as ruler or co-ruler of Virgo because of his detail-oriented approach to healing and problem solving, though some argue in favor of Sagittarius, as it is the sign of the Centaur.  Because expansive tarot archetypes like The Hierophant cannot be confined to one planet or sign as delimited by any single imposed system such as the G.D., you might think of what other astrological qualities this card suggests.  For example, we can see that the Hierophant has Jupiter/Sagittarius/9^th House qualities in his concern with the cultivation of the Higher Mind, as well as his dedication to transmitting a Grand Vision of cosmic harmony, achieved through religious and philosophical systems and institutions that uphold an idealized social structure.

Getting back to the other cards in the example reading, the Magician was the flanking card to the right, which suggests this person’s learning experience is likely to involve finding practical ways to apply the lessons of the Hierophant, because the Magician is concerned with manifesting change in the material world—especially in ways that actively and consciously engage the elemental qualities of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water.  The left flanking card was the Four of Pentacles, which is the most materially oriented of all the cards in the deck, what with the Pentacles representing the Earth element and the Fours representing solid structures and foundations.  Taken together, all of these cards point to a year of learning experiences in which she gets to work with a variety of materials and see practical results, which also jives with a Taurean concern for the material quality of daily life.

Because these cards add up to Ten, (4 + 5 + 1 = 10), her Hidden Teacher card is The Wheel of Fortune, which, in the Wizards Deck, is personified as the school counselor.  This would suggest that the lessons she gets out of this semester in The School of Life will put her in a position to counsel others, which also suggests that people who have need of the sort of knowledge that she has to share will be attracted into her life, and may especially need help in taking their lives in new directions.  When the student is ready, the teacher comes; when the teacher is ready, the student comes.