Wheel of Fortune: Life, Death, & Regeneration
A Journey through the Tarot Major Arcana: The Wheel of Fortune ~ Card 10
Dear Ones,
Please join me on a Zoom call to celebrate the publication of the new edition of the Gaian Tarot next Sunday, July 13th, at 1 PM Pacific time. It will be open to all subscribers. We’ll play some tarot games, I’ll tell some stories, and we’ll do a Q&A. Your chance to ask me anything. It’ll be fun! I’ll send out the log-in details in a couple of days. I hope you can join me.
Thanks for joining me on my quest to renew my tarot practice by taking a journey through the cards of the Major Arcana. This is the eleventh post in the series, which is an offering for paid subscribers. We focus mainly on the Gaian Tarot and the Herbcrafter’s Tarot in this series, which includes a look at the card’s themes, card comparisons, creative sparks and crafts, journal prompts, and even a playlist inspired by the card. These posts are longer than most of mine. Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your responses in the comments.
“All things begin, grow, peak, begin to wane, then die. And something is left as a seed for a new cycle to begin.”
— JPC, The Sacred Wheel Oracle, a work-in-progress
The Wheel of Fortune is one of those tarot cards that consists of layer upon layer of meaning. It’s a significant card for me personally.
In most antique decks, we are exhorted to hold fast to the eternal because all earthly things must pass. What goes up, must come down. Even the most powerful king will one day die and lose it all.
In other decks, the Goddess of Luck, Fortuna, reminds us that life is random and unpredictable. We never know what cards we’ll be dealt. We have no control over outer events and circumstances. We can only control our responses and actions.
Another reading of the Wheel of Fortune card tells us that there’s a time for everything, the coming and the going, the flowing and the ebbing: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Earth-based decks like the Gaian root us in cyclical time, as reflected in the seasons of the solar year and the monthly lunar phases. Everything changes; the only constant is change. Yet we find a pattern in these changes that we can count on. One stage always succeeds another, and a time of darkness is always followed by renewal.
The cycle of life, death, and regeneration has become a central article of faith for me, a key principle by which I live my life. All things begin, grow, peak, begin to wane, and die. And something is left as a seed for a new cycle to begin.
I find hope and faith in the seasons, in the lunar cycle, in the garden, and in the wildwood. Christians find hope and faith in the symbol of the cross, but I find it here. For this cycle has taught me that whenever there is a loss, a grievous loss, it is always followed by renewal of some kind.
There is an end to suffering, or at least an alchemical change to it. Whether or not we believe in life after death, we at least know that we live on in the lives of those we have loved us. So we know there is renewal after physical death.
And when we are at a Full Moon / Full Bloom stage of our lives, it’s good to acknowledge that it’s impermanent and it won’t last. Pema Chodron invites us to greet the good times like a rainbow, with a sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation. We know that soon we will move on, and the cycle continues.
My interpretation of the Wheel card in the Gaian Tarot is based on the cycle of life, death, and regeneration. It’s also the basis of my current work-in-progress, the Sacred Wheel Oracle.
I’m very fond of the Wheel tarot card!