April 30, 2010 - The Wheel of Fortune

It has been a topsy-turvy week, emotionally, grieving for what isn't, celebrating what is, sometimes doing both within the span of the same day.  Deep funk Wednesday; scrambling out of that deep hole yesterday.  Who knows what today will bring beyond the tired that seems to me my constant companion as school hurtles toward the finish line?

The Wheel of Fortune is a card that reminds us that what goes up, comes down and what is down, goes up.  This is the cycle of life, grow, thrive, harvest, lie fallow, then round again.  When it comes up in a reading it suggests you might be feeling a sense of destiny, opening to luck, witnessing miracles.  Maybe you'll see life's threads weave together, coming to an understanding you haven't before.  That would be lovely for me,  I want to understand the bigger picture of my life.  I want to know the why of the bad and the deep thanks for the good.

Sometimes the Wheel comes up when you're at a turning point.  Up, down, round and round.  You can find yourself surprised at the unexpected turns until you come to the wise place of knowing all turns are unexpected, hold good and bad that can only be determined as the story unfolds.  Rumi writes: Misery and joy have the same shape in this world: You may call the rose an open heart or a broken heart."  A friend, on reading this, sent me a Buddhist story about a man who approaches all events, seemingly good or seemingly bad, with the phrase: "How can you know it is a blessing?"  "How can you know it is a misfortune?"  What we think is misfortune may be a blessing in disguise and what we see as a gift can be a curse, depending.  


The Wheel can also signal that you are feeling movement in your life, having the tempo of life speed up, being swept up in new developments.  Life is definitely speeding up these days, a far cry from the timeless, otherworldliness of a year ago as I continued my recovery.  And the Wheel can indicate you have found your personal vision.  Perhaps you see at last how everything connects.  Maybe you uncover patterns and cycles you never imagined.  Either way you expand your outlook, gain greater perspective, and discover your role and purpose in life.  I think this might actually be happening.  I may at last be discovering my role and purpose in life.


This seems a pretty auspicious card on a bright, sunny spring day when anything and everything is possible.  Of course, "how can you know?"  I'll keep you posted.

April 14, 2010 - The Wheel of Fortune

Round and round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows.  The roulette wheel, the game show, carnival wheels of chance, all harken back to this original wheel of fate, owned by the Roman goddess Fortuna, she of the cornucopia, the ship's rudder, the ball and this ever spinning wheel, the routa fortuna.  This is what we know deep in the very bones of us, life cycles, fortunes rise and fall.  When the world is all going your way, at some point, it won't; and when life is darkest, wait long enough and the wheel turns again, life becomes promising again.

In the Tarot, the Wheel of Fortune is associated with feeling a sense of destiny, seeing life's threads weave together, sensing the hand of fate, witnessing miracles.  In 2003 that hand of fate touched me, bringing me back to myself.  In 2007, physical challenges and deep emotional hurts took me into a two year darkness.  Which doesn't mean life was all bad when it was bad, all joy when it was joyful.  The last few years have taught me about the power of small joys that add up to happiness if we would just do the math.

The Wheel of Fortune is also about finding yourself at a turning point, moving things in a different direction maybe, altering your present course, being surprised at a turn of events.  Surprises, happy and not.  The thing is, the best fortune may turn out to be the worst and the worst, might actually be the best.  This card may also suggest movement at last after being stuck, or seeming stuck.  If you've been on the sidelines, you are now back in the flow.  You may also find a personal vision, see how things connect, discover your purpose.  With a child nearly grown, my purpose is changing and it may be the wheel is preparing me with another astonishing turn.

I will say this, it wasn't so many years ago I feared any turn of the wheel.  I used every bit of energy I had staying poised at the top, balancing with every bit of me to keep what I had.  Funny how time and circumstances, gravity if you will, teach us there's no stopping the wheel, and bad can become good just as easily as good slips away.  I would also say I've maybe come to a place, could this be wisdom, of understanding that even in the best of times, there are seeds of the worst, and even in the darkest days, there is enough light, though it sometimes be the weakest candle, to find my way through.

Not sure what this turn of the wheel will bring but I'll keep you posted.