EPISODE 13: THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

RUN TIME: 60’ 48’’

DATE: 4/23/2021

[00:00:00 Soft piano chords accompanied by light percussion, interspersed with a gentle harp and electric guitar plucking in the background. Music plays and overlaps with Sarah’s introduction.]

[00:00:03] Sarah Cargill: Welcome to Tarot for the End of Times. A podcast where we utilize the tarot as a tool to navigate through epochs of deep change.

My name is Sarah Cargill. I’m an artist, cultural worker, and your host throughout the duration of this series.

In each episode, I’ll take a look at the archetypal figures presented in the Major Arcana from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck to discuss what each card has to say about navigating through cycles of change, chaos, and instability.  

Throughout each episode, I’ll offer reflection questions and suggestions for exercises that might support you in inviting the energy and wisdom of these archetypes into your daily life and practice.  

If you’d like to support this podcast and the person who makes it, you can make a monthly donation through my page on anchor.fm. Your generous act of community care and reciprocity helps me to access the resources I need to make projects like this possible and sustainable. You can also support this work by sharing this podcast with your friends and loved ones and, most importantly, by tuning in. Thanks for joining me.

[00:01:28 Music fades, introduction ends]

Hello dear listeners! What’s poppin’?! Welcome to Season 2 of Tarot for the End of Times. How the hell are ya? Are you hydrated? Do you need a snack? When was the last time you’ve moisturized your knees and elbows? Have you told someone how ya REALLY feel, lately? Critical, critical questions to ask oneself and each other.  

It’s been just about a year since the launch of this podcast and… I feel so lucky to be here today. I imagine that many of y’all who are returning listeners have been rockin’ with me for about a year, and I am, in this moment, uplifting my excitement and appreciation for this contemplative and nourishing virtual communion space. I am, also, holding poignant awareness around the fact that some of those who were with us at the beginning, may no longer be with us in the flesh upon the publication of this episode. I offer a light to uplift those who were called to transition in 2020. [Light, melancholy sigh] May you be at peace, and may your spirit know rest. Ashe. [Sounds of a clicking lighter.]

[00:03:20]

There was no way that we could have moved through this last year without being changed in some way. Fundamentally. Some of us, including myself, have been changed deeply by the departures of our loved ones. For me, that has looked like... saying goodbye to my father and grandmother, whose transitions have, yes, changed me. Fundamentally. Cellularly. Karmically. For those of us who have been changed in such ways, may we find recognition in each other and may our tenderness sharpen our sensitivity to what matters most. May we protect that tenderness fiercely, and may we find grace in every breath that creates the spaciousness that our hearts crave. [A metal singing bowl is struck 3 times.]

Alright. [Deep ancestral sigh] Slowly, gently turning and shifting gears. Before we get into today’s episode, I want to take a moment to share a couple of announcements. Some of these announcements are related to my newly discovered boundaries and, also, points of clarity that will, hopefully, serve all of us, including me, in rightsizing expectations around this podcast. And then I’d like to share some expanded offerings that I’ve quietly opened up recently that I’m now ready for you all to know about.

So, first, let’s talk about boundaries and expectations. As we all must do, in all relationships, right? So, I want to be in right relationship with you all. And, for me, being in right relationship to my work, my loved ones, clients, etc. requires transparency and honesty about my limits and expectations around engagement. So, with that in mind, let’s start here: this is not a weekly podcast. I don’t think I’ve ever declared this to be a weekly podcast, but in case it wasn’t super clear before, now you know that… it’s not a weekly podcast. And I find myself needing to mention this because, y’all,  I’ve received emails, DMs and voice messages on Anchor that have led me to believe that folks are expecting me to do things that, uh, I never said I was going to do. [Light laughter] So, you know, with the start of a new season, I figure this would be a great time to be explicit about this so that folks can adjust their expectations and requests accordingly.

So, here’s the first boundary, y’all: please do not send me passive aggressive messages inquiring about when the next episode is coming or, you know, trying to nudge me by letting me know that you’re going to cancel your subscription - like, your monthly donation - because I’m not producing episodes at a rate that is to your liking. Look, what you do with your money is your business and you don’t have to tell me what you’re doing with it. This, for me, also includes well-meaning messages that involve the sentence or some variation of, “I can’t wait for the next episode!” because, first of all, yes, you can wait. Secondly, intentional or not, saying stuff like that puts undue pressure on me to produce at a rate that is misaligned with the intentions that undergird this project. Please remember that this is just one project out of the many other projects I take on as a working artist and that [in a slight whisper] I’m literally the only person producing each episode. So I thank y’all kindly for your patience and, also, for respecting this boundary.

[00:08:40]

Also, as topics on spirituality continue to gain momentum online, I think it’s really important for all of us to challenge the ways in which we assume the spiritual and energetic availability of practitioners who share their work online. I also think it’s important to resist applying capitalist expectations onto spiritual care workers, especially because a lot of the shit that we’re gonna say isn’t meant to be distilled into bite-sized IG-friendly memes and infographics. Yeah? Social media is a tool for dissemination, but it’s not not where my practice primarily lives.

When I first started this podcast, I did so with the intention of sharing parts of my practice to hold collective space where we can reflect on the spiritual implications of raggedy-ass 2020. What I DIDN’T know was that I was also entering into what I now understand to be a kind of spiritual contract with my ancestors and guides. In order to be able to receive, synthesize, and then translate the archetypal themes of each card to y’all, I also have to, apparently [knowing laughter] re-experience firsthand the archetypal lessons of each Major Arcana card. Ya girl is a little tired. And that, you know, doing that takes time, rest, integration and, you know, speaking to the theme of today’s card, Divine Timing, which, obviously, doesn’t give a shit about linear time or my schedule, so...

If this changes how you’d like to support my work and you’d rather not do so through a monthly donation - which, by the way, DOES support the production of this podcast, full stop, but it also supports me in generating periods of rest and integration - but, you know, if this changes things for you that’s totally okay and reasonable, and, shit, thank you for your support up until now! Seriously! If you wanna show me some love from time to time or just want to thank me for specific episodes, you can find links to my Venmo and PayPal in my bio on Instagram - you can find me @sheisnotavirgo - and you can find these links on my website at sarahtcargill.com. That is, sorry, I’m just laughing at...myself [giggling at shameless self promotion]. It’s spelled s-a-r-a-h, the letter “t”, c-a-r-g-i-l-l dot com.

Now, my second boundary is also related to language. If this wasn’t clear in Season 1, I’ll reiterate that this podcast centers the experiences, perspectives, and priorities of Black women and femmes and the ancestors who protect and guide us. When I say this, I’m including myself, but I’m also including the Black women and femmes who, through their  respective practices, have helped me to embody this knowledge that I’m sharing with you. That means that if you do not identify as a Black woman and/or a Black femme - and, you know, let’s remember that “femme” can be used to describe many people across the gender spectrum - particularly if you identify as a White person, actually, please remember that you are a guest in this space. Mkay? So, here’s the boundary: Non-Black folks, especially White folks, please do not pay me what you might THINK is a compliment by telling me how articulate I am. I wish I didn’t have to [laughs in frustration] reiterate this kind of thing but… Telling Black people how “Articulate” we are does not land as a compliment! Or if it does it lands as a back-handed one, because it implies surprise. So, I welcome specific comments describing what landed for you, like, that’s fucking great, tell me all about it! But if me being articulate comes as a delightful surprise to you, please don’t tell me. And, you know, maybe consider why that is for you.

[00:14:04]

Lastly, I can no longer respond to DMs about the podcast. I know, I open that shit up myself, but… the rules of enthusiastic consent say that we get to change our minds about shit. So, this one, I’m like, lowkey sad about because y’all have been so kind, and reflective, and sincere in what you’ve shared with me and…  I want y’all to know that I hella appreciate it when folks take the time out of their day to let me know that this podcast has touched them in some way. Truly. Cause, you know, that’s, like, the WHOLE mutherfuckin’ point. AND… that shit got real unsustainable real fucking quick. Y’all, I am not about that Influencer life, I am not built for it, I do not aspire to live that life, so, yeah. All I can do is assess my limits and adjust accordingly. And that’s what I’m doing.

Also, I’ve discovered - and concurrently, some of Y’ALL have discovered - that I am embarrassingly prone to accidentally sending the wrong meme to the wrong people. Audre Lorde, have mercy! Y'all [giggles in Libra], y’all don’t need that in your life, and I just can’t live like that anymore. So, I gotta keep my IG personal, cause that’s what it is. It’s a personal account through which I bother my friends with gay astrology memes. And talk about this podcast from time to time.

Now, if you’d like to send me reflections, I invite you to do so via voice message on Anchor or comment under the appropriate IG post when I announce episodes. So… please help me help myself by honoring these boundaries and I apologize to those who may have been impacted by my digital clumsiness. Oh my goodness. Thank you in advance for honoring my boundaries and making space for my truth so that I can show up in the relationship more authentically and fully.

Now. That leads me to my announcement! After much thought, consideration, and, frankly, stalling, I’ve decided to open up my books and offer tarot readings for y’all! I’ve already been working with a few of you and it has been such a rich and joyous experience connecting with y’all through one-on-one readings and I’d like to just… do that more often. So a quick rundown: I offer 2 types of readings, both of which are delivered via email as 15-30 minute voice messages, depending on, you know, which reading you signed up for. The spreads that I use are specifically designed to center an inquiry-based approach that will support you in reclaiming your agency. If you’d like to learn more about my readings and, perhaps, book one with me, I invite you to visit my website or find me on Instagram where links to this will live in my bio. I’ll be sure to include links in the show notes for this particular episode.

Alright. That’s it! We’re all caught up. Without further adieu, it’s time for us to talk about [excitedly trills tongue to mimic the sound of a lottery wheel spinning] The Wheel of Fortune.

[Gentle transition music plays. Light harp and piano chords accompanied by sparse bass beats.]

[00:18:25]

A couple of years ago, from 2014 to 2017, I was bouncing from house to house all around the Bay Area, trying to scrap together some semblance of home and stability. I had just returned to the Bay Area from Chicago after abruptly ending my graduate studies there, in part to be closer to my dad who got really sick during my first year in the program, and in part because of a nagging, sinking feeling that just wouldn’t leave me the hell alone until I decided to, well, fuckin’ quit! So, fuck a program, it was time for me to come home. These were some of the circumstances that framed my extended preamble to my Saturn Return.

Parenthetically, the years leading up to my Saturn Return were so much more tumultuous than my actual Saturn Return. So, for the over-30 babes listening, was this true for you, too? I know it can’t just be me.

Anyway, after the 4th move, I landed in what I thought was an amazing spot in San Francisco. It was an affordable single room that brought me much closer to my new job, I was living with way less people, and, because the room was a converted basement, I had more home privacy than I had... probably ever. I was STOKED. So, as tired as I was, I unpacked my belongings with a quickness. In fact, I was so excited during those first few days that I didn’t think much of it when, one morning, I stepped into a small little puddle at the foot of my bed. Hmm...curious.

A couple of days later, I invited my mom over to come and check out my new spot. It had been about a week since I had moved in and we were both excited about me finally settling in somewhere. The night she came over, it was storming pretty hard outside. It was a rare heavy rain season. So we were sitting at the edge of my bed, talking shit, and in a moment of sincerity, she said, “you know, you really found a good place here. I’m happy for you.”  And to children of immigrants you know what kind of compliment THAT is. [Lighthearted laughter] And I nodded and smiled and told her about how much I loved the space, and in that moment, right as I was saying all these wonderful things about my new home, I looked down and saw, to my absolute horror, water gushing from the space between the floor tiles and the wall. Apparently, what I thought was a fully converted basement was, in fact, structurally incomplete. The water and sediment from all that rain was collecting behind the wall right next to my bed and, at a certain point, just internally overflowed and, finally, gushed into my room and proceeded to overwhelm everything in its path. In the midst of our Sisyphean attempt to scoop up the water with dust pans and buckets and mop up the floor with towels and rags as nasty dirt water continues to gush out of my wall, I finally put two and two together. I said, “huh. that’s what the fuck that puddle was.” [Laughs] 

[00:22:38]

Y’all, I know I’m here to talk about the Wheel of Fortune today, and I promise that I will get us there, but first, I need to pause and tip my hat to this cosmically orchestrated metaphor that aptly describes the nature and purpose of Saturn Returns. Saturn and, by association, the energy of Capricorn, governs your bones, joints, and teeth - so your foundation. Through the natural unfolding of disaster and upheaval, Saturn will reveal the holes and loose screws that threaten the foundation that you’ve built for your life. Saturn Returns come around once every 29 years or so to illuminate and test the quality of this foundation. Because of the nature of the task, Saturn doesn’t prioritize making us feel better especially when dealing with our attachments. The energy of Saturn teaches us to create the structures that serve to ground us in our long-term, big picture visions for the future. If some shit ain’t for you, and it’s Saturn’s job to let your ass know! Being the planet that also governs time - or, I guess, more specifically, how we collectively conceptualize linear time - Saturn is gonna level with us by reminding us that time, at least within the context of our Earthbound experience, time is finite. It’s an unrenewable resource.

If I could assign a catch phrase to describe the ethos of Saturnian tests, it would be this: “Are you sure about that?” Saturn very much gives that “making a list and checking it twice” energy in that it generates a sense of urgency around the foundational, core elements of our lives that we maybe got away with ignoring during our early and mid twenties. And when we’re forced to really take stock of what does and does not hold water in our lives - whether it be our relationships, or our decision-making process, or how we deal with rejection - whatever the case may be, it can be such a rude awakening! But, with that, Saturn teaches us that in order for us to make space for longterm blessings, we have to 1. build up our tolerance for rejection and restriction so we can identify what a true “FUCK YES” looks and feels like for us, and 2. learn how to identify and say “no” to that which is not for us and to hold firm boundaries that honor our “no” so that you are equipped to protect the space we’re creating for our “Fuck Yes.” Saturn’s gift comes through the realization that rejection is, more often than not, a form of protection. It puts a spotlight on what’s not for us, which is such an important stage to figuring out what is. This rude-ass awakening is a critical point of initiation that ushers us into adulthood, at least, you know astrologically speaking.

Saturn leaves us with the gift of delayed but long term gratification. If you choose to answer Saturn’s call, Saturn will, eventually, point you toward hard-won but long-lasting gifts, but not before asking: “Are you sure you want this?” If your answer is “yes”, Saturn will then ask: “Do you want this enough to hold out for just a little longer?”

Saturn teaches us that we have to work for our blessings, and that work takes time. In the scenario that I described, I, quite literally, could not create a home that was built on a shaky foundation, but I had to decide for myself whether or not I wanted to put myself through another housing search and another move. I’m really glad that I chose to momentarily lift my head from the panic and admit the thing that I really didn’t want to have to admit to myself, which was, “damn, this ain’t it.” But by the end of the month, I had found the place that I, to this day, call “home.” Oftentimes, what we call chaos is just another expression grace reordering our lives to make space for what’s next.

[00:27:59]

There’s a turn of phrase that I see circulated a lot within spiritual and esoteric spaces, which goes something like, “what is for you will not pass you.” Now, I’m not going to take the time here to unpack that phrase in the ways that, I feel, it needs to be unpacked and examined, but what I will say is that I generally do believe that the blessings that are meant for us will not pass us by - it’s a very Jupiterian phrase and attitude that aptly describes the general feeling tone of the Wheel of Fortune.

Now, the Wheel of Fortune is governed by the energy of Jupiter, the planet that astrologers call the Great Benefic. Venus is also a benefic planet but expresses its benevolence a bit differently than Jupiter. When Jupiter and Venus are aspecting in your chart or in the current cosmic forecast in, like, really dope ways - and when I say “aspecting”, I just mean the ways in which these planets are positioned in relationship to your natal chart or in relationship to whatever’s happening in the sky - you can be pretty certain that, when this happens, that you’re going to come into some kind of blessing very, very soon. If you pay attention, that is.

Jupiter and Venus are the gift bearers, and their respective energies are meant to be activated within the context of... having a good time. Jupiter, being an outer planet and a planet that deals with travel, higher education, and just expansion and growth, it tends to govern and interact with our external affairs, or blessings coming from the outside in. So, this might look like getting a raise that’s much higher than what you were anticipating, or an incredible opportunity to work or study abroad. Whatever it is, Jupiter likes to consensually give big hugs and leave impressive gifts, particularly if you’ve taken some risks to put yourself out there or grow in some way.

But here’s the thing: you can’t have an archetype like Jupiter without an archetype like Saturn. Expansion without boundaries can lead us to our own demise. Saturn and, parenthetically, Pluto are what we call Malefic planets, or planets that bring up tough shit so that we can deal with it and recalibrate. These are the planets that catalyze transformation by bringing awareness to our limitations and boundaries. Saturn will leave you raggedy, but transformed. The interplay between Malefic and Benefic energy is critical to understanding how the Wheel of Fortune works. Growth and expansion aren’t inherently good things.

While Jupiter, the cosmic “Fun Uncle” so to speak, likes to generously reward us with abundant blessings, the shadow side to Jupiter’s gifts of abundance is toxic excess. Conversely, Saturn is the cosmic parental unit who tells us that we can have SOME of our Halloween candy, but not the whole pillowcase’s worth! Not in one night. Saturn teaches us that we can’t accept blessings without knowing our limits - that’s what it means to prepare for abundance. Much like how it did in the story about the flood, Saturn tests our foundation, oftentimes quite literally, in order to prepare us for our blessings. So, going back to the case of the flooded bedroom, as I was frantically moving my shit away from the torrential flood, I was also actively repacking all of my stuff in the moving boxes that I had just unpacked. Y’all, you can’t tell that that shit [Claps for emphasis] wasn’t preparation! The Saturnian energy in this card - which, it’s there, and we’ll get there - works with the Jupiterian energy of this card by teaching us how to create a structure for abundance that is going to sustain our well being in the long run. At that time, I was lucky and, in many ways, privileged enough to find new housing that would remove me from a tenuous and unsafe living situation. But luck is temporary. Abundance is the long game, and we need to work with both our biggest, wildest dreams and out-of-this-world opportunities (Jupiter) and our real life boundaries, non-negotiables, and individual limits (Saturn) in order to move towards the flow of abundance.

[00:33:31]

In tarot, the Wheel of Fortune can be traced to medieval Europe as an iconographic symbol for the volatile nature of fate, life stages, and the cyclical nature of time and fortune… and, also, misfortune. Saturn teaches us about how to structure our Earthbound time wisely, and the Wheel of Fortune, resembling both a clock and a natal chart, leans into these Saturnian symbols to help us think about our time and what we’re doing with it. The clock, much like the Wheel of Fortune, is a sacred wheel that helps us to conceptualize something that is, ultimately, incomprehensible: Universal Timing.

So, let’s take a deeper look at this card. When we examine the inscriptions written on the outer edge of the Wheel of Fortune, reading the letters clockwise, we see the letters T-A-R-O or “TARO”, referencing the divination tool we’re working with. Moving counter-clockwise, we see the letters reordered to read as T-O-R-A or “TORA”, which is a reference to the sacred Jewish text. When reading the letters clockwise from the bottom up, we see the words reordered as  R-O-T-A or “ROTA” meaning “w heel”. Finally, in between the letters T-O-R-A, we find four Hebrew letters that, when transliterated, spell out the tetragrammaton or the unpronounceable holy name of God. So, quite literally, the Wheel of Fortune is described as the Holy Wheel of Divination.

The Wheel is also adorned with alchemical symbols that represent the elements of water, sulphur, salt, and mercury. These elements represent the zodiacal signs and the 4 suits of the tarot. We’ve seen these emblems before in the Magician Card and, similarly, the Wheel of Fortune card carries a kind of “anything can happen” energy to it. The Wheel of Fortune circles back to ask: how have you chosen to work with the tools you were given? How you use your time and the tools that are at your disposal matters and it’s the mundane choices that we make regularly and over time that sets the Wheel in motion.

The nod to The Magician card is also reflected numerologically. The Wheel of Fortune is represented by the number 10, which, in tarot, signifies the completion of a cycle. Now, okay… [lightly chuckles] please know that I’m fully aware of the fact that I sound kinda like a conspiracy theorist when I say this, but, you know, hear me out. When working with numbers, tarot readers and other diviners will often do this thing where we break down and reduce a multi-digit number to a single digit. I have my own thoughts on why this is even a thing, but the most salient one that I can think of is that it’s a lot easier to create a system of meaning with 10 numbers than it is to create a system of meaning with infinite numbers. So, when you break down or reduce the number 10, we do so by adding the digits together - so 1 plus 0 - you get the number one. And which card is represented by the number one? The Magician. As the Wheel turns, we come to recognize that endings are also beginnings. And it is through this numerological relationship that we can also see where free will comes to pass in a card that is often read through a fatalistic lens.

[00:38:03]

Fatalism suggests that the Universe has an agenda. But that’s personification. We’re talking about a system here, a, uuum… I dunno, a network of... cause and effect, of polarity, of energy transference and transmutation, of...an infinite number of possibilities of choice and consequence. The connection to The Magician reminds us that we are in a process of co-creation with the Universe, and co-creation, by definition, necessitates striking a balance between owning what is within our reach and responsibility while being willing to relinquish some control in order to create something bigger than what we could’ve done on our own. And that, dear listeners, is where I begin to reconcile the gap between exercising personal agency within the context of navigating a system that is, also, outside of my control.

The Wheel itself, or the Rota Fortunae, belongs to the Goddess of Fortune, or Fortuna, who spins the wheel of fate to reposition us all, whether it be for the better or for the worst.

Sometimes it’s time for you to reap in some major wins, other times it’s time for you to experience some L’s. Another and, perhaps, less fatalistic way to think about this is through the words of Zora Neale Hurston who famously said, “there are years that ask questions, and years that answer them.”

I originally thought that Fortuna was just another version of the figure that we see in the card that comes next, the Justice Card. But, a little bit of internet sleuthing revealed that that’s not quite it. While the archetype presented in the Justice Card holds the balance of karma, Fortuna, as the personification of luck, cycles, and fate is really just here to spin the Wheel and catalyze the next phase.

You know, A few weeks ago, I was letting my YouTube autoplay run and an episode of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday came on. Oprah’s guest for the episode was Caroline Myss who is a White American spiritual teacher and author who speaks a lot on spiritual archetypes, sacred contracts, and the connection between spiritual empowerment and healing. I don’t know too much about her beyond that, but there was something that she said that was pretty striking.

Now, before I weave her words into this story, I want to be clear that shows like Super Soul Sunday and Oprah’s interviews in general need to be consumed, in my humble option, with a grain of salt because, let’s be real, she caters to a very specific demographic and speaks from that place. Her target audience - or the people to whom she is directly speaking to - are wealthy or at least upper middle class; often White, White adjacent, or indoctrinated into a framework of Whiteness; and she’s often speaking to ideals that reflect neoliberal values. So, you know, as with anything - including this podcast - take the gems, but don’t throw critical analysis out the window because it’s Oprah. Yeah?

[00:42:23]

So, anyway, in this episode, Caroline Myss, when responding to Oprah’s question of what her personal definition of God is, she said “God is law. I don’t personalize God.” And that was a definition that really hit home for me, particularly within the context of this card, and here’s why:

The widely accepted interpretation of this card reinforces the binary between “good” and “bad”, “fate” and “free will”, assigning meaning to this card as either an omen for good luck in its upright position and bad luck in its reversed position. This, to me, is an oversimplification that dilutes the truths and perspectives that drive the meaning of this card. Unlike Madame Justice who works to help us make sense of this turning of the Wheel within the context of our individual and collective human experience, Fortuna isn’t necessarily invested in translating the balance that she governs within the context of this system that we call Universal Timing or Divine Timing. That’s not her job. She, as the personification of the Universe’s chaotic neutrality, is not here to make it make sense. What makes the Wheel of Fortune a bit of a wild card is that, in many ways, all it really says is: “ay, yo, it’s your turn.” In the eyes of the Universe, change is just change. “Good” and “bad” are personalized labels that we assign to that change. Without resorting to unpalatable cliches that perpetuate spiritual bypassing or diminish the validity of experiencing changes in the ways that we do, this card reminds us to evaluate the changes we undergo in our lives through the lens of chaotic neutrality, not fatalism.

The Wheel of Fortune card is busy as hell, and my hypothesis is that, while the Wheel of Fortune is in and of itself an archetype, it’s a structural archetype and a composite amalgamation of the individual archetypes that have shown up to this cosmic party. In this card, we are coming into contact with an impressive number of archetypal creatures, many of which we were introduced to us in previous cards. So let’s bring our attention to the four archetypes firmly planted along the periphery of this card: the Angel, the Eagle, the Lion, and the Ox. When read through a Christian framework, these animals represent the four Evangelists, Saint Matthew, Saint John, Saint Mark, and Saint Luke, respectively. Hence, you know, all the wings. From an astrological perspective, these archetypes represent the fixed signs of Aquarius, Scorpio, Leo, and Taurus. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, each of these archetypes are in possession of what looks like a scroll, which is widely interpreted as the Torah or some kind of sacred text. For the purposes of this analogy, I’m going to stick with what I’m more familiar with, which is the astrological perspective.

[00:46:06] 

While we can experience Spirit through individuals, for me, it’s also important to notice how God or Spirit or the Universe reveals itself as a holy system. To me, choosing archetypes that represent fixed rather than cardinal or mutable signs to create the literal framework for this card speaks to the nature of this cosmic system. The presence of fixed signs signals a kind of energetic stability. In many ways, this cosmic system is what it is, and we are encouraged to locate our agency within it by understanding our role and tending to the threads that anchor us in the tapestry of this system. At the same time, the emphasis on fixed signs works to bring our attention to the status quo so that we can unpack our ideas and assumptions about what normalcy is. These archetypes beg the question: What does “normal” look and feel like for you, and are you ready to redefine that?

When studying the visual symbology of this card, you’ll notice that the Wheel of Fortune is actually suspended in thin air, close to Spirit. And so, within the context of this card, I understand Spirit to be an etheric system, a tightly woven and meticulously calibrated web of interconnectivity that is, also, simultaneously,  spacious enough to incorporate, respond to, and reflect back our intentions, motives, and acts of free will. The Wheel of Fortune is, archetypally, the Great Equalizer. Whether you’re moving up or down the Wheel, we are all intimately implicated.

This card is symbolically dense, and rightly so, because we’re unpacking an archetypal system, the laws of spiritual and karmic give and take, where various archetypal energies are joined to create a larger whole. Throughout this episode, I’ve been highlighting the interplay between Jupiter and Saturn, between Benefic and Malefic energy, as a relationship that ignites the generative tension needed to propel movement in the Wheel of Fortune. If Jupiter is the part of Spirit that shows up bearing gifts, then Saturn is the part of Spirit that builds the structures through which it can deliver said gifts.

To further demonstrate this relationship, I want to bring your attention to the archetypal energies of the Egyptian Sun deity, Ra, and Ra’s divine counterpart, Apep. Now, before I get into this story, my reasoning for jumping to Egyptian mythology and deities has to do with the presence of Anubis ascending from the right side of the Wheel of Fortune. Anubis is the ancient Egyptian God who governs death rites and mummification, protects the tombs of the deceased, weighs the hearts of spirits to determine their fate, and guides spirits who pass the test of the holy scales into the Afterlife.

Now, we see a serpent descending along the left side of the Wheel. The serpent is a pretty ubiquitous esoteric symbol of diasporic origins, but in the case of the Wheel of Fortune, I am interpreting this serpent as Apep, the ancient Egyptian deity of chaos who, every evening, must go head-to-head with Ra, the Sun God and bearer of light and truth. Ra upholds Ma’at, or the ancient Egyptian conceptualization of justice, order, harmony and balance. This card speaks to Ra’s presence in a few ways. The Wheel of Fortune, with its bright orange-red coloration and with it being suspended in mid-air, surrounded by clouds, to me, resembles the Sun. Ra is also a deity of many faces. Most often, he’s depicted with a human body and the head of a falcon, but he has also been depicted as a serpent, a lion, a bull, a ram, a hawk, and… hmm, where do we see these animals appear in the card? Right. [Affirmative chuckle]

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As the story goes, every evening, as the Sun sets, Ra descends into the underworld and, in order to rise again, must battle and defeat Apep. Now, here’s where it gets kinda interesting. Despite being oppositional archetypal forces, Apep was actually born from the umbilical cord of Ra. In many ways both Apep and Ra are of each other. As oppositional forces, they are inextricably linked.

We cannot know order and justice without knowing chaos and injustice. Our victories are experienced as triumphs because we had to fight for them. Similarly, as part of the cosmic order, we cannot come up unless we have been knocked down. It is the nature of light to also, inevitably, cast a shadow. The Wheel of Fortune asks us to honor our failures and the holy chaos that conditions us to be able to differentiate between what we do and do not want for ourselves. This card asks us to unhook ourselves from fatalism by making space for the full story to unfold. In doing so, we can begin to unravel binary thinking that can entrap us in a sense of entitlement and/or perpetual limitation.

When The Wheel of Fortune shows up in your spread, either in the upright or reversed positions, it typically indicates a decisive moment of change that is both a reflection of and a response to where you’ve been putting your energy. It’s a time of reaping karmic inheritances that are either consequences of your own actions and choices, or, perhaps the consequences of actions and choices made by those with whom you share common threads within this larger system of the Universe. Much like the spokes of a wheel, the Wheel of Fortune is drawn with lines that cut through the center. These lines not only work to support the structure of the Wheel, but they also work to connect opposing ends of the Wheel, reminding us that while we may have our own individual experiences over here, our experiences are, also, inextricably bound to and informed by the, you know, sometimes oppositional experiences of others.

When upright, this card is often interpreted as an indication of luck, of being at the right place at the right time, a windfall of positive change, and it simply being your turn to reap in your blessings and usher in a new stage of your life. In the reverse, it could indicate a time of unanticipated setbacks, of resisting change, and a time when things just aren’t meeting your expectations in ways that can be kind of a bummer. For me, this card in reverse also signals unfinished business or, depending on the context, a moment when rejection swoops in to protect us. Because this card can, again, depending on the context, indicate a time when you are breaking some serious cycles, when it shows up in reverse, it would behoove you to give yourself the gift of a 360 review before moving forward with anything.

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This brings me to the last archetypal figure perched on top of the Wheel of Fortune: the Sphinx. Within the context of this card, the Sphinx, for me, represents our agency. Harkening back to the energy of the Chariot card, The Sphinx encourages us to embody our role in the cosmic order by activating our agency. We don’t do this by running ourselves into the ground, trying to control the uncontrollable. Instead, we activate our agency by owning the power that we DO have by way of centering our choice points. With that, I think where we need to be careful is to not letting this rhetoric about choice be a means to, again, perpetuate spiritual bypassing. The point isn’t to blame yourself for the emotional impact of life’s circumstances, quite the opposite. While I, personally, do believe that most things happen for a reason - I say *most* because, I don’t know, honestly, there are just some things in this world that I can’t wrap my head around, particularly when it’s stuff like gratuitous violence [deep ancestral sigh] - it’s not always helpful to tell ourselves and others who are actively going through some shit that “everything happens for a reason.” So, you know, yes, we have choice, but it’s important to not make assumptions about the choices that other people have access to based on the choices that YOU might have access to, ya know? And vice versa. It’s really not fun being on the receiving end of that either. So, within the matrix of chaotic neutrality, the Sphinx reminds us that consequences, whether they are favorable or not, are just that: CONSEQUENCE. How you manage those consequences is what sets the Wheel in motion. The presence of karma in this card doesn’t diminish the presence of grace or the presence of your agency.

As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, there is wisdom embedded in the ordering of these cards. I think that The Hermit comes just before the Wheel of Fortune to encourage us to get plenty of rest and to get ready for contemplative and detached observation so that we are ready to ride the momentum of the Wheel of Fortune once it’s set in motion.

Similarly to what we see when we spin a lottery wheel, in my experience, I have noticed that the Wheel of Fortune announces itself within the context of my life by accelerating changes that have been, up until that point, steadily boiling beneath the surface. There’s a marked quickening of pace and timelines that can feel fucking overwhelming when it’s happening. And I think that’s part of the point. Energy and attention is a finite resource for us humans. That overwhelm rattles us out of what is unnecessary and prompts us to evaluate what does and does not need to be kept in the rotation. We can’t hold onto everything, especially when moving into the next phase of our lives. When the Wheel spins, the big picture can look pretty blurry, but that is also part of the wisdom that helps us to focus on the individual slices that are, at least for now, within our sphere of our  influence.

If you’re working with the energy and archetypal themes of the Wheel of Fortune, I encourage you to take stock of what is and is not within your sphere of influence and control. One of the ways that I like to do this is by grounding myself in a routine or a series of mini-cycles that help me embody what is essential. Our daily cycles are precious fractals, microcosms of larger cycles that we commit to with each choice point and intention. And so, in the midst of great change, may you shift into the fullness of your power by getting clear on where your sphere of influence begins and where it ends, and may you be equipped to release the rest. You will feel the change, the click of seasonal shift before you can fully make out what is peering over the horizon, and my hope is that you will allow yourself to be led by trust before asking for proof. Thank you for listening, and take care of yourselves.

[00:60:31 Outro music fades in, plays until the end]