
“The turning wheel carries every season through the sky.”
Tarot Encyclopedia
Wheel of Fortune
“Notice what is changing and what still anchors you. Choose how to meet this turn.”
Upright keywords
- Good luck
- karma
- life cycles
- destiny
Reversed keywords
- Bad luck
- resistance to change
- breaking cycles
Summary
Wheel of Fortune points to good luck, karma, life cycles, and destiny.
Upright meaning
Upright, Wheel of Fortune highlights good luck, karma, life cycles, and destiny.
Reversed meaning
Reversed, Wheel of Fortune can indicate bad luck, resistance to change, and breaking cycles.
Symbolism at a glance
Good luck
karma
life cycles
destiny
Reflection questions
- Where is good luck, and karma showing up for me now?
- What would help me work with bad luck, and resistance to change?
Visual description
rendered in the same hand-coloured woodcut style, with thick black outlines over a warm parchment sky and earthy browns, reds, and muted greens. At the center stands a large spoked wheel mounted on a sturdy pedestal, turning like a great engine of fate, while small symbolic figures cling to its rim—one creature climbing upward and another slipping downward, capturing the rise-and-fall cycle of luck and circumstance. A crowned figure in red sits poised at the top of the wheel with a sword raised, and above them a winged creature glides across the sky like an omen, with a few simple clouds drifting nearby. The ground is sparse but alive—tufts of grass, a single rounded tree, and a distant hill/mountain—keeping the focus on the wheel’s motion and the idea that nothing stays fixed for long. Traditionally this card is associated with Jupiter, linking it most closely with Sagittarius (and also Pisces), emphasizing expansion, turning points, and the unseen forces that shift the course of events.