The Triskelion (Wheel of Fortune)

In a reading

• This is a situation that may be outside our direct control and calls for being able to adapt to new conditions.
• It asks you to realize that every low is always followed by a high.
• Finding your inner axis, a point of support that always stays steady while everything around you spins and changes fast.
• Relationships, love: fateful or karmic meetings and bonds. They can go through very sharp turns. Or go around in a closed loop, with partners playing out the same scenarios until they learn an important lesson.
• Career, money: instability, profits and losses taking turns. Good for a seasonal business. It can also be a lucky chance or a lucky set of circumstances, a good contract. It matters to adjust to changes fast.

Shadow side

A losing streak. Feeling like a victim of circumstances you can’t overcome. Being stuck, “Groundhog Day.” Making the same old mistakes over and over.

The card’s advice

Don’t try to tightly control what doesn’t depend on you. It matters to accept what’s happening as a given and be ready to use the new opportunities the Wheel of Fortune brings.

From the wider tradition

Not Tahmina’s own words: meanings common among other tarot readers, which she has reviewed and approved.

• The four creatures in the corners (the bull, the lion, the eagle, the man) — support and stability amid change, something stays the same.
• The sphinx with a sword on top — the wisdom to keep your balance at the peak.
• Fate, luck, a turning point — “the wheel has turned,” a lucky set of circumstances.
• A karmic lesson — an event comes to show you something.

Stage of the journey

Wheel of Fortune is card X, the tenth step on the path from the Fool to the World. It’s a turning point: the first ten Major Arcana close one inner cycle, and a person moves into a new stage.

What a person has already been through. Before the Wheel they went through a whole story: the Fool — dared to begin; the Magician — realized they can act; the High Priestess — learned to listen to their inner knowing; the Empress — started to create; the Emperor — built support and took responsibility; the Hierophant — formed knowledge and values; the Lovers — made a choice; the Chariot — moved forward; Strength — learned to handle their inner energy; the Hermit — stopped and found their own compass inside. So a person comes to the Wheel no longer the same one who started the path.

What happens in the Wheel. The Wheel reminds you: “You can control a lot, but not everything.” After the Hermit, life starts moving again. Circumstances can suddenly change, new people, opportunities and turns can show up, one stage can end and another begin. But the main thing here isn’t just “luck” or “bad luck.” The Wheel teaches you to accept that life runs in cycles: highs give way to lows, the old goes, the new comes. And for the first time a person truly runs into the fact that life doesn’t always go according to their plan.

Where the Wheel leads — next comes Justice, card XI. And it’s a really interesting shift: the Wheel — “Life has changed”; Justice — “Now deal with the consequences of your decisions.” After chance and change, a person meets responsibility again, but on a different level. Justice shows cause and effect: what you did, what you chose and what it led to.

So:

• Wheel of Fortune — “I accept change.”
• Justice — “I’m responsible for my choice.”

And the whole first half of the path looks like growing up step by step:

• The Fool — I begin.
• The Magician — I can.
• The High Priestess — I sense.
• The Empress — I create.
• The Emperor — I build.
• The Hierophant — I understand.
• The Lovers — I choose.
• The Chariot — I move.
• Strength — I steer myself.
• The Hermit — I understand myself.
• The Wheel — I accept change.
• Justice — I’m responsible for the consequences.

The section above is the shadow side of the upright card — every card has one. I don’t read cards upside down — here is why.