The Images of the Tarot Oracle in Psychic Readings

The Wheel of Fortune

The image of The Wheel of Fortune partakes of immemorial ideas elaborated by human cultures all over the world. The mechanical model cannot be its original, for even its five or six thousand year history marks it as a relative newcomer in the lore of the wheel. Native Americans had no mechanical representation of it, yet the wheel played prominently in their social and spiritual customs and beliefs. Perhaps it was the round disks of the sun and the moon that stimulated far-reaching speculations about the significance of all things round. Ptolemy's astronomy was constructed of star-studded spheres that revolved like wheels, and fixed the physical universe in a round of cycles and epicycles. And we know that the Mayan calendar was no less round. But the metaphysical universe of the human imagination has also been subject to the circular fashion. The Greeks had their god of proportion and order, called Nemesis, who doled out good or bad fortune in strict measure, and her symbolical attribute was the wheel. Likewise, the Roman's Fortuna turned the year about and all the while managed the play of chance. The Tarot Oracle quite likely had its origin on the subcontinent of India, and so the inspiration of its circular imagery may more properly be found in the Hindu wheel of birth and rebirth (samsara). Buddhist mandalas may have influenced it, where the wheel of life revolved around a knot of the three basic evils: passion, anger and ignorance. It may be that the traditional abhorrence of European Christian culture for the Tarot may be rooted in its distaste for the endless rounds of the Wheel of Fortune (a distaste which, however, does not extend to the roulette of Las Vegas). The Biblical scheme of things has a decided beginning and end, making of life no trifling matter for the vagaries of chance. Certainly, modern science and the Industrial Revolution, with its religious devotion to the idea of human progress, have given all notions of eternal recurrence a run for their money. All the same, the jury is still out on the question of whether or not the Big Bang was a one-time thing. We do not yet know if the Universe expands and contracts in an endless cycle of cosmic birth, destruction, and rebirth. And as for human perfectibility in social and political evolution, every objective person knows that there is no such thing as progress - and plenty of it!

In psychic readings, the appearance of the Wheel of Fortune always heralds very significant changes in the pattern of life. In one typical reading, it conveyed a very happy message. Our client had decided to move back to the city where she had been born and raised, where family and friends were ready to welcome her back into the fold. She had been living in a far distant state to which she had come with high hopes for adventure and success, but where, for whatever reasons, she had found only a series of more or less disappointing eventualities - several unsuccessful romances, a series of unrewarding jobs, and various other unwelcome challenges. Now, on the verge of retracing her steps, and starting over again where she had left off, she wondered if she was making a mistake. Would misfortune follow her and make the future all of a piece with the past. The appearance of the image of The Wheel of Fortune indicated that this was not to be the case. It told her to look forward with optimistic enthusiasm to a new life of happiness and fulfillment. In fact, the familiarity of her old home town, and the support of her loved ones proved to be very beneficial. She is now happily married and prospering in business for herself.