Change, Balance, and Celebration

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The Wheel of Fortune appears almost halfway through the sequence of the Major Arcana. As number 10, it combines the creative verve of The Magician (1) with the innocent mystery of The Fool (0). This is a card of new beginnings, re-sets, and course changes. What makes it different, however, is that it speaks to the larger world; unlike The Fool and The Magician, two very individualized cards focused on willpower and self-determination, The Wheel of Fortune articulates the magic and disruption of change - the “cosmic weather” that we find ourselves in, unable to alter no matter how strong or self-actualized we may be.

As you can guess, this card can sometimes be upsetting to experience. Fortunately, this week it’s appearing in an almost gentle manner, signifying a breakthrough inspired or caused by outside changes - we don’t have to do anything to make it happen (hallelujah!) - that’s pushing us towards both balance and celebration.

Let’s take a moment to let that sink in: The Wheel of Fortune is spinning, propelling us to a gentler, more considered, and, delightfully, more fun place. Whenever this card appears I’m reminded of how little control we have over our lives. Like the weather, “acts of God,” or even the spinning of a roulette wheel, change is inevitable and beyond our influence. How does this make you feel? A lot of things, I bet! Spend some time reflecting on your relationship to change and chance. Do you feel uncomfortable, nervous, enlivened, or terrified? This week will be giving us all an affirming experience and I’m curious about how it’ll challenge our ideas of control, opportunity, and what’s possible in life - why not have a baseline understanding of our stance to begin with so that we can watch it change as the days unfold?

And let’s be real: we’ve also been working through a month-long experience of The Tower, the one card in the deck that’s resoundingly and absolutely about “negative” change. So, let’s be gentle with ourselves, okay? If we’re gun-shy or, more realistically, exercising all our usual coping-mechanisms to restore the illusions of control, that’s just fine. But be open to reframing the happenings in your life as delightful opportunities, especially at the beginning of the week.

If one of the meanings of The Wheel of Fortune can be good luck, the middle of the week sees us sharing our good fortune with others via the Six of Pentacles. I’ll just put it out there: there’s a little extra shine around these cards when it comes to financial opportunity and abundance. Regardless of the degree it appears in your life, see how you can share what’s coming your way with others. Beyond this interpretation, however, is a natural desire to give back and re-balance the scales, not in a compensatory way, but one that’s born of true and joyful altruism.

I think this card also expands to encompass the entire idea of balance itself. Where have you felt lopsided, out of sync, or even contorted into uncomfortable positions in your life. And, crucially, how can you harness the energy of change to propel yourself out of these situations? This is generally wonderful energy to make tweaks to your schedule, relationships, and, in true Six of Pentacles style, how you’re spending your resources: time, energy, money, and otherwise.

In case you weren’t sold on the positivity of our Wheel of Fortune experience, I’d like to direct your attention to our final card, the Three of Cups. One of the “party cards” of the deck, this one touches on cups themes of community, love, and genuine emotion. And I can’t help but notice the tarot math at work: the rebalancing of resources in the Six of Pentacles reducing to the unbridled joy and connection of the Three of Cups. Finding a way to contribute/redistribute your good fortune in whatever form it takes this week will not only result in goodwill and good times, but it will help uncover a crucial insight around what really matters to you. So, with this in mind, take joy and connection seriously - taking time to raise your cups with cherished co-conspirators will help seal in the magic brought about by this week’s events.

I’d like to use this space to talk about the degrees to which a tarot reading can appear in our lives. Because, let’s be real, it’s easy to get hyped on a jazzy, positive reading like this one and then become disappointed when it doesn’t unfold in the resoundingly exciting way we expected. Tarot, while lovely and insightful, is a notoriously tricky system. And it requires a bit of sleuthing and commitment from us in order to yield transformative results.

All this is to say, this group, like any other, could be an obvious “yes! here we go! the wheel of fortune spinning me into bounty and joy!” or it could be a little more subtle.

One of my annoying/hopefully endearing sayings is that the majority of a tarot reading happens after you step away from the cards. And this is especially true when we have Major Arcana cards in play. So, be aware that the clarity of this week may not show up immediately. It could, of course, but if it doesn’t that doesn’t mean that the cards are any less reflective of your life. It just might take some time for their message to be clear. And what’s more engaging that sleuthing through your daily life to find a little magic at play?

This week, avoid: