Wheel of Fortune

Quick answer

The core meaning of Wheel of Fortune is The irresistible force of fate. Upright, it usually points to A turning point, luck, karma, forces beyond your control. Symbolizes the rise an; reversed, it may suggest Misfortune, setbacks from resisting change, a cycle broken. May indicate a tempo.

Card imagery

A great wheel inscribed with alchemical symbols floats in a blue sky. Around it, the four living creatures (man, eagle, lion, and bull) sit reading books. A sphinx rests atop the wheel, Anubis rises at its base, and a serpent descends along its side.

Upright meaning

A turning point, luck, karma, forces beyond your control. Symbolizes the rise and fall of fortune, a reminder to move with change and seize the moment.

Reversed meaning

Misfortune, setbacks from resisting change, a cycle broken. May indicate a temporary low point, or trying to force control over the uncontrollable.

Love, Career, Money and Growth

Love

In love, Wheel of Fortune points to The irresistible force of fate. Read it back against how the relationship actually behaves and what you are both choosing.

Career

In career matters, Wheel of Fortune points to The irresistible force of fate. Start by working out which resources you control and what your next move is.

Money

In money matters, Wheel of Fortune points to The irresistible force of fate. Do not treat a symbolic reading as an investment conclusion — go by facts, budget and your own risk tolerance.

Personal growth

For personal growth, Wheel of Fortune points to The irresistible force of fate. Write down the question it raises, then turn that into an action you can actually check.

Yes or No

Upright

Yes

Reversed

No

This is our own quick read, based on which way the card’s meaning leans. Traditions disagree about individual cards, and an "Undecided" needs to be weighed against the position in the spread and your actual situation rather than taken as a one-word answer.

Waite’s Original Text (1911)

Inner Symbolism (original)

In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Eliphas Lévi, who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate—as I have intimated—to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of Lévi in respect of Ezekiel's vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. With the French occultist, and in the design itself, the symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. The transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name—to show that Providence is implied through all. But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement.

Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added that, from the days of Lévi onward, the occult explanations of this card are—even for occultism itself—of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honor, ruling authority, etc. The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.

Original Upright Meaning

Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity.

Original Reversed Meaning

Increase, abundance, superfluity.

Quoted from A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. The text is in the public domain.