Meanings of the Cards
The Tarot is more than a simple pack of cards. The pack itself comprises 78 cards which combine to form the 'arcana' - symbolic representations of ancient wisdom. These are divided into The Major and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana comprises 22 “trump” cards covering pretty much all aspects of human experience (and quite a bit of divine stuff too). The 56 'Minor' cards are split into the four elemental suits of Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Though these Suits have a variety of names, depending upon which deck you happen to be looking at, we stick here with those names accorded them in the Thoth Tarot deck, whose images you see across the site.
The Wheel of Fortune
The Wheel of Fortune is numbered ten and is usually shown as a great wheel. Sometimes Fortuna is seen, turning the wheel for all eternity. There are people or animals on the Wheel - some are falling off to be crushed, some are struggling to stay on, while a solitary figure makes no attempt to maintain its position but succeeds anyway.
Fortune is not the same as luck. We make our own luck and follow our own destiny. Good fortune comes from the still centre which contains the very heart of ourselves. The seasons will continue to wheel, the sun will rise and set, the planets will move in their allotted courses - with or without us.
If we struggle against the flow of life, we become those struggling to ascend the Wheel, or even one of those crushed beneath it. However, if we realise our own power to create a beneficial future and then trust in that vision, we shall become the still figure, master of our own universe.
