Major Arcana · X
Wheel of Fortune — tarot meaning
cycles, turning luck, fate
Upright
The wheel turns. Cycles of luck and change beyond your hand — the wise move is to ride, not resist.
Reversed
A turn resisted, or a cycle stalled — clinging to a phase that is ending.
In the Papus Tarot, 1909
La Roue de Fortune — The Wheel of Fortune · Hebrew letter י Yod
Papus: the return of the unity upon itself, the perpetual circulation of life. Martinists ask you to find the still axis rather than argue with the rim.
In the Oswald Wirth Tarot, 1889
La Roue de Fortune — Wheel of Fortune · Hebrew letter י Yod
Wirth reads the wheel as the law of alternation: the wise man takes the still centre of the axle, neither the rising figure nor the falling one.
Shown from the 1909 William Rider & Sons deck (public domain). A card is read in relation to the question and the cards around it; these meanings are a starting point, not a verdict.