What does the Wheel of Fortune tarot card mean?
What does the upright Wheel of Fortune say about your luck? That it is moving. Wikipedia prints Waite's list as "Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity", and nearly every word is about position, where you stand now compared with a moment ago. Biddy Tarot adds karma, life cycles and a turning point.
The Golden Dawn put a fence around the good news. Book T limits the card to "happiness (within bounds)" and ends with "Intoxication of success." Tarot.com is warmer and calls the upright card a "lucky break" and a "full-circle moment".
The Tarot Guide adds a karma rule that is easy to remember: be nice to people on your way up. It fits the picture, with a creature rising on one side of the wheel and a serpent going down on the other. Ask which part of the wheel you are on, and what you would do differently there.
Wheel of Fortune reversed: bad luck or too much?
Waite turned the reversed Wheel into a card of plenty. His reversed list is "Increase, abundance, superfluity." That is more than you needed, not bad luck: the wheel turned and delivered a surplus. Superfluity is the word to keep, since it describes a full plate.
All four sites we checked read the reversal the other way. Biddy Tarot lists "Bad luck, resistance to change, breaking cycles", Labyrinthos says "bad luck, lack of control, clinging to control, unwelcome changes, delays", and The Tarot Guide starts with "Bad luck, upheaval, disorder". Tarot.com says the reversal can feel like being "on a downswing or stuck in a pattern".
Both readings can fit, so check which one matches your question. If you have more work, offers or obligations than you can hold, Waite's surplus is the story. If things keep going wrong and you feel you have no say, the modern setback reading is closer.
Is Wheel of Fortune a yes or no card?
| Position | Answer |
|---|---|
| Upright | Yes, if you ask about change |
| Reversed | Not yet, or yes with a delay |
The sites we checked do not agree on this card. Tarot.com answers NO and adds "Wait for now", because the elements are still in motion. Zenith Align gives the upright card a yes and the reversed card a conditional yes, calling the reversal "A temporary downturn or delay." TarotAtlas says the answer "depends on what are the other cards in a spread", but for love it calls the card "a sign of a yes".
Our reading follows the card's own logic. A question about whether something will change gets a yes, since the wheel is the card of change. A question about whether a situation will stay as it is gets a no. Whether the change is welcome is the part the card does not settle.
Reversed, we read a delayed yes: the answer holds, but not on your schedule. A firm answer is more than this card gives.
Wheel of Fortune in love
A new relationship
Next to Justice, the card that follows it, the Wheel is less about weighing and more about timing. For a new relationship it is the card of an opening. Tarot.com lists "new beginnings, sudden meetings" for love, and we would add Book T's limit: a good start is a start, not a verdict on how it ends.
In a relationship
The Tarot Guide reads the card in a couple as a positive change, such as "taking the next step in your relationship", and then says the same card "can signal an upheaval". Labyrinthos agrees that changes need not be bad but says "adjustments may have to be made". Both allow change in either direction.
Wheel of Fortune as feelings
As feelings, the Wheel is a mood in motion. Labyrinthos describes feelings that "dance between excitement and uncertainty". We take that to mean someone whose feelings have not settled. What they do over the next weeks tells you more than the card can.
Getting back together
Can the Wheel mean an ex returns? Tarot.com mentions "a chance reconnection that feels anything but random", the nearest wording we found. A card cannot say that someone will come back. The better question is what has changed since the last turn; if the answer is nothing, the same loop is the likelier result.
Wheel of Fortune as work and money
A manager announces a reorganization on Monday, and by Friday two teammates have new titles and one has none. That is the Wheel at work: rank and luck move faster than effort. Tarot.com lists "a lucky opportunity, a promotion" for the upright card, and Book T's limit is a reminder not to treat one win as permanent.
With the card reversed, the modern guides see stagnation: The Tarot Guide names "a career becoming stagnant or a period of disruption and uncertainty". Waite's reading fits a different problem, a workload bigger than you can do well. Decide which one you are in before you act.
Wheel of Fortune as advice and as a person
Use the good stretch on something that will outlast it. If the wheel is up, do the hard and dull task now, such as the paperwork or the apology you owe. If it is down, do the small steady things and give the turn time.
In a person, the card is someone lucky, restless or in the middle of a change. That person is easy to like when things go well, and Book T's warning about the intoxication of success is aimed at exactly that mood.
Symbolism of the Rider–Waite–Smith card
- The wheel and its letters. Waite writes that "The transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name". Wikipedia adds that the Hebrew letters read YHWH.
- The Sphinx. Seated on top. Waite says "The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein", the still point inside the movement.
- Typhon. The serpent going down on the left. Waite notes, "I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form."
- Anubis. Wikipedia describes the god Anubis rising with the wheel on the right side, which balances the descending serpent.
- The four winged creatures. In the corners. Waite calls them "the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel"; Wikipedia says they stand for the four Evangelists and for the fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.
Where the Wheel of Fortune picture comes from
“Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.”
“Good fortune, happiness (within bounds). Intoxication of success.”
Waite says outright where the picture came from: "In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Éliphas Lévi, who has furnished several variants." Then he undercuts his own card. Behind the symbol, he writes, "there lies the denial of chance and the fatality which is implied therein". Wikipedia adds that the image has been modeled since the 15th century on the Rota Fortunae, the wheel of the goddess Fortuna.
Waite is also scornful of other writers. The occult explanations of this card are, he says, "of a singularly fatuous kind", and "The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane." Book T calls the card "The Wheel of Fate", and Waite's own note about "the fatality which is implied therein" points the same way, even though his deck titles it Fortune.
Wheel of Fortune and Jupiter: the card's planet
| Number | 10 (X), Major Arcana |
|---|---|
| Planet | Jupiter |
| Signs Jupiter rules | ♐︎ Sagittarius, ♓︎ Pisces |
| Hebrew letter | Kaph כ |
| Golden Dawn title | The Lord of the Forces of Life |
| Name and number in Book T | The Wheel of Fate, 10 |
Attributions from Book T (Golden Dawn, c. 1892; printed 1912).
Book T gives the Wheel to a planet, Jupiter, with the Hebrew letter Kaph, and no sign. In our table of 35,064 dates from 1930 to 2025, Jupiter stood in the same sign as the Sun on only 10.1% of them, so on about nine dates in ten the Jupiter card points to a different sign than the Sun's.
Jupiter rules five ten-degree slices of the zodiac: the Eight of Swords (Shortened Force) in Gemini, the Six of Wands (Victory) in Leo, the Four of Swords (Rest from Strife) in Libra, the Two of Pentacles (Harmonious Change) in Capricorn, and the Nine of Cups (Material Happiness) in Pisces. It also rules Sagittarius, which is why Temperance (XIV) shares this planet with the Wheel.
The 5 minor arcana cards ruled by Jupiter
In Book T, Jupiter rules one ten-degree slice (a decan) in 5 signs; each slice has its numbered card.
| Part of the zodiac | Card | Book T title |
|---|---|---|
| 0° to 10° Gemini | Eight of Swords | Lord of Shortened Force |
| 10° to 20° Leo | Six of Wands | Lord of Victory |
| 20° to 30° Libra | Four of Swords | Lord of Rest from Strife |
| 0° to 10° Capricorn | Two of Pentacles | Lord of Harmonious Change |
| 10° to 20° Pisces | Nine of Cups | Lord of Material Happiness |
Today Jupiter is in Leo at 23°. It enters Virgo on July 26 (US Eastern date).
Enter a birth date in the tool below for Jupiter's sign, degree and matching minor card. Birth time almost never matters here: Jupiter changed sign within a single day on only 0.4% of the dates in our table.
Where was Jupiter when you were born?
Enter your birth date. We show Jupiter's sign and degree that day, whether it was retrograde, and which of its Book T minor cards that degree falls in.
Example below: November 16, 1986, Eastern time. Enter your own date above.
♃ Jupiter on November 16, 1986: ♓︎ Pisces, 13°
Eastern time. Your Jupiter sign: Jupiter in Pisces. Jupiter is in Pisces on 7.4% of dates from 1930 to 2025. It was moving direct that day; Jupiter is retrograde on 30.1% of dates. Your Sun was in Scorpio, so Jupiter sat in a different sign, as on 89.9% of dates.
In the Golden Dawn's decan scheme, your Jupiter falls in the Nine of Cups (Book T: "Lord of Material Happiness", 10° to 20° Pisces, ruled by Jupiter). That slice is ruled by Jupiter itself: one of the 5 cards in the table above.
Every planet, angle and house from your birth time: birth chart calculator.
Questions about Wheel of Fortune
What number is the Wheel of Fortune in tarot?
Ten. It is card X of the Major Arcana, after The Hermit (IX) and before Justice (XI). Book T also numbers it 10.
Is the Wheel of Fortune a good card?
Upright, mostly yes, with a limit: Book T writes "happiness (within bounds)". Reversed, Biddy Tarot, Labyrinthos and The Tarot Guide read bad luck, while Waite's own list is "Increase, abundance, superfluity."
Is the Wheel of Fortune a yes or no?
The sites we checked split. Tarot.com says NO and "Wait for now"; Zenith Align says yes upright and conditional yes reversed. We read it as yes to a question about change.
What does the Wheel of Fortune mean in love?
A turn: a new start, a shift in a couple, or feelings still in motion. It describes change, not its outcome, and it makes no promise about an ex.
Which planet rules the Wheel of Fortune?
Jupiter, in Golden Dawn Book T, with the Hebrew letter Kaph. Jupiter also rules Sagittarius, the sign of Temperance.
What does a Wheel of Fortune tattoo mean?
Usually cycles and change. Wikipedia says the letters on the wheel can be read as T-A-R-O or as ROTA, the Latin word for wheel.
Sources
- Astronomy Engine: the open-source ephemeris library behind our planet positions, dates and statistics
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Wikisource: the divinatory meanings we quote, upright and reversed
- Book T (Golden Dawn), as printed in The Equinox I:8, 1912: the zodiac sign, Hebrew letter, title and short meaning of each card
- Wikimedia Commons: Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck: Pamela Colman Smith's 1910 card drawings, public domain
- How we create our readings: our own calculation of sign dates, positions and the 1930 to 2025 statistics
Next to Wheel of Fortune
In the Major Arcana: The Hermit (9) ← Wheel of Fortune (10) → Justice (11).
Jupiter on this site: Jupiter sign calculator · Jupiter in Aries · Jupiter in Taurus · Jupiter in Gemini · Jupiter in Cancer · Jupiter in Leo · Jupiter in Virgo · Jupiter in Libra · Jupiter in Scorpio · Jupiter in Sagittarius · Jupiter in Capricorn · Jupiter in Aquarius · Jupiter in Pisces · your full birth chart.
All 22 cards with their signs and planets: tarot card meanings.
Written by The Zodiac Atlas editorial team with the help of AI and edited by a person. Quotations are from Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot and the Golden Dawn's Book T, both in the public domain; the card picture is a 1910 printing of Pamela Colman Smith's drawing for the 1909 deck. Sign dates and planet positions come from the astronomy-engine ephemeris (tropical zodiac). Tarot and astrology are symbolic traditions; they do not predict events.