Wheel of Fortune | Tarot Card Comparative Analysis
✦ Wheel of Fortune | Tarot Card Comparative Analysis ✦
I decided to compare some cards from different tarot decks and see how the art, symbolism, and interpretation in the guidebook shapes the meaning of the same card.
The Wheel of Fortune card typically represents cycles, turning points, and the forces larger than ourselves that shape our lives. It’s neither good nor bad, it just turns. Fate moves, circumstances shift, and we're reminded that nothing stays the same forever.
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✧ The Bearer of the Wheel | Ethereal Visions by Matt Hughes ✧
This card depicts a cloaked and hooded figure holding the wheel. His face is a shadowy blur. The first thing I noticed about this card was the decision to have the wheel being held up by a person and not the main big thing in the card (like the typical RWS card). The person holding the wheel feels like the “bearer” of the Wheel almost. It feels like a heavy burden. The wheel would DEFINITELY fall if he let it go! The wheel is almost secondary while the hooded figure feels much more primary to this card.
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✧ Fate as Spiraling Thought | Star Spinner Tarot by Trungles ✧
When I was riffling through the deck looking for this card it was the VERY LAST card. This card is very spinny, circular, and chaotic. The first thing I noticed in this card is the circular focal point. This then draws my eye to the two figures crouching down, in what looks like the pose from the sculpture The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. Additionally, in the Star Spinner deck, the card is titled “Wheel of Fate.” This card contemplates fate as philosophical chaos. It’s contemplative, spiraling, maybe overwhelming. This deck’s fate isn’t about events; it’s about the mental whirlpool you get sucked into when you try to understand why things happen. It’s fate as overthinking. Fate as the loop you can’t exit.
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✧ A Spin Inside the Structure | New Era Elements Tarot by Eleonore F. Pieper, PhD ✧
This deck depicts modern day in the cards, so the Wheel of Fortune card shows a roulette wheel, playing cards, and poker chips. CASINOOOO!! When I first looked at this card my eyes immediately went to the top where the roulette wheel is. The Wheel of Fortune depicting a casino makes the card feel a lot more “chance‑y.”
When I look at this card more closely, I also notice the DNA in the center.
This card says that destiny is part casino, part genetics… chance layered on top of inheritance. I took to the guidebook for a little more information on the New Era Elements card. What I got from this is that this card is supposed to show the dichotomy of how while there is a lot we don't choose in life, there are also things we can choose. This makes this Wheel feel less like destiny and more like agency inside constraints.
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✧ Fate as Natural Motion | Tarot of the Woodland Wardens by Jessica Roux ✧
The scene here is quite simple, so I feel like I really took the card in as a whole when I first looked at it. If I had to pick one thing I focused on, it would have to be the background. The background shows a beautiful blue sky with white fluffy clouds (nearly identical to the RWS Wheel of Fortune background).
I also looked at the Woodland Wardens guidebook for more guidance. The duck can symbolize transformation and is also associated with good luck... but the Wheel of Fortune is also unpredictable. Another main focus is the golden ribbon surrounding the duck for good fortune. So overall, this is a very positive Wheel of Fortune card. Fate here is more of a gentle shift rather than a dramatic turn. This Wheel doesn’t spin; it glides. It’s the version of fate where things change because that’s what nature does, not because a cosmic mechanism jolts you.
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✧ The Seasonal Wheel | The Herbcrafter’s Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert and Latisha Guthrie ✧
The scene in this card shows a lush green wheel‑shaped garden surrounded by white stones. The first thing that caught my eye was the compass rose right in the middle of the card. Even though the wheel turns, there’s still a stable orientation, a north. It’s not telling you which direction is right; it’s telling you that direction exists. Fate here isn’t random; it’s navigable. You can’t control the turning, but you can choose where you face. My focus immediately then moves to the violet section of the garden with the bright purple flowers.
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✦ Color, Motion, and the Shape of Fate ✦
I feel like I resonate most with the Woodland Wardens duck card (which is kinda funny because it's my least favorite visually)! The Wheel of Fortune card has always been a positive card for me in my own readings.
Now that I have all five cards in front of me, I’m really noticing the colors of the cards. Three of the five cards are very cool‑toned, blue and green focused, and only one is VERY orange and bright (Star Spinner). The deck that reads as fate as overthinking, as the loop you can't exit, is the one that is screaming visually, while the others are more cool and quiet.
The New Era and Ethereal Visions decks have the wheels as a part of a bigger picture, while in the other cards the Wheel feels much more central. These decks treat the wheel like a component of a larger scene, a thing inside a world. But the other three treat the wheel like the world itself. Again, the Star Spinner deck stands out a little, as the card is very circular — there isn't necessarily a wheel. It's kinda a hybrid, but it definitely fits more with the very obvious large wheels.
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✧ Active → Static: The Energy Scale ✧
1. Star Spinner – The background! The symbols! The two thinkers! The BRIGHT orange! Everything is so chaotic! This card just feels so alive and chaotic to me. This one feels like it’s mid‑spin of the Wheel.
2. Woodland Wardens – The duck is soaring above the clouds. There are feathers flying around and the ribbon looks like it's in motion. It’s visually quite calm, but the wings, ribbon, and soaring give it this gentle, gliding motion. It’s not chaotic, but it’s undeniably alive. It’s movement without urgency.
3. New Era Elements – Although the roulette wheel is not moving right now… it can when you decide it's time to spin it. The wheel isn’t spinning right now, but it could. It’s potential energy… the moment before the spin, before the gamble. It’s active in a conditional “if you choose to” way.
4. Herbcrafter’s – While gardens do change, they have predictable cycles. Gardens move, but they move on a schedule. It’s motion with rules, cycles, expectations.
5. Ethereal Visions – The man is holding the Wheel and could drop it… but he won’t. It’s not static because nothing is happening, it’s static because everything is being held. The tension is much more internal than external.
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