Cosmic Tribe Tarot

X - WHEEL

Wheel in the sky goes round and round,
Blind to whether it's up or down,
Sometimes a banker, sometimes a clown.
Seasons, cycles, smiles and frowns,
Spinning Wheel help us be here now.

The Wheel reminds us that the universe is built more around the circle than along the line. In cycles, as in seasons, time seems to repeat itself even as it brings fresh experiences. Through this constant change we struggle to keep the interconnectedness of life in focus. As it turns, the Wheel encourages us to see how good days follow bad days follow strange days that lead back to good days. We can use the Wheel as a meditation on the kaleidoscopic nature of life where change is the only constant.

In the card a sphinx looks on aloofly as the Wheel turns slowly below her. She has a lion's body and human breasts and is made of stone. She has spent eons watching the Wheel, guiding it and gathering its wisdom. Her fleshy face emerges from the stone to pose riddles to those who seek her knowledge. The sphinx guards a secret linked to the nature of the Wheel and to life itself: In the center of the Wheel a burst of energy lights up the evening sky. At its origin is the motionless core of a perpetual cycle. We are reminded to experience the present as it happens even as the world spins around us. Ten arms reach toward the center from another level of the Wheel where ten intertwined humans rotate gracefully. Ten: the number of wholeness and perfection, the combination of the individual 1 with the all encompassing 0. We are on the wheel of life as individuals but when we connect, like the characters in the card, we become a higher being. We form spiritually aware communities of friends that help us to be grounded in the present by experiencing belonging. Lightning flashes across the sky above the Wheel to warn us to beware the fast-changing tide of fortune, and to remind us to honor each moment as a miracle.

Divinatory Meaning

Should you find yourself on the Wheel in a reading, use it to observe the ebbing and flowing nature of your life. The Wheel is change and cycle and season and change again. How do you manage the seasons and cycles within your days, within your years? Can you feel the groaning and creaking of the Wheel in your body, in your emotional center, in your career, in your relationships? Life is a heroic challenge. How do you respond - with fear or optimism? See that where you are now you have been before and you will be again. Use this information to grow outwardly. Expand your center of awareness beyond yourself to include your circle of friends, your community, even perhaps the orbit of the earth around the sun. A bigger sense of self gives you access to more tools to solve the riddles life poses. The Wheel can also represent a central focus or project around which your life revolves. Or, it could mean that you are going around in dizzying circles and need to break a destructive cycle of behavior. What keeps you from feeling the beat of life? Sometimes the timeless voice of the sphinx, or a bolt from the blue in the form of friendly advice or a bizarre event, will help you restore yourself to the circle.