← “Röhrig Cards” deck

Wheel of Fortune

“Röhrig Cards” deck · card #10

🔍

"A happy man can make others happy, and if he does so, he will increase his own happiness."
Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Gleim

In every culture the Wheel has always held enormous symbolic significance. From the very earliest beginnings to the present day, whether in the context of cult, religion, or simply as a means of transport, the Wheel has served as an image of the great centrifugal force that carries within it the aspect of change and motion, and upon which humanity bases its being-in-the-world.

Centrifugal force denotes the motion arising from the kinetic energy of a physical body. But the mystery of the Wheel lies in the fact that it possesses a second force, a centripetal force, an energy directed toward the center, which maintains balance.

If a man or a woman can transform centrifugal force into centripetal force, they have grasped the chief lesson of their lives. If elementary particles strive toward the periphery of the Wheel and spin endlessly under the action of centripetal force, they have now become its central point. This means that they have become identical with the force itself, and this force is the cause of the motion. If before they were the helpless victims of their fate, now they have become its co-creators. Chronos, the god of time, personally places the key into their hands. If human beings can remain in a state of absolute concentration and stay at their own centered point of balance, then they leave the dimension of "space and time" behind and find themselves in eternity, in that state of existence from which they came and which will be their home when they shed the husk of their body.

What keeps us from consciously living in this eternity today? The obstacles are two great human tendencies that we have not yet fully mastered: the instinct of self-preservation and the instinct for the continuation of the species. Both instincts still revolve around our Wheel of Fortune. Our words, thoughts and feelings still lead us away from the center. We must learn to be entirely within ourselves, to rest at our point of balance, and let the Wheel of Samsara (the cycle of birth and death) revolve around us.

Everything personal must become impersonal. We must stop being actors in this theatrical play and simply become its spectators. We can safely entrust the role of director to the higher power, at least until we attain full understanding of the whole plot of the drama. If we have learned this lesson, we will be surprised to find that this drama has transformed into a comedy — a Divine Comedy, in which each of us plays our own, God-appointed role. From this moment on, the pain of life and the "hard blows" of fate come to an end, because we have stopped resisting, and we take part actively and joyfully in every turn of the great Wheel. We have recognized that a lesson must be drawn from every so-called problem, and we regard every new "problem" as an opportunity for further growth. Now we are no longer beings revolving around it, but have taken fate into our own hands and can actively turn the Wheel of Fortune ourselves.

This card signifies happiness, success and unexpected gain, but it also marks a period of stagnation. When it seems to us that no progress is occurring, one must wait until the Wheel begins to turn again.

Jupiter, as the principle of equilibrium and stability, is the lord of this card. KAPH (hand) is the Hebrew letter of this card. In contrast to the symbol on the ninth card, this "hand" denotes the ability to take and to embrace. From this moment on, the house of this world will be governed from another plane, and human activity will be subordinated to divine law.

The rune JERA means the solar year. It symbolizes the annual cycle, the harvest and fertility, good times and the cycle of life. It is the rune of "eternal rebirth." JERA embodies the idea of resurrection, the coming and going of existence, blossoming and withering, as manifested through the seasons. Just as all things move and turn in a circle, so too does the karmic Wheel turn with us and around us. The only chance for liberation from the eternal cycle of birth and death lies in reaching the center of one's own Wheel and living here in "eternal being."

Open in the app