Wheel of Fortune Tarot Postcard

Wheel of Fortune Tarot Postcard

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This is a hand drawn transparencies, hand pulled 4 color silkscreened postcard. It is printed on Neenah’s Stardream cardstock.

The Wheel of Fortune is a card with a lot of hidden symbols. These symbols add more of an explanation to its meaning than just the A.E. Waite description, “Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.” The wheel of Fortune tells of a shift or change with possible luck but it really is up to you to decide if you take the chance of change. The change is not always hopefully but that is apart of the chance of the Wheel of Fortune; It can be so rewarding or so brutal. Either way it is life changing and presents an altering opportunity.

The traditional Wheel of Fortune card shows four figures in the corners that represent the four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Each element is placed separately from the other in the form of winged zodiac signs. In each corner of my deck there representations of the four elements together. Each corner has surinam cheery branches for branches/wands (fire), surinam cherries and flowers for seeds/pentacles (earth), conch shell for shells/cups (water), and turkey vulture feathers for feathers/swords (air). I put the four elements together because I feel the wheel of fortune is about a big opportunity that contains a lesson that one can only receive when all the elements come together. You must learn that lesson from the opportunity presented to you in order to receive your fortune. If you can not learn that lesson, you become lost.

The symbols for the four elements also appear in the center of the wheel itself as mercury, sulphur, water, and salt. These elements were once believed to be the building blocks for humans and for the four elements themselves. The Wheel also spells out the word “T-A-R-O” and if it continues spinning “T-A-R-O-T. “ R-O-T-A in Latin also means wheel. I loved this play on words and symbols with the past and kept it the same as a way to keep the card connected to the original card.

In the original card there is a sphnix, figure of Anubis, and a snake circling the wheel. The sphinx has representations of being a riddler of life’s mysteries and also being benevolent and royal. Anubis symbolizes death and fate. The serpent is supposed to represent descent from divine consciousness.

To represent these symbols in this interpretation of the card, I picked a southern black racer and a band sphinx moth. The black racer is in a similar form of the Ouroboros but not quiet there. I did this to allow the black racer to symbolize both the snake in the card and Anubis. Is the snake going to descent from the divine consciousness or is it going to continue on fate’s path. Are you going to follow the snake when it presents itself. Southern Black Racers to me are a symbol of great intelligence and wisdom. 

I used the banded sphinx moth because of its name and because the majestic feeling they give you when you see one. Sphinx moths got its name from looking like a sphinx when its in caterpillar (Hornworms) form resting on a branch. The lines and geometric shapes the sphinx moth shows give it a majestic feeling when seeing it. This makes it the perfect symbol of riddles and royalty.