Barbara Walker Tarot - 10: The Wheel of Fortune

In mid-space between earth and starry heaven, three figures ride the wheel. At the top sits a female Justice in Egyptian dress, with an ankh and sword. A naked man climbs, wearing the hawk head of Horus, the ascendant sun. Another naked man falls, wearing the ass head of Set, the declining season. The card’s corners bear symbols of the four elements and the four seasonal turning points of the zodiacal wheel: lion, bull, eagle, angel. The sky shows part of the galactic star-wheel (Milky Way) once thought to have poured from the Goddess’s breasts (Greek gala means “mother’s milk”). The Wheel represents a turning point in time, the change of every fortune, and signals a shift from the material sphere (first half of the Major Arcana) to the spiritual or subconscious sphere (second half), the realm of deeper secrets. It brings a change in outlook, unfamiliar territory, a reversal of direction.