Is Your World Spinning Too Fast?
Move to the middle.
The Rider-Waite Tarot card called Wheel of Fortune is the most cluttered of all the cards in the deck. It contains a wheel, four winged creatures, a sphinx, Anubis, books, a snake, clouds, sky, direction indicators, and letters.
The card is as cluttered as our lives can seem.
What does it all mean?
It’s about maintaining equilibrium.
This card is sometimes just called The Wheel, as opposed to the Wheel of Fortune. This article will discuss it from the perspective of The Wheel, because the term fortune means luck or chance, whereas, at its deepest level, the card addresses the ever-spinning, ever-changing cycle of the universe and all things in it.
The visual message of this card is that everything is like a wheel spinning. All things have an inbuilt cycle. All things change. Everything ends. And then starts all over again in a different form.
A winged mayfly lives 24 hours. A person born in the western world can hope to live 79 years. Some trees live thousands of years. The Earth may survive another four billion years before it melts. And in 4.5 billion years the Milky Way will end when it collides with the Andromeda Galaxy.
Of course, our lives have one grand cycle from birth to death, but interweaving that cycle are countless mini-cycles that are present for only part of the grand cycle, like being a student, a mother, or city mayor.
Then, weaving through these mini-cycles are cycles of behaviour which may last hours or months or years. You could be a withdrawn youthful student; a patient young mother; an angry middle-aged mayor.
So there’s a lot going on. Our lives are cycles within cycles — combinations of time, place, roles and emotions. It’s important to be aware of the cycles you’re in, in order to maintain your equilibrium.
But how do you maintain equilibrium when everything is spinning so fast?
By being centred.
At a local park are swings, tunnels and ladders to amuse children. There’s often a giant metal wheel, set parallel to the ground, which spins when pushed. If you sit on the edge of the wheel you’ll soon be squealing with delight, then screaming in fright, then falling off, dizzy and confused.
The secret to enjoying this ride for longer is to sit in the centre. In the centre you move more slowly, have time to look about you and understand what you’re seeing.
Staying centred gives us more choices and more time to make informed decisions. Staying centred calms emotions and keeps our vision focussed on what’s important. Life doesn’t become a dizzying blur of countless events over which we have no control.
Apart from the wheel, the other items on the card are easily explained. Some symbolise useful qualities: lion — courage; bull — inner strength; eagle — far-sightedness; man — the capacity to love. The snake reminds us to be careful; the books point us to recorded wisdom; the sphinx represents power and stability; puffy clouds and a blue sky link it all to our physical setting; and Anubis, who is the Egyptian God of the Dead, reminds us of our inevitable end.
Living with mindfulness
Overall, this card urges us to do several things.
· Cultivate courage, inner strength, far-sightedness and love.
· Be careful, read widely, be reliable.
· Be grounded in the here and now.
· Remember your inevitable end.
Doing these things will keep us centred.
Insight
In her book Thrive, Arianna Huffington wrote:
We have little power to choose what happens, but we have complete power over how we respond.
The secret to maintaining our equilibrium, no matter what happens as life spins through its cycle, is to stay centred. Then we have the power to choose how to respond wisely.
Staying centred helps us have meaningful interactions with others. Anand Damani wrote a timely article on our need for genuine conversations and how to ensure we have them:
The next article in this series on Tarot cards will feature Justice.
Foretaste: Weigh yourself in the balance
The previous article featured the Hermit.
With love, Marlane
Thanks for reading! I hope it helps you for the rest of your life. For more articles on mindfulness visit me at https://www.marlaneainsworth.com
