Wheel of Fortune

Major Arcana X, the Wheel of Fortune shows a great wheel inscribed with the letters TARO (or ROTA), flanked by the four fixed signs of the zodiac — the lion, eagle, bull, and angel — while three figures rise and fall on its rim. Waite's Pictorial Key describes it as the perpetual motion of destiny, the sphinx of equilibrium atop the wheel and the serpent of descent along its edge. It marks the turning point of the Major Arcana's first half, where personal agency meets the impersonal forces of fate and cyclical return. Fortune is not luck but the rhythm of ascent and decline inherent in all manifest things.