WIP: 10 – Fortune
Fortune, often titled The Wheel of Fortune, is traditionally depicted as a large wheel inscribed with arcane symbols and Hebrew letters. Figures or animals are shown rising and falling along its rim, while a crowned authority presides from above, implying judgment, fate, or divine order. In many decks, Christian symbolism appears through the four Evangelists, reinforcing the idea of a cosmically sanctioned hierarchy.
Because this imagery is so firmly established, I felt that repeating it would neither challenge me creatively nor reflect my own beliefs. I am not Christian, I do not believe in luck, and—most importantly—I do not see fortune as a zero-sum system. One person’s success does not require another’s failure.
I also reject the idea of fate as an external force imposed upon individuals. For this card, I wanted imagery that emphasizes agency, responsibility, and individual movement through change—fortune not as judgment handed down from above, but as a process shaped by choice, action, and consequence.
After extensive research, I encountered an image that immediately resonated with me: the Wheel of Death, a traditional circus act. Rather than a symbolic wheel, it consists of a large structural beam with circular tracks at either end, within which performers move. As they run—either inside or outside the hoops—the entire apparatus rotates.
What drew me to this form is that the motion is not imposed from above. The performers actively generate and control the movement through their own effort, direction, and coordination. Forward or backward motion changes the system itself. This transforms the wheel from an instrument of fate into a mechanism of agency, where individual and collective action determines outcome.
