When the beloved children's story Alice in Wonderland begins, Alice is sitting next to her sister on a hot summer's day by the riverbank. Later, when her epic adventures in the realm of dreams and kaleidoscopic visions are over, she r to exactly the same spot by the river's edge... Her psychic journey with the White Rabbit, the March Hare, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Mouse and the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, figures shaped like cards led by the Queen of Hearts, and other bizarre characters has been a complete cycle, a spiral dance of the mind, a circular odyssey. Everything about Alice and Wonderland brings us back to the image for the 10th card of the Major Arcana, The Wheel of Fortune.
Children have always adored merry-go-rounds, Ferris Wheels, and magical spinning wheels of all kinds. The ancient Wheel of Fortune is a symbol of the numerous experiences (ups and downs) of a lifetime, the wheel of many lives, the spiritual reality of reincarnation. Coming after The Hermit card, which signifies humanitarian service and illumination to the world. The Wheel of Fortune suggests the need to prepare oneself for a future incarnation of the greater spiritual life ahead.
Two characters - at the start and end of Alice in Wonderland - particularly stress the higher keynotes of this card. The White Rabbit who leads Alice into Wonderland pulls a watch out of his pocket and keeps saying that he is late for an important date. This emphasizes the keynote of time, the great cycle of minutes, hours, days, months and years - the wheels upon wheels of duration that appear to fill eternity. The outer clock has become suspended as Alic fall down the rabbit hole into another dimension of time.
Later on, the strange figure of the Queen of Hearts keeps saying, "Off with her Head!" It seems that the thinking and intellectual aspects of the brain must be put on hold at this stage of reality. One must somehow become a true Queen of Hearts and penetrate to the center of life where the pulse of life is strongest. Ironically, by the story's close, Alice, on the verge of reawakening, see the entire pack of cards from her dream rising up in the air and falling upon her. It is fascinating to note that the Alice in Wonderland card is midway - at the center - of the journey through the Major Arcana and that Alice's cards are surrounding her.
A larger theme in Alice in Wonderland is that all of life can be likened to a dream. Plato, Shakespeare, and other authors have pointed us in this direction, and Lewis Carroll (in real life, a tutor of mathematics and Librarian named Charles Dodgson) created his adventures for Alice Liddell, an English child, in 1864. Carroll loved the world of games and enjoyed inventing novel approaches for the imaginative amusement of children. The constant play on words in the story is extraordinarily profound and reveals the circuitous logic and playfulness in language.
When this card appears in your reading, see you life from a higher perspective. Explore the realm of dreams and keep a notebook of your out - of -body journeys. Good fortune may be just around the corner. Anticipate a turning of the wheel of fortune in your favor. Be the eternal optimist. Know that the power of prosperity consciousness is your ace in the hole. Take advantage of golden opportunities coming your way. Good luck is on your side. Let it ride!
Traditional Tarot Archetype: The Wheel of Fortune
Planetary Ruler: Jupiter
"Inner Child Cards"
Isha Lerner & Mark Lerner
Illustrated by Christopher Guilfoil
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