Wheel of Fortune Tarot Card: Meaning in Love and Yes or No

On Monday your plan falls apart. A call comes that you didn’t expect, and suddenly the whole week looks different. By Friday, something better has taken the place of what you lost, and you almost laugh about how worried you were.

At a glance
  • The Wheel of Fortune stands for a turning point, luck and change.
  • In love, it can bring a meeting or a turn that doesn’t feel like chance.
  • To a yes or no question, it leans toward yes.
  • Its timing is sudden.
  • Go with the change instead of fighting it.
Wheel of Fortune tarot card, original by Pamela Colman Smith 1909
The great wheel with its letters and signs, a sphinx on top and four winged figures in the clouds, on the original card by Pamela Colman Smith from 1909.

What the Wheel of Fortune shows you

  • The big wheel: A golden orange wheel turns in the middle of the sky. Life moves in cycles, up and down, and it never stands still.
  • The letters on the rim: Around the rim stand the letters T, A, R and O, mixed with Hebrew letters. Read them as ROTA, the wheel, or TORA, the law: change follows its own order.
  • The sphinx on top: Calm, with a sword. While everything turns, it keeps its balance. That’s you when you stay centered.
  • The snake on the left: It slides downward. Some things come to an end and leave.
  • The figure rising on the right: A red figure with a jackal’s head, often called Anubis, carries the wheel upward. What goes down comes up again.
  • The four winged creatures: In the corners an angel, an eagle, a lion and a bull sit on clouds, each reading a book. They stand for the four fixed signs of the zodiac: Aquarius, Scorpio, Leo and Taurus.

What the Wheel of Fortune means

The Wheel of Fortune is the card of turning points. Something changes, often from outside. Not everything is in your hands, but how you respond is. Think of your favorite store closing down, then finding a little shop around the corner that you like even more.

Its key words are change, luck, turning points and chances. The Wheel carries the number ten, a one and a zero: a cycle ends, and a new one starts. Its element is fire, lively and fast. To a yes or no question it leans toward yes, because the wheel usually turns in your favor when you go with it. I have studied astrology since I was fifteen, and I love how this card places the four fixed signs in its corners. To me it says that even sudden change follows a rhythm.

Its shadow side: you leave everything to chance and call it destiny. You can help shape what happens. The wheel turns, but you choose where you put your feet, and the next card, Justice, shows what you make of the turn.

The Wheel of Fortune in love

In love, the Wheel says something is moving.

If you’re single

A meeting may come out of nowhere, a missed train, a wrong turn, a friend of a friend. It won’t feel like a coincidence. Say yes to small invitations.

If you’re in a relationship

A new phase begins, maybe a move, a new job for one of you or a fresh chapter after a hard time. Ride the change together and keep talking.

After a breakup

After a breakup, the Wheel reminds you that low points don’t last forever. You may be at the bottom right now, but the wheel keeps turning. Sometimes a person comes back into your life, though never in the old form. If the old pattern returns, the old ending usually follows. What changes the story is that you change.

In soul connections

With a twin flame, the Wheel describes the many ups and downs, the coming together and drifting apart. With a soulmate, it shows a meeting at exactly the right moment,. In a karmic bond, it says the circle can finally close once you learn the lesson. My article on the karmic relationship explains how to recognize those circles.

The Wheel of Fortune for people, timing, work and money

As a person: someone in the middle of change. Their life has had many ups and downs, and they have learned to go with it. Sometimes they leave too much to luck instead of choosing.

As timing: sudden. A turn can come quickly and without warning.

At work: luck, chances and change. Be ready when a door opens.

With money: an upswing is possible, so enjoy the lucky moments.

When the Wheel of Fortune meets other cards

  • The Wheel and the Ten of Pentacles: A lucky turn with lasting effects.
  • The Wheel and the Lovers: A fated meeting or a decisive turn in love.
  • The Wheel and the Tower: Sudden change that shakes things up and clears the way.
  • The Wheel and the Six of Cups: Someone from the past turns up again.
  • The Wheel and the Hermit: After a quiet time, life moves again.

Your questions about the Wheel of Fortune

Is the Wheel of Fortune a yes or no card?

It leans toward yes. Something is changing, mostly in your favor.

What does the Wheel of Fortune mean in love?

It shows a turning point in love: a meeting that feels fated, a new phase in a relationship or the end of a hard time.

Is the Wheel of Fortune a good card?

Mostly yes. It stands for luck and change. Its only warning is not to leave everything to chance.

My advice for the Wheel of Fortune: Go with the change instead of pushing against it. And when things go down for a while, remember the wheel. It never stops turning, and you can choose how you move with it.

And that week that fell apart on Monday? On Friday evening you look back and see that the broken plan made room for something better. You could only stay open.

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Simone, Die Sternenleserin
About the author

Simone, Die Sternenleserin

I was born on a full moon, and cards have been part of my life since childhood, lying around at my mother’s house. Astrology came along when I was 15. Since 2012 I have given more than 3800 readings, mostly about love and soul connections. I know what waiting feels like, so I walk with you from waiting to choosing, honestly and without empty promises. I work with tarot, Lenormand, astrology and numerology.

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