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[0:13] The Wheel of Fortune Archetype in Tarot
Aloha and welcome to Your Heart magic and illuminating space where psychology spirituality and heart wisdom meet. Here's your host, Dr. BethAnne Kapansky. Wright, the clinical psychologist with a mystic mind.
Hello, hi, everybody. Welcome to Your Heart magic. This is Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright, and welcome to 2024. We are here and we are here for it. So we are kicking off the new year by continuing our archetypes of the taro series. And slug and magical synchronicity would have it we are on card 10, which is the Wheel of Fortune. And I love everything about the timing of this being the theme for today's episode. It is the first year and it's the first year heart magic that I'm releasing for 2024.
And I feel like the Wheel of Fortune is a card that embodies the freshness of change and stepping into a new cycle. And the curiosity of wondering what will unfold and what will look like and how will it be. And I definitely think that is energy that we often feel in a new year or any kind of Fresh Start or new cycle. There's a sense of openness and a sense of movement and feeling like we're moving into something new that we're expanding somehow, yet also not knowing exactly how that's going to look.
So when we talk about the archetypes and the Tarot Deck, the Wheel of Fortune is an interesting one. Because when we look at archetypes that are more an individual, the Empress, the emperor, the hierophant, even the archetype of strength, all of those are internal qualities that I think we can cultivate and embody within ourselves, we can draw on the archetype of the High Priestess, when we need to sort of pull ourselves up and use our intuition. And really try and divine what might be happening underneath the surface of things. And we can draw on the archetype of, we'll say the Emperor, when we need to figure out how to channel our sense of structure and authority and organization.
So there's this really interesting thing so far in the tarot deck, where as you journey through it, most of the cards and the Major Arcana that we've covered, are all personal in some way, even the Hermit card number nine, is about again, seeking and going inwards and tapping into that part of ourselves that has a really rich relationship with the mysteries and wants to wants to know the divine and wants to understand our truth. And then we get to car 10, the Wheel of Fortune. And this is not so much about something internal that we can cultivate.
The Wheel of Fortune really represents karma and fate and destiny and outside forces, and how those might intersect with where we're at in life. So we're kind of shifting our focus today from cultivating something inwardly. And the question of how do you work with this archetype and cultivate its qualities and you?
And I've kind of reframed this episode today to really think about? How do we work with the archetype of the wheel of fortune and work with the external and our life and find a way to find more peace and ease and acceptance for the cycles that come our way?
[4:21] Symbolism and Interpretation of the Wheel of Fortune Archetype
On the surface of things. Key words for the wheel of fortune, and what it represents are words like luck, karma, Destiny, change in Fortune, it can represent a turning point, it can represent a cycle, and the traditional Tarot if you're working with cards and doing an interpretation where they are either upright or reversed. The app right often means like good fortune is coming your way.
Good things are in store for you. It's not a specialist card if you are asking a question about a new beginning or or like what's coming for me in the new year and you get the Wheel of Fortune upright. Often it means like, Yay, like, you know the fortunes in your favor. And again, and the traditional tarot and the traditional readings that many do, if they choose to interpret a card upside down, it can sometimes mean a reversal of fortune or resistance to change, or perhaps a turn of bad luck. I personally, when I work with the cards, and I find a card upside down,
I have an interpretation that I often will just look at it as it's indicating more of an internal quality, something that I need to keep working on inside of myself, as opposed to right side up, where I might look at that is things that are already in my consciousness, or that I'm manifesting or that are happening on the surface of my life. So when I get an upside down card,
I prefer more of an interpretation that this is something unconscious that I might be bringing in emerging into the light right now and making conscious. And for me, that feels much kinder than pulling it upside down. And feeling like a tarot deck just told me like, hey, bad luck is coming your way. It's not really the way that I choose to work with the decks, I respect that there are some who do. But just my philosophy, that is how I work with that. But overall, regardless of what way this card is facing, it is a symbol of cycles.
And what we know about cycles, and what we know about life is there's times where we expand. And there's beautiful things going on and wonderful things and we think, Oh, I've got such good fortune right now. And then there's times where what comes up, can sometimes go down, or what expands needs some space to contract. And life just kind of moves and absent flows.
So it can also mean that things are in more of an ebb state, or things are contracted or things don't seem as shiny and good on the surface. And we are invited with the card the wheel of fortune to really evaluate our relationship with change. And that is how I look at this card. It is an invitation for evaluation of our relationship with change.
How do we work with change in our life? How do we work with the ups and the downs? How do we conceptualize those things and make sense of those things and find perspective that helps carry us through that, so that we can try and maintain a sense of peace, a sense of equanimity, a sense of staying centered or staying in our hearts, regardless of what's happening around us.
And that is an aspiration, not necessarily something that I think any one of us masters at one point in life, and it's always kind of mastered and OB got the lesson. I think people who have been working at cultivating inner peace for a while probably can find that space a little bit more easily inside of them. But for many of us, it's a work in progress. And we create a sense of inner peace and a sense of working with the cycles in our life, based on what we had previously worked with.
And so maybe we feel like we successfully move through some cycles, we've integrated the lessons, we found some perspective. And we're congratulating ourselves on our growth.
And then something new comes along, and it just rocks our world. And either we weren't expecting it or it is so out there that we don't have a way to process it or to even figure out what's happening. And it knocks us off kilter. And we go through another growth cycle and another understanding cycle. It was interesting, I was doing some writing today. And I'm working on a piece right now.
And it's just called the bigger toolbox. And what I'm talking about in the piece is how a couple of summers back when we were we've just been in the thick of so much change collectively and so much has been happening around the club and politically and so many things in the headlines and so many things that really tap into our hearts and bring us grief for humanity and really kind of tap on our socio economic political consciousness when we see decisions being made in the world that might leave us reeling and we know that these don't seem like decisions that are being made from a space of light, but a space of fear. And what's our response to that?
How do we find a way to maintain compassion keep our foot in the awareness of what's happening while also maintaining that inner peace and not checking out entirely and withdrawing entirely. And I think we all navigate our relationship with that, based on who we are and our understanding of our past.
[10:17] Developing a Bigger Toolbox for Life's Cycles
So there's certainly no no one right way to do it. But for myself, and my role as a psychologist and a speaker, and a writer, and all the things that I work on, I remember a couple of summers back, having this moment where so much was happening in these greater events all at once, and my mind was just exploding from some of the stuff I was seeing in the headlines and from heartbreak over the direction that things seem to be going.
And I remember having this thought, girlfriend, you're gonna need a bigger toolbox. And ever since then, this is about two summers ago now this summer 20, I think it was 2022. Ever since then, I have been really working on developing bigger perspectives for how to work with some of the challenges that we see in our world today. And some of those perspectives are nothing fancy or earth shattering.
Some of them are things that I find through my writing, or maybe I find them in creativity and art. Some of those perspectives have come from really thinking about our ancestors, and how much they survived before us, and the amount of stuff that people go through on this human journey. And somehow people find a way to carry on and to flourish often. And so I really started thinking about how do we draw from this collective well of hope, from the collective Akashic of hope? How do we draw from that?
And how can I find wisdom? And when I'm tapped out, how can I dip my ladle into something so much bigger than myself, and really engage my heart and spiritual connection, and also my connection to humanity, my connection to the web of life and my connection to the ancestors that came before us? How do I engage that and feel inspiration and aspiration, from the knowledge that I am not the first person and will certainly not be the last person to struggle and grapple with what it is to be a human being and some of these emotional feeling states and challenges that we face, they take on different forms.
But so many of the things that we might feel, and that we might experience while unique to us. At the same time, others have had those same themes. And somehow, many have found a way to transcend or grow, or they used to get stronger. That brings me inspiration. And that is something I actively continue to work on to get a bigger toolbox, as I said.
So I think that part of working with the wheel of fortune card at this point in time in the year 2024, in this modern day world, is that we all need a bigger toolbox for understanding how do we work with the cycles in our life. And the greater cycles maybe that those intersect with, which can certainly affect us as well. So let's talk about a few ideas for how to do that.
And I think the first one is that we need to develop a paradigm that embraces cyclical living, and step away from this myth that if we're doing good things, and being a good person, that only good things are going to happen to us. And we're going to manifest the beautiful life that we want.
And I guess conversely, if we're not being a good person, you're actually probably not concerned about manifestation or listening to this podcast. But in theory, if you're not investing in those things, that you're only going to manifest bad things, when the truth is, is that we often see that good things happen to people who appear undeserving and bad things happen to people who appear greatly undeserving.
And there is something about the Wheel of Fortune and this idea of fate and karma and destiny and being wrapped up in cycles that are bigger than just us where there's a great deal of surrender involved. And there's a great deal of learning to lean into the changes that come in our lives and to challenge ourselves to examine ourselves when we feel resistant to them.
And I think that if we can understand that we go through good periods bad periods. I do air quotes when I say that because I'm about to get to this next point like what's good and what's bad. But most of us have a sense of what feels positive for us and what doesn't feel so positive.
[15:12] Cyclical Living and Trusting Life's Cycles
And we all go through those things. And we go through ebbs and flows often, and our career, our families, maybe our relationships, our relationship to abundance, or creativity or finances, we go through ebbs and flows in our relationship with ourself. And sometimes we feel super like shiny, sparkly, you know, unicorn power, and I am ready to take on the world. And other times we can feel like we're in a really dark place, and we're in a contracted state, and we're going through a dark night of the soul or a challenge or just not feeling like our shiny self. And we're asked to listen to our feelings and figure out what's going on.
And cyclical living, is understanding that the nature of life is cyclical, everything is based on life cycles from birth to, you know, living, to death, to rebirth, all the seasons, the moon cycles, the tide cycles of the oceans, weather cycles, climate cycles, our cycles and our lives of development as we grow up and move through these different phases and journeys of ourself.
And we come to understand ourselves in different ways, as we take on different roles, who we understand ourselves to be at 20 years old, and then 30 years old, and then 40 years old, and 50 years old, and so on and so on, that is going to continue to change. So it's understanding that life itself is cyclical. And that is something that we've talked about quite a bit on the your heart magic podcast. But many of us aren't taught to think like this.
So we need a lot of reminders. And we need a lot of opportunities to continue to remember, this is a cycle. And I can trust this cycle. And one of the things about cycles is that they are all process oriented. And they often have an intelligence all their own, you really can't rush them.
So if you are in a beautiful, wonderful expansive state, or you're not in a beautiful, wonderful expansive state, there might be some things that you have that can help control or work with that. And there might be times to just surrender and to say, this is just life right now. And I'm in process. And I'll know when I know what I know when I'm meant to know. And there is a trust of the process that can take place.
So I think this really serves us in developing a way of thinking that we can kind of house our experiences and, and instead of necessarily like blaming ourselves or holding ourselves responsible or getting really frustrated and feeling like we should be able to affect change, and every little thing in our life. Sometimes cyclical living is simply an invitation to surrender and to go with the flow and to stay open.
And I think there's a good deal of discernment that we develop in this space of learning. What can we control? And what do we not have control over? And when are we able to constructively do something that might change our fortune and change our destiny that might move us in a different direction? And when no matter what we try? Is the timing? Or the circumstances just not there? Or the inspirations not there? And how do we know which is which none of these things are meant to be an easy answer.
They are all part of the Wheel of Fortune. They're all part of learning to work with the cycles in our lives. And they're all part of learning to find balance between the tension of personal responsibility, accountability, that Emperor energy of taking charge and being in control and being good leaders in our lives.
And then more of that receptivity and surrender and creativity and trusting the process and a little bit more of more of a high priestess energy or I guess an empress energy of just allowing for what's happening. And we're meant to play with that. And that is part of constructively learning to work with this cycle.
[19:38] Cycles, Self-Doubt and Personal Growth
So how this might break down in a really practical way is if somebody's beating themselves up for where they're at, well, one you could stop. And two, you could just kind of sit with this idea of surrender versus accountability and really look at the facts of Is there anything right now that I can hold myself accountable to And what changes can I have?
So like, let's say you don't like where your life is at, and you're in a rough cycle right now. But you say, Well, I think I can at least get some self care for myself. And I'm gonna make a plan to whatever it is, whatever your self care plan is, it could be read supportive books, it could be talked to somebody, it could be take more time in nature, something that you can change, even if it's one small thing. You know, other times, we might look at something and say, Well, I'm already doing all those things. I'm staying open. I'm trying to listen to guidance, and nothing's coming through.
And so we might just surrender to the process and say, All right, this is where things are at. And one of the things the Akashic Record said, in their message at the end of 2023, is part of what would serve us to move into 2024, with a clear and open heart, is to just make peace with what's come to pass in our life so far, to stop blaming ourselves to stop beating ourselves up. If there is accountability, we can take great going ahead and take it. But to stop that self doubt, self questioning, over efforting forcing, and just say, this is where I'm at right now.
So how do I move forward and work with the ingredients of my life in the most intelligent way possible. And that is how we work with the Wheel of Fortune, it's how we work with our life cycles. Something else that's important to understand about cycles is that they aren't always what they seem. And one of the issues that I kind of have with this idea that if the cards upright, it's good, and if it's facing down, it's bad, and you're resisting change.
You know, one of them that I that I have with that is that sometimes something that seems really good and wonderful isn't, or we get what we think we want and find out, it's not what we need, or it's not all that it's cracked up to be, or that something comes from it, that we didn't see coming didn't expect. And it's not necessarily a positive thing. Let's say you publish a book or something like that, and you've really, really wanted that and you move into this world, and you get that book out there. And you are so thrilled and so happy.
And then certainly if you do that, that's a wonderful accomplishment. So nothing's going to take away from that. This is a joyful thing. But then what did he find out like, once it's published, now there's like this whole new world of responsibility of marketing it and trying to keep it in the periphery and make it relevant to people.
What if other authors come out of the woodwork or other writers or something like that, and let's say you're on social media, and you're sort of getting these things, or pings from people that are passive aggressive, or there's jealousy, or there's something there? What if you have all this pressure on yourself and think, oh, my gosh, no, I have to write the next one. And I have to stay relevant.
There's so many things that could come from that. And some of them might be this beautiful, wonderful gift that you receive in a linear way from publishing. And sometimes, things that are challenging come from something that seems really good. And ultimately, none of it's good or bad. It's just experience. And it's life, and it's loving. And it is positive things coming, and sometimes coming with a side dish of challenge. And it's challenging things coming.
And sometimes coming with the most beautiful hidden lights. There are many people who have been through a very hard cycle in their life and something that they maybe later turn into an inspirational story or speech and they'll talk about something awful that happened and how they thought their world was over. And then something beautiful comes from it some sort of reinvention or connection or a new path for them or something like that. And so we continue to work with this idea that nothing's black or white.
[24:09] Embracing Life's Ups and Downs with Gratitude and Perspective
Nothing's either or it's both and, and when we're in a wonderful cycle, that's just such a good feeling. I love that feeling. But it's also holding the knowledge of gratitude, for your experience, gratitude for the good things, but also gratitude for any lessons that might come on the side as well.
Because ultimately, that is what grows us. And that leads me to the last point that I wanted to share today. And that is the perspective that part of how we can work with the Wheel of Fortune and our lives is to develop a relationship with life where we either see life as our friend, or at least a neutral force, a benign force that is happening all around under us, we are in this biosphere of the earth.
And our paths intersect with so many incredible people. And some people who aren't so incredible, you know, it's kind of hit or miss sometimes there's a lot of people here, there's a lot of agenda, some of them we vibe with better than others. And I think that when we have that, like, why is this happening to me, life is happening to me, you know, sort of that whether it's a victim mentality, or we just see life as an opposition. I'm gonna give a good example earlier, I said that what comes up goes down.
And there's truth in that going down isn't a bad thing. It's not bad, when we've been through a high, like, expansive experience to kind of come back down and ground it afterwards, it's actually just part of a life cycle, that if something's been really expansive, and beautiful, we need a little bit of time to ground and to integrate, and to come back into ourselves. But a lot of times, we think about, well, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, or things are really good, but I don't know if I can trust it, because something bad's gonna happen. And we have these really interesting preconceived notions.
And many of us, it's just based on our experience, or something that we've been told, I remember a friend once telling, telling me about her father, who had this philosophy that, you know, well, if you ever, like get too high on life, God is going to come and he's going to squash you down. You know, and it was sort of this like threat of this sort of punitive Almighty being out there who's just gonna, like, stomp on you.
Even that brace, you know, we make plans in life laughs There is interpretation, there's laugh, it's like laughing with us or laughing at us. And when we feel like it's laughing at us, I think it really puts us in a space of no longer feeling any sort of empowerment in our life and feeling really helpless in our circumstances.
Now, this happens to all of us, unless for some reason, you're just mentally a mindset giant, when it comes to positive perspective. But the average person, we have these moments where we do feel sorry for ourselves, or if something is going wrong, or a lot is happening at once. We do have thoughts like, why is this happening? Did I do something wrong, I'm a good person, I don't deserve this. You know, we have all these things. And many of those are old stories. There's things that have been with us since childhood, there are things that we might have absorbed about how we think the world should be. And we're really shocked and shaken when the world doesn't necessarily mold itself to our expectation of what we thought was going to happen.
And so when that happens, we blame ourselves, or we feel like life is taking its thumb and just like squashing us down and stomping on us. And what if that's not true? What if there is a bigger force that is working with us, or at the very least, is neutral. And we are able to intelligently work and dance with this life force, and lean into the things that are hard, open up to the things that are beautiful, that invite us to expand, and just see that this is just life. Sometimes there are just crappy life, things that happen. I sometimes think of the journey as a soul on earth is a bit like churning through the Wild West. You know, it's kind of wrapped down here.
And I think that when we have spiritual ideals, and these spiritual ideas of how things should be, and many of us are trying to live by the heart and wanting to be being for the light and a contributor of light, we're really shocked when we run into darkness, or we run into somebody who's not interested in that agenda there. They got their own thing going on, but it's not being a contributor.
[29:12] Dealing With the Unexpected: Perspectives from The Wheel
So like, I'll tell you something that's happening right now. I had a bunch of packages that showed up the other day, just two days back, and it was marked delivered in my mailbox. And I went out to my mailbox later in the day, all excited, right? I got some goodies after Christmas and some really fun things and they had quick shipping and I thought, oh my gosh, it's the end of a work day.
I've got all these little treats waiting for me. Well, nothing was in there. And I've spent the last couple of days trying to chase it down. And what we've ascertained from the post office is that they weren't delivered on my street. They even show GPS, the clump of mailboxes that it probably went to at least it was marked delivered there.
And they have not showed up at our house and I talked to a couple of the neighbors I left like tried to Write a really nice note and just kind of tape it to a few boxes being like, Hey, this is mistakenly and they're really would appreciate it, if you could help direct it back to me, nothing is showing up. And my sense of things is that somebody thought that they just got a real good bonus in their mailbox and kind of took it for themselves and hung on to it. So this is not how I wanted to end by 2023. It's not the note that I would like to exit the year on, it's certainly not the energy that I want to plan to as we move into 2024.
And I really don't think there's anything I did to deserve this, I just think that there's somebody dishonest, who probably lives close by, and there's not a lot I can do about it at this point. Now, I have a choice here, I can choose to internalize a story about this. And I've definitely had a personal reaction to it and just had to do some raw process work. And I can choose to internalize a story about life and see life as this oppositional force. And I am working on choosing just to find radical acceptance for Well, this is what happened.
And hopefully it's being taken care of, and we'll see what the wheel spins out on this. There might be something still good that comes from it, there might not be I do know myself and know that I'll probably end up writing about it, and at least trying to like dig for whatever gems or little lessons I can find in it. And I often feel like even if nothing else seems redemptive about an experience, if we can use our creativity and our heart wisdom, and really try and see it from a different lens, sometimes we can find a hidden light in it and how it helped us grow, or how it helped us learn something. And that in and of itself is transformative.
And I think that is part of how we learn to work with the Wheel of Fortune and our life. And learn that no matter what way that metaphorical cart is facing, and how we feel about things, we can still learn to lean in and find perspective. So I want to close today with a tiny little piece that I wrote, This is forever ago, I think this was like a Facebook post that I wrote back in 2012 2013, I was really finding my voice as a writer who wrote about personal transformation.
And so I used to share quite a bit on my personal page there. And I remembered this little piece of writing today and tracked it down in an old word document. And I think it fits this perspective that we're talking about with the Wheel of Fortune.
Life is not here at our issuance. We are here by life's invitation. We are not owed or entitled to its gifts and as such can choose to respond accordingly as gracious guest who show up and appreciation or not. Life is not happening to us, we are happening and life is happening. And where the two of those intersect, we have our personal experiences and timelines.
Every day, we are called to be an active participant in that timeline, choosing how best to utilize the considerable resources we've been given, like our minds, time, thoughts, intentions, wills, and heart. You in life, life in you. The thing is that this whole relationship with life is very easy to get all knotted up and tangled and may take a while to straighten out.
But when you learn to look at it differently and decide to take life up on its offer to mindfully participate with it. You start to realize there but the grace of love go I- and a profound sense of gratitude opens up for every little thing. Gratitude is no longer limited to externals, like something good happening, or money or prestige, or whether you are lucky in love.
Gratitude becomes the beauty of the sky. The awareness of breath, the love of a good dog. And the big stuff is simply icing on one heck of a great cake. And you realize the possibility for happiness is happening right now. With each passing moment, if we only have eyes to see.
That perspective right there. I think that's what we call a bigger toolbox. And just because I write it doesn't always mean I perfectly embody it. But we can continue to aspire to reach for ways that help us find a way to roll with the fortune and the changes in our lives. Find grace for our process, and maybe even find a little bit of gratitude along the way, no matter which way the wheel is turning.
[35:20] Coming Up Next Week
All right, thank you so much for joining me today. That concludes this week's episode of Your Heart magic. We will be back next week with a brand new episode and we will be talking about the power of intention.
With that Happy New Year Happy 2024 have an incredible week. And until next time, be love. Be well be you and be magic.
You've been listening to your heart magic with Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright. Tune in next week for a new episode to support and empower your life