Riding the Cosmic Cycle:
How Navigating the Wheel of Fortune Makes You the Magician

Working with the Tarot can clear subconscious blockages and catalyze deep spiritual growth, ultimately leading to personal fulfillment and the manifestation of your material desires.

To achieve this spiritual awakening, we can view the Major Arcana in two distinct phases. First, the cards from The Magician to The Hermit represent the conscious goals we strive to reach. Second, the cards from The Wheel of Fortune to The Moon represent the profound process of shadow work. 

In this article, we will explore how navigating the lessons of The Wheel ultimately leads us back to the mastery of The Magician—which is precisely where our journey begins.

We’ve all been there. You wake up on top of the world, ready to conquer the day. Then, an unpleasant interaction occurs—someone speaks to you rudely, or a sudden crisis disrupts your reality—and your mood plummets. You spend the rest of the day ruminating, replaying the scenario until you are mentally and emotionally exhausted. Just like that, a single external moment has hijacked your consciousness and drained your vital energy.

When this happens, you are being tossed around on the chaotic outer rim of The Wheel of Fortune.

Many people spend their entire lives reacting to the spin of this wheel, completely unaware that this chaotic rotation is actually the first step in necessary shadow work and inner transformation. The ultimate goal of the self-awakening paradigm is to move from the helpless spinning of the Wheel to the absolute mastery of The Magician.

But how do we bridge that gap? The secret lies in a precise, three-step psychological and spiritual process of assessing and balancing the four core elements of our psyche.

Step 1: Accept the Reality of the Spin

The first step is a shift in perspective. The Wheel of Fortune represents the eternal truth that change is the only constant. It illustrates a simultaneous descent and ascent: as the wheel rotates, what is on top moves downward, and what is below moves upward.

This continuous flow is governed by a hidden spiritual law woven into nature, famously spelled out by the letters on the wheel itself: ROTA TARO ORAT TORA ATOR (“The Wheel of Tarot speaks the Law of Hathor”).

Look closely at the card’s symbology:

  • On the right, a yellow serpent descends, expressing divine will in action. It reminds us that everything happening to you is happening for a reason—to make you grow spiritually.
  • On the left, Hermanubis ascends, symbolizing the evolution of human consciousness from lower to higher states.

Every time you stop fighting the external rotation and instead choose to overcome the event, your consciousness expands and you become stronger from within.

Step 2: The Four-Element Trigger Audit

When something happens that triggers you, the instinctual response is to react blindly. The spiritual path demands that you pause, recognize the trigger, and analyze how it is affecting the four classical elements within your psyche.

On the Wheel of Fortune card, these are represented by the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton (Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh) on the outer circle, as well as the four mystical creatures in the corners. Carl Jung beautifully mapped these four elements onto the foundational cognitive functions of the human mind.

When a crisis hits, perform a sudden audit of these four areas:

  • • Earth (Sensation / Final Heh): How is your connection to the physical world? Are your five senses overwhelmed? Is your body physically tense or grounded?
  • • Water (Feeling / Heh): What does your emotional landscape look like? How is this event threatening your internal values or interpersonal relationships?
  • • Air (Thinking / Vav): Is your logic and intellect spinning out of control? Are you trapped in an obsessive, rationalizing mind-loop, or can you look at the problem with objective analysis?
  • • Fire (Intuition / Yod): Have you lost your connection to your higher vision and inspiration? What do your gut feelings and spontaneous understandings tell you about the future possibilities of this situation?

By stepping back to observe and categorize your reaction, you take the first step toward self-consciousness—the objective, directing part of the mind.

Step 3: Step Into the Center and Run the Alchemy

At the center of the wheel rests the symbols for Mercury, Sulphur, Water, and Salt—the universal mechanics of alchemical transformation. Water, in particular, represents dissolution: the necessary breaking down of our rigid ego structures.

To move from the spinning rim to the still center of the wheel, you must consciously undergo the four primary psychological phases of Carl Jung’s alchemical Magnum Opus (Great Work):

  1. Nigredo (The Blackening): You confront your Shadow. Instead of distracting yourself from the trigger, you face the painful breakdown, the darkness, and the repressed trauma head-on.
  2. Albedo (The Whitening): The stage of purification and catharsis. You bring objective detachment and balance, sorting through your inner polarities.
  3. Citrinitas (The Yellowing): The dawn of higher consciousness. You become illuminated by wisdom, insight, and true spiritual awakening.
  4. Rubedo (The Reddening): The final synthesis where conscious and unconscious aspects permanently unite, culminating in the realization of the True Self.

The Result: Becoming The Magician

When you balance the four elements by undergoing this rigorous alchemical process, you achieve the metaphorical “Fifth Element”—the unified, awakened Self. This state of integration is represented on the Wheel of Fortune card by the Sphinx seated majestically and immutably at the very apex of the wheel.

By mastering the elements, you step off the wheel of reaction and step into the card of The Magician.

The Magician doesn’t get tossed around by external circumstances because he possesses absolute mastery over his mind. You unlock the iconic posture of the Magician: one hand raised aloft holding a wand toward the heavens, the other pointing down to the earth.

You embody the ancient Hermetic axiom: “As above, so below.” You realize you are a divine conduit—a messenger through whom higher spiritual energy flows down into material reality. You possess the active agency to direct cosmic energy to manifest your desires.

The Endless Cycle of Renewal

This spiritual alignment is never a static, “one-and-done” achievement. It is a lifelong, ongoing practice. This continuous evolution is vividly illustrated by the Ouroboros—the serpent biting its own tail clasped around the Magician’s waist.

It reminds us that creation, destruction, and renewal are eternal. To stay in your power, you must continually shed your old skins, letting the ego dissolve so your highest Self can be perpetually reborn.

Stop fighting the spin of the wheel. Embrace the rotation, audit your triggers, run your inner alchemy, and step into your true power as the conscious creator of your reality.