A tarot reader in 1790s Paris would have recognized the Wheel of Fortune immediately: a crowned figure turning a crank, four human figures at the cardinal points, the Latin letters T-A-R-O circling the rim. That same reader would have stared blankly at a “Wheel of Misfortune.” The card did not exist. It appears nowhere in the historical record until the 20th century, and even then only in a handful of decks designed for a very specific purpose.
The Wheel of Fortune is the tenth Major Arcana card in traditional tarot, representing cycles, fate, and the impersonal turning of destiny. The so-called Wheel of Misfortune is a modern invention, a variant card that appears almost exclusively in decks designed for shadow work or curse-breaking, and it carries no historical weight in any established tarot tradition.
The two cards share a visual ancestor but diverge in meaning, use, and origin. One belongs to the canon. The other belongs to a niche.
Where the Wheel of Fortune Comes From (and Where the Other Does Not)
The Wheel of Fortune appears in the earliest known tarot decks. The Visconti-Sforza deck, painted around 1450 for the Duke of Milan, shows a wooden wheel turned by a blindfolded figure. Four human figures cling to its rim: one rising, one seated at the top with a crown, one falling, one crushed beneath. The message is medieval and merciless: fortune rises and falls without regard for merit.
By the time Antoine Court de Gébelin published Le Monde Primitif in 1781, the Wheel had acquired esoteric meaning. Court de Gébelin, a French Protestant pastor and Freemason, argued that tarot preserved Egyptian mysteries. He read the Wheel as a symbol of the zodiac, the seasons, and the cycles of reincarnation. His interpretation stuck.
Éliphas Lévi, writing in the 1850s, connected the Wheel to the Hebrew letter Kaph (the palm of the hand, open or closed) and to the planet Jupiter. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck of 1909 cemented the modern image: a blue wheel with the letters T-A-R-O, the four fixed zodiac signs (lion, eagle, bull, man) at the corners, and a sphinx at the top holding a sword.
The Wheel of Misfortune has no such lineage. It first appears in the 1970s, in decks designed for what practitioners call “reversal work” or “shadow tarot.” The earliest documented example is the Dragon Tarot by Terry Riley (1977), which includes a card labeled “The Wheel of Misfortune” as a counterpart to the Wheel of Fortune. A handful of decks followed: the Haindl Tarot (1984) uses a “Wheel of Misfortune” in its minor arcana, and the Thoth-influenced Tarot of the Spirit (1992) includes a variant.
No historical tarot tradition recognizes the Wheel of Misfortune as a standard Major Arcana card. It is an innovation, not a rediscovery.
What the Wheel of Fortune Actually Means
The Wheel of Fortune answers one question: What happens when forces larger than you decide the outcome?
In a reading, the card signals a turning point. Not a choice, not a consequence of action, but a shift in circumstance that arrives from outside. The wheel turns. What was up goes down. What was down rises. The card carries no moral judgment. It does not reward virtue or punish vice. It simply turns.
The four figures at the corners of the Rider-Waite-Smith card are the fixed signs of the zodiac: the lion (Leo), the eagle (Scorpio), the bull (Taurus), and the man (Aquarius). They read from open books, suggesting that the cycles of fortune are knowable, even predictable, if you understand the pattern. The sphinx at the top holds a sword, the symbol of clarity and decisive action. The message: you can ride the turn if you see it coming.
In the Thoth deck, Aleister Crowley replaced the four figures with the alchemical symbols of the four elements: the sulfur of fire, the salt of earth, the mercury of air, and the azoth of spirit. The wheel itself becomes a three-ringed structure: the outer ring of the zodiac, the middle ring of the alchemical elements, and the inner ring of the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton. Crowley’s Wheel is not about luck. It is about the machinery of creation.
What the Wheel of Misfortune Actually Means (and Why It Exists)
The Wheel of Misfortune inverts the meaning of its predecessor. Where the Wheel of Fortune signals an impersonal turn, the Wheel of Misfortune signals a personalized downturn. It is not the universe turning. It is a specific pattern of bad luck that repeats because of a cause: a curse, a karmic debt, a self-destructive habit, or an external interference.
Readers who use the card treat it as a diagnostic tool. It appears in a spread when the querent’s situation does not improve despite their efforts. The card asks: Is this random, or is something actively working against you?
The imagery differs from deck to deck. In the Dragon Tarot, the wheel is cracked and the figures are chained. In the Tarot of the Spirit, the wheel is upside down and the sphinx has fallen. In the Haindl Tarot, the card shows a broken circle with a single figure falling through empty space.
The card is not inherently negative. It is a warning that the current cycle cannot be broken by waiting. Action is required. The nature of that action depends on the cause: uncrossing work for a curse, shadow integration for a self-sabotage pattern, or simply a change in strategy for a practical problem.
How the Two Cards Compare in Practice
A reader who uses both cards treats them as complementary opposites. The Wheel of Fortune describes the fact of cycles. The Wheel of Misfortune describes a broken cycle.
Consider a reading about a job loss. The Wheel of Fortune suggests the loss was part of a larger economic shift, a company restructuring, a market downturn. The querent did nothing wrong. The wheel turned. The advice is to wait for the next turn.
The Wheel of Misfortune suggests the loss was caused by something specific: a rival’s sabotage, a pattern of self-sabotage in the querent’s own behavior, or a misalignment between the querent’s skills and the job’s demands. The advice is to identify the cause and address it directly.
In practice, most readers never use the Wheel of Misfortune. It is a niche card, found in perhaps one deck out of fifty. The Wheel of Fortune appears in every standard deck. The difference in frequency reflects the difference in function: the Wheel of Fortune describes a universal condition, while the Wheel of Misfortune describes a specific pathology.
Common Misconceptions
The Wheel of Misfortune is an ancient card. It is not. It dates to the 1970s at the earliest. No historical tarot deck includes it.
The Wheel of Fortune means good luck. It does not. It means change. The change can be positive, negative, or neutral. The card’s position in the spread and the surrounding cards determine the valence.
The Wheel of Misfortune is the same as the Wheel of Fortune reversed. It is not. Reversed cards in tarot indicate blocked or internalized energy. The Wheel of Fortune reversed suggests resistance to change, a stalled cycle, or a refusal to let go. The Wheel of Misfortune is a separate card with its own meaning.
You can use the Wheel of Misfortune to curse someone. Some practitioners do use it in baneful magic, but this is a modern innovation with no historical precedent. The card was designed for diagnosis, not attack.
FAQ
Is the Wheel of Misfortune in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck? No. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck contains only the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel of Misfortune appears in a small number of modern decks designed for shadow work.
Can I use the Wheel of Misfortune in a standard tarot reading? Only if your deck includes it. If you are using a traditional deck, the Wheel of Fortune covers the same territory. The Wheel of Misfortune is not a substitute.
What decks include the Wheel of Misfortune? The Dragon Tarot, the Haindl Tarot, and the Tarot of the Spirit are the most common. A handful of independent decks also include it.
Does the Wheel of Misfortune mean I am cursed? Not necessarily. It can indicate a curse, but it can also indicate a self-sabotage pattern, a karmic debt, or a practical problem that requires a different approach.
The Difference Is One of Scope
The Wheel of Fortune describes the architecture of fate. It is the machine that turns, indifferent to who rides it. The Wheel of Misfortune describes a specific malfunction in that machine, a stuck gear, a broken spoke, a weight that should not be there.
One is a law of physics. The other is a diagnostic.
For a deeper look at how the Major Arcana structures the tarot’s narrative, see our guide to the Major Arcana. To understand how the Wheel of Fortune interacts with other cards of fate and destiny, read our glossary entry on fate symbols. And for the full context of how tarot cards evolved from playing cards to occult tools, visit the tarot hub.