Shadowscapes Tarot - The Wheel of Fortune X

Yet another gorgeous card in this deck. It's taken me awhile to have any understanding of this card beyond its obvious beauty. What I now see is that the stone wall behind the wheel has cracks in it, as if to show the passage of time. There is a round window showing a crescent moon, again implying the passage of time, and of cycles. A beautiful flower blooms underneath the wheel, but there are also buds on it, showing the seasons of bloom. Meanwhile, an inset has what appears to be honeysuckle buds, and there are white flowers on the bottom. A little fairie/pixie/sprit sits on the central flower contemplating a skull. Lots of little beings fly around the wheel and the flower. I don't immediately see the typical turning wheel with people falling off it, but I get a greater sense of age and time passing in this card than in many Wheel cards.

Old walls, new flowers, timeless fairies, all combine to tell a powerful tale.

The wheel is a beautiful stained-glass window that almost looks like a clock. The Shadowscapes Companion book reminds us that the the wheel's golden thread of celtic knotwork is a single unbroken line, an endless loop.

The knotwork has a sevenfold pattern, but it's not a symmetrical mandala. Each of the seven lobes points the same direction around the wheel, telling us that time has a directional bias: past is different from future.

This Wheel seems to speak more of the cycles of time, less of the idea of Fates weaving our destiny.

Blue flower petals fly through the air, almost like tears. It's hard to consider the passage of time, both past and future, without some sadness.

The cracks in the wall are repaired with squares of different sizes in what looks like a fractal pattern. Squares are so rare in this deck that they must be here intentionally, but I'm not sure what to make of them, except to note the irony that the squares appear on the "Wheel" card.

Squares & Circles

Squares tend to resonate with the number four as they have four sides and four points. -A symbol of foundations, rules, rigidity, structure. Squares box things in or out. This represents society, rules, norms, ect.

Circles tend to represent infinity, cycles, nature, etc. As they have no points; there is no definative beginning or end.

Both shapes resonate deeply with the meaning of the card. -Stephanie states on her website*:

The Wheel of Fortune - Destiny, the weaving of life's threads coming together, fate, turning points, movement and change, patterns and cycles, an interconnected world.

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*http://shadowscapes.com/Tarot/cards.php?suit=0&card=10

What do you guys think the fairy holding the skull mean?

Dara said:

What do you guys think the fairy holding the skull mean?

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Maybe a link with our ancestors? The idea of the wheel continuing to turn, cycles recurring, learning from those who have come before? Or the cycle of death / rebirth.

Dara said:

What do you guys think the fairy holding the skull mean?

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only one thing "to be or not to be? that is the question" ..
right now my brain is overworked and i can't make too many connections.

skulls are usually associated with death: that that is born, must one day die - this is the cycle of life. everything has stages through their life.
the faes in this card make me think of a time of innocence. especially the ones at the bottom.

what i don't understand is: why is there a ray of light coming down only on the right side, but not the left? and why only few faes follow the light at the top, while at the bottom they seem to take it for granted?