In twenty years of working with my grandmother’s old Rider-Waite deck, I’ve seen the Wheel show up more times than I can count. Traditionally, that card isn’t really about blind luck. It’s about cycles, external forces, and the parts of life we just can’t steer. When I pull it, I usually tell the querent to breathe and stop trying to control the uncontrollable. And yet, we humans have this built-in habit of connecting dots that aren’t actually connected. Psychologists call it apophenia—our brain’s stubborn need to find patterns in noise. Carl Jung took a different route with his concept of synchronicity, suggesting that meaningful coincidences aren’t just random. I lean toward Jung’s view when I’m reading cards, but I’ll be honest: a lot of what we call “divine timing” is just probability wearing a halo.

I remember doing a spread for my neighbor, Clara, back in ’18. She kept drawing the Wheel and the Six of Swords after her husband lost his job. I told her it was a transition card, not a guarantee of a miracle. She left convinced I was predicting a sudden windfall. When he eventually found a modest position six months later, she texted me: “The wheel worked!” It did, in a way. But it wasn’t magic. It was persistence, a little bit of luck, and her brain highlighting the good outcome while filtering out the grind.

I don’t know if there’s a grand cosmic design steering every flat tire or scratch-off win. What I do know is that the Wheel reminds us to stop gripping the steering wheel so tight. Sometimes it’s fate. Sometimes it’s just Tuesday. Either way, I still keep my grandmother’s deck on the windowsill. It helps me sit with the uncertainty, and that’s been worth more than any prediction.

How do y’all handle the Wheel when it shows up? Do you treat it as a literal sign, or more of a mirror?