My Wheel of Fortune


"The Wheel of Fate forever turns. Sometimes you are the temple maiden awaiting your next patron, other times you're the ram having his liver ripped out to be read in divination. It is only when you are atop the wheel are you in balance. The only constant in life is the bearing of the wheel; your central Self, the Inner Eye, your soul. The beings around you await to help or devour you; their blank books waiting to have your fate written in them, all hinges upon your next move (or reaction to the next event)." 

For the Wheel of Fortune I took inspiration off of three sources: Tarot de Marseille, Rider-Waite-Smith, and the Sumerian deities I work with.

To the Marseille it was akin to a torture rack where a person is either raising, balanced, or crushed by the cycles of life. RWS has it more esoteric and balanced where things are ready for you to make a move and create your future. So I blended the two.


My elements: In Sumerian lore the closest to The Wheel of Fortune is the Tablets of Destiny (the person who holds these tablets and the knowledge in them, controls Fate) so I had to work in elements that were similar to the other decks.

- The Wheel: The wheel is actually the Babylonian solar wheel devoted to Ba'al Shamash, the sun god who is the divination god.
- T-A-R-O: I did include this as it is an important part of most of the decks
- بعل شمش: This is the name of the Sumerian divination deity. I put this in the center where YHVH usually is. The solar wheel is also his symbol.
- Ram: The priests would ask Shamash for guidance and divine the answer within the livers of sacrificed sheep. So I added in the ram as another nod to the divination deity as well as showing life may not be sunshine all the time.
- Lahmu and Lahamu: The elemental silt twins, first children of Ama-Tiamat and Abzu. They reach up from the blood of the holy mother (in the formation of the Universe part of Ama-Tiamat became the Earth and our ocean is her blood) to form a caduceus at the bottom of the wheel. This shows healing within the ocean and earth.
- In place of the Ezekiel animals I have used a few of my deities who are closest to the beings represented and I drew them in the style of the animals instead of their descriptions. From the top left going clock-wise: Ušumgallu (humanoid form), Ūmu Dabrūtu (the phoenix form), Mušuššu, and Kusarikku. The various elements are represented with the image and deities including the extra elements from my religion (Void/Darkness).

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