This article continues my series examining the trumps of the Tarot de Marseille, adapted from my unpublished manuscript, Tarot de Marseille: The Picturebook of Fate. As throughout this series, the emphasis is placed upon the traditional eikōn of the card, its historical context, and the practical significations I have found useful through divinatory practice. The interpretations presented here reflect my own experience of working with the Tarot de Marseille and should be understood as a working method rather than a definitive authority.
The Ones: The Juggler, the Wheel of Fortune and the Sun
Trump XVIIII, Le Soleil, or the Sun, is one of the most beneficent trumps in the Marseille Tarot, yet its significance is often reduced to little more than success or happiness. Whilst it certainly promises both, the card possesses a depth that is easily overlooked. Why should it signify children and pregnancy? Does it merely indicate favourable circumstances, or does it promise something more substantial? The Sun speaks not simply of success, but of the conditions which make success possible.
The essence of the Sun is illumination; its function is warming. Illumination reveals what was previously hidden, bringing clarity, understanding, and certainty. Warming animates and nourishes. It encourages growth, vitality, and development. Together, these two principles make the Sun a card of openness, life, and constructive progress.
The traditional eikōn of the Sun depicts two figures, often interpreted as children, standing beneath a radiant sun whose benevolent rays descend upon them. Behind them there is frequently a wall, suggesting enclosure and protection, whilst also hinting at the cultivated space of a garden. Unlike the uncertain and mutable world of the Wheel of Fortune, the environment of the Sun appears safe, ordered, and life-giving.
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Particularly striking is the relationship between the two figures. They stand together as equals. They are similarly dressed and embrace one another without any obvious distinction of rank or status. Their relationship is characterised by mutuality rather than hierarchy. For this reason, the Sun is one of the most favourable cards for relationships. It promises warmth, openness, sincerity, and mutual respect. Difficulties may still exist, but they are illuminated rather than concealed. People speak plainly, trust one another, and work together towards common aims. For those concerned with love and partnership, it is an encouraging sight.
The association with children follows naturally from the imagery. The youthful figures, the enclosed and protected setting, and the life-giving power of the Sun itself all point towards fertility, growth, and generation. Consequently, the card frequently appears in matters concerning pregnancy, childbirth, children, and family life. More generally, it signifies the successful development of something that has been carefully nurtured.
The Sun is also a card of vitality, confidence, and constructive energy. It supplies the warmth required for growth and the light required for clear action. When it appears, it often indicates that the querent possesses, or will soon possess, the resources needed to achieve their aims. Obstacles may remain, and effort is still required, but the conditions are favourable. In this respect, the Sun can indeed be a harbinger of good fortune, though not in the capricious manner of Fortuna’s wheel. Rather, it promises the steady and life-giving influence that allows people, relationships, and enterprises to flourish. However difficult matters may presently appear, the Sun assures us that a brighter horizon lies ahead.
General: The beginning of a period of progress and development. The energy, vitality, and favourable circumstances required for success. Clarity, truth, confidence, and the ability to see matters plainly. Illumination dispels confusion and brings certainty.
Love: The beginning of a new love affair or the reconciliation of estranged partners. Relationships characterised by genuine affection, mutual respect, openness, and trust. The card favours the creation of a home and family, and is strongly associated with faithfulness, fidelity, and long-term happiness.
Career: The Sun often signifies prominence, seniority, recognition, or public acclaim rather than a particular profession. When occupationally descriptive, it frequently points towards work involving children, education, childcare, or youth services. The card promises success in job searches and suggests that opportunities for advancement, promotion, and achievement are available.
Finance: A favourable card promising financial growth, security, and prosperity. Efforts are rewarded and opportunities for advancement are available. The card often indicates a period of stability and confidence.
Health: The Sun is the principal card of vitality, vigour, and recovery. It generally indicates robust health and a strong constitution. Anatomically, it is associated with the eyes and the central nervous system. As a card of fertility, pregnancy, and healthy development, it may also signify common conditions and concerns associated with pregnancy.
Essence: Illumination. Function: Warming. Polarity: Positive. Astrological Association: The Sun. Timing: Sunday. Within a year.
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Tarot Cards: Jean Dodal Tarot via Wikipedia Commons. Public Domain.
This article continues my series examining the trumps of the Tarot de Marseille, adapted from my unpublished manuscript, Tarot de Marseille: The Picturebook of Fate. As throughout this series, the emphasis is placed upon the traditional eikōn of the card, its historical context, and the practical significations I have found useful through divinatory practice. The interpretations presented here reflect my own experience of working with the Tarot de Marseille and should be understood as a working method rather than a definitive authority.
The Ones: The Juggler, the Wheel of Fortune and the Sun
Trump X, La Roue de Fortune, or the Wheel of Fortune, is a fascinating yet often overlooked trump. Is it a symbol of chance? Does it speak of luck, whether good or ill? Or does it simply refer to change itself? Like many of the Marseille trumps, the Wheel resists simplistic interpretation. It does not merely describe movement, but a particular kind of movement: cyclical, repetitive, and ultimately beyond our control.
The essence of the Wheel of Fortune is rotation; its function is to pivot. These two principles encapsulate the card’s operation within a reading. Rotation is the perpetual turning of circumstances, whilst pivot is the point at which one condition gives way to another. Nothing remains fixed. Positions alter, fortunes rise and fall, and situations develop according to forces that often lie beyond the power of any individual to command.
The traditional eikōn of the Wheel of Fortune is a familiar one. We see a great wooden wheel upon which three creatures ride. One ascends, another descends, whilst the creature at the top wears a crown. The image was commonplace throughout medieval and early modern art. It expresses the ancient formula: regnabo, regno, regnavi — ‘I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned’. The crowned creature occupies the summit only temporarily, for Fortuna’s wheel never ceases its turning. Those who prosper today will eventually decline, whilst those below may in time be elevated. The card reminds us that the capricious turning of Fortune’s wheel is something against which we are largely impotent. Fallow times must follow times of plenty.
Many versions of the card also depict the wheel resting upon a wavy or uneven ground. This detail is easily overlooked, yet it serves an important purpose. The wheel stands upon uncertain foundations. Beneath all worldly affairs lies instability, unpredictability, and the possibility of sudden change. What appears secure today may prove transient tomorrow.
On a deeper level, the Wheel of Fortune signifies the sublunar sphere, the mutable realm of the physical world. It is the domain of generation and corruption, growth and decay, gain and loss. Here the four elements—fire, earth, air, and water—are in perpetual flux, endlessly combining, separating, and transforming. Nothing in this realm exists in a fixed state for long. Change is not an interruption of the natural order; it is the natural order.
For this reason, when the Wheel of Fortune appears in a reading, it often signifies the events and circumstances that have brought the querent to the cards. The accompanying cards describe the particular conditions, developments, and shifts that surround the matter at hand. These should not be confused with the underlying cause of events. In my system, the cause is revealed by Judgment, or the Angel card. The Wheel instead depicts the changing field of circumstances in which that cause manifests itself.
In practical divination, the Wheel of Fortune most commonly signifies circuitous change and repetition. Situations return, patterns recur, and familiar themes re-emerge in new forms. The card can indicate both favourable and unfavourable turns of fortune, although these qualities arise principally from the surrounding cards rather than from the Wheel itself. Fundamentally, the Wheel is neutral. It simply turns, raising some whilst lowering others, indifferent to both hope and fear. Its lesson is not luck, but change.
General: Circuitous change. Peaks and troughs, gain balanced by loss, and periods of advance followed by periods of decline. The card signifies the natural evolution of circumstances, recurring cycles, and the repetition of familiar patterns. Neither inherently fortunate nor unfortunate, it simply describes the turning of events.
Love: The Wheel of Fortune often signifies a relationship undergoing change as a result of external circumstances. A loss of employment, a relocation, financial pressures, illness, or altered family responsibilities may compel partners to adopt new roles and adjust established routines. Such changes can place a strain upon the relationship, particularly where one party struggles to adapt. In other cases, the card points towards monotony and recurring patterns which neither partner has yet addressed. For those who are single, the Wheel suggests that the present situation is likely to continue for the time being, although change is anticipated further down the road.
Career: The Wheel of Fortune is naturally associated with the gambling industry, but also with finance, investment, speculation, and the video games sector. It frequently appears in connection with seasonal employment, contract work, fixed-term appointments, and careers characterised by fluctuating fortunes. The card indicates changing circumstances rather than permanence.
Finance: Fluctuating income, changing financial circumstances, and cyclical patterns of gain and loss. The card may signify investments, speculation, gambling, or seasonal sources of income. Neither prosperity nor adversity should be assumed permanent.
Health: The Wheel of Fortune frequently points towards co-morbidity, whereby one or more conditions exist alongside a primary illness. With the Popess, it may indicate a condition concealed or masked by another. More generally, the card signifies illnesses characterised by cycles, periodic flare-ups, remission, recurrence, or seasonal variation.
Essence: Rotation. Function: Pivot. Polarity: Neutral. Astrological Association: Gemini. Timing: June. By the next equinox or solstice, whichever comes first.
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Tarot Cards: Jean Dodal Tarot via Wikipedia Commons. Public Domain.
Between 2014 and 2016, I completed a manuscript entitled Tarot de Marseille: The Picturebook of Fate. Although never formally published, it represented the culmination of several years of study, practice, and reflection upon the Marseille Tarot and its unique symbolic language. At its heart was a simple proposition: that the Tarot de Marseille is best understood not as a repository of occult secrets, but as a sophisticated visual system whose images communicate meaning through their eikōnes, historical context, and recurring themes. Like a religious icon, each card has been “written” and we can read it just as we would an icon.
Unlike my earlier work on Lenormand, which was designed primarily as a reference text, The Picturebook of Fate was structured more as a course of instruction. Theoretical discussions were balanced with practical exercises intended to cultivate observation, interpretation, and independent thought. Rather than simply presenting conclusions, the manuscript sought to teach readers how to arrive at those conclusions for themselves.
The work also approached the Tarot unapologetically as a tool of divination and fortune-telling rather than as a vehicle for self-help, personal growth, or spiritual development. Whilst such approaches undoubtedly have their advocates, they were not my concern. Instead, the focus was placed upon the practical questions that have historically brought people to the cards: work, relationships, family, finances, and the countless other affairs of ordinary life. To that end, the manuscript introduced methods and techniques designed to obtain clear and useful answers regarding the mundane world and its circumstances.
The articles collected in this series are drawn from that unpublished work. What follows is not the manuscript itself, but a selection of adapted material consisting primarily of the original introductions to the trumps together with the concise card summaries that appeared in an appendix. Whilst certain passages have been revised, expanded, or refined in the years since they were first written, the underlying approach remains unchanged.
Readers familiar with modern Tarot literature may also notice that the trumps are not presented in their numerical sequence. Not being a great admirer of the so-called Fool’s Journey, I made a deliberate decision to examine the cards in an order that I believed better suited the educational aims of the manuscript. In hindsight, that may not have been the wisest choice, and a more conventional sequence would perhaps have been easier to follow. Nevertheless, I have retained the original arrangement here, both for the sake of consistency and as a reflection of the work from which these essays are drawn.
Finally, I should emphasise that what follows reflects my own practice, experience, and understanding of the Tarot de Marseille. It is not intended as a commentary upon, criticism of, or correction to any other author’s work, nor does it seek to establish a definitive system of interpretation. Tarot has always accommodated a variety of approaches, many of which have proven valuable to their practitioners. The methods and significations presented here are simply those which I have found to be reliable and effective through use. They should therefore be understood not as the right way, nor necessarily the best way, but merely as one way of working with the cards that has served me well over the years.
The Ones: The Juggler, the Wheel of Fortune and the Sun
Trump I, Le Bateleur, or the Magician or Juggler, is an intriguing and at times capricious card. Is he a charlatan or a magus? Can he mediate between worlds? Is he a symbol of the self-employed man, the entrepreneur, or merely a gifted trickster making his living by ingenuity and deception? The card refuses to provide a simple answer. Like the figure himself, it encourages us to look closely whilst simultaneously warning us that what we see may not be the whole truth.
The traditional eikōn is that of a fairground performer. He stands behind a portable table upon which his balls, cups, and various implements are displayed. Everything about his appearance is designed to attract attention. He is dressed in gaudy and conspicuous clothing, ensuring that he will not be overlooked amidst the bustle of the marketplace. One arm is raised in a theatrical gesture, while the other attends to the objects before him. He performs not merely with his hands but with his entire person. His clothing, posture, and gestures are all part of the act.
The essence of the Juggler is cunning, whilst his function is misdirection. These two principles define both the card and the figure depicted upon it. The Juggler succeeds because he understands how attention works. He knows where people are inclined to look and, more importantly, how to ensure that they look precisely where he wishes. Every movement is calculated. Every gesture has a purpose. The audience believes itself to be observing closely, yet it is seeing only that portion of the performance which the Juggler permits it to see.
For this reason, the Marseille figure is no esoteric magus. There is nothing in the image which requires us to imagine a master of hidden mysteries or a mediator between celestial and terrestrial realms. Here we find a performer skilled in sleight of hand. His art lies not in commanding supernatural forces but in directing perception. His bright clothing arrests the eye, his gestures hold our attention, and his movements guide our gaze. Yet when we follow his lead, we discover that we have been following a path laid out for us in advance. We witness what he wishes us to witness and overlook what he wishes us to overlook.
This does not diminish his accomplishment. On the contrary, the Juggler is a master of his craft. He possesses dexterity, skill, experience, and confidence. He has practised his art until it appears effortless. Can he make the ball appear and disappear with a flourish of his wand? Our eyes insist that he can, for that is exactly what we seem to observe. Yet the question remains unresolved. Is the event magical or merely illusory? We cannot say with certainty. The uncomfortable reality embodied by the Juggler is that our senses are persuasive but not infallible. What appears self-evident may nevertheless conceal an altogether different truth.
The card also conveys a state of perpetual readiness. The Juggler’s table is portable, his tools are arranged before him, and everything necessary for the performance is close at hand. He is not a figure of contemplation or withdrawal. He is a man prepared to act. Wherever a crowd gathers, wherever an opportunity presents itself, he is ready to unpack his table and begin. In this respect, the Juggler represents alertness, adaptability, and opportunism. He does not wait for favourable circumstances to arrive; he is prepared to make use of whatever circumstances come his way. His tools are ready, his wits are sharp, and he stands poised to turn possibility into action.
General: Success obtained through the careful manipulation of circumstances or events. Advancement through the meeting of preparation and opportunity. Control of conditions. Resourcefulness, initiative, adaptability, self-reliance, and the intelligent use of one’s skills.
Love: A person versed in the art of seduction; charming, persuasive, and adept at capturing both attention and affection. Attraction may develop swiftly and is often accompanied by an element of performance or game-playing. In an existing relationship, the Juggler frequently describes a partner who is rich in promises yet less dependable when action is required. The card invites us to ask whether we are seeing the person as they truly are, or merely as they wish to be seen. Equally, it raises an uncomfortable question: if we are being told precisely what we wish to hear, can we complain when we choose to believe it? At its best, the card denotes wit, charm, and romantic initiative; at its worst, manipulation and empty promises. The distinction between promise and fulfilment is paramount.
Career: The Juggler frequently points towards self-employment, consultancy, freelance work, or entrepreneurial ventures. Other associations include entertainment, media, advertising, sales, technology, and any profession requiring dexterity, communication, or the skilful presentation of ideas. Opportunities are available, but success depends upon the querent’s willingness to seize them. Carpe diem.
Finance: Opportunities to increase income through initiative, self-employment, or a secondary source of revenue. Success comes through ingenuity and acting quickly when opportunities arise. Caution is advised against schemes that appear too good to be true.
Health: Primary headache disorders, particularly migraines. To a lesser extent, conditions affecting the hands and fingers, including carpal tunnel syndrome, Raynaud’s phenomenon, Dupuytren’s disease, tremors, cramps, and muscular spasms. More generally, the card may point towards issues requiring dexterity, coordination, or fine motor control.
Essence: Cunning. Function: Misdirection. Polarity: Neutral. Astrological Association: Mercury. Timing: Wednesday. Within three months.
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Tarot Cards: Jean Dodal Tarot via Wikipedia Commons. Public Domain.
Whilst this article reflects my own interpretations and experience of working with the cards, the principle sources and references that informed its development and the text are provided below for the interested reader.
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Journal of a Cartomante 