I admire the Fool’s Journey, which is a broad way of envisioning the “standard” order of the major arcana. You’ve likely encountered this concept if you’ve been playing with tarot a while: the Fool, as card zero, is the traveler who experiences the rest of the cards. And this happens sequentially; starting with the Magician, and culminating with the World.
I made this video several years ago describing my thoughts on the Fool’s Journey in detail. And here’s an even older post (from 11 years ago, my lord) where I explore the same topic. Suffice it to say I do find the typical order of the major arcana satisfying.
BUT!
In her wonderful book Forest of Souls, Rachel Pollack points out this numbered pattern is only one way to consider the majors. She writes:
The sequence has always been a matter of some question. Some very early decks do not follow the order that became fixed in the Tarots of Marseille. The very earliest cards known to us display no numbers at all on them. There is even some question as to whether there were always twenty-two cards. As the occult tradition flourished, people began to argue over the correct sequence…
One thing that unites all of these switches, however, is the insistence on a good reason… people argue, often vociferously, for these changes. Their new order, they will say, explains everything…
Few people have considered that we might scrap the entire sequence, just for the sake of doing so, just to see what happens if we gamble.
So today, we gamble.
Rachel goes on to explain that you can approach this in several different ways. Of course, you could take the 22 majors and shuffle them up and lay them out exactly how they come. As the Fool is the ‘theme’ card in the standard ordering, the first card you pull could then serve as the theme card for this new arrangement. As an example, Rachel suggests that if the High Priestess came out as the first card, you might view the major arcana as “the High Priestess’ Meditation” instead of the Fool’s Journey.
Or, Rachel says you can bring more intention into this by consciously selecting your theme card, before shuffling and laying out the remaining cards. This is the approach I’m going to try today. Since (at least in the TRADITIONAL numerology!) this is a Wheel of Fortune year, I’ll use the Wheel of Fortune as my theme card and lay out the rest at random.
Another wise tidbit Rachel suggests here: “as Jazz musicians have long known, even the freest improvisations work better with a structure. To aid our interpretations we can follow any of the patterns first discovered in the traditional order… We might look at the Tree of Life, for instance, or we might use different myths and stories as guidelines… my own favorite structure for the major arcana sets the Fool aside, as the focus card, and then lays out the rest in three rows of seven.”
The “three rows of seven” is also one of MY favorite ways to view the majors, so let’s try that now, with the Wheel of Fortune as our theme and the rest of the cards arriving at random.
I’m calling my new sequence the Turning Journey, because that’s what came to me. And here’s an explanation of this sequence, straight from my gut intuition.
The Wheel of Fortune is our protagonist. Not a direct avatar for a human like the Fool, but an avatar for the very concept of change. Because what else is constant in life but change? The Universe itself is always turning, sometimes even churning. Matter transforms. Nothing stays the same.
As humans, we crave some sense of stability. And for a few lucky moments, we may be able to experience ourselves as the center point of the Wheel. Not evading change, but rolling with it, and managing to stay somewhat centered and present for the journey.
The Tower is card one. Right off the bat we are thrust into the churning. The peace of the womb is replaced with the flashing lights and chaos of the outer world. And even beyond that, the peace of existing as a limitless, formless energy is replaced with the chaos of human consciousness. Welcome, you’re on a rock hurling through space.
The Hierophant is card two. We realize that we didn’t emerge from nowhere. We are a part of a long line of human traditions. Some we enjoy, they support us. Others are baffling and don’t fit our true nature. Even as a young child we are figuring out what our true nature is, verses what others tell us it should be.
Judgement is card three. If we are lucky, we experience moments of The Pure Joy of Being Alive. But sadly, many of us also learn that it is not safe to experience this joy. We may be literally judged or harmed simply for embracing our existence. But still, something within us knows that it is our birthright to feel Free and Alive!
The Star is card four. Here we tap into a deep creative well. Again, if we are lucky, we are still uninhibited (the nakedness on this card and Judgement). We feel safe exploring creativity, exploring the world around us and our inner realm as well. The chaos of the Tower - our entry into this existence - still ripples around us. But we are discovering how to play with it. Which leads into…
The Empress as card five. Changes, the turning journey continues. We question where we belong. What brings us nourishment? How comfortable do we feel embodying the identity we’ve started to create as we mature and grow? What parts of ourselves are acceptable and what parts must now be hidden away with a long cloak?
The Moon is card six. Things that once felt simple might suddenly feel complex. In a metaphoric sense, this could represent puberty. Our body is literally changing. Our worldview is changing. Things that we were taught way back with the Hierophant may no longer be satisfying. Old answers can’t bring us down this new path. And then…
The Magician is card seven, the culmination of this first row. We realize that in order to thrive in this life, we have to be able to define ourselves for ourselves. In a metaphoric sense, this can be the teenage or young adult years. On the plus side, we crave to embrace our unique magic. On the negative side, we can be a bit selfish, or a bit rigid in how we define ourselves at this point in the journey. Again, instead of embracing the theme of turning, we want to find a solid and consistent identity, but we haven’t yet learned that this isn’t the way of this path…
And now we reach row two. The Hermit sets off this new chapter. The boldness of the Magician is replaced with something quieter. Instead of putting on a big show about who we are, we are now learning to radiate our truth from the inside out. New questions emerge, and instead of the old urgency to find a firm answer we are willing now to give the questions space to unfold at their own pace, and answers to do the same.
The Chariot is card nine, and brings a resurgence of some of the Magician’s energy. At this point, we may have more of a specific idea of what we want to do with our “one wild and precious life” and we are willing to make a real go of it.
With Justice as card ten, we balance the energy of the Chariot with an ability to give every new experience a fair shot. Instead of blasting rigidly ahead, we embrace side quests. At this point in the Turning Journey, we are truly able to suspend pre-existing ideas and let life surprise us. And that brings us to…
Card eleven, the Fool. We now have both a conscious and spiritual understanding that we are really just “meat puppets on a floating rock.” We learn to take everything seriously, and nothing seriously at all. We embrace whimsy. We realize that no path is the wrong path. Wherever we are in life - if it’s where we planned to be or somewhere entirely different - there’s joy to be found.
And this is followed by the Hanged Man, where we continue the letting go of past expectations. In this phase of the turning journey, we realize that while change can sometimes suck, it can also bring necessary new vantage points. But then…
The Devil. Yikes. Just when we thought we’ve figured a few things out, life throws new curve balls. Things get hard. Old patterns we thought we overcame rear their ugly heads. Past hurts ripple up and impact the present. We’re reminded that we started this journey with the Tower. We have to face one of the hardest lessons on the churning journey: life is painful.
Now the final card of this second row is the High Priestess. We experience that sometimes the pain of the previous card can be transformed. It cannot always be dissolved, but sometimes it can be integrated into our being in such a way that it offers wisdom. This is an important part of the Turning Journey because we learn that only our deepest intuition can define what any given situation in our life means, especially the painful situations.
Entering row three we find Temperance. This truly shows a new phase of spiritual maturity as we embrace the turning journey. Here, we are that metaphoric center of the wheel. Balancing both the pain and whimsy of existing in a constant state of flux.
Death is card sixteen and challenges us to take a philosophical acceptance of change into our real world challenges. People literally die. We get sick. We get ghosted by people we thought we loved. Ironically, here we learn to give ourselves grace when change is hard. Change IS hard, and that’s okay. We don’t have to like it, but we have no choice but to accept it.
We reach the Lovers next. This amplifies one of the themes of the previous card: giving ourselves grace when change is hard. Finding companionship with people who get it. Regrowing things that have been torn down. Learning to once again be vulnerable (nudity) in a universe that sometimes feels cold and uncaring. Insisting, once again, on our birthright to give and receive love no matter how excruciatingly hard things get.
The Emperor reconnects us with our ability to inhabit the steady center of the wheel. Just as he sits firmly on his throne, we realize that we have survived everything life has thrown at us so far. Our wisdom and experience has been hard won, and it is more solid now than ever.
Card nineteen is the Sun - here, just like it is in the standard sequence! We return to the whimsy we embraced in the Fool but with a new level of enlightenment. We see so clearly that life is both pain AND joy. More than ever, we are energetically open to the whole spectrum of the Turning Journey.
We reach Strength and with all that we’ve learned and experienced, we can now embrace ourselves and others with exquisite kindness. We are able to look directly at chaos, pain and discomfort without losing our sense of self or succumbing to despair. And we are able to hold this space for other people as they navigate their own Turning Journeys.
And just as it is in the standard sequence, the final card is the World. Which I’m secretly happy about because I love the World as the culmination of the Major Arcana. And it is satisfactory here in our Wheel of Fortune themed journey to finish with another card showing a circular motif.
We are now fully aware of where we can and cannot influence change. We have full autonomy over when we show up with vulnerability, and when we protect ourselves (partially clothed). We take the self-declaration we experienced with the Magician but channel it in a softer way. We know who we are NOW, we know what we believe about life and the universe and the psyche NOW… but we are open to let all of that continuously turn.
I’ll close this out with an invitation for you to try this for yourself. Pick a theme card that speaks to you, or leave it completely to chance. And if you do create your own new major arcana ordering, let me know how it goes 🌀
Carrie
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