Submitted by Analogy on
“Inconstancy is my very essence; it is the game I never cease to play as I turn my wheel in its ever changing circle, filled with joy as I bring the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top.” – Fortuna, The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.
What goes around comes around, and what goes up must come down. These two proverbs are one and the same, if you consider them in view of the Wheel of Fortune; a mythical representation of the natural ebb and flow of mankind’s journey through time. The first statement implies ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’, and the second statement refers to the recurring rise and fall in power and/or civilizations.
Taken all together the phases of movement along the wheel can also be represented by the Four Living Creatures of Revelation. Each creature can be understood as a partial revolution that eventually leads humanity back into wholeness. They possess 6 wings each, which put us in mind of the Cherubim; i.e., the angels that guard the way back to the Garden of Eden.
Few in this day and age would give any serious credence to the acquiring of such wings, but for those who have the imagination for such things, we may discover there are 24 interposed virtues (elders) that give integrity and structure to the wheel, thus enabling man to embody the four creatures, so that we might be transformed back into our higher selves; whereas those who half-heartedly cling to the edges of the wheel are flung about and pressed under her wrath like grapes.
This turning wheel of life has come to be associated with the goddess Fortuna, or perhaps it is the other way around; either way, she sometimes appears merciful and at other times judgemental, depending on the perspective of the individual and where they happen to reside along the wheel, or so it seems.
For example, should one find their self crushed underneath her laborious toil, then such a frame of reference may be far removed from the rosy petals of paradise. Conversely, if we reach the summit of the turning wheel, we may realize that the pettiness of human nature has been largely fabricated. One commentator who allegedly rose above this samsaric enterprise has this to say about the whole ordeal:
“I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity, a futile grasping and chasing after the wind.” – Ecclesiastes 1:14
Nothing like waking up from a dream to realize all your precious goals & desires were nothing but absurd attempts at striving after nothingness. Now that would be a royal phantom pain in the arse, a digestive ‘worm that never dies’!
Watch the feminine principle turn completely out of proportion so that it becomes diametrically monstrous; in other words, let’s get a feel through art for what it means for the Wheel of Fortune (Fortuna) to go off the deep end.
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“The works of Fortune are not independent of Nature or the spinning and weaving together of the threads governed by Providence. All things flow from that world: and further factors are necessity and the benefit of the whole” – Marcus Aurelius
Jason Youngman
https://metaphysicaldiscourse.wordpress.com/2021/05/08/to-everything-turn/