Read Tarot78 Cards, Your Message← Back to Home
📖 Table of Contents

Wheel of Fortune and The Devil: Cycles of Bondage

Quick Answer: Yes — but only if you're willing to see the chains you've been carrying. This combination tends to appear when you've started noticing a pattern: the wheel turns, circumstances change, but somehow you keep landing in the same place. If that recognition feels uncomfortable but also true, these cards are confirming what you already suspect. The cycle isn't just fate — part of it is yours to break.

At a Glance

Aspect Meaning
Core Theme Cycles of bondage and liberation
Energy Dynamic Tension revealing hidden patterns
Love Relationships caught in repeating cycles, or the opportunity to break free from karmic patterns
Career Professional changes influenced by attachments, or the chance to recognize what's keeping you stuck
Yes or No Examine what binds you before deciding

The Core Dynamic

The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil create a profound dialogue about the nature of cycles and the chains that keep us spinning through the same experiences without ever truly moving forward. This pairing doesn't simply combine change (Wheel) with bondage (Devil)—it reveals something more unsettling: the way our attachments shape which part of the wheel we inhabit.

The Wheel of Fortune represents the great cycles of existence—fate, karma, the rise and fall that no one escapes. It shows figures ascending and descending around an eternal turning, suggesting that what rises must fall and what falls will rise again. There's something almost impersonal about the Wheel; it turns regardless of our preferences, carrying us through phases of fortune and misfortune according to patterns larger than individual will.

The Devil, by contrast, represents intensely personal bondage. The chains around the figures on this card are loose enough to remove—they stay bound by choice, even if that choice has become unconscious. Material attachment, addiction, the seductive comfort of familiar limitations: these are chains we forge ourselves and often mistake for necessity.

When these cards appear together, they illuminate a specific paradox: the wheel turns, but some people keep landing in the same place. Fortune shifts, circumstances change, the external world transforms—yet certain patterns persist because the chains we wear follow us through every turn of the cycle.

"This combination often appears when you sense that something should have changed by now—the circumstances are different, but you're having the same experience again."

Consider someone who leaves one controlling relationship only to find themselves in another, or who changes jobs repeatedly but always ends up in the same dysfunctional dynamic with authority. The Wheel has turned; externally, everything is different. Yet the same bondage recreates itself because it was never about the external circumstances—it was about what the person carried within them from spin to spin.

This combination also speaks to the question of fate versus free will in a nuanced way. The Wheel suggests that certain cycles are indeed beyond our control—we cannot prevent the turning, cannot stop fortune from shifting. But The Devil suggests that within those inevitable cycles, we have more agency than we often acknowledge. We may not choose when the wheel turns or what it brings, but we choose what we cling to, and those attachments determine our experience of the ride.

The integration this pairing offers is liberation through awareness. When you can see the patterns that have followed you through cycle after cycle—the attachments, the fears, the comfortable chains—you begin to ride the Wheel differently. Not controlling its turning, but no longer dragged behind it by bonds you've mistaken for safety.

The key question this combination asks: What are you carrying through every turn of the wheel that keeps you landing in the same place?

When This Combination Commonly Appears

You might see these cards together when:

  • A new relationship is starting to feel disturbingly like the old one, despite promising yourself this time would be different
  • You've changed jobs, cities, or social circles, but the same conflicts keep finding you
  • Someone points out a pattern you've dismissed as coincidence or bad luck
  • You're in recovery or therapy and starting to see how certain attachments keep pulling you back
  • Fortune has genuinely turned in your favor, but something in you resists moving through the open door

The pattern looks like this: The wheel has already turned — externally, things are different. But internally, you're carrying something that recreates the same experience. These cards appear not to punish you for the pattern, but to show you where the chain is attached so you can finally remove it.

Both Upright

When both The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil appear upright, you're being shown the full dynamic of cycles and bondage without distortion. This is clear sight: here are the patterns, here are the chains, and here is the possibility of a different relationship to both.

This configuration suggests a moment of potential breakthrough. The Wheel upright indicates that change is genuinely available—fortune is turning, circumstances are shifting, the cycle is in motion. The Devil upright shows the attachments clearly, without disguise or denial. You can see what has followed you through previous turns of the wheel. The question is whether you'll carry it through this one as well.

Love & Relationships

Single: This combination may appear when you're recognizing patterns in your romantic history that fortune's shifting hasn't managed to disrupt. Perhaps you've had multiple relationships, each beginning with hope that "this time will be different," yet each eventually revealing the same dynamics. The Wheel has turned repeatedly; your circumstances have changed. But something you're attached to—a type of partner, a dynamic, a fear, a need—keeps recreating the same experience. This isn't about blame; it's about awareness. Seeing the pattern clearly is the first step toward riding the next turn of the wheel into genuinely different territory.

In a relationship: Existing partnerships may be confronting cyclic patterns that have repeated despite attempts to change. Perhaps you've had the same argument dozens of times, the same rupture and repair, the same promise and disappointment. The Wheel turns within the relationship—situations change, circumstances evolve—but certain dynamics persist because of what one or both partners remain attached to. This combination invites examination of what each person is clinging to that keeps recreating the pattern: fear of abandonment, need for control, attachment to being right, terror of genuine vulnerability. Seeing these chains clearly opens the possibility of actually removing them.

Career & Work

Job seekers: Opportunities arising now may test whether you've genuinely released old professional patterns or are carrying them forward. Perhaps previous positions ended due to conflicts with authority, burnout from overwork, or dissatisfaction that seemed rooted in circumstances but may have deeper origins. The Wheel offers a new turn—different company, different role, different setting. The Devil asks what you're bringing with you that might recreate familiar problems. This isn't reason to refuse opportunities but to enter them consciously, aware of your own tendencies and prepared to make different choices when old patterns try to reassert themselves.

Employed/Business: Professional situations may be revealing cyclic patterns within your work life. Perhaps you keep recreating the same dynamic with colleagues, the same boom-bust cycle in business, the same crisis-resolution-crisis rhythm. The Wheel's turning is visible in changing circumstances—new projects, new team members, new market conditions—but something persists through these changes that produces familiar results. This combination invites examination of your professional attachments: to status, to control, to being indispensable, to the drama of crisis management. What would your work life look like if you weren't dragging these chains through every new circumstance?

Finances

Financial patterns may be particularly visible under this combination. Many people experience cyclic relationships with money—feast and famine, accumulation and loss, the same amount somehow always remaining regardless of income changes. The Wheel reflects these external fluctuations; The Devil points to the attachments that maintain the pattern.

Examine your relationship with money at a level deeper than budgeting. What do you believe about wealth and scarcity? What emotions drive your spending or hoarding? What identity have you built around your financial status that unconsciously maintains it? The combination suggests that genuine financial transformation requires addressing these chains rather than simply waiting for the wheel to turn in your favor—because without that inner work, favorable turns often fail to produce lasting change.

What to Do

Map your patterns explicitly. Choose a domain—relationships, career, finances, health—and write out your history there, looking for repetition. What keeps happening despite changing circumstances? Then examine what you've carried through each iteration: beliefs, fears, attachments, ways of relating. This is The Devil's territory—not external circumstances but internal chains.

Once patterns are identified, the work becomes consciously different response. When the old dynamic begins to form, recognize it and choose differently. This requires vigilance; patterns are comfortable, and the chains are familiar. But The Wheel offers new circumstances, and you can choose to meet them without the old bondage. Each conscious choice weakens the pattern's hold.

In short, this combination isn't asking you to wait for better luck. It's asking you to see what you've been carrying through every turn of the wheel — and to set it down.

One Card Reversed

When one card is reversed in this pairing, the dynamic becomes asymmetric. Either the cycles are disrupted, or the bondage is hidden. Understanding which card is reversed clarifies the nature of the situation.

Wheel of Fortune Reversed + The Devil Upright

Here, the turning of fortune has stalled or reversed while bondage operates clearly. This often manifests as feeling stuck—not the natural pause that sometimes occurs between cycles, but genuine stagnation maintained by attachment.

The Wheel reversed can indicate resistance to change, bad luck, or cycles that have become blocked. When combined with The Devil upright, the blockage often has a clear source: you're clinging to something that prevents the wheel from turning. Perhaps you're so attached to a particular outcome that you're fighting fortune's natural movement. Perhaps fear of what change might bring keeps you anchored in circumstances that should have shifted.

This configuration also appears when external circumstances genuinely seem stuck while internal bondage flourishes. The job market isn't moving, the relationship isn't progressing, the situation isn't changing—and meanwhile, you're becoming more entrenched in patterns that don't serve you. The stalled wheel can feel like permission to surrender to The Devil's chains: "Nothing's changing anyway, so I might as well accept this."

Wheel of Fortune Upright + The Devil Reversed

In this configuration, cycles are turning normally, but the bondage is either releasing or hiding. The Devil reversed can indicate breaking free from chains—liberation, recovery, conscious release of attachment. When paired with the upright Wheel, this suggests you may be entering a new cycle without the old baggage, genuinely free to experience this turn differently.

However, The Devil reversed can also mean shadow material that's been suppressed rather than released. You might believe you've moved past old attachments while they actually operate unconsciously. The Wheel turns, new circumstances arrive, and you're surprised when familiar patterns somehow reassert themselves despite your certainty that you'd dealt with them. "I thought I was over that" is a common experience with The Devil reversed—the chains were hidden rather than removed.

Love & Relationships

With The Wheel reversed, romantic life may feel stagnant while unhealthy patterns continue. Perhaps you're stuck in a relationship that isn't progressing, or stuck outside relationships entirely, while attachment to certain dynamics prevents movement. The chains are clear; the opportunity for change seems blocked.

With The Devil reversed, relationships may be entering new phases without old constraints—or those constraints may be operating invisibly. If you've done genuine work on your patterns, the upright Wheel suggests circumstances that allow you to embody that growth. If the work has been superficial, new relationships may eventually reveal that the chains were hidden rather than removed.

Career & Work

With The Wheel reversed, professional situations may feel stalled while you remain attached to what's kept you stuck. Perhaps you're waiting for circumstances to change rather than examining what your clinging contributes to the stagnation. The combination suggests the blockage has an internal component that external patience alone won't resolve.

With The Devil reversed, career changes may proceed without old patterns—or those patterns may resurface unexpectedly. The Wheel's turning offers new opportunities; whether you can genuinely meet them differently depends on whether your liberation from professional bondage is complete or cosmetic.

What to Do

If The Wheel is reversed: Examine where you're resisting fortune's natural turning. What are you clinging to that keeps things stuck? The work involves loosening your grip—not forcing change, but ceasing to prevent it. Sometimes the wheel begins to move again simply when we stop holding it still.

If The Devil is reversed: Test whether your liberation is genuine or superficial. This means deliberately examining old patterns rather than assuming they're gone. When you enter new circumstances, watch for the familiar dynamics. If they're truly resolved, you'll be able to meet similar situations differently. If they've only been hidden, better to discover that now than after significant investment in a new cycle.

Both Reversed

When both The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil appear reversed, the combination expresses maximum complexity: cycles disrupted and bondage hidden or transforming. This can manifest as profound stuckness, deep confusion, or significant breakthrough—sometimes all three at once.

The most challenging expression involves stagnation without understanding. The wheel isn't turning, and you can't clearly see why. The attachments that might be holding things stuck are operating unconsciously, preventing both the movement of fortune and the awareness that would allow you to participate in freeing it. You may feel trapped in circumstances while unable to identify what traps you.

"When both cards reverse, you may be stuck in a cycle you can't see, bound by chains you've hidden from yourself."

However, both reversals can also indicate a profound transitional moment. The Wheel reversed sometimes means the old cycle has genuinely ended—not just paused, but completed, with its patterns fully played out. The Devil reversed can indicate bondage that's truly releasing, not just hiding. Together, these reversals might mark the breakdown of a pattern system: the wheel that was turning for so long has stopped, and the chains that kept you locked into your position on it are falling away.

Love & Relationships

Romantic patterns with both cards reversed often involve deep confusion about what's happening. If single, you may not understand why relationships aren't manifesting or why the same non-patterns keep not-happening. The stuckness has become invisible to you; the attachments preventing connection operate below awareness.

If partnered, the relationship may exist in a kind of suspended animation where neither movement nor bondage is clearly visible. You're not obviously stuck, but nothing's obviously progressing either. The patterns that might be operating are hard to identify because both the cycles and the chains have gone underground.

The potential for breakthrough is significant if you're willing to do deep work. When surface patterns have exhausted themselves and visible chains have been addressed, what remains are the subtler dynamics—the ones that have persisted precisely because they were hard to see. Uncovering these can release both the wheel and the bondage at once.

Career & Work

Professional life under both reversals typically feels murky. Neither the normal cycles of career development nor the obvious blocks to advancement are clearly operating. You might not be stuck in any obvious way but also not moving toward anything identifiable. Or you might be experiencing career stagnation that resists every attempted explanation.

This configuration sometimes appears during professional identity crises—when you've exhausted the old patterns of work but haven't yet discovered new ones. The wheel of your previous career approach has stopped, and the attachments that drove it are dissolving. What emerges may look very different from what came before.

Finances

Financial matters with both cards reversed require careful attention. Neither the normal cycles of money flow nor the attachments that might be blocking prosperity are clearly visible. You may experience financial confusion—not knowing why money behaves as it does in your life, unable to identify patterns that might exist.

This is not the time for significant financial decisions. The lack of clarity suggested by both reversals means your understanding of your financial situation and your relationship to money may be distorted in ways you can't currently perceive. Focus on basic stability while working to understand the deeper dynamics.

What to Do

When both cards reverse, the work is uncovering what's hidden. This requires gentleness with yourself; what's unconscious became unconscious for reasons, often protective ones. Consider therapy, deep journaling, or working with someone who can reflect patterns you might not see.

Start by questioning your certainties about why things are stuck or what you're attached to. If you're sure you understand the situation, that certainty itself might be worth examining. Both reversals often indicate that the visible explanations are incomplete—the real dynamics are deeper.

Avoid forcing movement on the external level. When the wheel is reversed and the chains are hidden, pushing forward often just drives old patterns more firmly into the unconscious. Instead, create space for insight. The circumstances may begin shifting naturally once you've seen what's actually been operating.

Yes or No Reading

Configuration Answer Reason
Both Upright Examine, then decide Movement is possible, but understand what you're carrying before choosing
One Reversed Unclear Either circumstances are blocked or motivations are hidden; clarify first
Both Reversed Wait Too much is operating invisibly; seek understanding before action

The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil together rarely give a simple answer because the combination asks you to examine the patterns you'd bring to whatever you're contemplating. Even favorable circumstances become problematic if you carry bondage through them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil mean in a love reading?

In love readings, this combination typically indicates cyclic patterns in romantic life that deserve examination. This might mean repeating the same relationship dynamics with different partners, or staying stuck in patterns within a single relationship despite the passage of time and supposed growth. The combination asks whether you're actually experiencing different relationships or the same relationship repeatedly with different faces.

For singles, this often points to attraction patterns that persist despite intention to change them—being drawn to the same type of unavailable, controlling, or otherwise problematic partners because of unexamined attachments. For couples, it may indicate dynamics that repeat despite attempts to address them—the same conflicts, the same patterns of connection and disconnection.

The liberating potential is significant. When you can see the chains you've carried through every turn of romantic fortune, you can begin to release them. The next relationship—or the next phase of your current one—doesn't have to recapitulate the old patterns.

Is The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil a positive combination?

This combination carries the potential for both profound stuckness and genuine liberation—the outcome depends largely on your willingness to examine uncomfortable truths. For someone ready to recognize their patterns and release their attachments, this pairing can mark the beginning of genuine freedom. For someone invested in believing that their recurring experiences are purely the result of fate or other people's behavior, the combination may feel frustrating and may indeed reflect ongoing bondage.

The Wheel suggests that change is built into existence—nothing stays the same forever. The Devil suggests that we can, through attachment, experience the same thing repeatedly despite the wheel's turning. Together, they offer the insight that liberation from repetitive cycles is possible, but requires conscious work with our own chains rather than waiting for fortune to somehow break them for us.

How does this combination relate to karma or fate?

This combination offers a nuanced view of fate and free will. The Wheel of Fortune represents the karmic or fateful dimension—cycles larger than individual will, patterns that seem to operate across lifetimes or generations, the sense that certain experiences are somehow destined. The Devil, however, introduces human agency into this cosmic picture.

The combination suggests that while we may not control the wheel's turning, we significantly influence our experience of it through what we cling to. Two people might pass through the same fortunate or unfortunate circumstances with completely different results based on their attachments. The "karma" that seems to repeat might be less about cosmic law and more about carrying the same chains through every new situation.

This view is ultimately liberating: you're not simply at the mercy of fate. The patterns that repeat in your life have roots in your own psychology, and those roots can be addressed. The wheel will keep turning regardless, but you can change what you bring to each rotation.

Wheel of Fortune with other cards:

The Devil with other cards:

Disclaimer: Tarot is a tool for self-reflection and personal insight. It does not predict the future or replace professional advice.