Before you know where you’re going, you have to know where you are.
How do we orient ourselves when the world is overwhelming and confusing, or we’re facing unfamiliar territory? We do so by pausing and evaluating our current position in relation to where we want to go.
January is the perfect time for this type of reflection. We have the whole year ahead of us, and a million paths to take. But before you set out on any journey, you pause and take some time to align yourself, be it with magnetic North, a goal or ambition, or your deeper sense of purpose. Now is the time to set the context for how you view and move through the coming months.
With the Wheel of Fortune as our card of the year, we can use its themes of cycles, change, and movement as a lens to view the months ahead. As the Wheel turns, we face highs and lows, periods of slowness and chaos. Calibration creates stability, helping us to make sense of what’s happening around us. When things feel difficult or like we’re fighting against the current, reorienting ourselves brings a clearer perspective and state of mind, so that we can then take action and move forward in meaningful ways.
The start of a cycle doesn’t always have to look like immediate movement. If you’re having a bit of a slow start to the year, don’t worry. Let yourself view this month as a time of orientation and not momentum.
I invite you to explore the slow, cyclical period of deep winter and the new year through the lens of the Wheel of Fortune. I’ll be using my Forager’s Daughter Tarot as a guide, because it was specifically designed to be sat with deliberately, to take in the details and quietly dig through layers of meaning.
There is a sense of suspension in this card, a reminder that cycles don't always announce themselves through sudden change. In winter especially, the Wheel may feel almost still. The emphasis right now isn't on dramatic upheaval, but on the quiet mechanics of motion. Like the natural world during this season, the turning happens whether we are watching it or not.
The Wheel as Structure
The Wheel, as a symbol, is a system of motion - constantly turning and comprised of individual, but equally important parts. These include:
The Hub: what remains stationary and steady, regardless of speed or direction. This is what we can return to time and time again to ground, center, and focus.
The Spokes: pieces that radiate outward, connecting the center to the outer. We can view these as forms of expression, directed energy, and action.
The Rim: The outermost part, directly tied to the context of the environment the Wheel moves through. This can be thought of as the seasons and external circumstances. The rim reflects our lived experience.
My focus this month is the Hub as a starting point for the year and an opportunity for us to first find our current position, and then align with the direction we wish to go.
The idea of this still center was so important that it’s included as its own card in my Envoys & Artifacts Pathways Deck. The elements in The Witness (the eagle, the wheel hub, and peyote cactus) all speak to creating distance, allowing yourself to step back and see the larger picture with clarity. The insulated calm of the hub symbolizes this process.
With these ideas in mind, I’ve created a tarot spread that you can use now, but also return to periodically as a check-in. To make this spread even more adaptable, you can choose to focus on a specific card if you’re feeling drawn to one in particular.
Remember that returning to your center is a practice, and that these messages will change as the year unfolds.
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Winter Tracks image by Fridi Antrack on Unsplash