The Fortune Wheel
Since 1975, contestants on Wheel of Fortune have been buying vowels and solving puzzles to win a variety of prizes, from trips and cars to even $1 million in cash. But when it comes to the hangman-style word game, taking home the big bucks is a lot harder than it looks on TV.
The Wheel of Fortune is generally an indicator of luck or destiny and it is a Major Arcana signifier of change. When the Wheel of Fortune appears upright in your Tarot reading big changes are coming. These changes should be for your greater good, but remember not all change is easy even if it’s leading you to your destiny! On the stage or in the studio, wheels can introduce improvisational or random elements into your music, art, writing, theatre, or improv comedy. Mix your show up with a wheel. The wheel is wise. Let it tell your fortune or use it to tell others’ fortune with wheels like the Magic 8-Ball, Yes or No, and the Tarot Wheel.
It's so hard that only three people have won the $1 million prize since its debut in 2008 (via Closer Weekly). But even the luckiest wordsmiths can't escape the state and federal taxes that go along with their Wheel of Fortune winnings, no matter the sum. That means you might win $1 million on the show, but sadly that's not nearly how much you're taking home at the end of the day.
Sandwiched between two 'Bankrupt' wedges on the Wheel of Fortune wheel, contestants have a 1-in-72 chance at landing on the tiny green sliver that signifies the million-dollar mark, and even then, the large cash prize isn't guaranteed. Landing on the $1 million wedge only affords you an opportunity at the prize.
To win a million dollars on Wheel of Fortune you have to land on the million-dollar wedge twice
The first step in winning the million-dollar prize on Wheel of Fortune is landing on the prize sliver during regular gameplay. That's the easy part. You then have to win the game, and make it to the bonus round without ever hitting the bankrupt penalty wedge, which would immediately wipe out your million-dollar prize.
Here's where the show separates the lucky from the really lucky. As Time explains, once you get to the bonus round with the million-dollar wedge, one of the prize envelopes which contains $100,000 is replaced with the $1 million prize. The contestant then has to spin for a prize envelope, essentially requiring the individual to land on the $1 million wedge again. The envelope's contents are kept secret until the end, with the contestant either solving the puzzle or running out of time.
That's a whole lot of spinning combined with a whole lot of luck. Which is probably why only three people have walked home with the rare prize. In some states, based on the percentage of income tax and the possibility of being put into a different taxable income bracket based solely on your winnings, a $1 million winner could end up giving half of the prize money right to the IRS (via NerdWallet). Still, going home a half million dollars richer wouldn't be a total hardship!
- For other uses, see Wheel of Fortune.
The Wheel of Fortune, or Rota Fortunae, is a concept in medieval and ancient philosophy and means the unpredictable nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna, who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel - some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls.
Origins[change change source]
The concept developed in antiquity; it was used by Cicero. The Wheel originally belonged to the Roman goddess Fortuna, whose name seems to derive from Vortumna, 'she who revolves the year'. Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman philosopher Boethius (d. 524) was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in hisConsolatio Philosophiae.
Carmina Burana[change change source]
The Wheel of Fortune motif appears significantly in the Carmina Burana (or Burana Codex), over one thousand poems and songs — often profane in content — written by students and clergy in the early 13th century. Excerpts from two of the collection's better known poems, 'Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)' and 'Fortune Plango Vulnera (I Bemoan the Wounds of Fortune),' read:The concept developed in antiquity; it was used by Cicero. The Wheel originally belonged to the Roman goddess Fortuna, whose name seems to derive from Vortumna, 'she who revolves the year'. Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman philosopher Boethius (d. 524) was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in hisConsolatio Philosophiae.vv
- Sors immanis
- et inanis,
- rota tu volubilis,
- status malus,
- vana salus
- semper dissolubilis,
- obumbrata
- et velata
- michi quoque niteris;
- nunc per ludum
- dorsum nudum
- fero tui sceleris.
- . . . . . . . . . .
- Fortune rota volvitur;
- descendo minoratus;
- alter in altum tollitur;
- nimis exaltatus
- rex sedet in vertice
- caveat ruinam!
- nam sub axe legimus
- Hecubam reginam.
The Wheel Of Fortune Wheel
- Fate - monstrous
- and empty,
- you whirling wheel,
- you are malevolent,
- well-being is vain
- and always fades to nothing,
- shadowed
- and veiled
- you plague me too;
- now through the game
- I bring my bare back
- to your villainy.
- . . . . . . . . .
- The wheel of Fortune turns;
- I go down, demeaned;
- another is raised up;
- far too high up
- sits the king at the summit -
- let him fear ruin!
- for under the axis is written
- Queen Hecuba.
Later usage[change change source]
Fortune and her Wheel have remained an enduring image throughout history.
William Shakespeare in Hamlet wrote of the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' and, of fortune personified, to 'break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel.' And in Henry V, Act 3 Scene VI, are the lines:
Selections from the Carmina Burana, including the two poems quoted above, were set to new music by twentieth-century classical composer Carl Orff, whose bombastic and well-known 'O Fortuna' is based on the poem Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi.
Fortuna does occasionally turn up in modern literature. She is often associated with gamblers, and dice could also be said to have replaced the Wheel as the primary metaphor for uncertain fortune.
References[change change source]
The Fortune Wheel 2011
- Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. W.V. Cooper (London: J.M. Dent, 1902)
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Monk's Tale
- Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Chapter XVII' Archived 2016-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
- William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 3 Scene VI
- Fortuna was also used by a character in the novel 'Confederacy of Dunces';the main character, Ignatus J. Reilly, makes many references to 'Fortuna's wheel' and also Boethius's works.
The Fortune Wheel Tarot
