Musical Tarot: “Lady, Lady” and Lady Fortuna

Featuring the Wheel of Fortune

This post is a continuation of a “series” I started when I first joined Substack, where I write about how a song reminds me of the symbolism of a particular tarot card.

Recently, I’ve become a bit of a “fan girl” of the artist Olivia Dean and her song “Lady, Lady,” which, as the music video demonstrates, seems to touch on a universal experience for us humans. Namely, the process of surrendering to the concept of “fate” and dealing with the constant changes we experience in life and the evolution of our self-concept.

But beyond the beautiful choreography and visuals of her music video, the lyrics and references to “the Lady” in Olivia’s song speak to me of the Roman Goddess, Lady Fortuna, the goddess of fortune.

In Roman mythology, Fortuna is often pictured with a cornucopia, as she is here, and was said to bring good fortune to those who worship her. Thus, in our modern society, this is where the concept of “Lady Luck” comes from, which we often see referenced within modern pin-up art or promotional memorabilia for places like Las Vegas, New Orleans, and other places known for casinos, gambling, and other activities that involve an element of “chance”… and therefore, tempting fate.

But that is only one side of Lady Fortuna, because while in her light feminine aspects (i.e., the goddess), she bestows her blessings and metaphorical “kisses” on those who pay homage to her. In her “darker” aspects (i.e., the witch), she reminds us that even when we think we are on the “right” trajectory or path for our lives, sometimes our egos must surrender to the fact that we do not always know what is best for us or that we can not change our fate.

Which is exactly what I believe Olivia is singing about when she references Lady Fortuna in her song “Lady, Lady” as Fortuna is often represented also holding a spinning wheel in many of her iconographies throughout history as a reference to the concept of the three Fates themselves, who are said to spin and twist the string of our lives as we navigate the complexities of being human.

Thus, while Lady Fortuna is the feminine force that “blesses” us, she is also a reminder that there will be times in our lives when we need to embody the feminine within ourselves and surrender to her wisdom.

Or as Olivia sings:

God, I’m gonna miss this house
But I guess I’m moving out Sunday morning
All the things I couldn’t live without
I don’t need ‘em now
God, I used to love this hair
Now there’s something in the air, something calling
Overnight, the clothes I always wore
Don’t suit me anymore

This intro, paired with the soft melody and harmony of her song, is masterfully crafted to evoke a gut feeling of surrender, mixed with a bittersweet sensation of nostalgia that hits us at our core as humans. Namely, it touches on the fact that we spend so much time building our own metaphorical “houses” to provide us a sense of safety, yet oftentimes, as we grow and change throughout the course of our lifespan, those houses will need to be stripped to their foundations and rebuilt. Since as Carl Jung himself once said, the house is a metaphor for the Self, which I have referenced in this article when discussing the many eras of Taylor Swift’s career trajectory and how she herself used the house metaphor on her Eras Tour.

Moreover, in the next stanza, she discusses the need to change her hair and the feeling that, overnight, something is calling her to alter her appearance, reflecting how we often feel the need to change our outer selves to match the evolution of our own inner worlds at different stages of our lives.

Whether that is by buying a new wardrobe, changing our hair color, or sometimes moving to a new location, starting a new career, or taking the plunge to try something new…

Yet I find these “drastic” shifts are not as “random” or sudden as Olivia sings about or we like to tell ourselves; often they start out as an inkling in the back of our minds or a pulling/nagging sensation in our gut, which grows over time until they are so loud we cannot help but surrender to their wisdom.

Because that is how the wisdom of the feminine and Lady Fortuna works.

She isn’t loud, she isn’t demanding, but she does show up with her wheel, reminding us that time itself is ever pressing down on us, so if we truly want to make a change, we must surrender to the wisdom of our fate and not fight against it.

Which is perhaps why, like the Goddess Justicia (whom I have written about my frustrations with here), she is often depicted as blind folded as she is shown here in Fyodor Pavlov’s Tarot Deck.

Thus, to me, this card perfectly describes how I feel when listening to Olivia’s song, because it features the four elements (earth, fire, wind, and water), which ultimately remind us of what Lady Fortuna and Justice are meant to represent – balance and adjustment.

Or as Olivia sings:

She’s always changing me without a word
And I was just, I was just getting used to her
Keeps rearranging me a little bit
And I was just, I was just getting used to it

Thus, as the “wheels” of our lives turn and shape us, there will be times when we are “blessed,” and our luck is “up,” and times in which we fall short, things don’t go as planned, and we have to be humbled and surrender to some unknowable force, which perhaps forces us to change and rearrange our lives ourselves accordingly.

Because as much as our Ego functions like to believe we are in control of our own destiny (a very masculine perspective), ultimately life is meant to teach that we have to live in balance with the universe and others in our lives, and when that happens, we ultimately have to surrender to the wisdom of Lady Fortuna and the divine timing of the feminine.

That lady, lady, she’s the man
I think she got a master plan
It’s something I don’t understand
That lady, lady, she’s the—

OX

Your Dark Fairy Godmother

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