Fortuna is the Roman goddess of Luck and Fate. She is often depicted with a blindfold, representing how good luck doesn’t strike where mortals would expect. She cradles a cornucopia of coins that overflows, spilling around her for the abundance she brings. At times, she stands on a wheel or globe, to represent the unsteady nature of Fortune—we can never know what kind of luck we’ll get next. In older symbology, she may also hold a rudder in her hands, with which she steers the course of fate for mortals and the world itself.
Fortuna is often seen as fickle, granting good luck one minute and bad luck the next. To us, this is because she is a combination of two goddesses of the Greek tradition: Tyche (Fortune) or Eutyche (Good Fortune), and Nemesis who corrects course when too much good luck has been given to one person, or when that person needs justice acted upon them for their actions. She gives us the luck we need for growth, whether or not it’s what we prefer. Difficulties can spur us to new understandings we’d never have come by from the lap of luxury. A stroke of good luck, however, may provide the rest we need to push forward in our journey. She may appear fickle at first glance, but she provides what we need, even if not always what we want.
Like Eros, Fortuna is listed among some of the earliest beings born, and is at times considered one of the Moirai, or Fates. Whether she’s included in the traditional trio of Fates or not, she certainly has a hand in Fate. Her blindfold honors how good luck can seem to strike the undeserving, but also her own special form of second sight. The belief that those who can’t see in the material world are able to see beyond it has cropped up across the world and across time periods; we see this reflected in Fortuna’s blindfold. Unable to see the mundane world for her blindfold, she instead sees into the heart of each individual. Furthermore, in myth she is said to be able to see forwards and backwards across time, much like Nemesis and Tyche of the Greek pantheon. This, alongside her links with Fate, firmly crown her as a Goddess of Divination. We see this further echoed in how she used to be called upon during divinatory practice in Rome.
Other sacred symbols of hers include the wings of victory, mural crown, ladder, dish, and dice. She is often depicted with the wings of victory, much like Nike, for the success that good luck grants. As a deity of Fate, she is also the one who decides which party will succeed and which will fail in a given situation. The mural crown she wears appears like a city, as good fortune is part of the foundation for the success of a civilization. There are several Roman temples to Fortuna that were erected because Fortuna was thought to take action in a way that preserved the Roman civilization. One instance of this was when a group of married women petitioned the government to be allowed to negotiate for a truce in a conflict while the opposing army was approaching the city walls. Their argument was that the warrior’s method had only caused more conflict and would bring ruin to the city; it was time the women of the city were given a chance to defend their home. They took this action in Fortuna’s name and under her auspices. They managed to secure the truce that the men of the city could not and were able to successfully petition the local government to grant them a temple to Fortuna where many became priestesses. Their actions are a testament to why Fortuna is right to wear the mural crown of civilization.
Of her other symbols, the ladder is one that is difficult to parse. It comes up in items tied to warding away il malocchio (the evil eye), such as the Mano Pantea, or Hand of Sabazius. The meaning of this mysterious carved hand decorated with various symbols has been debated throughout the ages. It’s thought to have originally been created for the cult of Sabazius, the Anatolian counterpart to Dionysos. As the original meaning was lost to time but the hands themselves remained, it began to take on other uses, such as warding away il malocchio. One of the symbols on this hand is the ladder. In its original context in the Sabazius cult, the ladder was a symbol similar to the World Tree, allowing worshippers in ecstatic trance to ascend to the heavens and descend to the underworld. As a ward against il malocchio, we work with it by sorting through the symbols to understand whose auspices each are under. The snake, for example, honors Medusa as an apotropaic force. The ladder, however, comes immediately under the auspices of Fortuna, due to the use of a ladder in one of her ancient temples. In this temple, the ladder was set up as a holy object. Good luck was said to ascend its rungs, while bad luck descended them. For us, this is the root of the superstition not to walk under ladders, where bad luck would descend. Next time you go the long way around a ladder, offer a little prayer to Fortuna, that your good luck may always rise higher and that your bad luck may fall away.
Another sacred symbol of Fortuna’s that has fallen out of favor with time is that of fish. They represent abundance, as in the schooling fish found in the ocean. They provide sustenance and livelihood, much like the coins in her cornucopia. Fortuna has a certain oceanic association to her, seen in her sacred rudder with which she steers the course of Fate. Especially with her traditionally being worshipped in Italy, a peninsula with islands and a lot of coastline, it makes sense that she has so many oceanic ties, as the ocean was an important source of income for many. These support an abstract oceanic tie, but her link with fishes is much more substantial. Fish were kept in many temples to Fortuna and were tended to by those who ran the temple. This brought abundance to the temple, honored her sacred symbol, and was a representation that the temple may never run out of funds while the fish remained.
One of the symbols most commonly linked with Fortuna’s worship in ancient times was dice. They were used for divinatory purposes, as Fortuna is a goddess of Divination due to her ability to see forward and backward in time and links with Fate. They were also used for gambling, which is an act Fortuna is associated with throughout history. She is called upon still when people gamble, that Lady Luck may bless their bets. The modern successor to the dice are cards, which are also closely linked with her. Playing cards and tarot cards alike are used in divination, particularly in Italy where she was traditionally worshipped. Like dice, playing cards are also used in gambling, and this connection only brings them closer to her, whether or not you choose to use them for such purposes. If you practice divination, consider calling upon Fortuna before drawing cards or throwing runes, that she may help you see clearly and guide your hands.
For those who’d like to work with dice to honor Fortuna, here is a simple way to get started that I can vouch for from my own practice. I use a pair of dice currently as my form of yes/no divination; I find this preferable to a pendulum because I have unsteady hands and recommend this method to anyone else who does. To begin, you need to figure out if even numbers will be your ‘yes’ or your ‘no,’ and vice versa with odd numbers. You can do this by asking your dice to show you a ‘yes’ roll and a ‘no’ roll, or by bonding with and teaching your dice your preferred format. I took the latter form, teaching my dice that even numbers meant ‘yes’ and odd numbers meant ‘no.’ To confirm that they understood, I did a series of simple yes/no questions and observed their answers. Make sure your dice are reliable in their answers before using them for divinatory purposes.
From there, how you will read them is as follows, using the example of evens as ‘yes’ and odds as ‘no’: 2 evens is a strong yes, 1 even 1 odd is unclear or the question needs to be rephrased, 2 odds is a strong no. Pay special attention to pairs of numbers. Getting a pair of sixes is the strongest confirmation, while a pair of ones is the strongest denial. Having associations for the numbers from one to six helps to understand the nuance of the answer you receive. If you receive mixed results, I recommend rephrasing your question and paying attention to the numbers themselves. Low numbers, in my experience, mean that your question is far from one that it can give a straight answer to. The higher the number the ‘warmer’ you are, or closer to the question that will get you your answer. A five and a six, for example, means that you’re very close to getting your answer and are on the right track, but your phrasing is preventing you from getting a clear answer to the complicated situation. We hope this information makes working with dice, particularly under Fortuna’s auspices, simpler to approach for those interested!
Fortuna is a goddess with many faces. She appears fickle, but is often wise. She blinds herself to this world that she may see across others to deliver the Fate that we need, rather than the one we want. She brings abundance and takes it as necessary. She is there in every roll of the dice and placement of the cards, whether for gambling or divinatory purposes. She guides our hands and hearts as surely as she guides the Fate of the World with her rudder. She is a much beloved goddess, but one many are still unfamiliar with. We are honored to be able to share a little bit about her, and hope it will help others approach her as we have.