Symbols - What does heaven look like
Fortuna [or Tyche]
Fortuna was the “goddess of fortune and personification of luck” in Roman religion. She was the equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche. But we might think of her more correctly as the personification of our part of the Great Work. See 3.2. The Plan for each person in Why are we here?.
None of us has any idea how we fit into the scheme of things, nor why something happened when it did. Since most of us still think the universe was made to keep us happy, then anything which makes us unhappy is always a surprise. But it shouldn’t be. The universe does not exist for our benefit.
Sometimes [since most of the time we are left to our own devices] the reason something unfortunate happens is our fault and we need to realise this.
In Roman thought, for example, her identity was closely tied to virtus (strength of character). Public officials who lacked virtues invited ill-fortune on themselves and Rome: Sallust uses the infamous Cataline as illustration – "Truly, when in the place of work, idleness, in place of the spirit of measure and equity, caprice and pride invade, fortune is changed just as with morality".
Sometime it is just unlucky chance – true fate. We get caught up in the action. So Fortuna might bring good luck or bad. Fortuna was also a goddess of fate: as Atrox Fortuna, ….Her father was said to be Jupiter and like him, she could also be bountiful (Copia).
And every so often we are brought in to do something, but we don’t know why and fortune smiles a little bit. For a while.
In many pictorial representations she is represented as veiled and blind.
Medieval representations of Fortune emphasize her duality and instability, such as two faces side by side like Janus; one face smiling the other frowning; half the face white the other black;
She may be blindfolded but without scales, blind to justice.
She was associated with the cornucopia, ship's rudder, the ball or glove or orb and the wheel.
Observations
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