Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
Wheel of Fortune
To keep a desired good vividly before the imagination by building a colourful poster (‘wheel of fortune’ / prosperity map) of pictures and words, placed where you privately see it daily, charged with grateful expectancy.
The wheel in 5 lines: Build a large, colourful poster of pictures and words of the good you desire (green and gold for money), with a nod to the Divine source. Show it as already yours. Place it where only you see it, and view it daily. Charge it with grateful expectancy, release the “how” — and act on what you keep picturing.
What it is
The Wheel of Fortune (Ponder also calls it a prosperity map or treasure map) is Catherine Ponder’s signature imaging device and a direct precursor to the modern “vision board.” It is a large, colourful poster onto which you paste pictures and write words representing the prosperity, health, relationship, or circumstance you desire — placed where you can privately look at it every day.
Where her prosperity decree works through the spoken word, the wheel works through the imaging power of the mind: it gives the desired good a concrete, repeated visual form so the imagination has something definite to dwell on.
The Method
Faithfully synthesised from The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity:
- Get a large, coloured poster board. Ponder advises a big sheet, preferably coloured, because “strong colours make a stronger impression on the mind.” Make it as big, bright, and colourful as you reasonably can.
- Choose a colour scheme that fits the goal. Ponder gives suggested colours by area — e.g. green and gold for finances, jobs, and career success. The colour itself is part of the cue.
- Fill it with pictures and words of the desired good. Cut out or draw images of what you want and add short affirmative words. Make the result specific and emotionally appealing — it should depict the good as already yours, not as a distant wish.
- Include a symbol of the Divine source. In Ponder’s Unity framing, it is customary to add a word or image acknowledging God / infinite supply as the true source, so the wheel affirms abundance from Spirit rather than mere acquisitiveness.
- Place it where you privately see it daily. Put the wheel somewhere you can look it over each day in private — not on public display. Daily viewing is what feeds the imaging power.
- Charge it with grateful expectancy, then release the ‘how.’ As you view it, give thanks as though already supplied and hold confident expectancy; don’t dictate the channel through which the good must come. Revise the wheel freely as desires clarify or change. (Sourcing note: phrasings such as “strong colours make a stronger impression on the mind” and the green-and-gold colour guidance are attributed to Ponder; the numbered protocol is a faithful synthesis, not a reproduction of her text.)
Source & Lineage
Catherine Ponder (b. 1927), a Unity minister and the best-known modern teacher of prosperity-focused New Thought, popularised the prosperity-map idea in The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity (1962).
The wheel descends from the Unity emphasis on the creative imagination (the Fillmores) and is the lineal ancestor of the contemporary vision board. Ponder’s distinct stamp is the named “wheel of fortune,” the colour-coding by life area, and its integration with her spoken decree as one of the “three powers” — picture, write, speak.
Common refinements
Making it and forgetting it. The wheel only works through daily private viewing; out of sight, out of mind.
- Vague or joyless imagery. Generic clip-art with no feeling gives the imagination nothing to grip. Choose images that genuinely move you.
- Public display for validation. Ponder advised a private spot; turning it into a social showpiece dilutes its inner purpose.
- Picturing the wanting, not the having. Depict the good as already yours, in the present, not as a craving for something absent.
- Substituting the wheel for action. Viewing the wheel is a primer for confident effort, not a replacement for it.