Summary
Summary of The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A pin prick becomes personal advice
The Golden Wheel invites someone seeking a fortune to place the chart face downward and prick a number with a pin, preferably with closed eyes. The matching answer promises or warns about love, money, health, friends or family. Chance becomes a message addressed to the person asking.
Many answers also tell that person how to behave: be prudent, persevere or hasten a marriage. This opening establishes a pattern that runs through Fontaine's manual: a prediction can also be advice about everyday choices.
Key idea 2
Dreams can mirror the sleeper
Fontaine defends dreams as possible signs, but he does not treat every dream alike.
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Key idea 3
Dream meanings can run in reverse
The dream dictionary turns familiar things into signs, often followed by lucky lottery numbers.
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Key idea 4
Everyday signs become lottery numbers
For readers hoping to play the lottery, interpretation leads to a number they can use.
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Key idea 5
Cards form a story through placement
In Fontaine's card readings, a card has a meaning, but its neighbors help shape what it says.
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Key idea 6
The body becomes a readable surface
Fontaine moves from objects drawn or thrown to marks already present on the body.
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Key idea 7
Small marks carry personal forecasts
The chapter on moles extends the idea that the body holds a code.
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Key idea 8
Imagination helps turn shapes into signs
Tea and coffee readings begin with a simple ritual: shake the grounds in a white cup, drain it into a saucer and interpret the shapes left behind.
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Key idea 9
Practical lore preserves everyday belief
The closing chapters gather more ways to seek guidance.
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Go deeper: the whole of The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller
About 6 h 10 min to read.Who it’s for
You will enjoy this if you love folklore, old parlor games, dream symbols, superstitions about love and luck, or the cheerful oddities of nineteenth century popular print.
What this book is
What if you could pick your fate with a pin? Open this book and you meet a golden wheel with one hundred numbers. You prick one with your eyes shut, look up the number, and learn whether you will marry rich, travel far or beware of a false friend.
The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller was put together by Felix Fontaine, who styles himself a professor of astrology. It was entered for copyright in New York in 1862. It lists dreams with their meanings and lucky lottery numbers, then adds fortunes by cards, dice, dominoes, the hand, the face, moles, tea leaves, the moon and the divining rod.
In this summary
- 1Prick a number and the wheel answersFree
- 2Every dream means something, says the author
- 3Learn the dictionary and its rule of contraries
- 4Turn dice, names and cards into lottery numbers
- 5Read a pack of thirty-two cards like a story
- 6Pick a domino or throw dice to learn your lot
- 7Read the hand, the head and the face
- 8Moles, hair, nails and the body tell your temper
- 9Tea leaves, charms and New Year's Eve games
- 10Days, rods, flowers and how to read the book now
Key point 1 of 10
Prick a number and the wheel answers
The book opens with the Golden Wheel of Fortune, a circular chart that Fontaine says was much consulted in the middle ages. He claims he took it from an old Latin manuscript on astrology. It answers eight kinds of question, such as whether you will win the favor of a person you desire, whether a sick person will recover, and whether you will be rich or poor.
The method is simple. The person whose fortune is told lays the wheel face downward and pricks a pin into a number, preferably with the eyes shut. Then you look up the same number in the list of answers, which runs from one to one hundred.
The answers are short and blunt. Number five promises sudden prosperity and a letter with important news. Number three warns of lost friends and unfaithfulness in love. Number eighty-nine says you will die an old maid, while number ninety-three promises a long and happy life.
Most answers deal with marriage, money, children, enemies and letters. Many carry advice in disguise, such as be prudent, persevere, or hasten your marriage. The wheel turns a random pin prick into a short lesson about love, money and conduct.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What can a dream reveal besides a possible future event?
Right. “Often it simply shows what lies in the heart of the sleeper.”Not quite. “Often it simply shows what lies in the heart of the sleeper.”
Under the rule of contraries, what can dreaming of poverty signal?
Right. “To dream of disease, an enemy, poverty or loss of property signals the reverse.”Not quite. “To dream of disease, an enemy, poverty or loss of property signals the reverse.”
How do nearby cards affect a card reading?
Right. “Each card has its own meaning, and the meaning shifts according to the cards beside it.”Not quite. “Each card has its own meaning, and the meaning shifts according to the cards beside it.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller
About 6 h 10 min to read.Questions about The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller
What is The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller about?
It collects fortune-telling methods of the 1860s. It offers a wheel of one hundred answers, an alphabetical dream dictionary with lucky numbers, and readings by cards, dice, dominoes, the hand, moles, tea leaves, the moon and the divining rod.
What is the Golden Wheel of Fortune?
It is a circular chart the author says came from an old Latin manuscript on astrology. You prick a number with your eyes shut, then read the matching answer in a list of one hundred, which covers love, money, journeys and enemies.
Why do some dreams mean the opposite in this book?
The author explains that certain dreams go by contraries. Dreams of difficulty, disease, enemies or poverty foretell good, while dreams of riches or lottery prizes foretell want. Allegorical dreams stand for something else, while speculative dreams come true as dreamed.
When was Fontaine's dream book written and is it meant seriously?
It was entered for copyright in New York in 1862. The author presents the methods as real, though he also calls several of them very entertaining in company, so it reads well as a parlor book and a record of old beliefs.
Is it easy to read and use?
Yes, the pages are short and clearly labeled. Dreams run alphabetically, methods have clearly labeled sections, and the author speaks to the reader in a friendly voice, so you can dip into the book and try its procedures.
Cite this edition
Fontaine, Felix. The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-wheel-dream-book-and-fortune-teller.
Fontaine, F. (2026). The golden wheel dream-book and fortune-teller. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-wheel-dream-book-and-fortune-teller (Original work published 1862)
Fontaine, Felix. The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-wheel-dream-book-and-fortune-teller.
@book{fontaine2026golden,
author = {Fontaine, Felix},
title = {The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-wheel-dream-book-and-fortune-teller},
note = {First published 1862}
}
