Wheel

The wheel is an image of the ongoing, spinning process – opus circulatorium – with its constant rise and fall. In dreams, it can represent the individuation process. (See also Circle.)

Both the divine wheel and the eye "roam across the world," and the similarities between a wheel with a hub and spokes and the iris of an eye establish an associative connection between these symbols. (Cf. Ezekiel 1:18.)

The Wheel of the World

It is a symbol of time and the universe, where everything seems to rotate and move in circles, and thus also of the Creator or Mother Earth. The star-studded celestial vault turns like a wheel with its astrological houses determining our fates. The soul is described as round, and like the anima mundi (world soul), it rotates with the world wheel, whose hub is the north pole (cf.). "This," says Jung, "is why Mercurius' heart is located there, for Mercurius is indeed the anima mundi." (CW 9ii, par. 212.)

Wholeness

Due to its mandala shape, the wheel is an image of (human) wholeness. Together with its motion and association with time, and its focus on the center around which everything revolves, the wheel is also linked to the center, wholeness, and the Self.

Time

Motion enables us to perceive time. The wheel represents time as something, like the ring, to which one is bound – the quantitative time the Greeks called Chronos. Yet moments occur when time possesses a certain quality – the right time, which the Greeks referred to as Kairos. It is a universal notion that, to use Eliade's terms, we exist in historical time but occasionally enter sacred time (through religious rituals, etc.). However, as humans – unlike gods – we must always return to historical time; otherwise, we would cease to be human. When we step out of historical time, the sun stands still in the sky, historical time ceases, and the wheel stops.

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