The Wheel/ Schattenspiel Tarot
©Linda Dawn Hammond 1996/2003

The Wheel/ Schattenspiel Tarot
Meanings and Details

X THE WHEEL

When I first saw the person whom I chose to play the Wheel, I would have thought him better suited to play THE CHARIOT. He appeared an angry whirl, being propelled in a wheelchair down Montreal streets by a white pitbull straining on a leash. He wore his hostility as an armour and truly represented the reverse reading of The Chariot, "...one who rides roughshod over others." I witnessed him literally barrelling into anyone who didn't leap out of his way.

One day he stopped long enough to discover that people were actually interested in knowing him. A magnetic personality surfaced, which served to attract a multitude of people towards him, and during this time he befriended my young son and I. Over the years I watched his attitude transform as he came to terms with his paralysis and finally accept it. He had been a young man when a bicycle accident had placed him beneath the wheels of a truck, and it had been a long and difficult adjustment. Ironically, what could have been a tragic turn of events, also released him from a destructive path he was travelling prior to the fall. More than anyone I know, wheels have impacted his life and it is the wheel of destiny which now carries him foreward.

This card represents resolution and is the pivotal point of the second stage of the quest, the inward turn. The person I chose to play The WHEEL of FORTUNE had at the time of the image progressed to this stage in his own life. (Appendix N)

In the center of the wheel is the Hexagram of Solomon. A mythological beast often sits at the top of the wheel- a dragon or a sphinx, which is represented by my friend. I painted his shirt green, said to be the colour of the fairy people of Great Britain, and his hair the hues of fire. "Fortune" dances blindfolded in the centre of the wheel and in the foreground. Her circle is a coiled snake and she holds an apple in her hand. The photograph was taken in the courtyard of Le Cheval Blanc (The White Horse) in Montreal, which possibly reflects back to his earlier role as the CHARIOT, but was not a conscious decision .