I started thinking about how the Wheel displays the easygoing and dramatically open, fiery moments in life. Within this card of action and activity, Las Vegas come to mind and here, for me, the Wheel truly exposed. And it is exposure because times of chaos and confusion are those when we are most vulnerable. The Wheels in Vegas are sometimes turned by desperate people; they want to climb to the top and win before they are thrown to the bottom where they must start over again.
When I was young, my grandparents lived in Las Vegas and I Lived in Chicago. Sometimes by myself on a bus or in a big station wagon with my mom and dad we would road trip for an extended visit. I have interesting memories of staying in motels, listening to the bus come in every hour and runny diner eggs. It was a time of adventures as a 4 and 5 year old would know it. These memories are my fixed point in time, the quark in the time- line that is me. I didn’t notice the haggard people who dominated the night because I was a child. I didn’t care about the white faced people who slept on the chaise lounge by the pools, because I was a child. But they influenced my life. I saw the worry, the fear and daily anxiety, but because I was a child I could only carry it with me. And today I see the animals in this beautiful card as a reminder of those people and their struggle.
As Aleister Crowley says, there are …”…4 elemental perfections of the Sphinx, the ‘forces of Nature, each in its balanced strength.” (Aleister Crowley by Snuffin 2002)
The animals used throughout the Thoth deck are numerous, and symbolic, especially showing the Eagle, the Lion, the Serpent, the Dragon, where as other decks also incorporate the bull, the camel, and herds of other beasts. The Sphinx still sits on top, the judge, and in judgment she is adamant of her goal.