Ezekiel’s Wheel Meaning: Wheels Within Wheels and the Power That Moves Them

Ezekiel’s wheel meaning has been argued over for centuries, and in our own age the argument has taken an unexpected turn. I once watched a television documentary about UFOs and the possibility that we have been visited for centuries. It referenced Ezekiel’s vision, alongside the Maya and ancient Egypt.

I want to be honest from the start: nothing in my own awakening resembled Ezekiel’s wheels, and I will not pretend otherwise. What I can offer is a reading of the vision itself, drawn from Neville Goddard and the ancient mystics.

I do not read the first chapter of Ezekiel as a report of a strange object seen over a river in Babylon. I read it as a vision that carries meaning, and I believe the prophet chose to clothe it in fire, wings and wheels precisely because ordinary language could not hold what he saw. Our task is to unwrap the imagery with patience. What we find is a picture of the human being, and of a power in us that has been sleeping, waiting to turn.

I write for those who still hold the Bible as sacred but have grown weary of how it was taught, or of the hypocrisy they have seen in religious institutions. This is not an attack on anyone’s faith. I honour those who take the vision literally, whether as angels or as aircraft, but the readings are not equals: the literal is the first rung, and it gives way to the inner reading, as the elder serves the younger.

The vision of Ezekiel in brief

The book opens with the prophet among the exiles in Babylon:

“as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” (Ezekiel 1:1, KJV)

He sees “a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself” (Ezekiel 1:4, KJV), and out of the midst of it “came the likeness of four living creatures.” Each one “had four faces, and every one had four wings.” (Ezekiel 1:5 to 6, KJV)

The faces are named: “they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.” (Ezekiel 1:10, KJV)

Then come the wheels:

“The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” (Ezekiel 1:16, KJV)

Their rims “were full of eyes round about them four.” (Ezekiel 1:18, KJV). The wheels move only as the creatures move, and Ezekiel gives the reason twice: “for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.” (Ezekiel 1:20 to 21, KJV)

Above it all is a firmament, and above the firmament “the likeness of a throne”, and upon the throne “the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” (Ezekiel 1:26, KJV). Ezekiel names what he has seen: “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face” (Ezekiel 1:28, KJV).

Was Ezekiel’s wheel a UFO?

The documentary I watched was drawing on an idea with a known history. The ancient astronaut reading of Ezekiel was popularised by Erich von Däniken, whose book Chariots of the Gods? (first published in German in 1968) interpreted the vision as a description of a spacecraft. Josef Blumrich, an engineer at NASA, took the idea further in The Spaceships of Ezekiel (1974).

I understand why the idea appeals. Fire, a whirlwind, gleaming metal and wheels that rise from the ground sound, to modern ears, a great deal like a machine. But notice how Ezekiel himself frames the experience. He does not say he saw a craft. He says “the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God”, and he closes by calling it “the likeness of the glory of the LORD”. The prophet tells us plainly what kind of seeing this was.

Both the old literal reading and the new one share the same assumption: that the wheels were outside Ezekiel, somewhere in the sky. The inner reading turns the gaze around.

Ezekiel’s wheel meaning: the inner reading

Neville Goddard did mention this vision. Interpreting a student’s dream, he recalled the four-faced figure of Ezekiel:

“In his vision every living creature had four faces. Beside each creature was a wheel, with wheels within, all moving in the same direction.” (Neville, in his lecture “Creation Faith”)

Elsewhere, speaking of how little we perceive of the great pattern of God’s purpose, he said that people “can’t see these wheels within wheels within wheels that Ezekiel spoke of.” (Neville, in his lecture “Where Are You From”)

Neville never set out a full interpretation of the chapter. What follows is TrueCosmic’s own reading, built on his central teaching that God is your own awareness of being, and that imagination is the creative power.

The spirit is in the wheels. This is the key to the entire vision. The wheels are on the earth; the living creatures are the spirit. And the wheels never move by themselves: “When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood”. Read inwardly, the wheels are the circumstances of your life, the events turning on the ground of your experience. The living creature is your imagination. When the inner state moves, the outer world moves with it. When the inner state stands still, so do the wheels. That is the Law of Assumption pictured in a single image.

They turned not when they went. Ezekiel says it again and again: the creatures “went every one straight forward” and “turned not when they went” (Ezekiel 1:9, KJV). A wheel within a wheel can roll in any direction without turning round. So can consciousness. It does not need to travel; it simply assumes a new state, and it is there.

Full of eyes. The rims are full of eyes on every side. In this reading, that is awareness itself, which sees in every direction at once. You are never outside your own seeing.

Four faces, all moving one way. Man, lion, ox and eagle: reason, courage, steady labour and soaring vision, as we read them. Many faculties, but one direction. This is what Neville’s line points to: wheels within wheels, “all moving in the same direction.” When every part of you is turned towards one end, the whole chariot moves.

A man upon the throne. At the very summit of the vision, above the fire and the wheels, sits the likeness of a man. The glory of the LORD has a human shape. In the inner reading, the one enthroned at the centre of all this movement is the I AM in you.

The ancient witness: the chariot of God

The mystics never thought of Ezekiel’s vision as hardware. The mystic Manly P. Hall, in The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), explains that the vision is called the Mercavah, the chariot, and writes: “According to the mystics, the wheels supporting the throne of God represent the orbits of the planets, and the entire solar system is properly the Mercavah, or chariot of God.”

The universe as a chariot of turning wheels, with a throne at its centre. And what sits on the throne? In his chapter on Qabbalistic cosmogony, Hall describes the first point of light from which all creation unfolds, and gives its name: “The name of this point is I AM, called by the Hebrews Eheieh.”

The wheels turn around a centre, and the centre is I AM. That is as true of you as it is of the cosmos.

From the wheels to the valley of dry bones

Later in the same book Ezekiel has another vision that Neville did address. The prophet is set down in a valley full of bones, “and, lo, they were very dry.” And the question comes: “Son of man, can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:2 to 3, KJV). He is told to “Prophesy upon these bones” (Ezekiel 37:4, KJV), and the promise follows: “I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live” (Ezekiel 37:6, KJV).

Neville brought this chapter into his teaching on the power of the word:

“In the 37th chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, the Lord speaks, saying: “O dry bones, I will lay sinews upon you and cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin.”” (Neville, in his lecture “The Living Word”)

The two visions belong together. In the first, the spirit moves the wheels. In the second, the word spoken in faith brings breath to what looked lifeless. Both say the same thing: the inner movement comes first, and the outer world follows. Ezekiel is not the only one in scripture to glimpse heaven in a vision; I explore another such vision in the meaning of Jacob’s ladder.

Do not push the wheels

There is a quiet warning in this vision, and it concerns the biggest mistake I see people make. The wheels go “Whithersoever the spirit was to go”. No one in Ezekiel’s vision is pushing them. Yet so often, having imagined the end, we rush out to shove the wheels ourselves, deciding exactly which event must happen, through which person, by which date. That is micromanagement, and it reverses the order of the vision. Your part is the spirit, the inner state. Decide the end, and leave the route to the wheels.

How to apply Ezekiel’s wheel

1. Find the centre. Sit quietly and rest in the simple awareness that you are. Before you think about any problem, return to the throne at the centre of the wheels: I AM.
2. Turn every face one way. Choose a single end you desire. Let your reason, your courage, your effort and your vision all face towards it, rather than pulling in four directions.
3. Move without turning. Do not travel towards the wish by worrying over the distance. Assume it, the way the creatures went straight forward and turned not when they went.
4. Let the wheels follow. Resist the urge to force circumstances. Watch for what moves in response to your inner state, and take the natural steps that open before you.
5. Enter the scene each night. In the drowsy state just before sleep, enter one short scene that would only happen if your wish were already fulfilled, and feel it as done. Fall asleep inside it, and let the wheels turn while you rest.

The principle behind these steps is set out in our guide to the Law of Assumption.

This is a practice, not a trick. Think of a weaver at her loom. No cloth appears from a single pass of the shuttle. She returns to the loom day after day, thread after thread, keeping the pattern in mind even when only a few rows are visible. Some days the threads tangle and she has to unpick them, and she learns from that too. The finished cloth is the fruit of patient, faithful repetition. Your inner life is woven the same way.

When you unwrap Ezekiel’s vision like this, it stops being a puzzle about the sky and becomes a picture of what is waiting in you. Imagine wheels within wheels, every rim full of eyes, every one turning in perfect unison with the others, all moving in the same direction because one spirit moves them all. That is what happens when your inner faculties stop pulling against each other and turn as one. The power that sets the whole chariot in motion has been lying dormant within you. The moment your inner state moves, it wakes, and every wheel turns with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the meaning of Ezekiel’s wheel?

Ezekiel 1 describes four living creatures beside wheels “in the middle of a wheel”, moving only as the spirit moved them. In TrueCosmic’s inner reading, the wheels are the circumstances of your life and the living creature is your imagination: when the inner state moves, the outer world moves with it. At the centre, on the throne, is the I AM.

Was Ezekiel’s wheel a UFO?

The ancient astronaut reading was popularised by Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? (1968) and Josef Blumrich’s The Spaceships of Ezekiel (1974). Ezekiel himself, however, says he “saw visions of God” and calls what he saw “the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” We read it as an inner vision, not a craft in the sky.

What do the four faces in Ezekiel’s vision represent?

The four faces are a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle (Ezekiel 1:10). In TrueCosmic’s reading they stand for the faculties of a human being, such as reason, courage, steady labour and soaring vision. The point of the vision is that all four move in one direction.

Is reading Ezekiel’s vision as an inner experience a heresy?

Reading scripture for its hidden meaning is ancient; Origen, one of the great teachers of the early church, insisted that scripture has a spiritual sense beneath the letter. The literal reading, whether of angels or of aircraft, is where we begin, but it gives way to the inner one. Realising that the chariot and the throne are within you is the very catalyst for transformation.

Did Neville Goddard talk about Ezekiel’s wheel?

Yes, briefly. In his lecture “Creation Faith” he recalled that in Ezekiel’s vision each creature had four faces, with “wheels within, all moving in the same direction.” He did not give a full interpretation of the chapter, so the detailed reading in this article is TrueCosmic’s own.

Conclusion: Ezekiel’s wheel meaning is turning in you

The Ezekiel’s wheel meaning is not hidden in the sky over Babylon, nor in a hangar of ancient machines. It is the picture of a human being whose inner spirit moves the wheels of circumstance, with the I AM enthroned at the centre of it all.

Whatever you are facing now, the way through it does not begin somewhere outside you. It is already present within you, together with the same power that set the stars on their courses, and it moves only when you move. You are the operant power. Awaken it, set your inner state in motion, and no circumstance on earth can keep the wheels from turning with you. Fear not.