I was mostly organizing my thoughts, taking into account the new info, but then I figured some of you might enjoy it and maybe want to contribute.



So, everybody has noticed that the Cipher Wheel looked a little bit different in the latest episode:



But what the heck does that mean, right?



Order



The most glaring differences are the order of the symbols and the hand symbol, which became a journal with a hand on it (the claw becoming a fish was an older modification to match Stan’s fez).

As seen above, the only symbol that stayed in the exact same position is the Llama. All others changed place. So I went on to test how the position of the symbols changed in relation to each other:

These are the only two options in which more than one symbol matches relative position between the wheels. Shooting Star, Heart, Question Mark and Claw; Glasses and Ice Bag. Llama, Hand/Journal, Pentagram and Pine Tree are always alone.

I don’t actually know what this means, just putting it out there.



Meaning



It has been confirmed in show that at least some of the symbols represent people. Shooting Star = Mabel, Pine Tree = Dipper, Question Mark = Soos, Pentagram = Gideon.



It can also be safely assumed that the Claw/Fish = Grunkle Stan, as it changed on the Wheel when it changed on his fez. Heart = Robbie is also pretty safe to assume as it matches the print on his hoodie.



The Hand/Journal is a special case. It seemed to be confirmed as Stanford in this image, posted by Matt Braly on Twitter:



However, in the new Wheel the hand was changed into a Journal. Could the meaning have also changed? Also, the only character with glasses that match the ones on the Wheel is Stanford so far, and he also drew exclamation marks pointing to the glasses in his journal.



One hypothesis is that either Ford is going to give his glasses to another character, or he was given the glasses by someone else (possibly in his teenage years, explaining why he switched from square glasses to rounded ones).



The Llama could possibly be Pacifica, as there was a llama painting in the Northwest Mansion and, while Mabel has a llama sweater, it faces the opposite direction from the one on the Wheel. Pacifica was created as the opposite of Mabel.



The Ice could be Wendy or possibly Blendin, as both are seen around ice and ice-themed things, but this one is pretty open to interpretation.



Origin



Stanford claims in his journals that the Wheel appeared in his dreams. As Bill Cipher is a dream demon, it is quite possible he was the one who sent it to Ford.



In the stinger of The Stanchurian Candidate, Gideon lets out that the Wheel can be used as a way to summon Bill. So I guess Bill sent the Wheel to Ford because he wanted to be summoned by him. One way or another, eventually Bill was summoned and they became “friends” for a while.



Thoughts



Maybe the Wheels are different because they were drawn by different people with different purposes. Maybe it’s because the writers actually changed it and are hoping we will pretend the first version never happend, just like with Stan’s fez.



What do you guys think? Let me know if you figure anything out, I’d love to discuss this. I’ll tag any future discoveries as #bill cipher wheel.