The Symbol of the Gate – a mythological perspective
“Any object, intensely regarded, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods” James Joyce
If in the first article we looked at the symbol of the gate through an analytical magnifying glass, in this article we let the mythological perspective open.
From a mythological point of view, gates are symbols encountered as spaces of passage between two worlds, two states, between light and darkness, between what is known and what is still unknown and waiting to be discovered.
The gate is also an opening towards mystery, through the image of hidden entrances that contain a secret power. At the same time, the gate can be closed or open, forbidden or accessible, hidden from view or unavoidable. It can be passed or just looked at, admired. It can arouse curiosity, fascination or, on the contrary, anxiety and fear. There are gates of heaven, but also gates that lead to hell.
The gate is the symbol of a passage, transformation, it is associated with the entrance into a significant space, realm or domain, just as the bridge is associated with the aspect of transition (Biedermann, 1989). Temple doors or gates leading to secret chambers are usually richly decorated and only priests, as people already spiritually initiated, can pass through them. Many cultures use rituals of passage symbolized by stepping through a gate or door, and solemn events are marked by the opening of “sacred doors”.
Jewish and Christian traditions attach great importance to the gate or door because it represents the path to reverence and reflects the harmonies of the Universe. The gates of the Old Testament and the Revelation or the Last Judgment open to believers.
The Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence has two bronze gates, the East Gate and the North Gate, both made in the 15th century by the Renaissance sculptor, Lorenzo Ghiberti. They were also called the Gates of Paradise after Michelangelo, who said that they were so wonderful that they could adorn the Gates of Paradise. The East Gate depicts ten scenes from the Old Testament, including Adam and Eve, the twins Jacob and Esau, and David’s victory over Goliath.
The Golden Gate, one of the oldest gates in ancient Jerusalem, used in rituals since biblical times, is the one through which Jesus is believed to have passed on Palm Sunday.
In the “Revelation” we find a continuation of the description of the New Jerusalem, through the prophecy of the coming of Christ. „In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life […] Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.” (Revelation 22:2, 14) Through the sacred gates that lead to the Self, only those who have gone through the purification process can pass. Only those who have the ability to penetrate the deep layers of the unconscious to discover the hidden truths necessary to pass through the gates of heaven. Looking through the lens of analytical psychology, we can say that the gates of heaven open when the Ego recognizes the existence of the Self (the Holy Spirit).
The gate has the dimension of a space of passage from the profane to the sacred – the gates of cathedrals, the gates of ancient cities, the Hindu torans (ornamental gates, in the form of an arch, with ceremonial purposes), the gates at the entrance to Khmer temples or cities, the Japanese Torii. They are carriers of sacred energy, which could stop evil and purify anyone who passed through them.
Traditional Torii gates are widely spread in Japanese culture and are linked to the symbol of the sun, as an element of awakened Consciousness. They are parallel, tall gates, painted in a brick-red color and are associated with good news. Torii is a gate considered sacred, which has only a symbolic function, without walls or fences. It has a transformative function, by marking the entrance to a sacred space. In front of Shinto shrines, Torii gates separate the common, mundane space from the divine. Although they are very tall, tradition requires that anyone passing under them must bow down, walking exactly through the center of the gate, because that is where the gods also pass. The sacredness with which the Torii gate is charged is impressive if we consider the gate that remained intact after the Nagasaki bomb in World War II.
Photo taken by military photographer Yosuke Yamahata one day after the destruction
source: www.independent.co.uk
Rumi, the Sufi mystic and poet, postulated about the three gates that the word must pass through to reach the world: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
The descent into the Underworld of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of Heaven and Earth, the protector of love like Aphrodite, is marked by the passage through seven gates. At the beginning of the journey, she meets Neti, the deity who guards these gates and whom Inanna must convince to open them. To enter the underworld, Inanna gives up her Persona, the title of Queen of Heaven must be left before the gates. Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld and Inanna’s sister, asks her to give up something she possesses at each gate in order to move on.
In Roman mythology, we find Janus (lat. “ianua”=”gate”, “door”), god of all beginnings. His name meant January, the first month of the year. This deity, the protector of doors and windows, was also considered the god of gods. Janus is represented with two faces, one as a symbol of the moon and the other as a symbol of the sun. In the Roman Forum there was a temple of Janus, in which the state of the present was marked: the gates were open in times of peace and closed in times of war (Lăzărescu, 1992).
In ancient Greece, the gate appears as a symbol associated with several deities. Apollo is also known as Propylaios (Before the Gate), and Artemis also appears as Artemis Propylaia (Before the Gate). Some altars to the goddess Hekate (the goddess of magic, night, spirits and necromancy) were found at the city gates, and the Greek hero, Herakles, was considered the protector of the gates of Thebes (Larson, 2007).
The gates from Maramureş (a unique ethnographic region in north-western Romania) are also spaces that mark the transition from the sacred to the profane. The Romanian ethnographer, Ernest Bernea, said about these gates that they took the art of wood to one of the most beautiful and interesting expressions that exist on Romanian territory. The traditional peasant gates, which resemble “rustic triumphal arches”, house ancient symbols in their wood that transcended time: concentric circles, the sun and the moon, the flower of life. Traditional gates from the Moldavian region are sometimes decorated with anthropomorphic figures and a sun disk stylized as a human face. Symbolically, the ancestors of the place continued to watch over the well-being of the household and the lives of their descendants from the border of space.
Gate. Astra Museum, Sibiu (Romania) Gate from Maramureş region (Romania)
Bernea, E. (2012). Maramureşul:ţară românească. Bucureşti: Presdania
Biedermann , H. (1992). A Dictionary of Symbolism. New York: Facts on File
Kardos, M. (1994). God of the Gate, Protector of the Door: Door Gods (Menshen) in Chinese Popular Religion. Thesis for University of Massachusetts (Amherst), Department of Asian Studies
Larson, J. (2007). Ancient Greek Cults. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group
Lăzărescu, G. (1992). Dicționar de mitologie. București: Casa Editorială Odeon București
Wolkstein, D., Kramer, S. (1983). Inanna. Queen of Heaven and Earth. Her Story and Hymns from Summer. New York: Harper & Row
www.art-and-archaeology.com/japan/todaiji8.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nagasaki-one-day-after-the-atomic-bombing-seen-in-newlydiscovered-pictures-9472178.html
Foto cover: fotograf Kurt Hielscher, Maramureș, 1933 (www.imagoromaniae.ro)
The Symbol of the Gate – a Jungian perspective read here
Anca Ghearasămescu
Jungian Psychotherapist, IAAP Router
