The mysteries of Gate Symbol – project startup
For thousands of years cultures all over the world have used symbolism to express powerful emotions and beliefs which are beyond words. The image of a gate such a symbol, hope; opportunity; opening passage. ability to transcend time and space, day and night. Universally used to represent the idea of passing from one state or world of being to another.
The passages however are impossible for the profane material body so can only be achieved at a spiritual level and in the “timeless moment,” also by means of ways not available to the physical senses. The physical is transcended by mind and spirit. It is the “Way” of Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism, the “Strait Gate” of Christianity (“only few find the narrow gate” – Matthew 7:13-14) and the “Tariqah” of Islam.
Entrances to sacred places where giants, frightening animals keep vigilant guard, are no invitation to participate in the mysteries contained inside. The act of passing over the threshold means that the profane must set aside their personality and materialism, as they are forced to confront the inner silence and meditation that it symbolizes.
Symbols can be obscure in their meaning, but that of the gate or door is clear and has repeatedly found expression in both sacred and secular art. Pre-Raphaelite painter Holman Hunt created “The Light of the World” in 1851, showing Christ knocking at the entrance to the human soul, represented as a door. Auguste Rodin, the French Symbolist sculptor, created “The Gates of Hell” in the 1880s, focusing on dreams, the mind, sexuality and sin. His designs for it were influenced by the prophetic English engraver William Blake, who a century earlier had himself used the gate as a symbol in his “Gates of Paradise.”
My creative work of art has always been influenced by strong symbols that lighten my artistic quest. Cross the threshold of mysterious forests and never ending bridges were the passage of my soul from outer profane space to inner sacred space, gaining higher states of consciousness
The quest that never ends, a whisper of my subconsciousness awakened strong inspiration, pursue the example of great masters, and continue my passage as long as my twelve “pearl doors” completed pass new thresholds, abandon old, emotional ideas, concepts and plans which are no longer appropriate; till the familiar new horizon is emerged.