The Spiral

The Spiral is one of the most ancient symbols, which appears again and again since prehistoric times in various cultures, spread all over spacetime. Those ancient people noticed the spiral pattern in the world around them,  in the form of a snail, in the spiral growth of trees, in the movement of the Sun. They intuitively knew that the spiral was the basic symbol of evolution and expansion, but also of death and doom, thus they started painting it on murals or carving it on wood and rock, in an attempt to venerate the archetypical motif that surrounded them in numerous forms. 

The Spiral of the Goddess: One of the most popular symbols of the Celts , the Spiral or the Triple Spiral (Triskelion) became the symbol of the Goddess and of the threefold nature of the Divine. It was related with femininity and with the three stages of womanhood: Maiden, Mother, Crone. Another interpretation would be that of  the three realms of the material world: Land, Sea and Sky. Numerous variations of the spiral are found in paganistic and neopaganistic representations. Today, with the revival of paganistic religions, spirals are a common theme in jewelery, clothes and paintings.

The Spiral of Time: The Spiral signifies infinity, nature's cycles, the alternation of seasons (spirals were often used as solar calendars) and of cosmic cycles in eternity. In a few words, it is a symbol of Time. Time was born along with the universe. Its dimension is inseparable from the three dimensions of space. The big bang theory suggests that the universe was born from a tiny single point with infinite energy. When that point exploded, it gradually created the reality that we see around us, which is ever-expanding, like a spiral. If this expansion lead to perfection or to chaos, nobody can tell. And since we are all made of stars, as Moby rightly noted in his song, we can understand why some symbols talk directly to us,  in a molecular level and the vibrations of their thundering meanings can reach the depths of our psyche.

The Labyrinth: In a spiral we can see the image of a labyrinth. The labyrinth is an allegory of the spiritual journey , from the outer world towards inner silence or God,  like Dante's Inferno and the Minoan Labyrinth.  A descent to the unknown aspects of the soul. As we move along the curves of the spiral and through its twist and turns, which represent various trials, what happens is that we come face to face with the same things in life, but each time from a different angle.But nobody can guarantee that the journey leads  always towards enlightment. An expanding spiral eventually ends up in chaos, like the Tower of Babel. The dead ends of the labyrinth can become discouraging, dazzling and overwhelming and many times we find ourselves back where we started or even worse, trapped, with no sense of direction. 

The Spiral and the Serpent: We can't help but notice the similarity between spirals and serpents. Serpents were widely worshipped in ancient times. The dragons and nagas in China and India, the minoan serpent Goddess in Greece, the nordic  Jormungandr, the feathered serpent  Quetzalcoatl of the Aztects , the rainbow serpent in Australia, the python cult in Africa and so many others. Among them, the famous greek - egyptian Ouroboros: the serpent that eats its own tail, symbolizing rebirth through self-death, immortality, the cycle  and the totality of existence, Jung's cosmic force. There's a very rich tradition that refers to serpent cults, sometimes seen as benevolent, other times seen as evil, like the serpent of the Bible. The serpent often guards something of  great value, a treasure or a power that must not end up in the wrong hands, like kundalini or the tree of knowledge in Eden. In alchemy the spiral symbolizes the cyclical functions of nature, the androgyne, the caduceus. Even the Yin/Yang symbol, the swastika, the greek meander, are  variations of or elaborated spirals. 

The minoan Spiral: In ancient Greece, the spiral was associated with the bull, which symbolized fertility (bull's head and horns look similar to ovaries). We often see spirals on  amphoras or murals, as it was a very common decorative pattern. The interconnected spirals often symbolized water and the sea. Another interpretation of the interconnected spiral is that of the equinoctial points. 

The hypnotic Spiral: Hypnotists use  the pattern of a spinning spiral  to induce trance states. The  repetitive image causes the noise of the conscious mind to subside and makes it more receptive. We regularly see the spiral as the most distinct symbol of hypnotism.
The spiral expresses itself in numerous forms in nature: horns, shells, plants, galaxies, even in the DNA.  

Birth, death, expansion, chaos, symmetry, eternity, infinity, renewal, the constant flux of things are some of  the notions that spirals communicate to us, as they appear in a vast array of manifestations in the microcosmic and the macrocosmic level since time immemorial.  Perhaps, the recurring pattern of the spiral holds a key to the understanding not only of the universe and but also of our soul.

The Mirror - Is it really Me?

I chose the mirror as the first symbol to examine, because of its obvious connotat -ions with self image. For ages mirror was the symbol of (self) knowledge. "Γνώθι σαυτόν", to know yourself, an esoteric alchemical process of inner transformation and purification. One cannot advance in his spiritual evolution, if certain psychological issues  are not addressed, if self is not confronted in its light and shadow. Looking at the mirror, you see your reflection as it is, no lies, no tricks.The clean, flat mirror, is a symbol of clarity and truth.

Mirrors symbolize portals to other dimensions as they are used in divination (scrying) -a variation would be the crystal ball- and that made them very popular tools for magical practices. They are considered to be a doorway to the subconscious mind, to the soul (vampires have  no soul, thus nothing is reflected when they gaze at their mirror image). Scrying would reveal information about a person, about self or future events. Alice in her second adventure "Through the Looking - Glass, and What Alice Found There", uses a mirror as a portal that leads her in a world of opposites, in a distorted reality. The same happens to Christine in the Phantom of the Opera, when she follows the phantom through a mirror. A dive into the subconscious mind, where the hidden aspects of ourselves lie.

A distorting or cracked mirror symbolizes confusion, lies and Illusion. It becomes the emblem of self-deception or even insanity. Those of you who share my weakness for vampire stories and computer games, would be familiar with the logo of the Malkavian clan (Vampire the Masquerade), the cracked mirror, which points out their specific characteristic: dementia. Another negative symbolism of the mirror is that of loss and misfortune. It is said, that if a mirror breaks, you get seven years of bad luck. A fogged mirror symbolizes lack of clarity.

A less popular symbolism of the mirror is that of reproduction. It makes a copy of the person or object reflected on it. Some say that if you see a mirror in your dream, it means the urge to reproduct. I wouldn't want to go too far into dream interpretation, as I believe it is different for every person, but I must admit I accept the power that universal symbols may have in the collective subconsciousness. Thus, I would be more inclined to believe that a mirror in a dream signifies aspects of the self rather than reproduction. But as I said, the symbolism of such a dream is up to you to decipher. 

Mirrors have always been the ultimate symbol of vanity. A very popular example is given by the story of Narcissus, who used the surface of a pond as a mirror (there's a strong connection between mirrors and the element of water. Water reflects an image like a mirror does. Water is considered a passive element, connected with emotions and femininity and so do mirrors). Narcissus fell in love with himself and not being able to take his eyes off his image, he died from exhaustion, enchanted by the ever fleeting, untouchable reflection of his own face. But if we look at it from another angle, we could give another interpretation to the story of Narcissus: while I imagine him, staring at the hypnotic water, in a trancelike state, I can't help thinking about the meditative tones of his activity. Maybe he was just fortunate, because what he found looking at the mirror-like water, was nice and comforting, to the degree that everything else around him ceased to matter. Confronting your own self is not always a comfortable thing to do. In the extreme, one can get too absorbed in Self contemplation, for good or ill. Looking for the inner truth, one can withdraw from society literally (i.e. becoming a monk) or metaphorically (becoming a loner, an introvert), which can be seen as a kind of death, a sacrifice of the self for the self. So we could say, that some people, once they see themselves in the "mirror", they are doomed to "die" for this, either because the image is unbearably terrifying or because it's shockingly unexpected, in a good or bad way. When Narcissus' mother asked the oracle about her son's destiny, the oracle answered that he would live a long life as long as he never came to know himself. Not everyone is ready  to look deep inside the mirror.The evil queen in Snow White's fairy tale, owns a magical mirror that can answer any question. The queen used to ask the mirror "who's the fairest in all land?" and the mirror, that couldn't lie, always told her that she was the fairest of them all. But the same brutal honesty forced the  mirror to tell the truth, when Snow White became fairer than the queen. It showed her the truth that she could not take and which eventually led to her doom. 

Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty, is often associated with mirrors. She is frequently depicted looking at a mirror, especially in Renaissance art. The mirror is often held in front of her by Cupid (Eros). In many cases, it's the others that feed our vanity and pride or they just show us who we really are, they are holding the mirror for us. Or they become mirrors themselves. They send back at us the images of their traits, which are also our traits. At times we don't like what we see. 

A mirror always reflects an image in reverse, no matter how accurate the representation is, it's always the wrong way round.

Who's looking at you from the mirror?