Patterns & Metaphors
Home furnishings and amenities
Template:
This class of objects which appear in symbolic imagery includes all forms of light devices and fixtures (candle, candelabra, lamp, chandelier, lantern, light bulb, torch, flashlight, floodlight, spotlight, etc) and for classification convenience, industrial and entertainment lighting, including footlights, blacklight, ultra-violet light, and coherent beams including lasers. Home related furnishings that have a universal symbolic presence, in addition to light devices, also include mirrors, and doors and windows and everything pertaining to them: lock, latch, bolt, key, keyhole, chain, bar, window pane, threshhold, doorway, curtain, window shade. A number of symbols are or were kitchen fire connected: oven, fireplace, wood-stove, hearth, woodpile, coal-store, coal pile, fireplace poker and tongs, logs, coals, embers, cinders. In the same category of kitchen-related objects are cutlery (knife, fork, spoon, etc), dishes, and broom, and such structures as pantry, larder, ice-house, smoke-house, woodshed, fountain, well, and water bucket. Of the remaining home-related symbolic objects the bed is most important, along with the cradle. Rocking chair, swing and love-seat or small couch also appear symbolically, as do carpet, and drape. Modern symbolism includes home entertainment, notably the television, and communications via the telephone.
Metaphor:
Lights symbolize knowledge, examination or inspection; keys and locks, the archetypal functions of binding and freeing; kitchen-fire related objects, the libido and its energies and the well represents the inner self and its ancient knowledge. Drapes reveal or conceal, and carpets represent the foundation of a matter, the situation as it exists. On a deeper level, the carpet, as indicated by oriental motifs, may be an archetypal surface representing the reality behind phenomena and the field of interplay of the energies of mind (chitta). The Islamic prayer rug is an intentional symbol of such spiritual reality.<
