Patterns & Metaphors
Architectural elements
Template:
This class of symbols comprises parts of structures. In addition to all portals (gateways, doors, windows) the principal symbols in this class are staircases (or stairs), steps, landings, lifts (or elevators), stories or levels, rooms, pillars, halls, corridors, flows and ceilings. Of especial symbolic note are basements, cellars and wine cellars, and storerooms, lumber rooms, attics, lofts and garrets. Other internal spaces include suites, apartments, sanctums, dens, courts or courtyards, studies, bedrooms and parlours. External architectural elements and attachments that are used symbolically include porticos, porches, balconies, logia, columns, roofs, gables, finicles, cupolas and chimneys. Lightning rods, weathervanes, television antennae, pigeon coops and flagpoles are also associated with building symbology, and at street-level, fences, gates and driveways.
Metaphor:
The most important symbols among architectural elements represent how the 'space' of the psyche is divided up, horizontally and vertically. The corridors represent access to the different functions of the mind, and the lifts, levels, stairs and steps, to the lower or higher realms of consciousness. In sacred buildings, the orientation and the ground plane represent the space of the universe, thus offering a map of the numinous to wayfarers. On a smaller scale mediaeval labyrinth patterns traced in the floor of Gothic churches allowed pilgrims to symbolically arrive at 'Jerusalem'.<
