"To see oneself in one's lover as in a mirror," says Plato in the Phaedrus, as well as in the Symposium, as reported by Aristophanes and his inquiry into primordial unity.
In the mystery rites at Pompeii, in the famous City of Mysteries, you will discover the cycle of frescoes that evoke all the stages of a female initiation under the auspices of Dionysus, which consists of a sacred marriage.
The moon is a Marian symbol because it reflects the light of the sun. It can thus be considered a mirror.
Not to mention the symbolic Egyptian mirror. I must say that I have a particular affection for Egyptian symbols… It is always placed under the aegis of Hathor and under the influence of the full moon. Looking into a mirror corresponds to the desire to identify with the goddess, with beauty, with her power of celestial radiance, with the light of the origins. It (the mirror) bears different names: Andh, Iten, or OUN-HER = to discover the face: the property of reflecting, revealing the face of the one who looks into it. Placed in a tomb, it gives vitality and regenerative powers to the deceased, in short, an instrument of perpetual youth.
It is connected to the KA, the support of vital energy, in communication with divine forces. Its magical role is considerable: it protects against invisible enemies, repels negative thoughts or energies, and is used to invoke the powers of the earth.
It is at the heart of a divination practice described in the Paris Magical Papyrus: rainwater is poured onto a mirror of electrum or bronze to make contact with celestial forces, spring water to connect with the underworld… One is left to interpret the paths of the liquid flowing across the surface…
In Hermeticism, it is the most direct symbol of spiritual vision, the Contemplatio that brings the officiant closer to the forces of nature. The Mirror of the Art is a term used to designate the Prima Materia. Finally, it shows the proportions to be observed in the practice of the Art.
You see, there are many ways to see or to see oneself in a mirror. As in the fundamental philosophy of what has been called the “philosophy of mirrors.” It ultimately consists in the very unity of the principle whereby, behind the mirror effects, it is revealed that to see, to be seen, and to exercise vision are one and the same thing, just as the Beloved, the Lover, and Love are one and the same.
To conclude, for I could write pages and pages about the mirror, I add that a part of ourselves is outside of us, because, in the mirror, we are precisely outside of ourselves, which gives rise to the primitive feeling of a soul being stolen.
Furthermore, people who look at themselves for a long time in a mirror are fascinated and feel a kind of paralysis. Not everyone can bear their own image. Some, like Narcissus in the myth, lose themselves while gazing at their reflection in the water. Others only come back to themselves after an exhausting journey, once they have looked into the mirror and been able to prove to themselves their actual existence.
In conclusion, I say that the ambivalence of the mirror symbol therefore depends essentially on the person's attitude and on the maturity of "the one who looks at himself."
So be careful when you speak; if you please, when you speak of the "mirror game," you will certainly offer me a part of your "secret self, the other side that is reflected in your mirror (smile)."
Marylena
