Observations placeholder
Cirlot on castles
Identifier
004808
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
A Dictionary of Symbols – J E Cirlot
The house as a home arouses strong, spontaneous associations with the human body and human thought, as has been confirmed empirically by psychoanalysts. Ania Teillard explains this by pointing out that, in dreams, we employ the image of the house as a representation of the different layers of the psyche.
The outside of the house signifies the outward appearance of man; his personality or his mask. The various floors are related to the vertical and spatial symbols.
The roof and the floor correspond to the head and the mind, as well as to the conscious effort of self control.
Similarly the basement corresponds to the unconscious and the instincts – just as sewers do, in symbols pertaining to the city.
The kitchen, since this is where foodstuff is transformed, sometimes signifies the place or the moment of psychic transmutation in the alchemical sense.
The intercommunicating rooms speak for themselves.
The stairs are the link between the various planes of the psyche, but their particular significance depends on whether they are seen as ascending or descending