I got this from symbolism .org
Gates, Thresholds and Doors
Gates, thresholds and doors are all symbolic entrances into new worlds. These entrances can be into a new life or they might represent communication between one world and another world, between the living and the dead. The symbolism between gate and threshold is very similar. The symbolism of a gate, though, suggests more of a protecting and guarding aspect while that of threshold suggests simply a passage from one realm to another realm.
In the book An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols, J.C. Cooper notes this guarding and protecting nature of gates. They are the "protective, sheltering aspect of the Great Mother." Usually they "are guarded by symbolic animals such as lions, dragons, bulls, dogs or fabulous beasts." Symbolism of gates is wide throughout history and mythology. Some of the symbols of gates Cooper observes are:
"The Gates of the East and West are the doors of the World Temple through which the sun passes morning and night. The 'strait gate' is the central point of communication between the lower and higher; the passage, in 'spiritual poverty' for initiates or at death, leading to new life. Like the eye of the needle, it symbolizes the spacelessness of the soul in passing through. The gate is associated with wisdom (Proverbs 8,3); kings sat in judgment at gates, probably as sacred places of divine power."
Certainly a well-known use of the word "gate" is as the threshold into heaven and the passage through the "pearly gates".Thresholds symbolize unguarded or protected passages between the profane and the sacred. As J.C. Cooper points out, they symbolize a passage "from an outer profane space to an inner sacred space." A certain boundary line is represented by a threshold and often this boundary is the boundary between the natural world and the supernatural world. Some of the better known threshold symbols noted by Cooper are the symbol of sinking in water, entering a dark forest or a going through a door in a wall. They all represent a passage from the known into the unknown.
Doors are feminine symbols. In Psychology and Alchemy, Jung noted that doors contain all the implications of the symbolic hole. The significance of the door, therefore, is the antithesis of the wall. In A Dictionary of Symbols, J.E. Cirlot makes an interesting observation about doors in discussing temple doors and altars:
"There is the same relationship between the temple-door and the altar as between the circumference and the centre; even though in each case the two component elements are the farthest apart, they are nonetheless, in a way, the closest since the one determines and reflects the other."
Cirlot notes that this is well illustrated in the architectural ornamentation of cathedrals where the facade is nearly always treated as an altar-piece. An interesting symbolism of doors is associated with Zodiacal signs. The summer solstice in Cancer is the "door of men" and symbolizes the dying power and descent of the sun, the Janua inferni. On the other hand, the winter solstice, in Capricorn, the "door of the gods", symbolizes the ascent and rising power of the sun, the Janua coeli.
The appearance of gates, thresholds and doors is a commonality to all story genres. Usually the hero passes through them to symbolically mark the beginning of his journey. In this sense they are places of departure symbolically similar to coastal ports next to great oceans from which voyages have ventured from throughout history. But these symbolic gateways seldom have the physical characteristics of objective doors or gates.
One important example of the symbolism of passageways is contained in Joseph Conrad's famous story Heart of Darkness and Marlow's trip to the trading company to receive his appointment. It is worth taking some time to examine this symbolism for it serves as one of the best examples of threshold symbolism in all of literature.
The beginning of his voyage up the Congo is the obvious place to look on as the beginning of his voyage to the symbolic "heart of darkness." However, Marlow's real voyage actually begins with the trading company for it is the trading company which possess the authority to send Marlow on this voyage in the first place. It is the true "gate" or "doorway" into the "heart of darkness."
Symbolic gates, thresholds and doors in stories are more often than not hidden within a subtle unobtrusive context as if the author is reminding us that although they are always part of our world it is not everyone who can see them. This is the position that Conrad takes for Marlow's voyage which really departs when Marlow walks down a hidden street on his way for his appointment with the trading company which runs the outpost up the Congo River. As Marlow relates to us in Heart of Darkness:
"A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar, I slipped through one of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to."
Within this context there appear two symbolic "gatekeepers" or guards to the world Marlow is about to enter. Like the subtleness of the gate itself which is hidden down a "deserted street" the guardians are not one's idea of the traditional guards as large, strong and masculine. Rather these guardians are two women:
"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slim one got up and walked straight at me - still knitting with down-cast eyes - and only just as I begin to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned around without a word and preceded me into a waiting room. I gave my name, and looked about."
It is significant that the two women are preoccupied with knitting a common activity with great symbolic associations through its relationship to the creating of knots.
As Cirlot observes in A Dictionary of Symbols, the knot is a complex symbol embracing several important meanings all related to the idea of a tightly closed link. This link might represent a continuity, a connection, a covenant. It might also represent Fate or that which binds man to his destiny. J.C. Cooper in An Illustrated Encyclopaedia reminds us that a knot is an ambivalent symbol since the powers of binding also imply those of loosening, of restraining but also of uniting. Paradoxically, the harder a knot is pulled the firmer it becomes and the greater the binding or the union.
"The Gates of the East and West are the doors of the World Temple through which the sun passes morning and night. The 'strait gate' is the central point of communication between the lower and higher; the passage, in 'spiritual poverty' for initiates or at death, leading to new life. Like the eye of the needle, it symbolizes the spacelessness of the soul in passing through. The gate is associated with wisdom (Proverbs 8,3); kings sat in judgment at gates, probably as sacred places of divine power."
Certainly a well-known use of the word "gate" is as the threshold into heaven and the passage through the "pearly gates".Thresholds symbolize unguarded or protected passages between the profane and the sacred. As J.C. Cooper points out, they symbolize a passage "from an outer profane space to an inner sacred space." A certain boundary line is represented by a threshold and often this boundary is the boundary between the natural world and the supernatural world. Some of the better known threshold symbols noted by Cooper are the symbol of sinking in water, entering a dark forest or a going through a door in a wall. They all represent a passage from the known into the unknown.
Doors are feminine symbols. In Psychology and Alchemy, Jung noted that doors contain all the implications of the symbolic hole. The significance of the door, therefore, is the antithesis of the wall. In A Dictionary of Symbols, J.E. Cirlot makes an interesting observation about doors in discussing temple doors and altars:
"There is the same relationship between the temple-door and the altar as between the circumference and the centre; even though in each case the two component elements are the farthest apart, they are nonetheless, in a way, the closest since the one determines and reflects the other."
Cirlot notes that this is well illustrated in the architectural ornamentation of cathedrals where the facade is nearly always treated as an altar-piece. An interesting symbolism of doors is associated with Zodiacal signs. The summer solstice in Cancer is the "door of men" and symbolizes the dying power and descent of the sun, the Janua inferni. On the other hand, the winter solstice, in Capricorn, the "door of the gods", symbolizes the ascent and rising power of the sun, the Janua coeli.
The appearance of gates, thresholds and doors is a commonality to all story genres. Usually the hero passes through them to symbolically mark the beginning of his journey. In this sense they are places of departure symbolically similar to coastal ports next to great oceans from which voyages have ventured from throughout history. But these symbolic gateways seldom have the physical characteristics of objective doors or gates.
One important example of the symbolism of passageways is contained in Joseph Conrad's famous story Heart of Darkness and Marlow's trip to the trading company to receive his appointment. It is worth taking some time to examine this symbolism for it serves as one of the best examples of threshold symbolism in all of literature.
The beginning of his voyage up the Congo is the obvious place to look on as the beginning of his voyage to the symbolic "heart of darkness." However, Marlow's real voyage actually begins with the trading company for it is the trading company which possess the authority to send Marlow on this voyage in the first place. It is the true "gate" or "doorway" into the "heart of darkness."
"A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar, I slipped through one of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to."
Within this context there appear two symbolic "gatekeepers" or guards to the world Marlow is about to enter. Like the subtleness of the gate itself which is hidden down a "deserted street" the guardians are not one's idea of the traditional guards as large, strong and masculine. Rather these guardians are two women:
"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slim one got up and walked straight at me - still knitting with down-cast eyes - and only just as I begin to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned around without a word and preceded me into a waiting room. I gave my name, and looked about."
It is significant that the two women are preoccupied with knitting a common activity with great symbolic associations through its relationship to the creating of knots.
As Cirlot observes in A Dictionary of Symbols, the knot is a complex symbol embracing several important meanings all related to the idea of a tightly closed link. This link might represent a continuity, a connection, a covenant. It might also represent Fate or that which binds man to his destiny. J.C. Cooper in An Illustrated Encyclopaedia reminds us that a knot is an ambivalent symbol since the powers of binding also imply those of loosening, of restraining but also of uniting. Paradoxically, the harder a knot is pulled the firmer it becomes and the greater the binding or the union.
Many knots may also create a net or a web. In fact the two women may be seen as symbolically creating a net, or like spiders, weaving a web to catch prey. Marlow might be viewed as this prey who is about to get caught in their web.
