If we want to grow, we need to open the portals of consciousness that govern the bandwidth of awareness. The trick is knowing what these portals are and opening them in the right order. Do you know what they are and how to access and open them?
Doors and windows represent portals in a contained space. Windows let light in, allowing us to see the outside world while keeping us safe from the elements. Doors serve the purpose of keeping out the elements and securing the inner space. Doors are more secure than windows, but windows allow us to view outdoors.
Symbolically, windows and doors relate to consciousness and awareness. They can appear in dreams, visions, and altered states like the shamanic journey. What do they mean?
The Symbolism of Windows
The short answer to these questions reminds me of the answer an attorney will give you: it depends. It depends on your unique history in relation to the typology of these elements. For some people, doors and windows are scary because of their personal history. Other people don’t have any negative experiences attached.
Chances are you are reading this because windows and doors have some type of significance in your life. If that is the case, we’ll try to provide some guidance on answering the question, what do windows symbolize in your life?
Many factors affect the meaning of the window symbol. Windows can provide a clear or distorted view depending on the light source, shutters, drapery, or blinds. Is the window open or closed? You can be on the inside of a room looking out or on the outside looking in. You can be at varying distances or angles to the window. How many windows are there? How does it make you feel?
The Symbolism of Stained Glass Windows
Glass windows with colored panes can form various designs and have two main symbolic meanings. The first way is to see the colors they emit into the space can symbolize the beauty of light, the beauty of consciousness. And, the second way is how the colors and patterns in the stained glass obscure our vision of reality outside the window.
Ancient typologies for windows are no longer viable because our cultural narrative has changed significantly. In the past, wooden shutters covered the windows. Windows were made of paper in China; the Romans discovered how to smelt and form windows made of glass around 100 CE.
Modern glass is more durable. They are a complex mixture of sand, soda ash, dolomite, limestone, and salt cake heated to over 1500 degrees. The glass is set in sashes made of everything from wood, aluminum, fiberglass, and composite to vinyl. They can open or slide in a variety of ways.
Most of the early glass windows had bubbles and other distortions because it was difficult to manufacture clear glass. Glass windows were not something everyone could afford, which is why stained glass windows became a status symbol in the 12th century. These historical references are not part of the current cultural folklore, so the symbolism of windows has fragmented depending on your relationship with this object. The symbolism of stained glass windows in churches was a way of flaunting their wealth.
What Do Windows Symbolize in Your Life?
The window is a metaphor for many things. The stories of gods and heroes in the legends of Charlemagne provide us with a glimpse of its rich symbolism. We see the window as one of the portals of consciousness through which Anaxarete watches a funeral procession of the fallen deity, Iphis.
Upon seeing the corpse, the blood in her veins turned cold, and she was frozen solid. There is a statue of her at the temple of Venus at Salamis to commemorate this event. The window opened a doorway of perception that she could not handle. So, the window was the gateway to hell. (1)
A Pathway to Truth?
The window often represents the pathway to some truth. Mystics talk of the window as the object between the seer and divinity. (2)
If you want to answer the question, what do windows symbolize in your life? Get out your journal and begin writing. Answer these questions.
- Do you have significant memories that include windows?
- Are the windows in your dreams colored or clear?
- Do you have any significant feelings associated with windows or a specific window?
The more you ponder the subject, the more associations you’ll likely find.
The Symbolism of Windows in Dreams
One prominent place we find the metaphor of the window is in our dreams. Dreams add another level of complexity to the symbol because we each have a unique meaning with all symbols in dreams, and the window is no exception. Dreams are one of the three primary windows of awareness, along with waking and sleeping.
To answer the question of what windows symbolize in dreams, you must decipher the personal meaning.
- How does the window manifest?
- What is your physical relationship to it?
- Are you looking through the window from the inside of a building? Or are you looking into the building from the outside?
- Is the window in a wall or standing on its own?
- What do you see when you look through the window?
- What is going on emotionally? How does it make you feel?
If these show up in your dreams, you should investigate the source. One of the best ways to understand the subconscious mind is by deciphering the symbolism of windows in dreams.
The Four Windows of Self — Portals of Consciousness
Think of these four windows as an analogy to help you remember these elements of consciousness. It is critical to unlock the windows of awareness in the proper order.
1) Reason
2) Self-Observation
3) Intuition and
4) Emotion
Think of this as a process, like baking a cake. You need to follow the recipe, add the right ingredients in the correct order, and cook at the right temperature for the right amount of time. If you follow the recipe, you get something delicious. If not, you get a mess. Don’t skip steps. Otherwise, you will not achieve the desired result, which is to expand awareness. Why would we want to do this?
Expanding the Range of Awareness
When we expand our awareness, we increase several aspects of the mind, including memory efficiency, greater analytical ability, and emotional equilibrium.
Each of the portals of consciousness affects awareness differently. Each has its own way of transcending and expanding consciousness. Some ways work better than others, depending on your personality, instincts, experience, and health.
Opening the Four Windows of Awareness
The four windows of self-awareness are available to everyone, but it is important to unlock and open them in the proper order. The first portal is the use of logical reasoning because everything we do with the other windows depends on the anchor of clear thinking.
For example, some people try to expand awareness using meditation alone, but if their minds harbor harmful biases and prejudices, meditation will not remove these thinking patterns. Or, if we learn to observe our thoughts but cannot recognize the harmful programming, we are stuck. If our intuition is clouded by negative thinking, we don’t understand its messages. If we rely on emotion as a means of decision-making without logic to guide it, we make mistakes.
However, using these ingredients in the correct order will bring about positive changes in thinking. Meditation will provide a more consistent connection with the transcendent. We achieve clarity of intuitive messages and maintain healthy emotional equilibrium, even in a crisis. It increases the bandwidth of self-awareness, making us more present. It allows the real you, the Observer, to be in the driver’s seat of awareness instead of the habitual thinking of the Ego.
One of the first places the Observer makes its presence known is in dreams. Lucid dreaming can facilitate this transformation of awareness.
We are the Observer. We are not our personality or instincts, which are part of our ego; these are just tools that connect our consciousness to our bodies. The Ego contains the critic, the negative voice of the Ego. Sadly, many people think they are either their body or their Ego, but the “real you” is the Observer.
When you open these four windows of awareness in the proper order, you create a chain reaction that propels our mental and spiritual growth. Opening them expands the bandwidth of our perception. When awareness grows, we increase our capabilities on several levels.
You don’t have to go anywhere to find these portals of consciousness, and you don’t need to join a religion because you will not find these keys in any famous religious texts. These windows are within your consciousness. Here we go.
Reasoning And Rational Thinking
The first window we must open is the window of reasoning. It begins the expansion process by bringing your analytical capabilities online, enabling common sense and wisdom to shine through. Common sense and logical reasoning will help you uncover your internal deceptions. It also allows you to shine your light outward at the right time for the right audience.
Increasing the bandwidth of reasoning and common sense helps us connect to our intuitive powers, improving our self-awareness. Self-awareness takes us beyond the Ego. It allows the Observer of our consciousness to come to the forefront. The Observer is the awareness we are talking to inside our heads. It’s the real you.
Expanding our range of critical thinking skills will increase the scope of perception. You’ll need to do this before trying to use the other keys. We’ve divided this key into three tools: logical reasoning, spotting logical fallacies, and the truth-seeker’s axioms. Together they will help you determine fact from fiction and theory from mythology. Analytical thinking is necessary to decipher the symbolism of windows and doors in your subconscious.
Using this tool makes unlocking the next window possible. Strange as it may seem, logic and intuition are not opposites. They are complementary tools that work together.
Self-Observation
When most people hear the term self-observation, they think of the senses or observing the body. But it’s really about being able to monitor your thoughts and feelings without judgment. The last part is the hardest because we learn to assign values to everything. When we judge, we give values such as good or bad, and this assessment changes the intrinsic value of whatever we observe. Our valuation of the thought distorts the original.
So, the key to self-observation is learning to do so without judging, accepting yourself as you, then enabling you to change it. If you try to change any thought pattern, you must first take it in its original form. To do this, we need to think logically. That is why we must first enhance our ability to reason. Then, we can use the insight to apply techniques for self-observation.
Intuition
The third of the four windows of self is our intuition. It’s the ability to discern the hidden with the heart. The window is the window of unrelenting love. Once we can think logically without the inference of mythology and superstition, we can observe our thoughts without judgment. Clarity of inward observation opens the window to allow our intuition to speak. Expanding our range of intuition increases our ability to discern fact from fiction.
Once we have a foundation of common sense, our intuitive mind makes more sense. When reasoning and intuition work together, the third window of awareness opens, and the Observer shows up.
Intuition is the ability to gain knowledge without proof or evidence. Intuition is insight without the use of reasoning. We don’t know where the answers come from; they just arrive. Different writers give the word intuition different meanings. It ranges from mystical insight to unconscious pattern recognition.
The word intuition is often misused or mistranslated as instinct, truth, and belief. The word for intuition comes from the Latin verb intueri, which means to contemplate. So, intuition and reason seem to be two different roads, but perhaps just different paths to the same conclusion.
Once you’ve opened the first window, you are ready to cultivate your intuition to encourage its growth. It involves learning to focus on the power of your intention. Your mind is like a garden. To get the flowers you want, you must tend the soil. Then, plant the right seeds, water, and weed.
Emotion
Our emotions are the fuel of our mental processes. Within the symbolism of windows and doors, emotion is what enables us to open and move through. Emotional turmoil is the link behind the most popular love songs. A broken heart exposes the link between emotion, mind, and body. Losing a loved one or anything you love is like severing your soul.
Emotions are the final ingredient and, when used correctly, will empower us to do good. Emotional regulation (3) is a skill that can be used to gain and maintain emotional equilibrium.
Cognitive reappraisal, which involves changing the emotional link to memories and thinking, is the strategy used for this. The easiest way to do this is through a guided meditative process, but it can also be done solo.
We have a detailed article on this process called Delving into Memories. The important thing to note is that you do not start with this process; this is the last of 4 windows.
Revealing The Observer
Here’s the goal: we finally “see” without interference. We need all of these windows open to get past the Ego and any negative programming of the cultural narrative. It’s the window of the Seer and the Shaman.
There are several ways to reveal the real you, the person you are talking to inside your head. This entity is the Observer who “Sees” all of your experience but is silent and unjudgemental. Some traditions call this the Soul or Spirit. We forget the Observer looks out through the “windows of awareness.”
“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” ― Ramana Maharshi
The experience of the Observer is the natural outgrowth of consciousness. One glimpses this vantage point by reaching the fourth state of pure consciousness. This window can be opened using a process like Japa Meditation or the commercial version of the technique known as Transcendental Meditation. We teach Japa as part of the meditation progression of our blended learning process.
Ask yourself some questions. Is this a portal to the spirit world or my subconscious mind? What feelings does this object conjure? Am I fearful of what I see or may see?
The Symbolism of Windows and Doors — Summary
The window analogy helps us remember the correct process for expanding awareness. It is the key to unlocking the four windows of self in the proper order. Expanding our range of awareness makes us whole.
“Strong people have a strong sense of self-worth and self-awareness; they don’t need the approval of others.” ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
Analytical reasoning comes first, intuition second, and then the Observer’s window. Don’t rush past the first two while trying to reach the Eureka experience without grounding in reasoning and intuition.
References
(1) Bulfinch’s Mythology, The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, The Legends of Charlemagne, 1913.
(2) Mysticism, A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness, by Evelyn Underhill, 1911.
(3) Emotion regulation: National Library of Medicine