One of my astrology clients just wrote to me about a
book called: The House As Mirror of the
Self. I knew immediately that I loved this idea because I’ve been living
it, and perhaps you have too
Have you ever
walked into a house and felt it right
away? Has a house told you about the
unspoken life of the person who lived within it?
Have you ever thought of all the different places
you’ve lived in your life and how each space reflected something that reflected
your inner life as well? Think of the progression from your childhood room to
the dorm room, to the first apartment to the first house…can you see what has
endured and what has changed in each move?
Have you noticed how your living space reflects you?
Do you need to be spacious with an “open floor plan” or are you like me, going
for an older house of character that has “cozy rooms.” No place is perfect: we
must sacrifice something in every choice we make with a house, but we also make
conscious and unconscious decisions along the way: I want this color in the
living room, I want this comfy chair, or
I must knock down this wall…who knows all the reasons why?
The author of this book says that what is most
revealing about ourselves—and the inner/outer metaphor—is less about the
building itself and more about what we
choose to put in our space, and how we arrange things. How do we feather
our nest? How will we paint the walls? And what cherished objects will we
choose to have around us that we’ve carried from house to house?
Although our house reflects something about who we are,
it never seems to be quite perfect. Perhaps that makes room for growth to
happen, both within our psyches and within our rooms For me, as much as I love
the little rooms in this old house, I often feel the need to stretch those
walls out! But I can’t. However, I see myself in the objects on the mantel over
the fireplace: the old clock, my astrolabe, the zither, and that photograph. I see myself in the cozy kitchen with the
sturdy red chairs I’ve carried with me from house to house. Some things I need.
Interesting too how the rooms in this house feel so
different from each other—is it true too for the rooms in my psyche? For me
there are public rooms and private rooms. Rooms that are dressed and rooms that
are simply meant for work; rooms for comfort and rooms for utility. Like me, the
house “needs work still.”
The Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, had the resources
and time to play out this idea of house
as mirror for the Self. In his later life he built a separate house for
himself away from his family house—a stone
house on the shores of a lake. In this cherished house he cooked without
electricity in a primitive kitchen and painted oversized murals on the stucco
walls. What started out as a one room tower grew larger every year…and he wrote
that each addition to his house was a growth in consciousness. He saw himself
as being less of a Swiss gentleman and more of a “natural man” so his creation
reflected that part of himself. Ah…we should all be so lucky to be able to do
that!
But I love my home, and I’ll continue to live within
this space that holds me so well now. Yes, this house holds me, and I feel blessed to live in a place that has sheltered
people for almost 200 years. I am grateful too for the chance to have rescued this house in foreclosure and
bring it back to life. A house that was unwanted for so many years.
Hm…what in me
was rescued? Meanwhile I’ll continue to bless these sturdy wide floorboards and
these sturdy colonial walls that have kept the fury of winter away…
