Magic Mirror on the Wall...

Although mirrors have many scientific and decorative uses, for most people a mirror is merely a practical tool for looking at themselves. Therefore, in a large part of the world the mirror is a symbol of vanity. One expression of this can be found in the myth of Narkissos (Narcissus) who fell in love with his own reflected image, which he admired in a well until he perished. He was transformed into the flower, narcissus.

There are other versions of the story, telling about a twin sister, and that he fell in love with her, she died, and then he admired her looks in his own appearance. This takes away a little of the moral message on vanity.

“What does a mirror look at?”

(Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune)

In Japan, however, a mirror is a symbol of truth and wisdom. Truth, because it shows how things really are, and wisdom as a result of self-reflection. It has positive connotations. Yata no Kagami [Jap. 八咫鏡 - “Eight Span Mirror”], is a sacred mirror, a part of the Imperial Regalia. It is said to be stored in the Grand Shrine at Ise, although it is not displayed publicly.

For the Chinese, a mirror attracted the essence of yin and yang, and in many places on Earth, mirrors are or have been connected to various forms of magic. That is also the case in literature. Some examples are the old fairy tale Snow White; Oscar Wilde; Dorian Gray's Portrait; Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; The Lady of Shallot; J. W. v. Goethe; Faust.

“And moving thro' a mirror clear

That hangs before her all the year,

Shadows of the world appear.”

(Tennyson, The Lady of Shallot, 1842 version.)

And why not some modern fantasy as well, such as Stephen Donaldson; Mordant's Need, or J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Or, a just slightly older, from Papa Tolkien himself, The Fellowship of the Ring with “The Mirror of Galadriel”.

Then we must not forget that a broken mirror is an omen of seven years of bad luck! That has to do with the wide-spread idea that mirrors are connected with souls. If you break your mirror image, you harm your soul. That the bad luck lasts seven years should not surprise anyone. Seven is a recurring number in all sorts of superstition, although here it comes via the Roman belief that the whole you, your life, is renewed in seven years.

Another connection between mirrors and souls in folklore: a creature without a soul, which would include vampires, is said to have no reflection in a mirror.

When you look in the mirror, have you never wondered why it shifts right and left, but not up and down?

Well, it doesn't primarily shift right and left, that is an illusion. It shifts front and back, which forms our frame of reference to left and right (but not to up and down) - thus it also shifts right and left for our perception.

“Sometimes we can’t see what’s right in front of us,

because it’s behind us, and we’re looking in a mirror. ”

(Jarod Kintz)

Also, do you realise that in a mirror you are not seeing yourself as others see you? Not only do you see yourself with right and left switched, you are looking at a person who is doing nothing else than looking at herself or himself. A very strange social situation, or perhaps we should say it is asocial. Unnatural, if you wish. What happens with the communication through eye contact when you meet your own eyes? What signals are you giving to yourself? Is this isolated circuit of someone staring into his or her own eyes creating some form of closed emotional feedback loop?

An interesting cultural observation is that a culture's ability to create mirrors and its interest in making and using them are going in tandem with a strong feeling of individual ego. It probably has to do with historical periods when the personal consciousness has been strong. That's when humans have or have had the ability to think of themselves from outside, as objects, how others might perceive them, to make a distinction between inside and outside. This is not trivial, it requires a small section of the mind to be isolated as a consciousness.

(This article is an extract from my e-book "From Vision to Visual Music", 2017.)

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