The Latin word for mirror (speculum) has given us the verb “to speculate”; and originally speculation was scanning the sky and the related movement of the stars by means of a mirror. The Latin for star (sidus) has also give us the word “consideration” which, etymologically, means to scan the stars as a whole. An inscription on a Chinese mirror in the museum in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) reads: “Like the Sun like the Moon, like water and like gold, be clean and bright and reflect what is in your heart.” It is compared to a spiritual experience in Christian and Muslim writings. For example, in 2 Corinthians 3:18, St. Paul writes: “The human heart [is] the mirror which reflects God.” In the Japanese myth of Amaterasu, the mirror draws the divine light out of the cavern and reflects it upon the world.
Most often in dreams, we see ourselves in a mirror. We tend to look slightly different, and it is in those differences that we can interpret the message. Remember the little things – was my hair thinner? my skin more radiant? my body smaller? Did my reflection please me? puzzle me? horrify me? I believe that seeing ourselves in a mirror is the most direct connection to how we see ourselves at any given moment or in any given situation. It can confirm our decisions, it can jar us into much needed change, and it can make us laugh at the illusions we carry with us during the day.
