Ladders

Currently I am working on something out of my realm; or is it? I saw an image on a ceiling, yes, my inspiration comes from everything. But it reminded me of a ladder, but it appeared to have a sword as one of the rungs. So I began....however, once again the painting took over, there was already something there wanting to emerge from the canvas. What do you do? Allow it to speak, control, and be born. The one ladder turned to many, almost as if they were falling, but where to, where from, better question, why am I seeing this? So I decided to look up some of the meanings for ladders. Here is what I found:

Psychological Meaning:

A ladder may represent the different levels of consciousness between man and his divine self. It is a symbol of achieving personal wholeness. As a worldly symbol, climbing a ladder may represent progress such as achieving status, power or an important goal. Descending a ladder may represent the opposite or an escape from your spiritual responsibilities.

Mystical Meaning:

The Biblical story of Jacob’s ladder is a symbol for the communication between this world and the spiritual realms. Similarly, in Mesopotamia the Ziggurat was named ‘the ladder to heaven’. In psychological terms this mystic symbolism can be understood as the communication between the true self and the ego. Consider this quote from Twitchell: “The higher one climbs on the spiritual ladder, the more he will grant others their own freedom and give less interference to another’s state of consciousness.”

So now the even more questions arise....am I climbing up or down? Am I achieving a goal, or throwing it away? Am I searching for something to help guide my life to where I need to be?