The Kathreftis Logocosm

What is the mirror's identity before someone looks at?

We look at a wall; we look through a window; but we look into a mirror.
When we investigate something unknown, mysterious, perhaps diabolical, we say we are looking into it.

Clearly there is a universe inside the mirror.

It is easy to see the mirror simply as a metaphor for looking at or into one's self. But is that really all it is? Is that really all it is when we remember the arbitrariness of our distinctions? Let the distinctions dissolve as they so easily can and so often do, and the possibilities seem infinite, as indeed they should. The mirror is not simply an object, but a tool of consciousness, and therefore a component of consciousness, and therefore -- conscious.

The mirror is a black hole. Collapsing into itself, it is an irresistible vacuum drawing in everything that comes near, ultimately depositing these things... where?

We do not see a mirror, we see what is reflected. Or to put it another way, the mirror does not give us itself. We like to keep our distance from life, to avoid danger, to objectify, to merely understand when we should be experiencing or transforming, to name things rather than truly encountering them. The mirror allows for none of this. To all but the most shallow, the mirror is by definition a journey to faraway, and to desperately close, which are the same.

Electricity is a force, gravity is a force, the mirror is a force, drawing persons and objects toward it and eventually into it, and also repelling.

It is almost too easy to compare the mirror to the television or the movie screen. All are tools of projection and ingestion. Projection of drama and comedy, ingestion of drama and comedy, they cannot be distinguished.

If we stand behind the mirror, we take on its reflective force. We become that type of person that is always pushing the attention onto some other person or situation, usually because ze (he or she) is uncomfortable being the object of attention. Thus the mirror can be a form of keeping others at a distance, being defensive, hiding something. The mirror hides something in the very act of showing something.

The mirror is a house, a storage and shelter for angels and demons, specters, ghosts, "extraterrestrials," gods and goddesses. To look is to enter. To enter this house is to stir them, so that they walk or fly all about. If no one is looking, they remain still and relaxed, perhaps even bored, like the so-called reality show in which a group of strangers agree to live together in the same house, endlessly reflecting each other while cameras record their every movement and their every interaction.

The mirror that is covered with a sheet or blanket, or sitting in complete darkness, is homeless and perhaps without identity.

Water becomes a mirror when it rests, thus a mirror is a form of water. Water is the opportunity for the universe, or any component of nature, to observe itself. Water is the mirror of the universe. Objects in the universe are then enabled to primp, to self evaluate, to prepare for an upcoming version of a social event in nature. Perhaps objects in the universe have a form of vanity. When the mirror is pointed toward – aimed at - someone who is ashamed of hurmself (him or herself), it becomes a psychological weapon.

If we are not bound to arbitrary scientific distinctions, the mirror is easily seen as a miracle.