Two doors or four?

 Hail!

Everyone knows that our  old towns are often laid out in a cross-shape, with four main streets going to four doors or gates, which ideally should mark the four cardinal points: that is, north, east, south and west.   In the middle of the town, where the two main streets meet, there should be some kind of markstone or pillar, which is often called a "cross".  But these are seldom met with and seem to have evolved almost everywhere into a kind of spire-like architectural feature on a stepped base.  Indeed we often find that the stepped base is a little hill in its own right,  more akin to a little stepped pyramid than anything else.  The following town plan of Bristol shows one of these features at its heart.   It was called the "alta crux" or high cross and is now to be seen in the park at Stourhead House in Wiltshire.  A further evolution of such things, and which may be understood as the decadence of the original idea, will have this cross become one of those odd little civic buildings which are sometimes met with where the old cross was once sited.  

 Above: Robert Ricart's map of Bristol, in the ms. The Maire of Bristowe, his Kalendar. He was the common clerk of the town from 1478 to 1506, and his drawing was the first such plan of an English town ᛋ

At Exeter and at Oxford, the middle of the old town is, or was once, called "carfax" which, like the French "carrefour", is an old word for a cross-roads,  from quarrefo(u)rcs  or carrefourcs, as if "four forks".

Now some will say that it all stems from Christian symbolism, and others say it stems from the layout of a Roman castra.  But as we find so often, it is in fact much older.   In the Mānasāra, one of the traditional  Hindu treatises on Vāstuśāstra "science of architecture", we find a number of traditional layouts for towns.  One of  them is called Sarvatobhadra (सर्वतोभद्र) “auspicious from all sides”, and in Prasanna Kumar Acharya's  awending thereof we find a plan:

Look familiar?  Of course it does.  Now this layout is the basis of many a maṇḍalā and yantrā́ and can be thought of as a symbolic representation of the cosmos in some way.    Madhu Khanna's study of Yantra (1994) lvs. 32 and 33:

"The square is the fundamental format of most yantras.. It is the substratum, the recptacle and base of the manifest world...contained by the compass points of the four cardinal directions...   At the periphery of the figure are four T-shaped portals, placed at the four cardinal directions and known as cosmic doors because it is through them that the aspirant symbolically enters the cosmic force-field.  ...".

Now, in the work called Περὶ τοῦ ἐν Ὀδύσσειᾳ τῶν Νυμφῶν Ἄντρου - On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey, by "the celebrated philosopher Porphyry" (De Civitate Dei 7.25 “Porphyrius, philosophus nobilis”) as Augustine of Hippo calls him,   we read of two cosmic doors.  One north and one south linked to the zodiac signs of Capricorn and Cancer, or rather the tropical points in those signs:

δύο εἶναι ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄκρα, ὧν οὔτε νοτιώτερόν ἐστι τοῦ χειμερινοῦ τροπικοῦ οὔτε βορειότερον τοῦ θερινοῦ. ἔστι δ' ὁ μὲν θερινὸς κατὰ καρκίνον, ὁ δὲ χειμερινὸς κατ' αἰγόκερων. ….

 δύο οὖν ταύτας ἔθεντο πύλας καρκίνον καὶ αἰγόκερων οἱ θεολόγοι, Πλάτων δὲ δύο στόμια ἔφη· τούτων δὲ καρκίνον μὲν εἶναι δι' οὗ κατίασιν αἱ ψυχαί, αἰγόκερων δὲ δι' οὗ ἀνίασιν.  ἀλλὰ καρκίνος μὲν βόρειος καὶ καταβατικός, αἰγόκερως δὲ νότιος καὶ ἀναβατικός. ἔστι δὲ τὰ μὲν βόρεια ψυχῶν εἰς γένεσιν κατιουσῶν, καὶ ὀρθῶς καὶ τοῦ ἄντρου αἱ πρὸς βορρᾶν πύλαι καταβαταὶ ἀνθρώποις· τὰ δὲ νότια οὐ θεῶν, ἀλλὰ τῶν εἰς θεοὺς ἀνιουσῶν, ...

… there are two extremities in the heavens, viz., the winter tropic, than which nothing is more southern, and the summer tropic, than which nothing is more northern. But the summer tropic is in Cancer, and the winter tropic in Capricorn. …

11. Theologists therefore assert, that these two gates are Cancer and Capricorn; but Plato calls them entrances. And of these, theologists say, that Cancer is the gate through which souls descend; but Capricorn that through which they ascend. Cancer is indeed northern, and adapted to descent; but Capricorn is southern, and adapted to ascent. The northern parts, likewise, pertain to souls descending into generation. And the gates of the cavern which are turned to the north are rightly said to be pervious to the descent of men; but the southern gates are not the avenues of the Gods, but of souls ascending to the Gods.

And it doesn't require a great intellect to work out that the signs half way between these, namely Aries and Libra where the equinoxes fall, could also be thought of as doors marking the east and west.  And indeed  from what Porphyry sort of says about the likeness of Mithras having its tokening from Aries/Taurus hints at this.   But it is in Sallustius' Περί Θεών καὶ Κόσμου where we find a slightly plainer  statement.  For the mysteries of Attis held at the spring equinox are there linked to the idea of "spirits rising higher" whilst the greater mysteries of Kore/Persephone held at the autumnal equinox are linked to "the descent of souls": 

Οὕτω δὲ πρὸς τὸν Κόσμον οἰκείως ἔχοντος τοῦ μύθου, ἡμεῖς τὸν Κόσμον μιμούμενοι - πῶς γὰρ ἄν μᾶλλον κοσμηθείημεν; - ἑορτὴν ἄγομεν διὰ ταῦτα· καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ὡς αὐτοὶ πεσόντες ἑξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῇ Νύμφῃ συνόντες ἐν κατηφείᾳ ἐσμὲν σίτου τε καὶ τῆς ἄλλης παχείας καὶ ῥυπαρᾶς τροφῆς ἀπεχόμεθα, ἑκάτερα γὰρ ἐναντία ψυχῇ· εἶτα δένδρου τομαὶ καὶ νηστεία ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμῶν ἀποκοπτομένων τὴν περαιτέρω τῆς γενέσεως πρόοδον· ἐπὶ τούτοις γάλακτος τροφὴ ὥσπερ ἀναγεννωμένων· ἐφ'οἷς ἱλαρία καὶ στέφανοι καὶ πρὸς τοὺς Θεοὺς οἷον ἐπάνοδος. Μαρτυρεῖ δὲ τούτοις καὶ ὁ τῶν δρομένων καιρός· περὶ γὰρ τὸ ἔαρ καὶ τὴν ἰσημερίαν δρᾶται τὰ δρώμενα, ὅτε τοῦ μὲν γίνεσθαι παύεται τὰ γινόμενα ἡμέρα δὲ μείζων γίνεται τῆς νυκτός, ὅπερ οἰκεῖον ἀναγομέναις ψυχαῖς. Περὶ γοῦν τὴν ἐναντίαν ἰσημερίαν ἡ τῆς Κόρης ἁρπαγὴ μυθολογεῖται γενέσθαι, ὅ δὴ κάθοδος ἐστι τῶν ψυχῶν.  

Thus, as the myth is in accord with the Cosmos, we for that reason keep a festival imitating the Cosmos, for how could we attain higher order?  And at first we ourselves, having fallen from heaven and living with the Nymph, are in despondency, and abstain from corn and all rich and unclean food, for both are hostile to the soul. Then comes the cutting of the tree and the fast, as though we also were cutting off the further process of generation. After that the feeding on milk, as though we were being born again;  after which come rejoicings and garlands and, as it were, a return up to the Gods.

The season of the ritual is evidence to the truth of these explanations. The rites are performed about the Vernal Equinox, when the fruits of the earth are ceasing to be produced, and day is becoming longer than night, which applies well to Spirits rising higher.  (At least, the other equinox is in mythology the time of the Rape of Kore, which is the descent of the souls.)

So we in theory have two ways in:  one at the summer solstice in Cancer and another at the autumnal equinox in Libra which are the northern and western doors respectively.  And two ways out: the southern door at the winter solstice in Capricorn, and the eastern door at the spring equinox in Aries.  The tokening of Cancer repeats itself in Libra (earlier thought of as the claws of Scorpio) and likewise that of Capricorn is repeated in Aries.  So when we hear of two doors in stead of four we can think that the four ways in and out were reduced down so that their essential twofold function was only being considered.   And we have also marked before how Mercury or Hermes was quadratus deus solus "the only fourfold god" (Capella On the Wedding of Mercurius and Philologia, Book VII De Tetrade §754) but also understood as functionally two in one so to speak, who "leads souls out and back" (“Mercurius enim, qui animas ducere et reducere solet,...” – Petronius Satyricon 140.).   Synesius Αιγύπτιος ή περί προνοίας λόγοι δύο:

"The conception, indeed, my son, of your forefathers in the formation of sacred images, is perfectly admirable. For the Egyptians make a twofold representation of the daemon Hermes, placing a young by the side of an elderly man, intending to signify by this, that he who rightly inspects [sacred concerns] ought to be both intelligent and strong, one of these being imperfect in affording utility without the other. On this account, also, a sphinx is established by us in the vestibules of our temples, as a sacred symbol of the conjunction of these two goods; the beast in this figure signifying strength, but the man wisdom.  For strength when destitute of the ruling aid of wisdom, is borne along with stupid astonishment, mingling and confounding all things; and intellect is useless for the purposes of action, when it is deprived of the subserviency of hands. "

[awend. Thomas Taylor]

For the Romans however, Janus is pre-eminently the god of doorways, and almost everyone knows he is the god with the two faces bifrons.   The tokening of which is given by Augustine in the eighth book of his De Civitate Dei, drawing on a lost work of Varro:

Sed iam bifrontis simulacri interpretatio proferatur. Duas eum facies ante et retro habere dicunt, quod hiatus noster, cum os aperimus, mundo similis uideatur; unde et palatum Graeci οὐρανόν appellant, et nonnulli, inquit, poetae Latini caelum uocauerunt palatum, a quo hiatu oris et foras esse aditum ad dentes uersus et introrsus ad fauces.

But now let the interpretation of the two-faced image be produced. For they say that it has two faces, one before and one behind, because our gaping mouths seem to resemble the world: whence the Greeks call the palate οὐρανός, and some Latin poets, he says, have called the heavens palatum [the palate]; and from the gaping mouth, they say, there is a way out in the direction of the teeth, and a way in in the direction of the gullet.

Augustine is revelling in what he clearly regards as an absurdity, and it is maybe not a metaphor of the highest kind, but the palate, palatum, is so called from its resemblance to the vault of the heavens and stems from the Etruscan word faladum, “sky”. And we can see it is groping its way to express the idea of two doors, one in and one out.   And we will not be unduly surprised to discover that there was also a four faced Janus quadrifrons, and John Lydus outfolds these four faces in his fourth book Περὶ τῶν μηνῶν - On the Months as betokening the four τρόποι, by which he means the solstices and equinoxes, all of which the Greeks were accustomed to call by this name:

"...ἔνθεν καὶ τετράμορφον ἀπὸ τῶν τεσσάρων τροπῶν· καὶ τοιοῦτον αὐτοῦ ἄγαλμα ἐν τῷ

φόρῳ τοῦ Νερβᾶ ἔτι καὶ νῦν λέγεται σεσωσμένον.”

"...he is also [said to be] quadruple in form, from the four "turns" [i.e., the solstices and equinoxes]—and a statue of him of this type is said to be preserved even now in the Forum of Nerva ..." [awend. Mischa Hooker]

2.8 “ἀλλὰ μὴν τέσσαρές τε ἡλίου τροπαί, καθ' ἃς τὰ ὄντα συντηρεῖται, ἰσημερίαι δύο, θερινὴ

καὶ χειμερινὴ τροπή.”

“But further, there are four "turnings" of the sun, in accordance with which existing things are preserved: the two equinoxes, and the summer and winter solstices.”[awend. Mischa Hooker]

So we can see that the so-called god of doors presides over the four great cosmic doors, and such a door-keeper is a good deal more than a janitor to the gods, but much more like a god of gods.  Thus Lydus also evens him to Æon, and in the East it is Brahma who has four faces.

So where do our heavenly twins fit in to all this you may well ask?   Well we know that they are also doorkeepers.  Cautes and Cautopates the torch-bearers  who accompany Mithras seem to imply that some folk thought that one kept the doorway going up, whilst one kept the doorway going down. In his Guardians of the Sundoor, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy does a wonderful job tracing how the "scorpion men" who open the gates of the setting and rising sun in ancient Sumeria  become understood as cherubs, gryphons or snakes guarding the drink of immortality. 

                    Above: Drawing of an Assyrian intaglio depicting scorpion men.ᛋ

 And  through the idea that some snakes spit venom, we at length have guardian archers, the star sign of Sagittarius (originally shown with a scorpion tail, and later a snake tail) seemingly thought of as guarding a celestial door, and the twin Sagittarius figures found on the gateways of places like Isfahan in  the East.  When the sphinxes are paired as they sometimes are before doorways, then these do indeed belong here, but Coomaraswamy was hard pushed to make the valkyrja-like sphinxes on tombs, and the single sphinxes on pillars to fit in with   the foregoing, and it seems to me that they truly betoken something else.  He doesn't really have much to say on the twins but we can already see that there seems to be a good deal of overlap.   Are they then all one and the same even though Sagittarius and Gemini are opposite signs in the zodiac?  It seems to me that they must be.  That the Greeks and Romans had Sagittarius ruled by Artemis or Diana, and Gemini ruled by her twin brother Apollo, hints at this.  As also that the  Aśvinau in the Ṛgvedaḥ can be called  Rudrā, though formally the  Rudrāḥ or Marutaḥ are quite distinct and separate gods.  The distinction between them originally must be that one set became the doorkeepers of the way up, whilst the other became the doorkeepers of the way down.  And the doorways they relate to might be the same as those said to be in Capricorn and Cancer,  the  preceding signs being then thought of as guardians of the doors actually lying in the following signs.  Another way to look at this however, is found in  Hamlet's Mill (1969) by Georgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, lf. 63:  

At Time Zero, the two equinoctial "hinges" of the world had been Gemini and Sagittarius,

spanning between them the arch of the Milky Way: both bicorporeal signs [n4 4 These

constellations were, originally, called "bicorporeal" for reasons very different from those

given by Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos 1.11.]--and so were Pisces, and Virgo with her ear of

wheat, at the two other corners--to mark the idea that the way (the Milky Way itself) was

open between earth and heaven, the way up and the way down' here men and gods

could meet in that Golden Age. As will be shown later, the exceptional virtue of the

Golden Age was precisely that the crossroads of ecliptic and equator coincided with the

crossroads of ecliptic and Galaxy, namely in Gemini and Sagittarius, both constellations

"standing" firmly at two of the four corners of the quadrangular earth.

So here the equinoxes are being preferred, and this would in theory date this myth to the time when the spring equinox was in Gemini!

And another idea again from the same work, lf. 184:  

Far away, the Mangaians of old (Austral Islands, Polynesia), who kept the precessional clock running instead of switching over to "signs," claim that only at the evening of the solstitial days can spirits enter heaven, the inhabitants of the northern parts of the island at one solstice, the dwellers in the south at the other [n3 W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), pp. 1566ff., 185ff.].

Farewell.