The gate is an entryway into an unknown place, or a place of great significance; it is a threshold, and may connect the living and the dead. They are normally guarded by symbolic animals: the LION, DRAGON, BULL, and DOG are often depicted in conjunction with the gate. In many cultures, passing through a gateway signifies a right of passage.
The gate is clearly phallic, and represents feminine passage with the vulva.
A gate with two pillars - ANDROGYNE.
It can be the function of a door between life and death - gates of Heaven. Justice,
mercy, praise and righteousness are also related symbols. Combinations with
other words: open gate - hospitality, peace; closed - expulsion (Paradise),
inhospitality, misery, war; dark - often an entrance to the Underworld; of the
sun - between Cancer and Capricorn, tropics; without gate - suffering.
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