Dreams about gate: Jung, traditions and semiotics

This is not a dream dictionary. Each perspective below names where it comes from; traditions are shown side by side, not merged into one meaning.

Start with yourself

Was the door open, closed, or locked — and did you want to go through it?

Jung · Two levels of reading

There is no specific Jungian note for this image; this is his general method.

Jung suggested reading a dream image first on the “objective level” (the Gate as the real thing in your life), then on the “subjective level” (the Gate as a part of you). He also warned against fixed dream dictionaries: the same image means different things for different dreamers.

If the Gate were a part of you, which part would it be?

C. G. Jung, Collected Works 7 & 8; “Approaching the Unconscious”, in Man and His Symbols (1964)

Traditions, side by side

Ancient Greece Classical text

Penelope says dreams come through two gates: those through polished ivory deceive, those through horn come true. Even in Homer, not every dream was to be trusted.

Homer, Odyssey XIX

Anthropology Dream research

Arnold van Gennep described rites of passage as separation, a threshold (“liminal”) stage, and return. Doors and gates are where many cultures stage that middle step.

van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (1909)

Semiotics: how an image comes to mean

Following C. S. Peirce, an image can work as a sign in three ways:

Icon — by resemblance
Does the gate look like one you have actually seen? Could it simply be a copy of a memory?
Index — by connection
Could the gate point to an actual cause — a bodily sensation, a sound in the room, something that happened that day?
Symbol — by convention
Does the gate mean what it means by convention — an idiom, a saying, a family phrase? Would it still mean that in another language or culture?

An example

Greek wordplay Classical text

The two gates rest on puns in Greek: “ivory” (elephas) sounds like “to deceive” (elephairomai), “horn” (keras) like “to fulfil” (krainō). The meaning comes from the words, not the materials.

Homer, Odyssey XIX

C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers 2.247–249 (icon, index, symbol)
C. G. Jung, Psychological Types (1921), “Definitions: Symbol” — a sign stands for something known, a symbol for something not yet fully known
Ellis (1911), ch. II, on verbal links between dream images

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Recorded dreams with gate

My sister came through the keyhole Ithaca (setting) · c. 8th century BCE
The great ghost broke down the gate Jin (Shanxi), China · 581 BCE
A youth let down on a golden chain Rome, Italy · c. 50 BCE
Fortune waiting weary at the door Rome, Italy · c. 15 BCE
Minerva withdrew from her sanctuary Rome, Italy · 96 CE
Only those Isis invites in dreams Tithorea, Phocis, Greece · c. 150 CE
The island that kept backing away Imaginary sea voyage · c. 170 CE (satire)
Your fetters are loosed Northern borderlands (story) · c. 1070 (compiled)
A cannon before the Arch of Constantine Rome (dreamed) · before 1912