Allegory of the Doors

Allegorical device within (the Doors) inspired by a conversation with my Brother- who has been one of the most powerful 'Door-revealers' to me in recent months. I am blessed by both he, and Him.

A man was bumbling along a road one day, as he had done so for many years- at least he was of that opinion. He realized suddenly that he didn't know what he was, or why it was day, what had made him 'bumble' along this road in the first place, and above all, that he had no clue what 'bumbling' was. He stopped immediately.

As soon as he did so, a thick, cream-shaded door with stone inlay, and what looked like goatskin, creaked open a few inches from the road-part he had frozen to. Still as firmly rooted to the spot as his eyes upon what was, to his mind, a thing superior to he in its ability to be not there, then there at a moment. This road he’d been on after all, had never had such a thing on it before; in this, he felt confident at least. 

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Try as he might though, while he lacked the ideation and forethought for it, the man repeatedly went TO the thing, touched it, tried to pass; the man remained rooted in place. 

Alas! His simple mind raged. It flew into a cycling of self-pity and hate. He did this until his legs wobbled and shook and he collapsed to the Earth; he recognized now, he had feet. 

Dusting off his backside as he rose back to his feet, he took his first conscious step. 

As he did so, he felt the callouses covering his heel for the 1st time; it jarred him. 

He had not- to this point- felt the consequences of those many years of mindless effort. The agony of the blister he realized, as he stepped forward with the other foot, almost put him once more to the dust; he would not be deterred however. 

No, his aching hamstrings and deflated lungs couldn't turn him away from the door. 

An obstacle was in his final step and he hastily stuttered to a preemptive lean then lean back to avoid a collision.

"Could you just tell me what you're doing?"

The obstacle spoke to him, yet he took as little notice of it as you or I would of a 3-day

old bug bite. 

His eyes darted past the sparkling lights attached to the side of the obstacle’s upper segment- his gaze and attention transfixed- as a nameplate with inscription materialized above another sparkle: a doorknob had completed the ‘door’. 

The man did not recognize the nomenclature, but in the idea of an entryway, his simple thoughts were on target. 

"Excuse me?"

"Sir, I'm not trying to be rude or nosey or an obstacle; I see clearly that you see something I don't- I'd just like to see it too."

The man heard nothing of this until he snuck a glance to his feet. 

(To see the exact distance he'd need to step to clear the obstacle ‘round the side)

At, ".... see it too." he found himself staring at a 2nd pair of feet.

They wiggled at him; they were colorful! He examined the rest of the aforethought 'obstacle' and determined Her to be as He.

She was as He was, and He was as Her too; She was also completely separate and foreign to He, and vice versa. 

Perfect opposites of the same half they were. 

"There!" and the man pointed past her ear-lights, which he still found distracting at best, to the entryway. 

The woman turned slowly, then leaped back at its appearance to her; the man smiled kindly and felt a push to reach his hand out to hers. Pointing at the inscription with the other, the man looked inquisitively at his new companion for assistance. 

"It says, 'Human Communication', I have no idea what that is, but that IS what it says!" and with that she reached for the knob. 

Again, an urge, or perhaps the blister, took the man over and he stepped forward between the door and her, placing her hand in his upon the knob. 

Filing into the door, they abruptly were met with the same view of a door before them, a couple inches closer to the road this time, marked 'symbols'. They were amazed they had seemingly not moved from their original spot before entering the door. 

"Look at how many they are and how many more they could be!" Exclaimed the man. 

For there was not just the one, but various doors of all colors, materials, and sizes; some had large windows, some steel-plated with peepholes, some doors were almost exhaustibly inaccessible perched directly behind boulders or large-trunked trees.

And so it was that each time a door was passed through, 30-60-90 doors would be on the other side, doors separate and unique from those seen before passing through. So they went through and through, and back to old areas for new doors, and back through old doors to find doors they'd missed. They never once ran out of doors, only stopping when meeting other travelers. At times, they'd ask for directions to a specific door, others would pile-drive through them on accident having just seen their first.

All of those years, or perhaps it was a very short time, the man opened doors. As he did so, he passively wondered, not actively pursued, a door that might relieve his feet and legs, which had never stopped aching. 

One day he went through a door marked 'religion', then through another called 'ancients', then through 'deities', then 'The Spirit', when he came upon a door with an oddly long name. 

He began to read it, "love, joy, peace, patience,...." The name was too long to waste time for that. 

The man thought to himself further.. Perhaps this was the door that would bring him relief? Then something happened that hadn't for a very long time. 

The man froze in place. 

Door after door began to appear in front of the long-winded nameplate he'd scoffed at. Aroused and prideful, the man began frantically flinging doors open and leaping through them.

Doors marked 'Orthodoxy', and 'Plato', and 'ark', and 'Abraham', and 'martyrdom', and 'tyranny', and 'Hell'.

Finally, exhausted and humbled once more, the man recalled his lessons long before and began looking around him. He sheared his gaze off that which he desired so intensely, Immediately, he sensed a presence behind him. Whorling about, the man came upon a door that he realized may have always been there, for he had never once on his journey turned around. 

Even returning to old doors after all, was accomplished by moving forward and then resetting upon the same spot. 

The door was as if it'd been made for a small child; indeed, a skilled child might have fashioned it! Chipping paint and a handle repaired with duct tape was a look made complete only by the opaque construct of scrap wood with a weathered and aged nameplate reading 'Wisdom'.

The man was filled with excitement and promptly crawled through on his hands and knees, his face powdering with dust. He stuck his head through and in sheer terror almost plunged headlong into the void. This door did not lead back to the same spot. He was looking down on Earth. He was amongst the cosmos and everywhere as far as he could see and imagine, were doors of doors to Infinite Truth. 

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The man ached no more. He explored until he was given his own door one fated day. Passing through it, he was placed once more at that same spot on the road, unsure of how much if any- time had passed; he had finally walked through his own door. The man thought to himself a moment, and then spoke aloud:

"I have passed through doors outnumbering stars, but I have neither learned who makes them, nor the stars themselves."

He was frozen a final time then, as a ladder descended from the sky with a deafening clatter. 

A thundering, frightful, catastrophe of a voice spaketh unto him

"No one makes the stars, nor the doors; everything that will be made has already been, to he that Was, Is, and Is Yet to Come."

The man to this time had walked through doors marked 'universal language' and 'Ancient Hebrew', and even 'metaphysics' and every door behind 'dimensional characteristics', yet he said and did nothing. He dared not think a thought.

One more time, the urge came upon him, that same he never could explain. This time though, he caught it. He looked at it, and he Truly saw it. He chose to obey it in Knowledge and in Wisdom. 

Clattering to the Earth once more, Man wholeheartedly rubbed his nose upon the dusty road, and prostrated himself with gladness before the Maker of the Doors, his own and every other. 

He saw beneath him the ladder extending long beneath the ground on which he lay, past the planet he perceived, and down to the bottom of Real, the least of the Void, where he was shocked to see himself, clearly younger. 

He was walking along the same road he was on now, yet he was surrounded by doors, they were on all sides! Yet, horrified as he watched, the man saw himself stride right past each and every door, oblivious and ignorant to their very existence, and the man grew very sad, for he had wasted so much time. 

'everything that is important' dropped onto his back and the man sat upright, jerking out of the below-vision. It was the nameplate of, not a door, but a simple window with a single pane. The window slid open only a crack and the man peered through with anticipation. At first he saw light, then his memories, then travelers he'd shared Wisdom and Knowledge with, the travelers he'd helped guide to their first door, and on. 

He shed a tear when he saw his companion who'd first helped him and whom he'd helped in return. They had become separated long ago over a disagreement. He'd wanted to go through the door marked 'Union of Souls', and She, 'Self-introspection'. 

They'd agreed to meet back there after 5 doors down, but he languished and wept as he recalled thinking at the time that this number was too short, but their connection strong enough to find their way back again. He had been alone for a very long time, possessed as she was, with the doors, never pausing to look for a window outside it all. 

"Please!!" The man cried out, "PLEASE! I have failed completely! Please make this a door and let me pass through it forever." 

He was unsure who it was he was speaking to, but he trusted they could do this if they felt him worthy. 

"You already have. You have seen what matters, and what is important; you have also seen nothing at all, and been given a glimpse of that which you may only have Beyond all this. You have now only to Go until you are ready."

Man heard all that he needed, and set forth from that place in a place now all his own, opening each door he felt the urge to; he met old friends, revisited old Truths, accrued Knowledge, and one day, reunited with his old Companion, seated upon a chair she had constructed for herself- pure cloud and light- right next to the door they had parted ways at. 

Where he knew her to be all along. 

Together they explored till they tired, then together, took their place above it all, watching from the divine.