Mirrors are glass, sad glass! In our mother's belly// I tumbled with a twin, looked in her eyes.// In the old time what we know was dangerous to know// when others tumble around this world so lonely, so lonely.

- Philip Daughtry

Why does Agnes tell you to fast and go on vision quests? It is because she knows that for the sacred twins to be able to reach you and each other, and translate messages, all blocks to this process have to be eliminated. Dreams and visions are the essence of sacredness. You must be still to smooth the path for your sacred twins.

- Lynn V. Andrews in Jaguar Woman

<  IRISH TWINS   80 x 100 cm   £435

(Irish Twins are siblings born within one year of each other)  

 They grew up and the spepherd Faustulus took them in. One day the boys found out who they really were and decided to kill Amulius. Having done so they decided to build a city of their own but could not agree where situate it. Romulus killed Remus in the heat of an argument and became the first King of Rome in 753 BC. The legend ends by telling how Romulus was carried up to the heavens by his father, Mars, and was worshipped as the God Quirinus.

Twins are idiosyncratic pairs, this means 'pairs that share certain characteristics'.

They are bound together by certain activities and principles, such as inversion, substitution, imitation, rivalry and so forth.

Poison one of two apples and substitute it for the other one: they will become twins. If one apple is reflected in a mirror, it becomes the twin of its counterpart!

Our hands are twins. They match if they come together in prayer, but mismatch if we fit one in a glove belonging to the other. Here is where the concept '-handedness' comes in. Things such as crystals, sea-shells, galaxies, water spiraling down a drain and curly hair possess either right- or left-handedness.

The human umbilical cord occurs predominantly in a left-handed spiral, why?!

 Throughout all mythologies twins appear: twins of light and darkness, born from the Great Mother or primordial womb. They bring opposing principles, duality, into the world in Creation Myths.

THE NORSE GOD ODIN HAD TWO RAVENS: HUGINN AND MJNINN.

Were they twins?!

 We have all come across the statement that (so called!) primitive people won't have their picture taken for fear that their soul will be stolen. But it is not as simple as that!

The image itself is the problem: it can serve as a potential reservoir, a medium capable of drawing vital and spiritual force from its original, transmitting impressions on it from afar.

What is done to the image, is done to the owner. This, of course, it the base for voodoo spells and effigies.

The danger posed by doubles is illustrated by Greco-Latin myth of Narcissus. Narcissus is a beautiful young man who falls in love with his own reflection. He sits by the fountain (or pond) all day, staring at himself. (Here is where the term 'narcistic' comes from). In the story there is another twin-motif in the figure of Echo. Echo is a nymph who repeates what the gods have said, so other gods can hear it. She falls in love with Narcissus. However, Narcissus rejects her due to his self-absorption. Echo calls down a curse on Narcissus and pines away until only her voice remains. Narcissus jumps in the water to reach his own image and drowns.

In its metamorphic aspect (i.e. in myths and legends expressing change or  and in shamanism we sometimes call this shape-shifting), the Twin can become The Double, an identity capable of assuming a wide range of monstrous and nightmarish forms. (Think of e.g. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide!)

At its extreme the bloodsucking Double is the vampire. In fact the vampire is the Double which has vanquished its original other.Therefore it has no reflection.

Or the same concept presented in different words: the vampire is the 'living dead', but only living human beings of flesh and blood have mirror reflections and shadows, vampires don't.

Our attachment to the unity of our own ego ('I am myself and myself alone') is challenged every night when the ego dissolves into the dream-state. In the world of psychology and psychoanalysis dream-images are often viewed as animated fragmentation of the psyche. When the same thing happens while people are fully awake it results in hallucination or schizophrenia.